Hughes tops testing as USFP2000, USF2000 and USF Juniors grids grow

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

The Spring Training pre-season test for three of IndyCar’s support series took place at NOLA Motorsports Park’s North layout this week.

Each series had two sessions on Monday and three on Tuesday, and teams announced driver signings throughout the test.

In USF Pro 2000, the returning BN Racing team has signed Nicolas Baptiste. The 18-year-old Colombian raced in Formula Regional Europe in 2022 and spent last year on the sidelines. TJ Speed meanwhile has brought in Hunter Yeany. The 2020 United States Formula 4 champion raced in USFP2000 part-time in 2021 before moving over to the FIA Formula 3 Championship where he had 27 points-free races over three years.

DEForce Racing’s line-up is completed by Jorge Garciarce, who came eighth in USF2000 last year with the team.

Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson topped USFP2000’s first test session, a 1m31.5731s lap putting him 0.1395 seconds ahead of team-mate Nico Christodoulou in second place. BN Racing’s Ricardo Escotto (who has indicated he will be racing in round one but is yet to confirm who for) was 0.1526s behind in third, with the top 14 covered by 0.847s.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Lochie Hughes lowered the pace to 1m31.1571s in session two. He had a gap of 0.1049s to Christodoulou and 0.6828s to Escotto. The gap between third and 14th was just 0.3126s.

Hughe was on top again at the start of day two but slower, setting a 1m31.7782 to lead Christodoulou by a tiny 0.0042s. Baptiste was next best, 0.4761s off Hughes, with Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark 0.622s back in fourth. Nicholas Monteiro, Michael Boyiadzis and Logan Adams were the only drivers to improve.

It was close at the top in session four. TJ Speed’s David Morales set a 1m31.6206s to go fastest by just 0.0354s over Johnson. Both set personal best laptimes, along with Monteiro, Braden Eves and Adams.

In the final session Baptiste set an impressive 1m31.320s, but it was beaten by Pabst’s Simon Sikes and Yeany who respectively on their last laps set a 1m30.377s and 1m24.694s. When the offical session results appeared 39 minutes after the chequered flag Baptiste was back on top by 0.0691s ahead of Hughes. Adam Fitzgerald was 0.136s off the top in third, and with their fastest laps deleted Yeany and Sikes were 11th and 15th.

Four drivers were absent, and 12 of the 19 who took part improved. Baptiste rose to third place overall.

In USF2000, DEForce has retained Maxwell Jamieson for a second season after he came 16th last year and Exclusive Autosport has signed Thomas Schrage who won the F16000 Championship Series and came fourth in the Formula Ford Festival in 2022 then did two USF2000 rounds in 2023 and took a best finish of fourth.

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Evagoras Papasavvas started Spring Training on top, setting a 1m36.4532s in session one to lead Pabst’s Max Garcia by 0.2651s. DEForce’s Nicolas Giaffone was 0.4222s behind in third, and just ahead of VRD’s Max Taylor and Elliot Cox, whose 2024 USF2000 programme is yet to be confirmed by the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team he drives for.

Everyone but Papasavvas improved in session two, while Cox was absent, and Garcia lowered the pace to 1m35.6631s. He was fastest by 0.4397s over Taylor, with Exclusive’s Joey Brienza just 0.0027s slower in third. A second covered the top eight.

DC Autosport’s Ayrton Houk was the only non-improver in session three as Garcia went fastest again with a 1m35.2634s. Taylor cut the gap to 0.2634s, and Papasavvas was 0.4649s back in third.

Brienza improved to 1m35.6724s to top session four by over half a second, then Giaffone set a 1m35.7137s to pip JHDD’s Michael Costello to top spot by 0.0119s and Brienza by 0.0222s in session five. Six of the 13 drivers in that session improved their pace,

The latest additions to USF Juniors’ grid are Ariel Elkin at International Motorsport, junior karting graduate Diego Guiot at Zanella Racing and Leandro Juncos – the 18-year-old son of Juncos Racing team boss Ricardo Juncos – and Brady Golan at DEForce. Golan came 10th in USF Juniors last year with the team.

Elkin was a two-time junior karting champion in Israel then was a medallist for the country in the FIA Motorsport Games. In 2022 he also won the IAME Italy Series, came third in the SuperKarts USA SuperNationals and fifth in the IAME Euro Series for X30 Senior karts. Last year he came 17th in Italian F4 and a US F4 cameo resulted in a podium and 14th in the standings.

Andretti junior Sebastian Wheldon topped USF Juniors’ first test session by 0.2994s over DEForce’s Bruno Ribeiro, with only six drivers within a second of him.

JHDD’s Liam McNeilly was third fastest but was the driver to beat in the next three sessions, lowering the pace to 1m39.3432s in session two, topping session three with a 1m39.7766s then improving again to top session four with a 1m39.0214s.

All 28 drivers improved in session two, with a second covering the top six and with Wheldon in second place. JHDD’s Timothy Carel got within 0.1514s of McNeilly in session three, with 0.0078s covering third to fifth. Wheldon was third fastest byt 0.4706s slower than McNeily. Carel was one of nine drivers who improved.

Exclusive’s Jack Jeffers was a distant second in session four, 0.4626s off McNeilly’s pace, but this time 0.964s covered the top 10. Wheldon, in fifth place, and Juncos were among the seven drivers who failed to improve.

A 1m39.5994s put Jeffers on top of session five by 0.0037s over Wheldon, with Jackson Tovo the sole improver and McNeilly absent.

Test results