The first of two races that will make up the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Portland saw Canada’s Mac Clark convert another strong performance with Exclusive Autosport into his 11th podium finish of the season. First-time polesitter Frankie Mossman, from Newport Beach, Calif., had to be content with third for VRD Racing.

An exciting qualifying session on Friday saw Mossman post the fastest time in the dying moments to secure a long awaited maiden Continental Tire Pole Award. It was richly deserved after a strong performance in the most recent race on the streets of Toronto where he led virtually the entire race until being overtaken on the final corner.

Clark also pulled a rabbit out of the hat when it mattered in qualifying. Clark, from Milton, Ont., Canada, jumped to second place ahead of a disgruntled Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., who had led the way for most of the 20-minute session until encountering traffic over his final couple of laps which prevented him from improving.

Garcia duly lined up third on the grid for this morning’s race, although that all changed at the first corner when Mossman went a little too deep on the brakes and caused several of his rivals to take evasive action. Unflustered, Garcia turned in behind the polesitter on the perfect line, then simply drove around the outside at the ensuing left-hand turn to vault from third to first. The race, effectively, was over.

After a brief early caution due to debuting Australian Miles Bromley (TJ Speed Motorsports) running off at the exit of Turn Two on the second lap, Garcia soon began to edge clear of the field. His eventual margin of victory was 3.7564 seconds.

Clark, having squeezed past Mossman at the first corner, maintained second place throughout the 30-lap race, while VRD teammates Mossman and Max Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., followed in third and fourth.

A strong start saw Pabst Racing’s Michael Costello, from Sarasota, Fla., run fifth during the early stages, although he later slipped back to seventh behind teammate Jacob Douglas, from Christchurch, New Zealand, and Alessandro de Tullio (Turn 3 Motorsport), from Miami, Fla.

Israel’s Ariel Elkin finished a distant eighth for TJ Speed Motorsports, which wasn’t enough to prevent him from being overtaken for second place in the point standings by Clark with just one race remaining.

Elkin’s teammate Sebastian Manson, from Auckland, New Zealand, earned his second Tilton Hard Charger Award of the year, rising from 13th on the grid and fighting off a race-long challenge from Exclusive Autosport’s Joey Brienza, from Golden, Colo., to finish ninth..

Augie Pabst earned another PFC Award as the winning car owner.

Both Garcia and Pabst Racing have already wrapped up their respective driver and team championships, but the battle for second between Clark, Elkin and de Tullio will be settled in the season finale which will see a green flag tomorrow, Sunday, August 10, at 2:50 p.m., immediately after the NTT INDYCAR SERIES headline event.

Provisional championship points after 17 of 18 rounds:

1. Max Garcia, 462

2. Mac Clark, 337

3. Ariel Elkin, 328

4. Alessandro de Tullio, 317

5. Jacob Douglas, 307

6. Max Taylor, 258

7. Michael Costello, 204

8. Frankie Mossman, 191

9. Cooper Becklin, 189

10.  Nicholas Monteiro, 185.

Max Garcia (#18 Advance Auto Parts/USF Pro Championships/Bell/OMP-Pabst Racing Tatuus IP-22): “We knew if we made it through Turn One, we had a good chance of advancing our position. Obviously, coming out into the lead was better than I could have hoped for. After that, I really just set sail. I knew we had the car. We made a few changes from yesterday, so we knew it was all about hitting the lap time and not burning the rears off.”

Mac Clark (#90 Corpay Cross-Border Solutions/Clubine Motorsports-Exclusive Autosport Tatuus IP-22): “It is nice to be on the podium again. This is like our 11th or 12th time this year. It is always great when you are a little bit disappointed with a P2. Max has been fast all year so we are going to work on chasing him hard tomorrow.”

Frankie Mossman (#84 Ethika/Jaxxon/Ivy Day Spa/Arai Americas-VRD Racing Tatuus IP-22): “I figured that since we would be going a lot slower into [Turn] One, I would bring my brake point a lot further forward than I actually could have. It was a big mistake by me but, luckily, we were able to keep it in third and battle a little bit with Mac at the start of the lap. We were kind of in a congo line the whole time. It is a bit difficult to pass around here; a lot more than I expected. But, we did the best we could and I am going to do a much better job in Race 2.”