Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Max Taylor, Ariel Elkin and Sebastian Wheldon took a victory apiece in USF Juniors’ round at Road America.
Teams took to the track on Friday for three pre-event test sessions, and the fastest laptimes came in the first one. Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly set a 2m15.491s to lead Velocity Racing Development’s Max Taylor by 0.007 seconds.
DEForce Racing’s Bruno Ribeiro session two-topping 2m15.505s lap put him third overall, ahead of Exclusive Autosport’s Evan Cooley and VRD’s Sebastian Wheldon. Ribeiro also topped session three.
Cooley was quickest in the single practice session on Saturday, setting a 2m15.045s to lead International Motorsport’s Augusto Soto-Schirripa and Wheldon by a tiny 0.005s and 0.063s respectively.
McNeilly was 0.236s behind in fourth and Taylor was 0.4s off the pace in seventh but improved to 2m14.723s in qualifying to take race one pole by 0.159s over Wheldon. McNeilly was a further 0.137s behind, and International Motorsport’s Ariel Elkin was fourth fastest.
Qualifying 20th for his debut was Brenden Cooley, brother of Evan (who was sixth fastest) and son of Joshua Cooley who is a co-owner of the Exclusive team. One place behind him was International Motorsport’s Hudson Potter, who has switched teams from JHDD, and one place ahead was Michael Boyiadzis who has taken over Potter’s old seat.
In 23rd was JHDD’s debuting Griffin Yellin, who is currently 10th in the Skip Barber Formula Race Series.
The top four held their positions on the opening lap of race one, then on lap two Elkin went down the inside of Wheldon at turn one and McNeilly went wide at turn five. Elkin made a pass but went off at Canada Corner and rejoined at the back.
Taylor and Wheldon broke away up front, and he began lap five fending off Wheldon while McNeilly resisted Evan Cooley for third. There was big contact between Ribeiro and JHDD’s G3 Argyros at turn eight, and red flags waved as their cars were cleared.
Racing restarted with a lap behind the pace car, and when green flags waved there was briefly a three-wide lead battle. Wheldon and McNeilly then made contact, but Wheldon briefly held the lead before Taylor got past again. McNeilly spun down the order on the penultimate lap, with Jack Jeffers having to go way off to avoid him.
It resulted in Taylor extending his points lead as he won by 1.808s over Soto=Schirripa, and behind was a finish line wreck as Brady Golan and team-mate Rodrigo Gonzalez were elimiinated
Cooley did finish fourth but a penalty for avoidable contact with mcNeilly dropped him to 15th.
It was a similar story in race two, involving the same drivers, but this time Elkin won. Wheldon’s second-best lap in qualifying put him on pole ahead of McNeilly and Taylor, but Elkin got into second on lap one and there was a three-wide lead battle starting lap two.
Taylor got ahead before another wheel-to-wheel battle down the pit straight that ended in contact with Wheldon and put Jeffers into the lead. He was soon passed by Elkin as a lead group of nine formed, and Wheldon was back ahead by lap six. He built a gap before a caution period caused by Potter going off, and on the restart Soto-Schirripa took second while McNeilly plummeted down the order following contact with Wheldon.
Soto-Schirripa then passed Elkin, but he reclaimed the lead at the finish for his third win of 2024.
Wheldon and Soto-Schirripa were second and third on-the-road but penalties for avoidable contact and blocking dropped them to 18th and 13th respectively.
Taylor finished sixth and set the fastest lap, putting him on pole for race three. Once again there was plenty of side-by-side action up front, and Jeffers spun off at turn one on lap two which led to a brief caution period to get his car back on track.
The field was led by Taylor for the restart, but in a three-wide move Elkin got ahead before a collision got the race red flagged. Racing resumed on lap seven and there was plenty of passing. Elkin kept the lead, Wheldon was passed but got back into second, and Michael Suco spun on lap eight.
Wheldon then got to the front of a four-car train, with Elkin going off as he tried to pass him but being more successful on his second attempt. Approaching the finish, Wheldon almost drove into the back of him but squeezed past for the win, as Taylor ran ahead of McNeilly just behind.
Results round-up
Race 1 (10 laps)
1 Max Taylor Velocity Racing Development 30m51.725s
2 Augusto Soto-Schirripa International Motorsport +1.808s
3 Jack Jeffers Exclusive Autosport +3.790s
4 Joao Vergara Exclusive Autosport +5.705s
5 Leonardo Escorpioni Exclusive Autosport +5.890s
6 Timothy Carel JHDD +6.063s
7 Diego Guiot Zanella Racing +7.017s
8 Sebastian Wheldon Velocity Racing Development +7.338s
9 Patricio Gonzalez DEForce Racing +7.409s
10 Brady Golan DEForce Racing +7.794s
Pole: Taylor, 2m14.723s
Fastest lap: Wheldon, 2m15.765s
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Ariel Elkin International Motorsport 24m44.483s
2 G3 Argyros JHDD +0.636s
3 Jeffers +1.378s
4 Evan Cooley Exclusive Autosport +1.598s
5 Escorpioni +3.693s
6 Taylor +4.645s
7 Vergara +4.669s
8 Jeshua Alianell DEForce Racing +4.810s
9 Golan +4.917s
10 Carel +5.017s
P: Wheldon, 2m14.892s
FL: Taylor, 2m14.571s
Race 3 (10 laps)
1 Wheldon 37m23.092s
2 Elkin +0.045s
3 Taylor +0.281s
4 Liam McNeilly JHDD +0.398s
5 Argyros +3.790s
6 Christian Cameron Velocity Racing Development +3.868s
7 Escorpioni +3.984s
8 Guiot +4.310s
9 Carel +4.413s
10 Golan +4.588s
FL: Wheldon, 2m16.239s
Championship standings
1 Taylor 281 2 Elkin 241 3 Wheldon 236 4 McNeilly 231 5 Jeffers 209 6 Soto-Schirripa 201 7 Argyros 150 8 Vergara 130 9 Escorpioni 123 10 Bruno Ribeiro 109