Photo: USF Juniors
There are now 12 drivers confirmed to be racing in USF Juniors next year, and a new team is also set to join.
Partnering Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series graduate Kaylee Countryman at Exclusive Autosport is Brenden Cooley, brother of Evan and son of team co-owner Joshua. Brenden stood in for Evan at the Road America round this season, and had a best finish of 15th.
Velocity Racing Development and Zanella Racing have three-strong line-ups already, and Jay Howard Driver Development has four drivers: Vilho Aatola, JT Hoskins, Liam Loiacono and Karel Staut.
Aatola was 2024 Rotax Max Challenge Central European championship runner-up for Rotax Senior karts, and the Indy Junior Academy Finland-USA programme has been involved in his single-seater transition.
Hoskins sticks with JHDD after contesting the second half of this season with them and finishing 26th in the standings with a best race result of 11th, and Loiacono heads to slicks-and-wings after three years in Australian Formula Ford and coming fourth this season with three wins.
Belgian-Swiss karter Staut is still 14. He was ninth in Rotax Max’s Winter Cup and 18th in its Euro Trophy for Rotax Junior karts in 2022 and 15th in the 2023 FIA Karting Academy Trophy, also being signed as the first ever junior driver of Spanish team Drivex School that year.
Staut shadowed the team and did Formula 4 tests with them in 2024, with the indication that he would race in Spanish F4 once old enough. However this has not been confirmed.
At VRD will be Israel’s Matan Achituv, Ryan Giannetta and Brazilian talent Joao Vergara. Giannetta and Achituv came fourth and 12th in the F4-spec Skip Barber Formula Race Series in 2024, with Giannetta winning once, while 17-year-old Vergara switches teams from Exclusive after coming fifth in the YACademy Winter Series and eighth in USF Juniors this year.
He raced in the Lucas Oil School of Racing’s wingless Formula Car Race Series before that, following up 12th in the 2022 standings as a part-timer with the title runner-up spot and five race wins in 2023.
Just behind Vergara in the 2024 USF Juniors points table was 14-year-old compatriot Leonardo Escorpioni, who took a pole and one podium. He also claimed two podiums in the Ligier JS F4 Series.
In USF Juniors he drove for Zanella, and will continue with the team along with Mexican 16-year-old Diego Guiot who came 14th this season.
Their new team-mate is Canadian karting graduate Ty Fisher, who will be 14 when he debuts. He was runner-up in the USA’s SuperNationals and fourth in its Pro Tour for KA100 Junior karts in 2024, and sixth in the Pro Tour for X30 Junior karts. In the national winter series for the two categories he was sixth and fifth.
Miami-based Pole Position Motorsports is USF Juniors’ new team, and has used its car for track days throughout 2024. It plans to contest the YACademy WS at the start of 2025 to prepare for joining IndyCar’s support paddock.