Loiacono leaps up USF Juniors title battle with Road America win

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam Loiacono was the driver to beat through the first half of the penultimate round of the USF Juniors season at Road America.

He began by topping pre-event testing on Thursday, setting a 2m15.8581s to lead Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni by 0.4619 seconds. Velocity Racing Development’s Joao Vergarara was 0.5s behind, and four other drivers were within a second of the pace.

Loiacono remained on top in practice, but only just. A 2m16.2919s earned him first place by 0.0395s over Vergara, with VRD’s Oliver Wheldon 0.1118s back in third and Zanella’s Ty Fisher trailing by 0.3498s in fourth.

Rahim Alibhai was fifth fastest, the karting graduate joining Zanella for the last two rounds before a full 2026 season.

The day concluded with qualifying, and Loiacono was again fastest. His gap grew, as he set the pace by 0.6061s. Exclusive Autosport’s Brenden Cooley was second fastest, 0.0686s ahead of DEForce Racing’s Vilho Aatola. He in turn had a 0.0617s gap to Pole Position Motorsports’ Connor Aspley in fourth, with DEForce’s brothers Rodrigo and Patricio Gonzalez next up.

Fisher was the last driver within a second of pole, and title rivals Wheldon and Vergara were eighth and 10th. Points leader Escorpioni was 1.6849s off pole in 17th.

Drivers’ second-best qualifying laptimes were primarily used for race two’s grid. Loiacono set a 2m16.4780s to earn pole by 0.1783s over Cooley, with Aspley 0.3389s behind in third. Fisher qualified fourth, and Escorpioni’s best race one lap put him fifth on the grid ahead of Patricio Gonzalez, Wheldon, Rodrigo Gonzalez, Aatola and Vergara.

The same laptimes were used for race three’s grid, except for Escorpioni whose best lap from race two earned up 14th on the grid.

Race one ran on Friday morning, and drivers went three-wide immediately on the rolling start. Aatola got into second and tried to go around the outside of Loiacono at turn five, before being shuffled back to third by Rodrigo Gonzalez.

Cooley and Aspley got ahead of Aatola on lap two, and Gonzalez kept with Loiacono while three-wide fights continued behind. Aspley spun around in one on lap three, then a caution period came on lap four as Michael Suco and International Motorsport team-mate Emma Scarborough clashed at turn one. Suco, who started 21st, had been 11th.

Exclusive’s Kaylee Countryman pitted for front wing repairs on that lap, and for the lap seven restart the top two were followed by Patricio Gonzalez, Wheldon, Cooley, Aatola, a charging Escorpioni, Fisher and Vergara.

Wheldon went off at turn one, and the top two broke away again. Cooley took third, then got defensive and several drivers behind went off. Among them was Wheldon, while Fisher lost his nose and DEForce’s Thomas Nordquist crashed at turn three which prompted another caution period.

Escorpioni and Vergara were now fifth and sixth, and Aspley and Countryman had recovered to ninth and 11th.

Racing resumed on the last lap, and there was no change in the top three. Loiacono handled an attack from Rodrigo Gonzalez for a win that lifted him from fifth to second in the points, and Cooley defended against Escorpioni.

A front wing-free Patricio Gonzalez dropped to fifth, Aspley climbed to sixth, VRD’s debutant Colin Aitken was seventh and lap one pitter Diego Guiot finished ninth. Vergara and Wheldon finished 12th and 13th.

Race results (10 laps)