Turn 3 Motorsport Team on Top Again on Streets of St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Alessandro De Tullio has found his stride. After making his USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire debut toward the end of last season following an enforced 18-month hiatus from car racing due to a lack of funding, the 18-year-old university student from Miami, Fla., joined forces with the defending series champion team Turn 3 Motorsport over the winter. He came out of the blocks strongly by setting the pace in last week’s Spring Training test at NOLA Motorsports Park and translated that form into an emphatic victory in today’s first leg of the Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg doubleheader.
Remarkably, De Tullio became the fourth driver in as many years to win the opening race of the season for Turn 3 Motorsport.
Last year’s USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire champion Max Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., stepped up a level to claim second in his debut USF Pro 2000 race for Pabst Racing, while teammate Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla., ensured a home state sweep of the podium following a post-race penalty for Canadian Mac Clark, who had to settle for fourth for Exclusive Autosport.
De Tullio began the race weekend as he left off from Spring Training, posting the fastest lap in qualifying yesterday to snag his first Continental Tire Pole Award. However, with no fewer than 19 of the 22 cars blanketed by less than a second, he knew to expect plenty of challenges during the first of two 25-lap races that would kick off the 18-race season.
Three relatively brief full-course cautions due to some midfield incidents served to break up the first half of the 25-lap race around the unforgiving 1.8-mile, 14-turn street course. But De Tullio held his nerve and his lead, despite the best efforts of Garcia, who on each restart attempt to brake deeper on the outside line at Turn One, at the end of the longest straightaway.
De Tullio hit his marks perfectly on every restart, leaving Garcia no opportunity to make a move for the lead. De Tullio even cemented his authority on the proceedings by setting what was to stand as the fastest lap of the race – worth an additional championship point – with three laps remaining.
Clark made up two positions on the opening lap to run in fourth behind De Tullio’s Turn 3 teammate Elliot Cox, from Indianapolis, Ind., then pulled off a nice to pass immediately following a restart on Lap 10 to move into third.
Clark couldn’t match the leading pace and had to work increasingly hard to hold off not only Cox but also Costello, who had risen from ninth on the grid, and VRD Racing’s Max Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., who had been only 13th fastest in qualifying.
The foursome circulated almost as one for the final stages of the race. Clark appeared to have done enough to maintain his third place, although unfortunately for him, race officials deemed he had overstepped the limits of defense – making a move to defend his position in reaction to a pursuer – on the final lap. Clark therefore had to relinquish the final podium position to Costello, who had also profited when Cox made one slight error and clipped the wall at Turn Nine with just two laps to go.
Taylor, last year’s champion in USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire, took the checkered flag in fifth ahead of Turn 3 Motorsport’s Cooper Becklin, from Portland, Ore., and Brazilian Nicolas Monteiro, who made up two positions at the final restart to net a seventh-place finish for DEForce Racing.
Monteiro also earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after having started 19th.
The PFC Award as the winning car owner went to Peter Dempsey of Turn 3 Motorsport.
The second race of the weekend will see a green flag bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m., immediately prior to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES prerace warmup.
Provisional championship points after 1 of 18 rounds:
1. Alessandro De Tullio, 33
2. Max Garcia, 25
3. Michael Costello, 22
4. Mac Clark, 19
5. Max Taylor, 17
6. Cooper Becklin, 15
7. Nicolas Monteiro, 14
8. Jace Denmark, 13
9. Logan Adams, 12
10. Tanner DeFabis, 11
Alessandro De Tullio (#44 AstroPay/Sport Summa/DTI Group/InterMS-Turn 3 Motorsport Tatuus IP-22): “I'm very happy to win the first race here at St. Pete. It's my first time here, so definitely had some getting used to yesterday and then we put it on pole. That was a good start. Winning the race and also having the fastest lap to start on pole for tomorrow's race too is amazing. I want to thank everyone that helped me to get to this point.”
Max Garcia (#18 Advance Auto Parts/USF Pro Championships/Bell/OMP-Pabst Racing Tatuus IP-22): “It was a fun race for sure. Tricky at the start, not a lot of grip, but I had a lot of fun. A lot of cautions, a lot of restarts was tricky as well, but once we got in a groove, the car was fast. I just made a little mistake with two to go, but definitely had more than enough speed. We're going to come back tomorrow for it all.”
Michael Costello (#20 Proguard Automotive/EDA Eyewear-Pabst Racing Tatuus IP-22): “The race today went very well. The car was just on fire the entire race. I just kept to myself, made sure I didn't do what I did last year and just kept it a clean race the whole time. I made positions up every lap one by one. I can't thank the team enough for giving me the car today. So far the move (from USF2000) has been awesome. I just want to thank Pabst Racing, Proguard Automotive and EDA Eyewear for putting all the support they have been all season. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, but again, just an amazing race.”