USF2000: Team USA's Mitchell joins Afterburner Motorsports for Mid-Ohio

During each of the last two years, Afterburner Autosport has won races in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda and the team will renew that chase this coming weekend as it returns to the series in preparation for the 2016 season with two young series rookies in American driver Jack Mitchell and British racer Sennan Fielding.

"We are excited to officially announce our return to the USF2000 Championship and I'm thrilled that we have two impressive young competitors running our cars at Mid-Ohio," said Tim Walsh, Afterburner Autosport team principal. "We've pressed the reset button on our program and the focus is on giving Sennan and Jack the opportunity to get familiar with the series and the USF2000 car. Mid-Ohio is a perfect venue for them and the tripleheader format for this weekend will give them significant experience when it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing."

A sophomore at Marquette University, Mitchell entered motorsports through indoor karting and then transitioned into competitive outdoor open-wheel racing through the Skip Barber Racing School. The 19-year-old from Chicago, Illinois ran in the 2011 Skip Barber Winter Series and finished fourth overall with four victories, winning the Most Improved Driver award in the process. Jack then campaigned the ultra-competitive Toyo Tires F1600 series in Canada in 2012, finishing third overall with one win and six podiums en route to Rookie of the Year honors.

He also ran the Skip Barber Summer Series and won six races before being chosen for the Team USA Scholarship (pictured, TOP), which took him to the Ford Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, where he would finish a strong fifth. Mitchell then finish tenth overall in the Walter Hayes Trophy event at Silverstone. Jack would go on to win the Canadian F1600 series in 2013 and then came back south of the border in 2014 to run in the F1600 Championship Series, where he finished fourth overall. Mitchell has run a pair of events in the series this year, winning at Road Atlanta.

Fielding comes to the United States from the MSA Formula series in England, where he currently sits in the fifth position in the overall point standings, having won his first race at Oulton Park in June to begin a streak of five top-five finishes. The 19-year-old from Chesterfield, Great Britain has been racing for eight years, getting his start in UK karting before graduating into the Ginetta Junior championship, scoring five wins over a two-year run in 2011 and 2012. Sennan moved to the BRDC F4 series in 2013 and in 2014, and in his second year in the program he scored four wins and finished third overall in the championship standings. He's also tested and raced in Formula Renault 2.0 and Italian F4.