Sikes sets the pace in USF Pro 2000 post-season testing

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Pabst Racing’s Simon Sikes set the pace in USF Pro 2000’s post-season test on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

Saturday and Sunday were split into three sessions each, with the first two lasting 35 minutes and the last of each day lasting 20 minutes.

Exclusive Autosport’s Braden Eves was fastest in session one, pipping Pabst’s Jacob Douglas to the top of the times by 0.0802 seconds by setting a 1m22.5458s.

TJ Speed’s Francesco Pizzi was 0.3411s behind in third, with DEForce Racing’s Mac Clark a further 0.0023s slower in fourth. Propping up the timesheet was the 59-year-old Charles Finelli in his FatBoy Racing!-run car, who has been racing on and off in USFP2000 since 2017.

Saturday’s other two sessions were considerably slower, with Jay Howard Driver Development’s Lochie Hughes edging Eves to top spot in session two by 0.0626s, while Clark edged Eves by 0.1015s in session three. Pizzi was third fastest in that session, 0.1051s off the pace, and Hughes was 0.1217s slower than Clark in fourth.

There were some line-up changes at teams for Sunday, and aside from the absent Finelli everybody improved their pace.

This year’s USF2000 champion Sikes set the fastest lap of the test in the day’s opening session, a 1m21.8032s putting him just 0.0833s ahead of Pizzi and 0.0977s ahead of Hughes. Eves was fourth fastest, and Turn 3 Motorsport’s Danny Dyszelki went fifth fastest with his final lap.

Pizzi topped the next session but did not improve, while DEForce’s Ricardo Escotto put himself in what would end up being sixth in the test’s combined timesheet as he went second fastest in the session with a 1m22.1311s lap. Eves and Douglas were third and fourth fastest, but were not among the six drivers who set their personal best laps of the test in the session.

Sunday’s action ended with Turn 3’s Christian Brooks setting the pace. The final sesion was ended a few minutes early, with Douglas, Eves and Sikes not setting any laps, and Brook’s session-topping 1m22.0725s laptime put him fifth overall.

Four other drivers improved, with TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats the highest placed of those as he went fourth fastest in the session – behind Pizzi and Dyszelki – and rose to 10th overall in the test.

After completing a two-day private test earlier in the week, which was his first running in a single-seater since breaking his back in July, Adam Fitzgerald impressed with TJ Speed to end up being the 13th fastest driver over the two days.

Test results