For the second straight year Victor Franzoni has won a Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda race during Cooper Tires Winterfest.  The 19 year old, who also won a race during the 2014 USF2000 season, made up six spots in the first three laps to show the rest of the field he will be a title contender.

Starting spots for the second USF2000 race were determined by the quickest between a driver’s second quickest qualifying lap or their quickest race #1 lap.  Based on that the top 10 starting spots were held down by: Nico Jamin, Jake Eidson, Aaron Telitz, Jordan Lloyd, Anthony Martin, Luke Gabin, Victor Franzoni, Parker Thompson, Nikita Lastochkin, and Yufeng Luo.

For the second straight race everybody got through Turn 1, lap cleanly, with Afterburner Autosport sophomore Franzoni making a big early move.  The Brazilian had moved up to third by the end of the first lap, second by the end of the second lap, and made a daring pass of leader Jamin on the third lap.

Garth Rickards was also able to make up a number of spots early on.  The Team Pelfrey driver encountered a diffuser issue early in the first race, but was able to make up 5 spots in the first two laps.

The middle portion of the race saw Franzoni slowly build up a comfortable gap between himself and second place, while the rest of the field settled into a consistent race pace.

Further back in the field, Santiago Lozano, Michai Stephens, Ayla Agren, and Augie Lerch waged an entertaining back and forth battle.

The last three laps of the race saw Franzoni continue to hold a 3+ second gap over Jamin, who kept a consistent 1.5 second gap back to yesterday’s Race #1 winner, Eidson.

Australian Formula Ford veteran driver Jordan Lloyd was the top rookie in the field.  An impressive showing for the John Cummiskey Racing driver who is contesting his first races in a “wings and slicks” car.

Lloyd’s teammate Martin, had been holding down fifth place until his engine went sour and he had to limp the car home to a 13th place finish.

Complete results are below: