MANSFIELD, Ohio – Cape Motorsports once again asserted its intent on battling for the title in this year’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, scoring a total of four podium finishes at the most recent event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 31-August 2.
The team’s driving line-up of Reece Gold, Josh Green, Kyle Dupell and Michael d’Orlando showed extremely well, with Gold making three straight trips to the podium during the two-day midweek tripleheader event. d’Orlando joined Reece on the podium in the final race of the weekend, his second runner-up finish of the year, which helped Cape Motorsports re-take the top spot in the Team Championship on the strength of 11 top-10 finishes on the weekend.
Kyle Dupell posted three consistent runs in the top-eight, while Josh Green bounced back from issues in Race 1 to finish eighth and seventh in the next two races. All four drivers are currently in the top-eight in the current point standings, with d’Orlando sitting second behind championship leader Christian Rasmussen, heading into the one and only oval event of the year at the 5/8th mile Lucas Oil Raceway on August 21.
"For us as a team, we’re extremely happy with our drivers’ progress,” offered Dominic and Nicholas Cape, team owners. “Rasmussen has five years of racing car experience and our guys are closing the gap. Reece had a breakout weekend with three front row starts and three podiums. Michael, Josh and Kyle got caught out by the red flag in the second qualifying, but Michael recovered for a podium in the final race. Josh and Kyle fought hard all weekend, as well. We left Mid-Ohio with all our drivers in the top-eight of the driver’s championship, and we’re very excited for the upcoming races."
The team was prepared and ready to head to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on the August 7-9 weekend with IndyCar, but the postponement of the event will now move their next race to the oval at Lucas Oil Raceway for the Carb Night Classic ahead of the Indianapolis 500 on August 21.
CAPE MOTORSPORTS – DRIVER RESULTS AND QUOTES
USF2000 – ROUNDS 3/4/5 – JULY 31 – AUGUST 2, 2020
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE – MANSFIELD, OH
JOSH GREEN - #2
Qualifying 1: 5th – 1:21.9250
Race 1: Start – 5th / Finish – 17th
Qualifying 2: 8th – 1:22.2805
Race 2: Start – 8th / Finish – 8th
Race 3: Start – 11th / Finish – 7th
Driver Quote: “This was a huge learning weekend for me in a multitude of ways. Though the results weren’t prime, we still kept up front and we’re close in the championship fight. From the new situations that this weekend put me in, I look forward to applying all that I’ve learned in the upcoming events and throughout the rest of the season. Again, huge thanks to the Cape Motorsports guys for always giving me a front running car in every sense.”
REECE GOLD - #3
Qualifying: 2nd – 1:21.7378
Race 1: Start – 2nd / Finish – 3rd
Qualifying 2: 2nd – 1:21.7639
Race 2: Start – 2nd / Finish – 2nd
Race 3: Start – 2nd / Finish – 3rd
Driver Quote: “It was an awesome two days at Mid-Ohio. To get my first podium and then too get two more is great. Also, I got great points and we are back in the fight up front. The car felt great Both days and I couldn’t thank the team enough for their hard work out there. We have a little stuff to work out to contend for the lead, but we’ll be working hard to get there before Indy. Thank you to my sponsor The Ticket Clinic and Cape Motorsports for the great car both days.”
MICHAEL D’ORLANDO - #4
Qualifying: 4th – 1:21.8916
Race 1: Start – 4th / Finish – 4th
Qualifying 2: 16th – 1:22.7983
Race 2: Start – 16th / Finish – 10th
Race 3: Start – 3rd / Finish – 2nd
Driver Quote: ““Mid-Ohio had its ups and downs for the team and I. From the testing we did prior, we knew we had some speed so we just had to put it all together, however, it didn’t work out that simply. In both qualifying one and race one, I ended up fourth place just outside of the podium. Then in the second qualifying we struggled to put down a good lap due to a red flag which put my to start race two in 16th place. I had a great race to make up six spots to finish tenth and the third fastest lap to start for the last race. Race three was a relatively tough race as I made one position into second place but was never able to catch up to Rasmussen and finished in second. It’s a real bummer that this week’s Mid-Ohio race was cancelled but I am super excited to race my first oval in Lucas Oil in two weeks.”
KYLE DUPELL - #14
Qualifying: 10th – 1:22.2287
Race 1: Start – 10th / Finish – 7th
Qualifying 2: 10th – 1:22.3968
Race 2: Start – 10th / Finish – 7th
Race 3: Start – 10th / Finish – 8th
Driver Quote: “I’m really happy with how our weekend went at Mid-Ohio. We lost half of our only practice session with a stuck throttle, so the weekend started a little on the back foot, so we ended up starting P10 for the races and I was able to move forward in all the races to P7 twice and P8 in the last race. It’s extremely hard to pass there, so I’m pretty happy with our races that we managed from mid-pack, salvaging what we could from the weekend and moving up in the driver championship. Big thanks to my sponsors for making the weekend happen for me, as well as Cape Motorsports for giving me such a good car. We just need to put a whole weekend together and we’ll be fighting further up.”