Jake Eidson: A Good Points Weekend

Another visit to the podium.

Littleton, Colo. – Just wanted to keep everyone updated on how the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda season has been going so far. We finished our third race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. As always, it was a very exciting few days of racing so let’s get started!

We kicked off with two test sessions on Thursday then practice, qualify, and Race One on Friday. No matter what session it was, the times were always extremely close. We were able to be at the top of the time charts for the first test session and the rest of the weekend the top four drivers were separated by only a tenth of a second. I knew qualifying was going to be extremely important at this track primarily because of how hard it is to pass during the race. The Pabst Racing team threw everything we had to grab pole position. As qualifying was coming to an end, the team slapped on our third set of tires and on my last lap I was up on pole by three tenths of a second and only two turns away from completing it. Unfortunately, at the last second a red flag came out which didn’t count the lap.

James Dayson kindly stepped up.

The team and I were joking about how I should tell James Dayson (who caused the red flag due to electrical issues) that he owed me $500 for pole position. He later wrote me a check that was good for a pole position at any track of my choice which was very thoughtful.

The start of Race One was pretty exciting from my view watching the two leaders bang wheels and I was able to move up to second place when one of them went off in Turn Two. As the race continued I was knocking on the door for the lead but couldn’t get a pass to stick. Going into Turn Five, the driver behind me threw his car on the inside moving me back to third place again which was where I ended up finishing.

Safe AND fast. Thanks, everyone at Pabst Racing!

On Saturday there was a chance of rain, and as we were getting ready to go out a storm rolled by making for a wet track. When the green flag dropped it was just a matter of learning the conditions as quickly as possible. We came out with another third-place finish which was another solid points race.

Looking back, I would say that the weekend was an overall success as we increased our points lead. I wouldn’t be here without the support of my family, Pabst Racing Team, Team USA Scholarship, SAFEisFAST.com, Mazda and Cooper Tires so thank you everyone, and I’m looking forward to Indy!

Also huge congrats to my fellow Team USA Scholarship drivers Aaron Telitz, Neil Alberico, Spencer Pigot and Josef Newgarden on all of their wins. And please check my highlight video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFhFIZ-p550

Thanks for reading!
Jake Eidson