ST. PETERSBURG, Fls. – After enjoying another strong outing at the penultimate Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship event in New Jersey earlier in the month, Cape Motorsports and its quartet of talented American drivers capped the season at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida on October 23-25 and filled the top-10 in both races of the street circuit doubleheader.
Reece Gold led the squad with a third-place finish in Race 1 and then followed up with a ninth in Race 2 to lock out third in the final championship standings. Michael d’Orlando carded a pair of top-five finishes to wrap his first full-time season of USF2000 competition in fourth overall, while Josh Green finished fourth and 11th in the two races to take sixth in the championship points calculations. Kyle Dupell followed his best result of the year in New Jersey with finishes of ninth and 14th to pad Cape Motorsports’ fourth Team Championship honors.
"St. Pete was another strong team performance by the team and everyone worked really hard, as shown by the Race 1 results,” commented Dominic and Nicholas Cape, team owners. “Reece, Josh and Michael finished third, fourth and fifth, and Kyle was ninth. Race 2 proved to be a bit more difficult considering, but overall, I think our drivers have come a long way over the course of the year, and we're ecstatic at winning our tenth USF2000 Team Championship."
In the opening race of the weekend, the Cape quartet was strong and filled the top-10. After all four drivers somehow worked their way through a chaotic opening corner incident that left three cars out of the race, Gold was strongly into the lead pack from the get-go and would eventually finish third less than a second behind the leader. Green started ninth and worked into the top-five after the opening lap incident and he held station to take fourth; his seventh top-five finish of the year. D’Orlando also capitalized on the first lap to jump from 11th to seventh and he then attacked his way up to fifth by the checkered flag. Dupell slotted into 12th early on and then slipped past Christian Bogle for 11th, and when Cameron Shields retired from the lead, he moved him tenth. Dupell then chased down Bijoy Garg and passed him for ninth in the late going.
Things were equally as exciting in the second race on Sunday morning. At the green, D’Orlando was extremely aggressive on the opening lap and quickly jumped from ninth to fifth with a bold move to the inside in Turn 4. Michael backed this up with deep-braking pass on Christian Rasmussen for fourth to start the second lap, and he’d hold that spot through a lap 10 caution and then all the way to the finish to card a pair of strong top-five results to finish the season. Gold was in a three-car fight for fifth before the full course yellow and then got hung out to dry on the restart and dropped to ninth, where he would finish. Green started 10th and finished 11th, while Dupell advanced from 16th to 14th.
At the season-ending banquet on Sunday evening, Cape Motorsports and their drivers accepted the award for the Team Championship, the sixth time that they’d taken home the prestigious honor. Gold capped his sophomore season in third overall, while d’Orlando was an impressive fourth in his first full season in USF2000. Green finished sixth in the championship standings as the second highest finishing rookie and Dupell ended up 14th overall.
The Cape Motorsports staff and crew will now look forward to the 2021 season with testing beginning immediately. The team will be gunning for their unprecedented tenth driver championship and seventh team championship. The 2021 season of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship begins back in St. Petersburg on the March 5-7 weekend.
CAPE MOTORSPORTS – DRIVER RESULTS AND QUOTES
USF2000 – ROUND 16/17/18 – OCTOBER 23-25, 2020
GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG – ST. PETERSBURG, FL
JOSH GREEN - #2
Qualifying 1: 9th – 1:13.2899
Qualifying 2: 10th – 1:12.7103
Race 1: Start – 9th / Finish – 4th
Race 2: Start – 10th / Finish – 11th
Driver Quote: ““St. Petersburg is an awesome track and it was my first experience on a street circuit. Race 1 went very well with some big movement through the field, finishing fourth from ninth, but in Race 2, we unfortunately suffered intermittent ECU issues that hampered my progress. The season has come to an end and I can’t thank Cape Motorsports, my parents and supporters as well as my teammates, enough for an awesome year! Can’t wait to get at it again in a few short months.”
REECE GOLD - #3
Qualifying 1: 4th – 1:12.8371
Qualifying 2: 5th – 1:12.3990
Race 1: Start – 4th / Finish – 3rd
Race 2: Start – 5th / Finish – 9th
Driver Quote: “It wasn’t the end to the season that we wanted. I had strong pace in Race 1 and finished third, only losing two points to second. But in Race 2, I made some mistakes on my end along with things that were out of my control. I’m still happy to finish the year in third, along with two wins and 10 podiums. I improved a lot over this year and can’t wait for next season. Thank you to the whole team at Cape Motorsports for all their hard work this year and to The Ticket Clinic.”
MICHAEL D’ORLANDO - #4
Qualifying 1: 11th – 1:13.50.89
Qualifying 2: 9th – 1:12.6197
Race 1: Start – 11th / Finish – 5th
Race 2: Start – 9th / Finish – 4th
Driver Quote: “The weekend at St Pete started off slow. While finding the raw speed was tough, Cape and I knew we had a good race car. However, the qualifying sessions were not the greatest, but we made up tons of ground in the two races. St Pete was the final race of the season and I am super bummed that I don’t get to race again until next season. But I’m a proud with the efforts the team and I put in this season and I can’t wait to see what next year brings. Thank you to all of my supporters and sponsors and I’ll see you all next year!”
KYLE DUPELL - #14
Qualifying 1: 13th – 1:13.5630
Qualifying 2: 16th – 1:13.2818
Race 1: Start – 13th / Finish – 9th
Race 2: Start – 16th / Finish – 14th
Driver Quote: “Overall, I’m happy with our performance this weekend. We had an intermittent ECU failure in R1, the series ran out so we had to race like this the whole weekend, but still managed P9 in the first race, In Race 2, I was P14 as the issue grew. Thanks to everyone on Cape Motorsports for this year and the series for putting the season together in such a tough time. I’d also like to thank my sponsors for making the year happen.”