Kyle Kirkwood Equals USF2000 Win Record with Portland Sweep

By Road to Indy

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kyle Kirkwood continued his remarkable Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda win streak under gloriously sunny skies this afternoon at Portland International Raceway. The recently crowned champion stalked polesitter Rasmus Lindh (Pabst Racing) through the opening stages, then pounced decisively before edging away to another relatively comfortable victory – his 10th in a row and 12th of the 14-race season, which equals the record established by former Verizon IndyCar Series driver J.R. Hildebrand en route to the championship title in 2006.

Lindh, 17, from Gothenburg, Sweden, finished a career-best second – his fifth podium finish of the season – for Pabst Racing, while yet another rookie, South African Julian Van der Watt, also secured his best result, third, for Team Pelfrey.

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Portland Presented by Allied Building Products began with the habitual excitement provided by the Festival Curves chicane which constitute Turns One and Two on the 1.964-mile road course, although for a change, most of the leaders made it through unscathed.

Lindh protected his pole position beautifully, making sure there was no room for anyone else even to think about diving down the inside under braking. He duly held onto the lead from teammate Kaylen Frederick, Kirkwood, Brazilian Lucas Kohl, in another Pabst Racing Tatuus-Mazda USF-17 and Kory Enders, from Sugarland, Texas, who yesterday earned his first podium finish for DEForce Racing.

Japanese-born Brazilian Igor Fraga (Exclusive Autosport) jumped from ninth on the grid to third, profiting from a coming together between Mexican Jose Sierra (DEForce Racing) and impressive debutant Braden Eves (Newman Wachs Racing), from Columbus, Ohio, both of whom were eliminated on the spot.

After three laps behind the Pace Car, there was more action at Turn One when Frederick inadvertently rammed into the back of his teammate, Lindh, under braking for Turn One, which resulted in several cars taking to the escape road. The incident caused extensive damage to Frederick’s front wing (as well as tweaking the rear of Lindh’s car) and resulted in a drive-through penalty for the Maryland youngster.

Lindh nevertheless was able to maintain his lead, albeit now with Kirkwood in hot pursuit. The pair remained in close formation, pulling away from Kohl in third, until Lindh made a slight mistake in Turn One which allowed Kirkwood to sneak past. Kirkwood then turned a sequence of fastest laps before taking the checkered flag just under two seconds clear to claim Cape Motorsports’ 12th PFC Award of the season.

Van der Watt took a few laps to find a way past Fraga, then steadily closed a deficit of almost five seconds to Kohl before making the pass for third with five laps remaining. He become the 14th different podium finisher – representing no fewer than nine teams – this season.

Fraga also squeezed past Kohl on the final lap for fourth, but it wasn’t quite enough to displace his fellow countryman for third in the final points table. Guyanan Calvin Ming (Pabst Racing) claimed his third successive Tilton Hard Charger Award, moving up from sixth after starting 12th.

The combined efforts of Lindh and Kohl proved enough for Pabst Racing to claim its second successive Team Championship by a margin of 15 points over Cape Motorsports, which will be celebrated – along with Kirkwood’s record-breaking season – at the Mazda Road to Indy Championship Celebration in Portland tomorrow evening.

Kyle Kirkwood (#8 Firstex/SAFEisFAST.com/Bell Helmets/Sparco-Cape Motorsports Tatuus-Mazda USF-17): “It was a really good race – maybe not as much action as yesterday, from my point of view, but the action we had was incredible. It was a lot of back and forth early between me, Kaylen and Rasmus, picking our spots.

“I don’t even know how to explain it, to have only two losses this season. I’ve never been in this spot before, with so much success, so I can’t really absorb it. We’ve done so well this year, and it’s cool that we’ve tied J.R. Hildebrand’s record. The car has just been on rails, so I really have to say thanks to everyone on the Cape team – Nicholas and Dominic Cape, my mechanic Alan, Reggie, Don, Scott, Kyle, Will, Jeremy, Larry, Jonatan Jorge and of course, Oliver and Nikita. I can’t wait to start next year.”

Rasmus Lindh (#23 Chicago Pneumatic-Pabst Racing Tatuus-Mazda USF-17): “Someone hit me in the gearbox in the first corner, and it bent a piece in the rear of the car, and I had to drive with the car feeling unstable for the rest of the race. I thought we could win it coming in, but as fast as Kyle has been all year and with the damage, we just couldn’t stay with him. But this is my first year in the open-wheel car, so I am very happy with the result, and with second place in the championship. I’m very happy for this and looking forward to 2019.”

Julian Van der Watt (#80 Race Driver SA/Crossley & Webb-Team Pelfrey Tatuus-Mazda USF-17): “We’ve put in so much work this year and we’ve come close a couple of times, but things have happened and it hasn’t worked out. So, to finish off like this, I just can’t explain the feeling right now, it’s just amazing. It’s really gratifying how we finished the season. I knew going through Turn One that the wreckage would fly to the inside, so I stayed to the outside, cutting across the track. We studied the Race One footage and thought that would be the best way to come out clean. The car was awesome, the Pelfrey team did a great job.”