New Zealand Grand Prix winner Liam Sceats has described his latest USF Pro 2000 weekend on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as a “head-scratcher type of weekend”.
Sceats showed great pace through the opening day of practice but was put on the back foot with a qualifying result of 13th.
He went on to finish Race 1 in 14th and was taken out by another competitor in the finale.
“We were fast with top three pace for all of practice,” he said. “We went into qualifying feeling confident that we had the potential for the pole. To get pole, I knew I’d have to push 110 per cent to get the job done as it was incredibly close at the top.
“The full confidence mindset I had for the session hurt me in a way, as at the end of my first stint in qualifying, I over-pushed the boundaries and had an off, getting stuck in the sand trap.
“Although qualifying was far from over, I was able to get back out on track, only missing a couple of laps. From then on, we just struggled to find that same car speed we had earlier. In the car, I felt excellent with my driving inputs and mentally, but somehow, the performance wasn’t the same.
“With this track being notorious for being hard to pass on, and despite me having better pace than the few cars in front of me, I was unable to move forward.
“In Race 1, we sacrificed a few spots to get clear air and improve my lap time to potentially earn a start at the front for the next race. We did improve, but not as much as we hoped for.
“We still just lacked that front-running pace that we once had, and I was missing that comfortability I had with putting the car at the limit. It felt inconsistent and unpredictable.
“For Race 2, we made big adjustments to improve the car speed. I felt an improvement with the car and was aggressive as I moved up three positions to seventh. Unfortunately, through no fault of my own, another driver was too aggressive and tried to squeeze me whilst we were side by side. This led to contact that took me out of the race.”
Despite the difficult weekend, Sceats remains fifth in the championship as the third-best rookie and 93 points behind the leader, Lochie Hughes.
With three podiums and one race win to his name in 2024, the Auckland-based teenager is looking to bounce back strongly next round in Toronto.
“The whole year, we’ve had nothing worse than a mediocre weekend,” he said. “With this being the first bad one of the season, we still sit comfortably P5 in the championship. It’s a type of weekend everyone will experience at least one like.
“The penultimate round of the year is on the Streets of Toronto in two weeks. I have been looking forward to this event the most the whole year.
“I had an excellent experience with street circuits at St. Pete, where we finished on the podium on debut, so again, I will be going into the race weekend feeling confident that we can challenge for the win.”
The USF Pro 2000 double-header on the Streets of Toronto takes place over the weekend of July 19-21.
