PORTLAND, Oregon – The 2018 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda season equaled near perfection for Kyle Kirkwood.

The 19-year-old Floridian put on a masterful performance from start to finish in the No. 8 Cape Motorsports Mazda/Tatuus USF-17. By capturing 12 victories in the 14 races, he matched JR Hildebrand’s 12-year-old record for most wins in a season.

Kirkwood’s pace simply couldn’t be stopped as he became the eighth consecutive Cape driver to win the USF2000 title (and 12th overall for the team).

“For the year as a whole, (it) couldn't have gone any better.” Kirkwood said as the season concluded Sunday at Portland International Raceway. Kirkwood and the rest of the award winners in the Mazda Road to Indy development ladder were scheduled to be honored Monday night at the championship banquet.

“At the beginning of the year, I had no expectations going into St Petersburg – new car, new group. I only tested the car once or twice before the season. In my mind, if we could do the same thing that Oliver (Askew) did last year and win the championship, of course, that would be a phenomenal year.”

Kirkwood debuted with a win right out of the gate in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, but failed to back that up in the next two races. Undeterred, he rattled off 11 consecutive wins to close the season, starting with the second race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

“I couldn't be any more grateful because Cape Motorsports has done an awesome job,” he said.

Team co-owner Nicholas Cape was already familiar with Kirkwood’s talent coming into 2018. Kirkwood won the 2017 Formula 4 United States Championship with Cape, so a repeat performance on the first rung of the Road to Indy development ladder wasn’t out of the question.

"If anybody could do it, we knew he would,” Cape said. “He won a lot of races last year. We believe in him. The amount of races he won, could we have thought that? I don't know.

“He's got tremendous race craft. The other guys tripped up a bit, but he put pressure on them all every race. What more can you say about Kyle? He has done a tremendous job.”

Cape said one of Kirkwood strengths is his resolve in the face of adversity.

“This environment, it adds more pressure and more pressure as you go, but he doesn't seem to carry the pressure,” Cape said. “He won the (Formula 4) championship last year, maybe that got the monkey off his back.

“This year, the pressure doesn't seem to affect him at all. It seems to go the opposite way. He works hard and he's just really, really good.”

With the USF2000 title comes a scholarship worth at least $325,000 to help Kirkwood progress to the middle Road to Indy level, the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires. The youngster is eager to take that next step in 2019 and will lean on long-time friend Askew for guidance.

"I'm ecstatic, it's going to be a huge step for me,” Kirkwood said. “I know Oliver did it last year. He struggled a little bit this year, but it (came) along really well. I guess he could mentor me a little bit through that transition, so it's good to have good friends and teammates like him.

“I'm looking forward getting into the car, never driven it before. They say it's a lot more of everything – tires, engine, aerodynamics – everything about the Tatuus (PM-18) car, it's seems like a great car and I'm really excited to get into it."