Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

A lap 12 pass was all that a hard-charging Tanner DeFabis needed to secure the lead and eventually his first career USF2000 win in the Freedom 75 at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Saturday afternoon.

The 18-year-old Indianapolis native, driving for Jay Howard Driver Development, gained experience throughout his youth karting nearby at New Castle Motorsports Park before racing in F4 US in 2023. 

Driving on his hometown oval for the first time, he made a splash. 

To take the lead, DeFabis passed DEForce Racing’s Nicolas Giaffone, who began the race on pole and finished second. Before that, he moved into the top two after getting past DC Autosport’s Ayrton Houk, who eventually was involved in a crash with Max Taylor on lap 47.

Houk, Taylor, and DEForce’s Brady Golan, who ended his race due to mechanical issues on lap 5, finished the race.

The championship leader, Pabst Racing’s Max Garcia, rolled off the grid and finished in seventh place, behind his closest championship rival, JHDD’s Evagoras Papasavvas, who came home in third. Entering the race, Papsavvas trailed Garcia by 40 points and closed that gap to 28.

The point structure for the Freedom 75 is different from the other seventeen races on the calendar due to its unique status as a one-off oval race. Points for each position are multiplied one-and-a-half, which means that winning the race delivers 45 championship points instead of the original 30.

After DeFabis got past Giaffone, he was able to build up a gap of multiple seconds before Houk spun and collected Taylor on lap 47. It was DeFabis’s first race on an oval and his win also ended a winless streak for his JHDD team dating back to Mid-Ohio last July. 

Rookies to the USF2000 series shined during the race, with three of the top four finishers, DeFabis, Giaffone and fourth-place finisher Quinn Armstrong, being in their first season in USF2000. VRD Racing’s Xavier Kokai rounded out the top five.

For full results, check out usf2000.com/results.