Askew Wins, VeeKay Takes Pro Mazda Title on Series’ Return to Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. – A pair of talented youngsters shared the honors in this afternoon’s penultimate round of the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires at Portland International Raceway. Rinus VeeKay, 17, secured the championship – plus a Mazda Scholarship prize worth almost $800,000 to progress into Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires in 2019 – with a conservative drive to second for Juncos Racing, while Oliver Askew, 21, scored an overdue maiden victory for Cape Motorsports.
Parker Thompson finished third for Exclusive Autosport.
After winning last year’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda as a rookie, Askew has sometimes struggled to match the leaders’ pace this year after stepping up to the second rung on the Mazda Road to Indy open-wheel development ladder. But this afternoon the young man from Jupiter, Fla.,.ensured a banner day for the Florida-based Cape Motorsports team following another USF2000 win for close friend and recently crown champion Kyle Kirkwood earlier in the afternoon.
After snagging his fifth pole position of the season during qualifying on Friday, VeeKay, from Hoofddorp, Netherlands, found himself out-dragged by second-place qualifier Askew on the run toward Turn One. The opening stages provided quite a spectacle as Askew remained under intense scrutiny from his young Dutch rival, with Canada’s Thompson and David Malukas (BN Racing), from Chicago, Ill., also part of the leading group.
The quartet traded fastest laps on a regular basis through the opening 10 laps, whereupon the top two, Askew and VeeKay, managed to put just a little breathing space between themselves and Thompson, who has remained as a thorn in VeeKay’s side throughout this year’s hard-fought championship.
Even with a string of consistent laps through the middle stages of the 30-lap contest, Askew’s lead was only rarely larger than one second – and often much less. VeeKay even established a new record of 1:07.1597, an average speed of 105.277mph, on Lap 21, but Askew remained just those tantalizing few lengths ahead and was able to resist the pressure before taking the flag just 1.3482 seconds to the good.
Askew also took home the Tilton Hard Charger Award, while Cape Motorsports claimed its first PFC Award of the season.
VeeKay, who had finished a close second to Askew in last year’s USF2000 title-chase – and entered this final weekend of the season with a comfortable 47-point edge over Thompson — was thrilled to finally tuck the championship under his belt. Under the circumstances, second place this day would be just fine.
Malukas finished hot on Thompson’s heels in fourth as Robert Megennis took fifth for Juncos Racing.