Revised schedule for USF Pro Championships first oval races of the season

Potentially inclement weather forecast for Friday has resulted in the traditional Carb Night Classic being brought forward one day to Thursday, May 21, when the top two rungs on the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire ladder will compete on the demanding 0.686-mile Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park oval in Brownsburg, IN.

The event marks the first of two oval races this season for USF Pro 2000 and the sole left-turn-only challenge for USF2000.

The Carb Night Classic Presented by Marelli – the series Official Data/Telemetry partner – will conclude a busy few weeks for future stars of the NTT IndyCar Series, who competed on the nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course just two weeks ago. They also completed a series test at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, in preparation for another highly anticipated event on the Fourth of July weekend. As dictated by tradition, the Carb Night event forms part of the lead up to the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 24.

Five drivers set to start the Indy 500 – Conor Daly, Louis Foster, Kyle Kirkwood, Pato O’Ward and Christian Rasmussen – can count wins at Lucas Oil IRP on their resumes. Rasmussen alone was victorious in both USF2000 (in 2020) and USF Pro 2000 the following year. He went on to win the respective championships on each occasion, earning critical scholarship prizes to move on to the next step on the ladder. Kirkwood also won both titles, in 2018 and 2019, to ensure his career progression, although his only triumph on the short oval came in USF2000 in 2018.

Wide-open USF Pro 2000 field

VRD Racing’s Teddy Musella, from Orlando, Fla., Pabst Racing’s Jacob Douglas, from Christchurch, New Zealand, and Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers, from San Antonio, Texas, each headed the timing charts following the three 45-minute USF Pro 2000 test sessions today at Lucas Oil IRP.

Furthermore, the top four on the combined times were all within one-tenth of a second, while the fastest laps turned by all 20 entrants were bracketed by less than six tenths of one second, which bodes well for an extremely competitive 90-lap race on Thursday evening.

Musella’s time from the first session this morning, 20.0410, an average speed of 123.227 mph, remained as the fastest of the day and comes on the heels of his best finish to date, third, in the most recent race on the Indianapolis GP circuit, after stepping up this year from USF2000.

Jeffers, though, will enter the event as a slim favorite. Last year’s USF2000 champion has been riding the crest of a wave so far with two race wins – one during each of the doubleheader events on the Streets of Arlington, Texas, and Indianapolis. He also holds the championship lead, albeit on a tie-break as his tally of 67 points is equal to that of Frankie Mossman, from Newport Beach, Calif., who has three podium finishes to his credit for VRD Racing and is still seeking an elusive maiden victory.

Extra points will be offered this weekend for both USF Pro 2000 and USF2000, with 45 available to the race winner, as opposed to the usual 30. As always, there will be additional points for pole position, leading most laps and posting the fastest lap of the race.

A strong five-car contingent from Turn 3 Motorsport will be led by Brady Golan, from Austin, Texas, who was second fastest today at 20.0631s.

The youngest driver in the field, Christian Cameron, 16, from Sonoma, Calif., also impressed at the test with the fourth fastest time, 20.0779s, for TJ Speed Motorsports.

Other likely contenders include Canadian Mac Clark aboard a second Exclusive Autosport entry, and Cameron’s teammate, Tymek Kucharczyk, from Lodygowice, Poland, who competes regularly in Indy NXT, and actually won the most recent race on the Indianapolis road course. Kucharczyk, a champion in Europe before embarking this year on the next phase of his career in North America, will be making his USF Pro 2000 debut and gaining some oval experience for the very first time.

The USF Pro 2000 contenders will be back on track tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, May 20, for another pair of 45-minute test sessions. A busy Thursday will begin with 30 minutes of official practice at 1:45 p.m., followed by single-car qualifying at 4:15 p.m. and the 90-lap race which is set to start at 7:30 p.m. All times are EDT. 

Martella chases back-to-back USF2000 wins

Anthony Martella currently stands only eighth in the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire point standings, but he will be a firm favorite for honors on Thursday evening.

The 17-year-old from Woodbridge, Ont., Canada, endured a difficult opening weekend of the season at St. Petersburg in Florida with his Exclusive Autosport team, retiring early from both races through no fault of his own. But he rebounded impressively on the Indianapolis GP circuit by claiming his first win of the year. More importantly, after racing to an emphatic maiden victory 12 months ago at Lucas Oil IRP, Martella was comfortably fastest during today’s open test. His best time of 20.9593s, an average speed of 117.828mph, was fractionally outside Aaron Justus’ single-lap qualifying lap record, 20.930, set all the way back in 2000.

Martella’s closest challenger today was DEForce Racing’s Sebastian Garzon, from Neiva, Colombia. Garzon is the current points leader on the back of three race wins, one second and one third from the five races run to date. His consistency has already vaulted him to a 47 point advantage and a hot favorite to claim both the championship and a scholarship valued at $409,816 to graduate to USF Pro 2000 in 2027.

Martella’s teammate, Evan Cooley, from Mokena, Ill., was third fastest in today’s test, building nicely on his momentum after scoring two podium finishes and a fourth on the Indy road course.

Fellow Australian Liam Loiacono was fourth fastest today for JHDD powered by ECR, while DEForce Racing’s Thomas Nordqvist, from Omaha, Neb., and Erik Holm (JHDD powered by ECR), from Orebro, Sweden, recorded by far their most competitive showings of the season by rounding out the top six.

As with their slightly more experienced colleagues in USF Pro 2000, the USF2000 contenders will have another opportunity to learn the nuances of the high-banked oval with some more testing tomorrow. Their Thursday schedule will kick off with 30 minutes of official practice at 1:00 p.m., followed by single-car qualifying at 3:30 p.m. and the 75-lap race at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Complete coverage can be found on the free USF Pro Championships App, YouTube channel and respective series websites, usfpro2000.com and usf2000.com.