BROWNSBURG, Ind. -- The story of the Mazda Freedom 75 at Lucas Oil Raceway was all about the start.
Jake Eidson of Pabst Racing jumped pole-winning championship leader Nico Jamin into Turn 1 on the 0.686-mile oval and was never headed en route to his third victory of the season and his first since sweeping the opening double-header of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Jamin and Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing teammate Aaron Telitz completed the podium for the fifth time in nine races this season. Jamin leads the championship points chase by a margin of 233-218 over Eidson with nine of 16 races completed.
Jamin, from Rouen, France, qualified on pole for the fifth successive race but Eidson made a better jump as the green flag waved and was able to lead the field into Turn 1. Telitz followed in third, while Australian rookie Anthony Martin (John Cummiskey Racing) managed to sneak past Eidson's teammate Yufeng Luo for fourth.
The top five positions never changed throughout the all-green 75-lap race.
"We made a good start and got ahead of Nico going into Turn 1," Eidson said. "I knew that traffic would be the highlight of the race so I had to focus on getting through traffic as fast as possible and not making any mistakes. I had to pace myself -- set a pace and work off of that. The track got very slippery as the race progressed so I had to focus on that as well. It was a bit sketchy at times in traffic, but everyone drove cleanly and the Pabst Racing guys gave me a great car that made it really easy to pass in traffic.
I'm really relieved to get through it nice and clean and with the car intact. It was a great race but we're still behind in points. This is one of those races that takes us one step closer so we've got to keep the momentum going."
USF2000 - Mazda Freedom 75 Podium
1. Jake Eidson; 2. Nico Jamin; 3. Aaron Telitz
