LEXINGTON, Ohio – Is there no stopping Leonardo Escorpioni? Last year’s USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire champion started third in this afternoon’s final leg of the USF Pro Patriot Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, but lost no time in taking the lead and then took off for his third win in two days. The Florida-based Brazilian’s impressive performance for Turn 3 Motorsport has vaulted him into the lead of the USF Pro 2000 championship, chasing a scholarship valued at almost $600,000 to make the step next year into INDY NXT.

Jack Jeffers, from San Antonio, Texas, posted another solid drive for Exclusive Autosport, finishing second, and now trails Escorpioni by a mere two points with 10 of 18 races now complete.

Andres Cardenas, from Lima, Peru, finished third – his fourth podium appearance for the JHDD powered by ECR team in the last five races.

Perfect conditions for this morning’s race, allied to fresh Continental tires for most of the field, proved conducive to fast lap times. They also ensured that every position on the starting grid for this afternoon’s weekend finale was set by each driver’s best lap, rather than their second-fastest lap set during qualifying, which was appreciably slower. Thus did Jeffers claim his series-leading fourth Continental Tire Pole Award of the season.

After this morning’s all-green 30-lap race, the weekend finale didn’t start so well with several cars tangling at the exit of Turn One and a couple more sustaining damage and heading for the pit lane for repairs.

Jeffers still led at the restart from Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros, from Newport Beach, Calif., who came out of the blocks like a rocket to jump from fifth to second at the initial start, but Escorpioni also was on the move. He displaced Argyros immediately at the restart, with four laps completed, and a couple of laps later drove cleanly around the outside of Jeffers at Turn Two to take the lead both in the race and the provisional point standings.

Moments later, Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla., a podium finisher this morning for Turn 3 Motorsport, made contact with another car while battling over eighth and ended his race in the gravel trap. Yellow again.

The race was recommenced after nine laps, and Escorpioni immediately began to edge away from Jeffers. The talented 16-year-old posted a sequence of laps faster than the preceding one to extend his advantage to over two seconds after just 12 laps and to more than four seconds with 26 laps in the books. Just for good measure, Escorpioni set a new fastest lap – worth another championship point – with three laps remaining. Impressive.

Jeffers instead had to heed his mirrors in the closing stages as Cardenas put on a charge which brought him to within a second with a handful of laps remaining. Jeffers, though, was up to the task and held on for his fifth podium finish.

Cardenas had to be content with third after an excellent day’s work, while Argyros finished a distant fourth, well clear of TJ Speed Motorsports’ Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, who extended his sequence of top-six finishes to six.

After starting 14th, Brady Golan, from Austin, Texas, briefly nosed ahead of Schrage after the restart before settling back into sixth aboard his Turn 3 Motorsport Tatuus. It was comfortably enough to win the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

The PFC Award once again was claimed by Turn 3 Motorsport’s Peter Dempsey as the winning team owner.

After a busy few weeks with a total of five races at Road America and Mid-Ohio, the USF Pro 2000 teams will now take a brief hiatus before traveling to the West Coast for a doubleheader event – once again in conjunction with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES – at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Ore, on August 6-9.

Provisional championship points after 11 of 18 rounds:

1. Leonardo Escorpioni, 228

2. Jack Jeffers, 226

3. G3 Argyros, 177

4. Andres Cardenas, 174

5. Frankie Mossman, 167

6. Michael Costello, 166

7. Thomas Schrage, 151

8. Teddy Musella, 133

9. Brady Golan, 116

10. Christian Cameron, 109

Leonardo Escorpioni (#4 Data Pioneer Solutions/Corix/Peer 1-Turn 3 Motorsport Tatuus IP-22): “The start was very difficult. It was very low grip and the track was very greasy. It was about just me focusing at the beginning. Turn 3 gave me an amazing car so they made my job pretty easy actually. I got by Jack and it was about maintaining the pace and stretching out fast laps to get away. I love this track. It’s super fun, it’s super flowy so I’m super happy to race here.”

Jack Jeffers (#92 USF Pro Championships/Exclusive Autosport Tatuus IP-22): “I think there’s a little bit of time to be found in the car and a little bit of time to be found in my driving. We’re a team, so we lose together and we win together. I think they just did a better job than us in this last race and that’s that. So it’s going to be head down and back to the drawing board and make sure we’re executing at Portland. The track was pretty greasy, especially the first couple of laps with a lot of marbles getting picked up on our tires. I was kind of just holding on for dear life. The heat is another added factor. It was super physical, but it’s kind of the same as yesterday’s race.”

Andres Cardenas (#6 Java House/Splenda-JHDD powered by ECR Tatuus IP-22): “It was a very good race. We had a little bit of a bad start. I went onto the grass, but was able to recover. And we were quick, so that’s important. I’m looking forward to getting my first win.”

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Photos: Gavin Baker Photography