Photo: Karl Zemlin
Bryce Aron is stepping down from Indy Nxt to USF Pro 2000 this weekend to making his oval racing debut.
The 20-year-old American has spent most of his single-seater career in Europe, meaning he never raced in series which featured ovals on their calendars.
After taking three wins in third-tier series Euroformula last year, Aron started 2024 by going down a rung on the ladder to Formula Regional Oceania where he claimed a win. He then returned returned to his home country to race in IndyCar’s primary feeder series Indy Nxt with Andretti Global, and has a best finish of eighth from the first four races on the streets of St. Petersburg, at Barber Motorsports Park and on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Indy Nxt does not race on IMS’s oval layout, but later this season visits Iowa Speedway, Gateway, the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway.
USFP2000 meanwhile has a single oval race, the Freedom 90, which takes place at Indianapolis Raceway Park this weekend. Aron will join the grid with Australian-owned but America-based team TJ Speed.
There has been a recent change to the results of the previous USFP2000 round on IMS’s road course, with Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson being disqualified from victory in race two of the event. His team was found to be in a violation of a rule which states that all supplied components used on cars “must be used without modification unless otherwise stated in these rules, the Technical manual or in update bulletins”.
TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats inherits the win, with Turn 3 Motorsport’s Lochie Hughes moving up to second and Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark making the podium in third. Despite the loss of 32 points from being disqualified, Johnson still leads the championship by 24 points having still won half of the races held so far this season.
His closest title rival is Hunter Yeany, but the TJ Speed driver will be absent from IRP due to budget issues and Francesco Pizzi will be taking his place. Pizzi came 24th in Indy Nxt and fifth in USFP2000 last year, and before that raced against Yeany in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.