ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Braden Eves scored another beautifully crafted victory Saturday afternoon in the opening leg of the Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires.
The 21-year-old from New Albany, Ohio, led from flag to flag for Exclusive Autosport, fending off a stern challenge from the driver who succeeded him as winner of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, Denmark’s Christian Rasmussen.
Hunter McElrea completed the podium for Pabst Racing.
Eves took control of the proceedings from the drop of the green flag for the opening practice session yesterday morning. He topped the timing charts again in first qualifying later in the day to secure his second Cooper Tires Pole Award of the young season, then controlled the pace expertly throughout the 25-lap race.
Eves’ eventual margin of victory was only .3519 seconds, but he posted his fastest lap just one circuit from the finish to secure his second win of the season and extend his championship lead to 16 points.
“Christian is tough – I raced against him in USF2000 and it was much of the same, always in your mirrors, always ready to make a pass,” said Eves. “But we both learned our craft from Jay Howard so I know all his moves! It’s always going to be a good fight but it was a bit too close for comfort. I made one mistake toward the end and almost threw it away, but I was able to hang on. I still haven’t lost here at St. Pete. I came here in 2019 as a rookie and that first race – and first win – gave me the confidence to go on my championship run. It may not be the season-opener this time but I’m getting shades of 2019 with our success right off the bat so I couldn’t be happier. The team gave me a great car today.”
Eves also earned Canadian team principal Michael Duncalfe another PFC Award as the winning car owner.
McElrea led the chase of Eves from the start after annexing the outside front row starting position but he wasn’t able to shake off the challenge of Rasmussen, who eventually executed a bold pass around the outside line at turn one on lap eight.
By that stage Eves had extended his lead to over 1.6 seconds, but Rasmussen was the fastest car on track and soon began to whittle away at Eves’ advantage.
The Dane’s task was eased by a brief full course caution after 12 laps to remove Virginian Hunter Yeany’s Velocity Racing Development car from the runoff area at turn 10. But when the race resumed, Rasmussen was never able to put himself into a position to seriously challenge for the lead.
McElrea chased home in third place, just ahead of Eves’ teammate Artem Petrov, who continued his strong start to the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season with his third consecutive top-four finish.
The Juncos Racing pair of Manuel Sulaiman and Reece Gold enjoyed a good tussle for fifth, with Sulaiman grasping the position just four laps from the finish.