Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Jay Howard Driver Development has been busy expanding its 2024 USF Juniors line-up, with GB4 race-winner Liam McNeilly its latest signing.
The 17-year-old is embarking on his fifth year in car racing, having graduated from karting in 2020 when he raced in the entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior. He came 16th in the standings with Fox Motorsport, the team owned by his father Paul.
McNeilly was runner-up in his sophomore campaign, winning five races, and opted to stay in Ginetta Junior for 2022. A major rule change hit him in qualifying, which showed just how well he had mastered the slipstreaming elemnt of those sessions prior to that. With some impressive overtakes in races he scored strongly, and had adapted to the new format by midway through the season to come third in the standings with two wins.
His 2023 move to single-seaters was also with Fox Motorsport, and he came third in the GB4 standings. It took three races to win, and while only he only won once more he had 10 podium finishes.
“I’m extremely excited to be joining JHDD,” said McNeilly. “After a couple of successful tests with Jay and the team, racing in the US seemed like a logical step after my successful rookie single-seater year in the UK. It will be a challenge learning new circuits and competing against some tough opposition, but a challenge I’m excited about and very much looking forward to.”
The other additions to JHDD’s line-up are George Argyros III, Timmy Carel, Ava Dobson, Aidan and Hudson Potter. Argyros was sixth in this year’s YACademy Winter Series, which uses the same car as USF Juniors.
Dobson came 10th in YACademy WS, and the 15-year-old won the diversity scholarship run by Parella Motorsports Holdings – owner of the Formula Regional Americas and United States Formula 4 championships – to race in US F4 last year. She did two thirds of the season and came 31st in the standings with JHDD, and also made USF2000 and USF Juniors cameos.
Aidan Potter did two US F4 rounds and one USF Juniors event in 2023, with two 11th places in the latter, while Hudson did two USF Junior rounds and came 15th in the standings.
Well known American karting team Zanella Racing has stepped up to single-seaters this year, starting in the Yacademy WS where it ran Leonardo Escorpioni – who had recently turned 14 and therefore was able to race – to fourth in the standings. Escorpioni came 26th in SuperKarts USA’s Pro Tour for X30 Junior karts in 2022, and last year was fourth in ROK Cup USA’s Florida Winter Tour for Junior ROK karts and sixth in the ROK Pro GP final at the ROK Vegas event.
Team Tonis will enter USF Juniors with twins Enzo and Jackson Tovo. They came 37th and 42nd respectively in the 2023 F1600 Championship Series, and will continue to race there this year.
Afte a year out, International Motorsport returns to USF Juniors with Augusto Soto-Schirripa. He won four times en route to third in the 2023 US F4 standings.