The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires will continue this weekend, following a month's hiatus, at the 1.634-mile, 10-turn MD Anderson Cancer Center Speedway temporary circuit at NRG Park in Houston.

The Allied Building Products Grand Prix of Houston Presented by Marlin CNG Services will comprise a pair of 40-minute races held in support of the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston presented by the Greater Houston Honda Dealers.

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The 14-race season is finely poised at the halfway stage, with Spencer Pigot & Scott Hargrove separated by only three points. At stake is a MAZDASPEED scholarship prize worth in excess of $550,000, which will assist the series champion's graduation to the next level of the Mazda Road to Indy, Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, in 2015. 

Pigot, 20, from Orlando, Fla., began his campaign in dominant fashion, winning each of the first four races for Juncos Racing. Since then, Hargrove, who won last year's Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, has whittled away at the deficit on the heels of two wins at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis road circuit and a second-place finish at the Lucas Oil Raceway oval for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing.

The battle for third place is even closer, with young Americans Kyle Kaiser (Juncos Racing) and Neil Alberico (Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing) holding identical point tallies after seven rounds of competition.