Jacob Douglas produced a dream result in his debut for Pabst Racing in USF2000 Presented by Coopers Tires over the weekend, finishing a career-best second in the first race of the Discount Tire Grand Prix of Road America.
Douglas then backed up his strong result from the opener to finish a credible sixth in Race 2, taking home a good haul of points from the weekend.
Having qualified sixth for Race 1, Douglas moved forward to finish only behind teammate Simon Sikes for a Pabst Racing one-two.
“Qualifying is always a bit of a coin flip at Road America, with drafting worth about half a second,” said the Kiwi. “In Qualifying 1 we didn’t have a bad run and managed P6, in the middle of my two teammates.
“I didn’t have too bad of a start in the race and knew we had good race pace, so surviving the first lap and not going backward was the goal. We had a good, clean first lap and maintained P6, and then managed to avoid some drama ahead to move into P2.
“On the first lap off the last restart, we were under a bit of pressure from P3 but managed to pull away and then took it easy to bring the car home over the last three laps.
“It was really good to do it on the home track for Pabst, and doing it on my first weekend racing for them as well. I’m super glad I could put together a good performance to bring home a one-two for the team.”
Douglas then went on to run in the top five for Race 2, dropping to sixth and holding off a firm challenge from behind for his second strong result of the weekend.
“In the second qualifying, we cooked the tyres a little too much at the start and dropped off a little bit,” said Douglas. “We were closer to P1 than we were in the first session, but in P7, which wasn’t the worst, and it was all go from there.
“Come Race 2, we had to start on the qualifying tyres which we had overheated, so they were slightly grained, so we struggled with that a little.
“I was running in P5 at one point before dropping back to P6 and got into a little bit of a touchup with that car, which dropped me back and put me under pressure from the cars behind. It was a two-lap-to-go battle with them but we managed to hold on to come home sixth.”
Douglas heads away from Road America confident of his success and says his debut weekend with Pabst Racing was one he won’t forget.
“Overall, a P2 and a P6 is not bad, we came away with some good points for both myself and the team,” he said. “Overall, I think from where we were last year at Road America to now, we’ve improved a lot, so I’m happy with that.
“Pabst Racing has a good car and does the driver coaching really well. I’m super thankful to be here and it’s a big motivator and confidence booster heading into the next three rounds.”
“I’m looking forward to heading to these tracks, which suit my driving style a lot more, which will be great.
Jacob Douglas will return to action over three races on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on 29 June to 2 July 2023.
Header Image: Supplied
