Toronto, Canada – British driver Liam McNeilly made a remarkable debut in the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire series, achieving a pole position and a second-place finish. Competing with the Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD) team, McNeilly showcased his skill on the iconic streets of Toronto.
McNeilly, hailing from Brentwood, England, qualified fifth for the first race and secured pole position for the second race.
In race one, McNeilly had a strong start, quickly gaining positions. Unfortunately, contact on lap 15 with a fellow competitor who was later penalized for the incident brought an early end to his race.
“A great weekend in Toronto for my debut in USF2000.” said McNeilly. “For race one, I started fifth and had a lot of battles around the top five. I dropped back to seventh momentarily then made my way back to fifth and put down a lot of strong laps to get away from the pack behind. We then got a caution and that shook the whole field up. I went down to seventh and ultimately got shuffled out wide at turn five and got hit into the wall ending my race. We showed we had the pace.”
“Race two was a lot better,” added McNeilly. “The team and I saved a set of new tires for the race and it showed as we had really strong pace. Unfortunately I lost the lead on the first lap but managed to stay close behind my teammate and take a strong second place finish. I took points away from his championship rivals so it was really beneficial for him. The race finished under full course yellow. A great end to the weekend especially after the DNF in race one.”, he finalized.
Next on the calendar for Liam is a triple header at Road America. With only nine points separating him from the championship leader, McNeilly is determined to claim the top spot and win the $263,700 prize to advance to USF2000 in 2025.