ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – After a hot and greasy weekend at Albert Whitted Airport and the surrounding streets of St. Petersburg, the Team Pelfrey Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda team ended the first weekend of the 2016 Mazda Road to Indy season with a pair of third place finishes by series rookies Robert Megennis and Jordan Cane. The former F1600 teammates continued their young and successful racing careers by avoiding early race incidents and making confident passes in turn one.
The team boasts four rookies, Cane, 14, Megennis, 16 along with TJ Fischer, 22, of Vacaville, CA and James Munro, 19, of Christchurch, New Zealand. The all-rookie team showed poise and consistency and poise throughout practice and qualifying. Munro captured the fifth starting spot going into the first race, and Megennis, Cane and Fischer starting ninth through 11th.
In race one, it was all about surviving turn one and the restarts. Munro and Cane both crashed going down into the sharp right-hand corner coming off of the 3677 ft. long runway. Fischer suffered contact early, sending him to pit road for early repairs to his No. 82 Rathbun Assoc. Team Pelfrey Mazda. He finished the race in 23rd. The story of race one though was Megennis’ consistency and patience throughout the 30-minute race.Megennis went from 9th to 3rd after the first lap and ended up holding on to finish his first USF2000 Series race on the podium.
After a chaotic Race One, the Team Pelfrey drivers regrouped and learned from their race one mistakes. Munro started the race in 4
th but suffered contact in turn five about 10 minutes into the race. From there, Fischer, Cane and Megennis held onto positions 6-8. The trio battled back and forth for most of the race until Cane prevailed from the group and caught up to the top three after a late race restart. Cane held off a hard charging Parker Thompson before another yellow flag waived with 1:30 remaining in the race. The young Briton finished on the podium in just his second race of the 2016 season.
The team heads to Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Ala. for rounds three and four of the season, April 22-24. You can watch all of the action in Alabama by downloading the Road to INDY TV app or by visiting RoadtoIndy.TV. To stay up to date with the latest news about Team Pelfrey, visit Team-Pelfrey.com or follow us on Twitter @TeamPelfrey.
Jordan Cane, No. 81: “There was a bit of a learning curve this weekend for me, as this was the first time I have ever competed on a street circuit. It was great for the whole team to be at the front so quickly and I am just really proud of everyone on the team. I just want to thank adidas Motorsport, Goodwood, Twelfth Man and Maui Jim for supporting me. I’m looking forward to Barber and the rest of the points championship.”
TJ Fischer, No. 82: “The weekend itself was a bit challenging for me, but for it being my first race weekend here in St. Pete it was encouraging to be as consistent as we were. There are 27 cars in the field, so there is a huge possibility for carnage especially in turnone, but I’m proud of our guys for prevailing after suffering the incident in Race One and still finishing the race and then following it up with a 9
th is huge. I just want to than Rathbun Associates, adidas Motorsport, MeUndies and ONNIT supplements for giving me this opportunity to compete. I just wish Barber was next weekend!”
Robert Megennis, No. 80: “I really was not even expecting this third place result. I didn’t want to set expectations for myself because this was a track that I’ve never raced on and that it was my first race in a winged car. To survive the first turn and the entire first race was a feat in it of itself, but to then hold off drivers like [Luke] Gabin and [Victor] Franzoni was something I was really excited about. This entire weekend was just awesome and finishing on the podium is definitely my favorite moment of my racing career. I just want to thank my family and sponsors, Palo Alto Networks and Turo, for giving me this opportunity. I’m ready for Barber!”
James Munro, No. 83: “We had a quite difficult weekend. We showed pace early in practice and qualifying 5th for race one but definitely made an error going into turn one there. Obviously I felt gutted but going into Race Two I knew that I was starting 4th, so I just wanted to focus on making it through the first turn and being consistent throughout the race. Unfortunately, we got taken out in turn five which was frustrating, but I know we have the pace to be at the front all year long and Barber is a track that I enjoy very much. I want to thank Team New Zealand, Archibalds, Consortium Construction and Club 500 team for supporting me.”