Cooley, Costello claim first USF Pro Championships wins at IRP

Evan Cooley and Michael Costello both secured their maiden USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire victories during an entertaining evening of racing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The Carb Night Classic Presented by Marelli was brought forward one day due to an inclement weather forecast for Friday evening, and began with an accomplished performance by Cooley, who profited from the misfortune of Exclusive Autosport teammate Anthony Martella to claim a fine USF2000 Presented by Continental Tires victory.

Gabriel Cahan finished a career-best second aboard a third Exclusive Autosport entry, chased home by championship leader Sebastian Garzon for DEForce Racing.

RESULTS

Immediately afterward, a hectic USF Pro 2000 race also was dominated by one team – in this case Turn 3 Motorsport – with Costello taking the checkered flag narrowly ahead of teammate and polesitter Leonardo Escorpioni.

Polish driver Tymek Kucharczyk stepped back from his regular ride in Indy NXT in order to gain his very first experience on an oval, and just about managed to hold back his charging TJ Speed Motorsports teammate Thomas Schrage for third.

RESULTS

The normal single-car qualifying session held earlier on Thursday offered a slight deviation from tradition in that while each driver completed two hot laps of the 0.686-mile oval, only their best lap would count toward the grid positions. And, finally, after 26 years, Aaron Justus’ single-lap USF2000 record of 20.930 seconds was beaten. Defending race champion Martella was the first to dip below it, only for Exclusive Autosport teammate Cooley to go even faster with a new standard at 20.8185s, an average speed of 118.625 mph. Thus it was Cooley who earned his first Continental Tire Pole Award of the season.

Martella had to be content with starting on the outside of the front row, followed by Garzon and his teammate Thomas Nordquist, who started a fine fourth – by far his best qualifying position.

Martella, though, was in no mood to hang around at the start, remaining side-by-side with the polesitter into Turn 1 and maintaining that high line down the back straightaway to assume the lead on the entry to Turn Three.

The two leaders ran in tight formation for the opening 23 laps, until, suddenly, Martella began to edge clear. By lap 30, his lead had expanded to two seconds. There seemed to be no way he would be caught.

Sadly, however, on his 43rd lap, Martella was unable to avoid the spinning JHDD powered by ECR Tatuus USF-22 of Callahan Peter in Turn 4. Martella’s car came to rest with extensive damage to its left-rear corner. His day was done.

After a lengthy cleanup, Cooley established an unassailable lead which he controlled perfectly until the checkered flag.

By contrast, Cahan had to work extremely hard to keep Garzon at bay for second. After qualifying eighth, Australia’s Liam Loiacono (JHDD powered by ECR) briefly lost a place in the early stages, then charged up to fifth place by lap 24. He inherited fourth upon Martella’s demise and then fought off a determined challenge from Brad Majman (Pabst Racing), with Joao Vergara hot on their heels for VRD Racing.

Vergara’s effort earned him the Tilton Hard Charger Award after having started 12th.

Wian Boshoff (Peterman Fisher Racing), Australian Eddie Beswick (Pabst Racing), Nordquist and Ryan Giannetta (VRD Racing) rounded out the top 10.

The PFC Award for the winning car owners went to Exclusive Autosport’s Michael Duncalfe and Josh Cooley, whose day was made even better in the knowledge their emphatic one-two result catapulted them into the lead of the Teams Championship.

Exclusive Autosport now holds a five-point edge over DEForce Racing as the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire contenders make an eagerly awaited trip north to Elkhart Lake, Wis., for a tripleheader event in conjunction with the NTT IndyCar Series at the scenic and challenging Road America natural terrain circuit on June 18-21.

Provisional championship points after six of 18 races:

1. Sebastian Garzon, 174

2. Brad Majman, 120

3. Evan Cooley, 114

4. Eddie Beswick, 97

5. Joao Vergara, 88

6. Liam Loiacono, 85

7. Gabriel Cahan, 84

8. Ayrton Cahan, 77

9. Wian Boshoff, 66

10. Ryan Giannetta, 64

USF Pro 2000: Costello Keeps His Cool

USF Pro 2000 qualifying also saw two teams taking charge at the front of the field. Remarkably, drivers from Turn 3 Motorsport and TJ Speed Motorsports filled eight of the top nine positions, with last year’s USF Juniors champion Escorpioni edging teammate Costello to the coveted Continental Tire Pole Award by a mere 0.0398s to ensure Turn 3 Motorsport’s first-ever sweep of an oval front row.

Kucharczyk, Schrage and the youngest driver in the field, 16-year-old Christian Cameron, were bracketed by less than a tenth of a second in third, fourth and fifth for TJ Speed, followed by two more Turn 3 exponents, Brady Golan and Tyke Durst.

The initial start to the 90-lap race was clean, but it didn’t stay that way for long as the yellow lights flashed on just as the leaders completed their third lap. Joint championship points leader Frankie Mossman had lost control of his VRD Racing entry and crashed in the middle of Turns 3 and 4.

Escorpioni continued to lead at the resumption, until one slight slip on the 18th lap allowed a close-following Costello to slip past. The Floridian stretched his advantage to as much as two seconds, only for that to be erased after 57 laps when FatBoy Racing! veteran Charles Finelli also crashed out in Turn 4. Yellow again.

The cleanup left time for a 27-lap dash to the finish, and this time Costello had to work a lot harder. Escorpioni piled on the pressure in the closing stages, and with two laps to go drew almost alongside after Costello’s car slid a little too much in Turn Four.

Costello, though, managed to maintain control and took the flag just over a tenth of a second to the good to claim his first win since his rookie season of USF2000 at Portland International Raceway in 2024.

Behind, Kucharczyk employed all of his experience gained in the European open-wheel ranks to keep Schrage at bay in their frantic battle for the final podium position.

Golan had managed to usurp Schrage during the middle stages of the race, only for the Ohioan to regain the upper hand at the final restart, which meant that Golan had to settle for a strong fifth ahead of last year’s USF2000 champion Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport).

Teddy Musella earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award following a tigerish performance to finish seventh from the back of the grid after his VRD Racing Tatuus was found to be underweight after qualifying. Musella had been elevated one position after Mac Clark (Exclusive Autosport) was assessed a five-second post-race penalty for blocking at the final restart.

The PFC Award went to Turn 3 Motorsport’s Peter Dempsey as the winning car owner.

As with USF2000, USF Pro 2000 will resume action next month at Road America with a pair of races set to be held over the weekend of June 20/21.

Provisional championship points after five of 18 rounds:

1. Jack Jeffers, 110

2. Michael Costello, 103

3. Leonardo Escorpioni, 97

4. Frankie Mossman, 89

5. Brady Golan, 80

6. G3 Argyros, 72

7. Jacob Douglas, 70

8. Thomas Schrage, 70

9. Andres Cardenas, 64

10. Mac Clark, 61