LEXINGTON, Ohio – Nico Jamin swept the day at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to claim his first two wins in Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires competition.
The driver of the Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing No. 2 started from pole in the first race and never had any competition. In the second race, the Frenchman started second alongside Team Pelfrey’s Aaron Telitz and managed to wrestle the lead from him midway through the first lap.
Jamin picked up where he left off from the morning and pulled away, only briefly slowed when the yellow flew for Nicolas Dapero’s spin as a pop-up shower dampened the 2.258-mile road course. On the restart, Jamin defended charges from Telitz and Will Owen to complete the weekend sweep.
“It was a crazy start,” Jamin said about the second race. “Aaron knew I was close and he closed the door, but there was just a little bit of room so I went for it anyway, even though I didn’t know how it would end up. But I hoped that because he is fighting for the championship he might give me a little bit of room.”
The double win gave Jamin a perfect 5-for-5 record at Mid-Ohio as he swept all three Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda races in 2015 on his way to winning that series’ title with 10 victories. But Team Pelfrey’s Telitz and Pato O’Ward had claimed the first 11 Pro Mazda wins this season.
“We’ve been chasing our first win for so long, stepping up our game every week, so to win two races and sweep the weekend is amazing,” Jamin said.
Telitz finished second and third in the two races to propel him to the points lead ahead of O’Ward, who placed seventh and fourth this weekend. Telitz has a 16-point advantage over his teammate heading into the Soul Red finale tripleheader weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 9-11.
Urrutia dominates first Indy Lights race of weekend
Santiago Urrutia led a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian 1-2 finish and inched closer to Ed Jones in the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires championship with a dominating win in the first race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Urrutia got a massive jump on the field in his No. 55 Mazda Dallara IL-15 at the drop of the green flag and within a lap was seconds ahead of the No. 17 Novac Sports Dallara driven by his teammate, Andre Negrao.
The Uruguayan never faltered the entire 30-lap event and took the checkered flag 6.49 seconds ahead of Negrao.
With the championship now down to crunch time – four races remain, including a second at Mid-Ohio on Sunday – Urrutia knows that getting every point counts and used that mindset to attack this weekend.
“I was just working with my lap times to make the quickest lap of the race (for a bonus point),” Urrutia said. “I did a pretty good job with that, so we get the maximum points out of that. That’s really good for the championship.
By scoring the win and bonus points for pole position and fastest lap, Urrutia is now just seven points behind Carlin Racing’s Jones, who finished sixth in the No. 11 Jebel Ali Resorts and Hotels Dallara IL-15.
“I’m very happy,” Urrutia added. “The guys did a great job on the car, it was really quick in qualifying. We put the car on pole position for both races and we win the race and my teammate finished second. It’s pretty good for the championship and for me so I’m really happy.”
Negrao’s second-place finish is his second straight podium, while Andretti Autosport’s Dean Stoneman rounded out the podium.
Martin claims second straight USF2000 win at Mid-Ohio
Anthony Martin continued his hot streak, dominating Saturday’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda race on his way to a series-best sixth win of the season.
Much like in the first race of the tripleheader weekend on Friday, Martin broke away early, only to be slowed by a yellow flag – this time for the stopped car of Ayla Agren. The restart was perfect for Martin again, while Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing teammate and championship rival Parker Thompson remained in close contact.
Martin managed to stretch out a comfortable margin and take the win by 3.86 seconds over Thompson. Victor Franzoni (ArmsUp Motorsports) finished third to give the podium the same order as the championship standings.
“It’s the championship game right now, so as soon as I crossed the finish line, it was such a relief,” said Martin. “Parker was very fast and I had a hard job to try to keep him behind me. It isn’t easy to pass here, so I knew that as long as I kept my nose clean and hit every apex I would have a good chance of winning the race.”
Heading into Sunday’s race, Martin increased his margin to 15 points over Thompson and 40 on Franzoni.