St. Petersburg, Fla. - In another dominating performance, Spencer Pigot of Juncos Racing claimed a wire-to-wire victory in today's Allied Building Products Grand Prix of St Petersburg, his second win of the weekend in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires.
The 20-year-old Pigot, driving the #7 Doug Mockett & Company/Rising Star Racing/Vitamin-D Pro App/California Scents entry, started the race from pole position. He extended his lead with each lap, leaving the fight of the race to the four cars just behind him. Californian teammate Kyle Kaiser worked hard to maintain contact with Pigot, as Scott Hargrove (Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing), Pipo Derani (Team Pelfrey) and Shelby Blackstock (Andretti Autosport) battled for the final podium spot, with Derani getting around Hargrove for third position on the second lap.
Neil Alberico (Cape Motorsports) held off a surging Julia Ballario (Juncos Racing), who battled her way through the field to finish an impressive seventh from a 14th starting position. Ryan Booth (JDC MotorSports), Jose Gutierrez (Juncos Racing) and Michael Johnson (JDC MotorSports) rounded out the top 10.
The race began with one of racing's most pressure-packed moments - the standing start. The 20-car field launched off the starting line safely, with only Gutierrez encountering difficulties after a spin in Turn 1 which relegated him to the back of the field.
But the story of the race was the drive by Pigot, who held a lead of over eight seconds near the end of the 23-lap race. He also set the fastest lap [on Lap 7] with a quick time of 1:12.295.
Jay Horak of M1 Racing claimed the Expert division honors for drivers aged 30 or over, finishing 14th overall, just ahead of Bobby Eberle of World Speed Motorsports.
Contingency awards included the Quarter Master Hard Charger Award to Ballario for a gain of seven positions from 14th to seventh; the PFC Award and customized Race Energy BCM21 charger - the official battery of the ladder series and the Staubli Award to Kaiser.
The Replay XD Move of the Race was award to Nicolas Costa of M1 Racing who gained four positions at the start with an outside pass at Turn One.
Pigot leads the championship chase by a 15-point margin over Kaiser as the championship heads next to Barber Motorsports Park for two races that will support the Verizon IndyCar Series and the entire Mazda Road to Indy ladder system on April 26/27.
Spencer Pigot, #7 Doug Mockett & Company/Rising Star Rising/Vitamin-D Pro App/California Scents (Juncos Racing): "It has been a perfect weekend. We topped every session and won both races so you can't do anything more than that. The Juncos Racing guys were awesome. I am from Orlando and had a lot of people here to support me. Things are going very well right now and it has been a flawless performance from the team -- at the Cooper Tires Winterfest and this weekend as well. I am trying to not get too excited as there is still a lot of racing left to go, but I am very excited."