ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Round Three of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda turned into another intra-team battle as Spencer Pigot and Matthew Brabham waged a race-long duel throughout the first of this weekend’s USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Allied Building Products.

The 18-year-olds, both of whom drive for St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing, finished as they started after an intense 30 minutes of racing with only one brief caution period, with Pigot taking a narrow victory to close within two points of Brabham in the championship standings.

Pigot held the lead throughout the 21-lap contest, but Brabham never gave up the chase. Pigot, from Orlando, Fla., managed to eke out a slight advantage by the midway point in the race, only for the gap to be erased by a full-course caution after Scott Hargrove hit the wall in Turn 10 while running eighth for JDC MotorSports.

Brabham had the consolation of posting the fastest lap of the race – thereby ensuring the coveted pole position for the March 25 race.

Neil Alberico (JDC MotorSports), from Los Gatos, Calif., and Matthew Di Leo (MDL Racing), from Innisfil, Ontario, fought an equally intense battle for third place, only to collide on the final lap in Turn 4 and gift the position to Belardi Auto Racing’s Roman Lagudi, from Las Vegas, Nev., who thereby claimed his third podium finish in as many races this season.

National Class honors were claimed by RC Enerson, from nearby New Port Richey, Fla., driving for ZSports Midwest with Team E Racing. Enerson chased fellow 15-year-old Henrik Furuseth (Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing) in the early stages before finding a way past on Lap 8 to finish in ninth position overall among the 34-car field.
 
Contingency awards included the Tilton Hard Charger Award, for the driver who gained the most positions during the race, which was claimed by St. Petersburg resident Shannon McIntosh, who started 25th but worked her way impressively to 11th in the Pabst Racing Services No. 18 TrueCar/CrossFit9/Anytime Fitness St. Pete Van Diemen-Mazda; the PFC Awards for the winning car owners, which were issued to Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing in the Championship Class and ZSports Midwest with Team E Racing in the National class; and the Staubli Award, a random finisher award, which was presented to Heamin Choi, from Seoul, Korea, who had a fine drive from 17th on the grid to 10th for Afterburner Autosport.