Douglas quickest in USF Pro 2000 practice at IMS as grid gets fresh look

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Jacob Douglas edged Pabst Racing team-mate Max Garcia to first place in USF Pro 2000 practice on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

It was an interesting Thursday for the paddock, with two test sessions and then free practice for round three of the season.

Joining only for the test was Seb Murray at Jay Howard Driver Development. The Scot came 18th in GB3 last year, and is currently 17th in Indy Nxt, the step above USFP2000.

JHDD had lost Frankie Mossman, who is currently 15th in the USFP2000 standings and has switched to Velocity Racing Development for the rest of the season. The 19-year-old had raced exclusively with JHDD since 2022, and came eighth in USFP2000 last year with two podiums.

He replaces Owen Tangavelou, who had signed for the first two rounds only but is staying on the grid at IMS and for round five at Road America in June by joining DEForce Racing. The Eurocup-3 race-winner currently sits ninth in the points table.

Tangavelou in return replaces Nicholas Monteiro, who has switched to Turn 3 Motorsport for the remaining rounds. The Brazilian is 13th in the standings at present, the position he finished in last year.

Bringing Turn 3’s line-up back up to five cars is debutant Brady Golan, who has also committed to doing the rest of the season. On IndyCar’s support bill he had been racing for DEForce since 2022, coming 13th in USF2000’s 2024 season and contesting the first two rounds of 2025. He is also a Formula Regional Americas title contender at present, having won in the opening round.

Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark was quickest in test session one, setting a 1m21.6037s to lead points leader Garcia by 0.1991 seconds. Turn 3’s Alessandro de Tullio was third, 0.2357s behind, and Douglas pipped TJ Speed’s Ariel Elkin to fourth by 0.01s. VRD’s Max Taylor was sixth, and a second covered a top 13 completed by Murray.

Garcia brought the pace down to 1m21.3808s in session two, edging de Tullio by 0.0409s and Douglas by 0.0774s. Taylor was 0.0307s ahead of non-improver Clark in fourth, and this time eight drivers were within 0.5s of Garcia. Murray was 1.0645s off the pace in 15th, and Tangavelou failed to set any laps.

When it came to practice at the end of the day, JHDD’s Tanner DeFabis and Exclusive’s Carson Etter were no-shows. A 1m21.3916s was enough to put Douglas on top, albeit by a tiny 0.0215s over Garcia. Mossman and Taylor were just 0.1078s and 0.1085s off top spot respectively, with de Tullio a slim 0.0259s slower than Taylor.

Clark completed a top five covered by 0.25s, and a second split the top 14.

Free practice results