MANSFIELD, OHIO – Cape Motorsports notched a pair of wins at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last weekend as the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship made its second stop at the Mansfield, Ohio natural terrain road course.
The Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires ran a tripleheader at the venue in late July, and was back on the September 11-13 weekend to run with the NTT IndyCar Series in a race that had been postponed in mid-August. Hartsdale, NY’s Michael d’Orlando won his first USF2000 race to begin the weekend, winning the opening round, while Florida’s Reece Gold maintained the momentum from his maiden victory from Indianapolis with his second win in the second race of the tripleheader.
Gold was the only driver on the podium at the end of all three races, which moved him significantly closer to the lead in the points championship race. Josh Green posted a pair of top-10s including a fifth in Race 1, while Kyle Dupell showed great speed and left Mid-Ohio with a top result of 12th in Race 3.
"It was another really good effort by everyone,” commented Dominic and Nicholas Cape, team owners. “Reece continues his podium runs with a second in the first race, a first in the second race and third in the last race, another big points haul for him. Reece's consistency is really paying off leaving Mid-Ohio, and he’s only 14 points behind the championship leader. Michael scored his first well-deserved win of the season after a huge shunt in turn 6 right after he took pole position 10 minutes into Q2. In the final race, Michael climbed from a seventh into lead, eventually finishing second another really good performance.”
“Josh fought hard in Race 1 to finish fifth, and in Race 2, he had an excellent start climbing into a solid third place but, on the second to last lap, the gearbox got stuck in sixth gear and wouldn't downshift going into turn 4, causing him to spin,” they continued. “In Race 3 race, Josh suffered from intermittent shifting issues but finished a fighting ninth. Kyle's race weekend was another hard-fought Mid-Ohio event for him. We're all looking forward to New Jersey; it should be an exciting weekend. A big thanks to everyone on the team."
In the opening race of the tripleheader, polesitter and point leader Christian Rasmussen went off-track on the first lap coming into the Carousel, handing the lead to d’Orlando, a position he would not relinquish to walk to his first win of his Road to Indy career. Gold finished second for the Cape Motorsports 1-2 finish, while Green’s run to fifth added to the team’s strong opening performance. Disappointingly, Dupell was taken out in an incident on the opening lap and was officially classified in 2th.
Gold led from flag-to-flag in the second race of the weekend, taking full advantage of his pole position from qualifying. It was Reece’s second win of the season and closed him to within one point of Rasmussen in the championship fight. Green was running third until late in the race when the previously-detailed mechanical issue put him on the sidelines, officially finishing 19th. d’Orlando went in the other direction after his off-track excursion in qualifying had him starting from the inside of row nine on the grid (17th). Michael benefitted from an early full course yellow to grab a number of spots on the start and restart, and then advanced to seventh over the remaining laps to salvage a strong points result. Dupell had worked his way into the top-10 by the halfway point, and was battling with d’Orlando when the dropped wheel in turn four and fell to the tail of the field after a spin.
In the final race of the weekend, Gold jumped from sixth to third early before d’Orlando moved into the spot. At the halfway point, after having advanced past Simon Sikes into second, D’Orlando made a strong pass on Rasmussen for the lead and paced the next five laps before dropping back to second after making a little mistake in the Carousel. Michael held on for second at the checkered flag and his runner-up finish, paired with his win from Race 1 and his seventh from Race 2, has moved him to fourth in the championship standings, now 73 points behind Rasmussen with five races to go. Gold was able to get past Sikes late in the race to finish third, which has put him just 14 points behind the lead. Green ran in the top-five early and ended up ninth, while Dupell was involved in a race-long battle to finish 12th.
The team will now enjoy a couple of weeks off to work on their cars after a long stretch of races, as they look forward to the final two events on the 2020 calendar. The USF2000 series will wrap up with a tripleheader at New Jersey Motorsports Park on October 9-11 and the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on October 23-25. Leaving Mid-Ohio, Cape Motorsports had further extended their lead in the Team Championship to over 100 points.
CAPE MOTORSPORTS – DRIVER RESULTS AND QUOTES
USF2000 – ROUND 10/11/12 – SEPTEMBER 11-13, 2020
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE – MANSFIELD, OHIO
JOSH GREEN - #2
Qualifying 1: 4th – 1:21.6911
Qualifying 2: 7th – 1:21.7683
Race 1: Start – 6th / Finish – 5th
Race 2: Start – 7th / Finish – 19th
Race 3: Start – 4th / Finish – 9th
Driver Quote: “Mid-Ohio most definitely presented adversity but through it we had mega pace and I’m ready to get racing at NJMP. Race 1 we had a solid top-five finish and in Race1, we unfortunately had a mechanical gremlin that ended my race with two to go from third place on track. Race 3 was similar with the same issue persisting throughout the race making it a struggle to keep the car on track throughout the session, still managing a top 10 finish. All in all, it for sure wasn’t the weekend we looked for but there are a number of positives to take away!
REECE GOLD - #3
Qualifying 1: 2nd – 1: 21.3190
Qualifying 2: 1st – 1:21.2342
Race 1: Start – 2nd / Finish – 2nd
Race 2: Start – 1st / Finish – 1st
Race 3: Start – 6th / Finish – 3rd
Driver Quote: “It was another awesome weekend at Mid-Ohio. I was able to get my second win, as well as a second and a third. I was able to gain a huge amount of points, which moved us from 50 points back to just 14. Big thanks to the Cape Motorsports Crew and to The Ticket Clinic. We have a lot of momentum on our side and I hope to continue to close the points gap at NJMP.”
MICHAEL D’ORLANDO - #4
Qualifying 1: 3rd – 1:21.6729
Qualifying 2: 15th – 1:22.4180
Race 1: Start – 3rd / Finish – 1st
Race 2: Start – 13th / Finish – 7th
Race 3: Start – 7th / Finish – 2nd
Driver Quote: “I am super happy with how this weekend went. We had a few mishaps at times, and I made some mistakes, but the guys at Cape helped pull it all together and I felt so confident in the race car. I knew we had the car to perform. It is an incredible feeling to get my first win and I’m super proud of how the team and I worked together. I’m looking forward to bringing what we found this weekend in Mid-Ohio, and carry this momentum to New Jersey.”
KYLE DUPELL - #14
Qualifying 1: 8th – 1:22.0206
Qualifying 2: 12th – 1:22.1385
Race 1: Start – 8th / Finish – 20th
Race 2: Start – 12th / Finish – 21st
Race 3: Start – 14th / Finish – 12th
Driver Quote: “There’s lots of positives to take away from our third weekend of Mid-Ohio. We were running top-five in Race 1 before getting spun and had the pace for a podium. In Race 2, I made a mistake racing my teammate and ended up off track. In Race 3, we had mega pace but didn’t have the straight-line speed to make any passes stick. Overall, we showed more speed than any other weekend so there’s some positive to take to NJMP.