De Tullio edges Garcia in USF Pro 2000 NOLA thriller

04/12/2025 07:29 PM

After each claimed a victory in the opening rounds of the USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., Turn 3 Motorsport's Alessandro de Tullio and Pabst Racing's Max Garcia once again were the pair to beat in Saturday’s opening race of a triple-header event at NOLA Motorsports Park. It was Garcia who took the pole, but that wasn't enough to prevent de Tullio, from Miami, Fla., from taking a hard-earned victory under a cloudless sky.

Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., had to be content with second – plus the additional bonus point for a new fastest race lap record. The final position on the podium went to Canadian Mac Clark (Exclusive Autosport) for the second time this season.

The Florida native carried on from where he left off in St. Pete by nabbing the Continental Tire Pole Award during qualifying on Friday with a new lap record of 1m29.7842s, an average speed of 109.863mph. Pabst Racing teammates Jacob Douglas, from Christchurch, New Zealand, and Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla., lined up on the second row of the grid behind de Tullio on the outside pole.

Garcia maintained his advantage at the green flag but was unable to shake off de Tullio. On Lap two, de Tullio glimpsed the smallest of openings on the inside of Turn 5. He and Garcia ran side by side through the next corner, Turn 6, but it was de Tullio who had the inside line – and the lead – as they headed into Turn 7.

That was pretty much it. De Tullio edged away to a lead of almost 2s inside the first four laps, even though Garcia wasn't about to give up. He whittled away at the deficit, such that the two cars were virtually together with five laps remaining. Garcia had marginally the faster car at this stage of the proceedings, but de Tullio had the lead. And he had no intentions of giving it up. He eventually took the checkered flag after 18 hectic green-flag laps a scant 0.8084s to the good.

"It feels great. Obviously race two in St. Pete hurt us and it was my mistake,” de Tullio said. “Now I just have to make up for it and keep getting points in the bag. The car is strong. The team is doing a great job. I want to thank everyone that is here supporting me and the whole team. We've done a fantastic job and there is still a long way to go this weekend with two more races. We’ll keep our heads down."

Douglas lost a couple of places on the opening lap, to teammate Costello and Clark, but at that stage the trio remained very much in contention with the two leaders, de Tullio and Garcia. However, an attempt by Costello to wrest away second place from Garcia on the third lap ultimately proved costly as the loss of momentum allowed Clark, Douglas and the leading TJ Speed Motorsports entry of Israeli Ariel Elkin to steam past.

The leading positions remained unchanged thereafter. Clark couldn't match the two leaders but never looked likely to lose out to either Douglas or Elkin.

Costello slipped back in sixth, holding off an extended challenge from 2024 USF Juniors champion Max Taylor (VRD Racing), from Hoboken, N.J.

Joey Brienza (Exclusive Autosport), from Golden, Colo., Jace Denmark (TJ Speed), from Brownsburg, Ind., and Tyke Durst (Turn 3 Motorsport), from Charlotte, N.C., completed the top 10, just ahead of Comet/NCMP Racing's impressive privateer Logan Adams, from Greenfield, Ind., who picked up four positions to claim the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

The PFC Award as the winning car owners went to Turn 3 Motorsport's Peter and Mandy Dempsey.

The chase for this year's USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire championship will continue with another pair of races to wrap up the weekend at 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. CDT Sunday.