ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – The USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire championship kicked off its final weekend of the season this afternoon with a thrilling opening leg of the USF Pro Championships Grand Prix of Road America tripleheader. Bex Cranston, from Greenwich., Conn., continued his recent run of form by securing his maiden victory for Exclusive Autosport, although second place for Olivia Racing’s Karol Pasiewicz, from Lodz, Poland, was enough to clinch the championship crown. Pasiewicz, 20, thereby earned a scholarship valued at $251,516 to advance onto the next step of the ladder, USF2000, in 2027.
Edward Kennedy, from St. Jovite, Que., Canada, completed the podium for VRD Racing.
Qualifying this morning heralded a few surprises, most notably with Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Serravalle, from Thorold, Ont., Canada, posting the fastest lap to ensure his first-ever Continental Tire Pole Award. Pasiewicz qualified second, despite budgetary constraints preventing him from entering the pair of test sessions on Friday and then being hindered by an electrical gremlin during official practice.
Pasiewicz squeaked past Serravalle for the lead into Turn Three on the opening lap, with fourth-place qualifier Dean Hoogendoorn (VRD Racing), from Woubrugge, Netherlands, also finding a way past Serravalle. Unfortunately, the young Canadian’s day took another turn for the worse when he lost control and spun on the exit of Turn Five. He was able to resume at the tail of the field.
Florida-based Brazilian Victor Couto also was right in the mix at the completion of the first lap for Zanella Racing. Before long there was a train of 10 cars in contention for the lead, with positions changing regularly as a result of the huge slipstreaming draft afforded by the long straightaways at Road America.
Hoogendoorn briefly moved into the lead on Lap 3, only for Pasiewicz to immediately return the favor. The Dutchman again found his way to the front two laps later, and was still leading when the caution flags waved for the first time after Jared Oselka (Zanella Racing), from Long Beach, Ind., came to a halt on the curving “straightaway” leading downhill toward Turn Five.
The intense lead battle resumed after just a lap and a half behind the Honda Safety Car, and the leading pack continued to be shuffled on a regular basis. Pasiewicz leapt from third to first at the restart, with Hoogendoorn soon dumped down to fourth behind Cranston, who had run sixth in the early stages after lining up ninth on the grid, and Kennedy, who had started in sixth.
With two of the 10 laps remaining, it seemed as though anyone from among the top 10 could have won the race. Indeed, on Lap 9, Cranston and Pasiewicz exchanged the lead multiple times before, sadly, the yellow flags flew again as a result of JHDD powered by ECR’s JW Main, from Tulsa, Okla., having come to grief just moments after the race had resumed.
In addition to winning the race, Cranston earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award, while Josh Cooley and Michel Duncalfe gained another PFC Award as the winning car owners.
Early season pacesetter Max Mokarem (Zanella Racing), from Fairfax, Va., finished fourth on the road, but later fell to 10th following the addition of a five-second penalty for passing under yellow flag conditions.
Colombia’s Pipe Chaparro also lost a season-best fifth for DEForce Racing after being assessed a penalty for avoidable contact, which elevated Florida-based Brazilian Victor Couto (Zanella Racing) to fourth.
Hoogendoorn most likely would have finished in that position, but the unfortunate Dutchman was punted from behind soon after the final caution, so was relegated to an unrepresentative 12th at the finish.
While the driver’s championship has been settled, the outcome of the coveted Teams title remains unresolved with defending champion Zanella Racing now holding a 26-point edge over VRD Racing.
The weekend – and season – will conclude with two more races tomorrow, with the green flags set to fly at 9:00 a.m. and 12:40 p.m.
Provisional championship points after 14 of 16 races:
1. Karol Pasiewicz, 310
2. Bex Cranston, 227
3. Max Mokarem, 215
4. Olivier Mrak, 202
5. Victor Couto, 199
6. Cole Medeiros, 192
7. Edward Kennedy, 185
8. Ivan Machado Perez, 167
9. Leonardo Serravalle, 162
10. Max Cuthbert, 150
Karol Pasiewicz (#25 Olivia Racing Tatuus JR-23): “It’s amazing. It means the world to me to win the championship. I'm very grateful for the chance that Olivia Racing has given me and the results we achieved this year. Nobody has ever given me this chance in my whole entire life, so I'm very grateful for that. I'm very happy to move up to USF2000 next year and I'm sure I'll do as well there.”
Bex Cranston (#90 IES/Miller Motorcars/King & Spalding-Exclusive Autosport Tatuus JR-23): “I mean it was a crazy race obviously starting from ninth way in the back. So I knew every lap I had to pick the cars off if I wanted to fight for the win. And I knew I had a really strong race car, so it's really great obviously to get the win, my first win in USF. I just can't thank my team and everybody behind me enough.”
Edward Kennedy (#30 VRD Racing Tatuus JR-23): “I started a bit further back in P6 and the whole beginning of the race I was just trying to fight off P4 and P5. The headwind going down into Turn One was more than in qualifying, so a lot of draft was involved here, and then I made a great move to the outside which took me up to P2. Then the full course yellow, and a lot of shuffling and a lot of racing. P3 is good, we'll look to win the next two.”