Cooper Tires Winterfest update #11 – USF2000 race #3 notes and results

****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.

Rank Car No. Driver Laps Completed Quickest Lap
1 22 Jake Eidson 17 01:37.3899
2 94 Jordan Lloyd (R) 17 01:37.9468
3 33 Anthony Martin (R) 17 01:37.7615
4 83 Garth Rickards (R) 17 01:38.3771
5 3 Aaron Telitz 17 01:37.6337
6 82 Luke Gabin (R) 17 01:38.4245
7 80 Parker Thompson (R) 17 01:38.3430
8 81 Ayla Agren (R) 17 01:38.8352
9 14 Michai Stephens (R) 17 01:38.9990
10 23 Yufeng Luo (R) 17 01:38.7841
11 5 Keyvan Andre Soori 17 01:38.6129
12 79 Santiago Lozano 17 01:39.3972
13 84 Nikita Lastochkin (R) 17 01:38.4313
14 12 Augie Lerch (R) 17 01:39.1725
15 6 Max Hanratty (R) 17 01:39.7580
16 16 James Dayson 16 01:40.9126
17 2 Nico Jamin 14 01:37.4429
18 17 Victor Franzoni DSQ 01:37.3202