After each claimed a victory in the opening rounds of the USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., Turn 3 Motorsport’s Alessandro de Tullio and Pabst Racing’s Max Garcia once again were the pair to beat in today’s opening race of a tripleheader event at NOLA Motorsports Park. It was Garcia who took the pole, but that wasn’t enough to prevent de Tullio, from Miami, Fla., from taking a hard-earned victory under a cloudless sky.

All three steps on the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire open-wheel driver development ladder will be featured this week, April 10-13, at NOLA Motorsports Park.

A new season of competition for the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire started on the weekend of February 28 to March 2 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. The top two rungs on the world-renowned open-wheel driver development training ladder, USF Pro 2000 and USF2000, attracted a strong entry list of over 40 talented young drivers.

Florida teenagers have swept this weekend’s Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with Max Garcia claiming an emphatic victory this morning for Pabst Racing.

Alessandro De Tullio has found his stride. After making his USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire debut toward the end of last season following an enforced 18-month hiatus from car racing due to a lack of funding, the 18-year-old university student from Miami, Fla., joined forces with the defending series champion team Turn 3 Motorsport over the winter. He came out of the blocks strongly by setting the pace in last week’s Spring Training test at NOLA Motorsports Park and translated that form into an emphatic victory in today’s first leg of the Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg doubleheader.