Innisfil, Ontario - Hot on the heels of a victory at the Florida Winter Tour shifter weekend, Matthew Di Leo and MDL Racing held strong hopes for the USF2000 season-opening event at the Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway.

The car was finely tuned and ready for action for the first race of the season at such a legendary track. The young racer had trouble in the first qualifying session, due to difficultly finding a clean lap. The slight setback resulted in an eighth-place starting position for the first race of the weekend. Undeterred, Di Leo and the team kept calm and focused for the upcoming race, determined to make the most of their starting position, still ahead of the majority of the field.

Frustration plagued the event for Di Leo and the other racers, but Di Leo managed to persevere and still run a strong race. Contact with debris from an incident in Turn One of the first lap pushed Di Leo back to 36th. Other occurrences throughout the event allowed for few laps for Di Leo to make up for lost time. The season-opening event held two yellow flags and one red flag, but still he raced strong. With only six green laps, the young racer worked his way up to finish in 12th position, also setting the fifth fastest lap during the session. 

Starting Race Two from fifth position, Matthew Di Leo had no incidents in the first lap as in the previous day’s race. But a crash on Lap One in Turn 10 between the two Andretti Autosport drivers enabled him to advance through the field and earn a fourth-place finish, above thirty two other racers. 

“With all the yellows, it was hard to have a real race,” said Di Leo. “But with the amazing car MDL racing put together, we were able to make the most of every green flag.”

The young racer came out of the weekend with a solid fifth-place standing in the points for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. Di Leo would like to thank RES Precast and JCL Cranes, Adam Kretschmer, his engineer Peter Dragffy and chief mechanic Mo Larsen for all their support. Di Leo and MDL Racing next compete at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg March 23-25 with the IZOD IndyCar Series.