Matthew Brabham finished the six race Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship with a win, two fastest laps, three 2nds and a 4th, but a mechanical issue in race 5 pushed the third generation driver down to third in the final points tally.
After the ultra competitive showing at the first three races at Sebring, Matthew initially struggled to find the sweet spot with his setup at the low grip Palm Beach International Raceway. A disappointing 9th in qualifying showed that in this competitive field, you only have to be a little off the pace to pay a heavy penalty with your grid position.
Race one saw Matt show off his competitive edge as he fought his way up to a 4th place finish, unfortunately a gearbox problem sent the Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing driver to the pits early in race two for repairs. The team managed to get him out again for the last two laps, and Matt responded with the third fastest lap time to ensure a third place start for the last race.
The final race again showed his aggressive passing ability as he sliced his way up to second in a shortened race due to two pace car periods. Matthew might have come up a little short for the Winterfest Championship, but feels he is now well prepared for the Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda Championship that starts on March 15-16 at the Sebring International Raceway.
"This has been fantastic. I had a lot of fun and got some really, really good experience before the actual start of the season, which is the most important thing – learning about the racing. I have never had that before in any series I've competed" An excited Matthew said. "It was a good little test to see where our cars are on race pace, and it was good for myself having never done rolling starts. I still need to work on those a little bit, but it was great getting the restarts with the safety car and just learning how drivers race over here. There were highs and a few lows as well which was not good at the time but definitely character building and I gained a bit of experience on how to get out of those situations and pass a lot of cars while starting from the back. I am pleased with how everything went."
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