****The No. 17 Afterburner Autosport car of Victor Franzoni has been disqualified for a technical infraction, elevating Jake Eidson to victory in race #3***

Victor Franzoni put an emphatic stamp on the NOLA Motorsports Park portion of Cooper Tires Winterfest and let the Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda paddock know that he will be one of the drivers to beat, if you want to win the Mazda Motorsports scholarship.

Franzoni made up seven and five spots on the first lap in the first two races of the event, and continued his impressive starting prowess this afternoon; making up the two spots from his third starting position with a daring pass to the lead in Turn 1.

The end of the first lap saw the running order as: Franzoni, Nico Jamin, Jake Eidson, Aaron Telitz and Jordan Lloyd.

Ayla Agren of Team Pelfrey was the early big mover gaining five spots from here 15th place starting spot.  She continued her improvement and ended up in 9th place.

By the fifth lap Franzoni had built up a three second lead on second place Jamin, who was busy defending against a determined Eidsen.

Telitz, who was running 4th, made a mistake on lap six and fell back to 9th place.  He was able to claw back three spots to finish 6th.

On lap 10 the top 10 were: Franzoni, Jamin, Eidson, Lloyd, Martin, Garth Rickards, Luke Gabin, Parker Thompson, Telitz and Agren.

Jamin and Eidson continued their nose to tail battle until lap 14 when Eidsen was able to force Jamin into a mistake going into Turn 10  The driver of the No. 22 pulled alongside the No. 2 on the back stretch, which forced Jamin to brake too late and drive through the corner onto the grass.  As we’ve seen with other incidents, a trip onto the grass at NOLA Motorsports Park likely means your day is done.  Jamin ground to a halt and the track went yellow to retrieve his stranded car.

Time ran out as they were retrieving his car and Franzoni took the yellow and checkered flags on lap 17.