Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Formula Regional Americas race-winner Cooper Becklin will make his USF Pro 2000 debut at Road America this weekend with the TJ Speed team.
The 19-year-old has been racing in single-seaters since 2020, starting off in the Formula Pro USA Winter Series for Formula 4 cars then coming third in the main championship with one win.
In 2021 he did the United States F4 season opener, two FRegional Americas rounds where his best result was a sixth place and two of FPro USA’s two FRegional rounds where he collected one podium finish.
The next year began with a podium in the equivalent winter series for FRegional cars, then a full FRegional Americas campaign in which two podiums put him seventh in the standings.
Becklin remained with Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport and in FRegional Americas for 2023, and started the season strongly with a third and a second place at NOLA Motorsports Park. It took a further 13 races for him to finish in the top two again, but in the interim he came home in third place 11 times. After a maiden win at Virginia International Raceway and a second place at Circuit of the Americas, Becklin ended the season with a fifth place and a non-finish to come third in the standings.
Although he has not raced so far this year, he did contest USFP2000’s tests at Mid-Ohio and Road America last month.
In USF2000 there will be two debutants at Road America, with Anthony Martella stepping up from USF Juniors with Exclusive Autosport and Jace Bacon joining Jay Howard Driver Development.
Bacon was announced as switching from sportscars to race in UF2000 at the start of this year, but has missed the first four rounds. He has got some single-seater mileage by racing in the YACademy Winter Series, which uses USF Juniors’ cars.
The 15-year-old Martella comes from Canada and also started 2024 with a YAC WS campaign. Having missed the most recent race, he sits 16th in the USF Juniors standings.