ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Scott Hargrove enjoyed a perfect day in Round 3 of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda on the challenging 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit in downtown St. Petersburg.

The 18-year-old from Vancouver, B.C., Canada, qualified his No. 38 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entry on pole position and controlled the 21-lap, 30-minute race.

“It may have looked easy but driving on the streets was not at all easy with the walls everywhere,” Hargrove said. “It was a pretty big challenge. I can’t thank the Cape Motorsports team enough. They gave me a great car. It was really close in qualifying and we got through Turn One, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.”

Fellow front row qualifier and teammate Neil Alberico, who had won Race 2 at Sebring last week, once again hit misfortune in the opening race of the weekend. He was involved in an incident at the first corner with teammate Jeroen Slaghekke and was eliminated immediately.

Wyatt Gooden (Afterburner Autosport), from Cleveland, Ohio, moved from third to second on the opening lap and held off a determined race-long challenge from Stefan Rzadzinski (JDC MotorSports), from Edmonton, Alb., Canada.

“The start was pretty chaotic and I knew it was going to be,” Gooden said. “Right after that the caution came out, I was in second and I just had to hang on to it for the rest of the race. It feels great to be on the podium.”

Former karting star Jesse Lazare passed Newey on Lap 16 to secure fourth place for the Pabst Racing Services team ahead of fellow 15-year-old Florian Latorre (JAY Motorsports), from Libourne, France.

Felipe Donato of ArmsUp Motorsports earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award moving from 26th on the grid to 10th in the attrition-filled race. Additional awards included the PFC Award to the winning car owners of Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing and Alliance Autosport; the Staubli Award to Hargrove; and the National Class Masters Award Presented by Elite Engines/Comprent to Rettich.

Hargrove, who also won last week’s season-opening race at Sebring International Raceway, now holds a commanding 36-point lead in the championship, 90-54, over Gooden heading into tomorrow’s Peninsula Pipeline Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at 9:30 a.m. (ET).