With double victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Frenchman takes lead in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.

Come wet conditions or dry, Frenchman Nico Jamin has his rivals in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda covered just now. Two weeks after putting on a driving clinic in atrocious conditions at Barber Motorsports Park, the 19-year-old Frenchman showed he’s just as adept in the dry, taking two victories in the Mazda USF2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Jamin cemented the victory in the first race with a last-lap pass of series leader Jake Eidson, who had to be content with second for Pabst Racing. Jamin’s teammate, Aaron Telitz, completed the podium after leading for much of the 30-minute race.

It took a while to get the first race going due to a first-corner incident just behind the leaders, but the restart saw Telitz pull off a bold outside-line pass of polesitter Jamin under braking for Turn 1. Jamin’s efforts to maintain his advantage succeeded only in allowing Eidson to slip through into second.

Telitz took advantage of the battle behind him to post the fastest laps of the race and pull out a clear lead before the yellow flags waved again following a midfield incident on Lap 12. By then, Jamin had found a way past Eidson into second, and the advent of the pace car enabled him to close onto the tail of teammate Telitz.

The leaders ran three-wide on the approach to Turn 1 at the restart, with five minutes remaining, whereupon Telitz left his braking a fraction too late, causing him to slide wide onto the grass at the exit. Eidson also grasped the opportunity to slip past Jamin, but the Frenchman wasn’t done. He edged closer to Eidson over the next three laps and was perfectly placed to pounce when Eidson ran a little too deep into Turn 1 on the final lap and slid wide.

Telitz drove well to make up for his earlier error, passing Australian rookies Luke Gabin (Team Pelfrey) and Anthony Martin (John Cummiskey Racing) on successive laps to clamber back to third.

With a victory in the second race, Jamin vaulted into the championship lead. He started from the pole position, maintained his advantage at the start and then drove away from the field to secure a weekend sweep. Teammate Telitz finished a lonely second, 4.866 seconds in arrears, while Australian Martin took third.

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda will return to action at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis for the Freedom 75, part of the #MRTI FreedomFest weekend during the lead-up to the 99th Indianapolis 500.