Telitz: The Barber bounce back

On Saturday, USF2000 was back on our usual “first cars on track” schedule, so on the grid we went at 8:30 AM!

The start didn’t go terribly smoothly. My lane jumped the start a bit and then slowed down to make it look like we didn’t jump, and I ended up 6th after the first lap.

On lap three, Colton Herta was ahead of me and made a mistake, and I went to capitalize on it. We ended up touching wheels, which sent Colton into the gravel trap and brought out a full course caution.

After the restart I began working on fellow MFW blogger Danny Burkett, and we had an intense race all the way up until the checkered flag. I finally finished my first USF2000 race of the season, and it was a top 5! I couldn’t wait for more later that afternoon.

I started Race 2 from 4th again and had a much better start. I made a super rad pass on Victor Franzoni into turn 11 on the outside to move into 3rd! I earned the Replay XD Move of the Race award for that pass, which you can watch here:

After a safety car period I began to work on Danny again for P2. I was a bit faster, but it’s extremely hard to pass at Barber because of how much the track flows. There is only one hard brake zone, which is turn 5.

On lap 14 Danny ran a bit wide exiting turn 3 and I made my move in the brake zone of turn 5. We locked wheels for a second at the apex, and then I squeaked past!

Now, Danny might have something different to say about this maneuver, and good news for you guys — Danny writes his blog just next door, so you can hear both sides of the story!

I then proceeded to turn the fastest lap of the race while chasing down the leader. I cut his lead from 2 seconds to just 0.7 seconds at the checkered flag. A few more laps and I might be writing about my first win! I’m saving that for a future blog, apparently.

Ahh yes, my first podium of the year. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to stand on the podium with the always lovely Cooper Tire Girls! Huge thanks to ArmsUp Motorsports, who did a seriously awesome job all weekend. My car was fantastic in every session.

I’d like to give a thank you shout-out to Steve DeBrecht, who mixed up the world’s best victory margarita! Also, thank you to Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Mazda, and Chuck G Fabrication for your continued support that allows me to do what I love.

And thanks to all of you who are reading this, whether you’re fans, friends, family, or you just came to check out some unique driver blog writing.

– Aaron

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Aaron Telitz is a racer in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship for ArmsUp Motorsports. Follow him on Twitter at @aarontelitz and on Facebook.