Rowe Gains First Victory in USF Pro 2000
Myles Rowe on Victory Lane in St. Petersburg. (USF Pro 2000 photo)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Pabst Racing’s Myles Rowe with Force Indy once again demonstrated his immense skill on the streets of St. Petersburg this afternoon by scoring a magnificent win at the Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Rowe, who started fifth, immediately began working his way up the field, taking the lead on lap 10 and pulling away to claim his first USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires win on his debut weekend. Rowe, a college student from Brooklyn, NY, also won the USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires in St. Petersburg last year.
Brazilian Kiko Porto finished second for DEForce Racing for the second straight day, while Rowe’s Pabst Racing teammate Jace Denmark of Scottsdale, Arizona, completed the podium.
“It was a great time, honestly. My opponents gave me a really hard time,” Rowe said. “In fifth, I had to go around Lirim, who didn’t make it easy for me at all in the first few laps. Then I had to get past Jace who always gives me a hard time which is great. And then Francesco, who made it very difficult and pushed me all the way inside the marbles, but somehow I managed.
“I took advantage of a small mistake made by Kiko and luckily ran away with it. Pabst just gave me a great car to keep the lead and build something up. Thanks to Bob (Perona) my driver trainer and all my sponsors – Penske Entertainment, Force Indy, Pabst Racing, Sparco, Bell, SimCraft. It wouldn’t be possible without her, so I’m just super blessed.
“I’m really thankful my family is here to see it and I look forward to going home and enjoying it with them.”
After setting the fastest race lap in yesterday’s race, even faster than the best lap time of Friday’s official qualifying session, Francesco Pizzi won his first Cooper Tires Pole Award, which gave him the opportunity to lead the field of 20 cars towards the green flag lead afternoon.
The start of the race was delayed due to extensive cleanup after the NTT IndyCar Series headline event and when the green flag finally flew some drivers were perhaps a little too worried to get started. A couple of incidents in midfield made for a couple of early yellow spells but even with the limited run, Rowe was already on the move.
Porto initially took the lead at turn one with a bold late braking maneuver around Pizzi, while Rowe also gained a position on lap one at the expense of Albanian Lirim Zendeli to finish fourth behind Denmark, whom he overtook on the very next lap.
Immediately after the first restart, Rowe also edged out Pizzi from second before the yellow flags flew again.
With the race turning green again with nine laps out of 25 on the books, Rowe wasted no time in finding a way past Porto, then set a series of increasingly faster laps to leave the field firmly behind. Rowe eventually took the checkered flag a tick over three seconds to good.
Porto, who had clinched their first USF2000 win in St Petersburg back in 2020, bravely chased him into second place despite some pressure from Denmark in the closing stages.
After dropping a few positions at the last restart, Pizzi battled hard with TJ Speed Motorsports teammate Zendeli before having to settle for fifth place behind the Albanian, with yesterday’s winner Christian Brooks chasing him for Turn 3 Motorsport heels was.