PORTLAND, Ore. — Thomas Schrage kept alive his slim hopes of winning the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire championship with a hard-fought victory this evening for VRD Racing in the first of three races that will comprise the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Portland.
Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport), from San Antonio, Texas, kept the pressure on Schrage throughout the 25-lap race to maintain a healthy points lead, while Schrage’s teammate, Teddy Musella, from Orlando, Fla., finished a distant third.
Schrage began the weekend with the clear understanding that he needed to qualify up front in order to maintain his title aspirations. He duly delivered earlier today by laying down a best lap of 1:10.9490, only fractionally shy of Rasmus Lindh’s long-standing lap record of 1:10.9038 set back in 2018. Schrage duly earned a series leading fifth Continental Tire Pole Award, narrowly out-pacing championship leader Jeffers and Musella.
Schrage opted to keep an extremely tight inside line heading into the first corner, with Musella hot on his heels. Jeffers, behind, took advantage of the extra space to take a wider approach, which almost allowed him to drive around the outside of both VRD cars heading into the extremely tight right-hand corner at Turn One. But, wisely, rather than risk contact, Jeffers opted to take to the escape road, which cost him several positions.
Fortunately for him, the point was rendered moot mere moments later when the red flags waved following a terrifying incident when Jay Howard Driver Development’s Timmy Carel, from Pacific Palisades, Calif., vaulted off the rear of a rival and into a violent series of cartwheels.
Jeffers was therefore able to line up in second for the single-file restart. From there, the two leaders immediately began to pull clear of Musella. It was a fitting contest – the top two title contenders going head to head.
Schrage seemed to have marginally the edge in the opening half of the 25-lap race. He even established a new race lap record on Lap 14, narrowly eclipsing the mark set by Kyle Kirkwood in 2018. But a couple of tire lock-ups under braking allowed Jeffers to close in once more.
The pair remained in tight formation for the remainder of the race, with Schrage prevailing by just over half a second for his third win of the season.
Musella initially came under attack from both Colombian Sebastian Garzon, who was enjoying one of his best outings of the season for DEForce Racing, and Pabst Racing’s Caleb Gafrarar, from Charlotte, N.C. But the in-fighting soon allowed Musella to pull clear. In his wake, Garzon and Gafrarar exchanged places several times before Gafrarar was able to make the position his own.
