Machado Perez joins Olivia Racing in USF Juniors after setting test pace

Photo: Ivan Machado Perez

Ivan Machado Perez was fastest for the rebranded Olivia Racing team in USF Juniors’ post-season test last weekend on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

Previously known as International Motorsport, the Miami-based team changed name at the start of this month and announced Machado Perez will be part of its 2026 driver line-up after he topped the test.

The 23-year-old Spaniard leads the Formula 4-spec Skip Barber Formula Race Series with one round to go, having won nine races so far. He topped four of USF Juniors’ six test sessions at IMS, each lasting 35 minutes.

Also joining the championship is Berg Racing, the team founded and run by ex-Formula 1 driver and Mexican Formula 2 champion Allen Berg. Its sporting director and first confirmed driver is Berg’s teenaged son Alex, who won the Team Canada Scholarship and came seventh in United States F4 in 2023, was 14th in British F4 last year and 16th in GB4 in 2025.

DEForce Racing has made a 2026 driver signing too, retaining Vilho Aatola for a second season. The 16-year-old Finn came seventh this year with two podiums.

Testing started last Saturday with Exclusive Autosport’s Brenden Cooley setting a 1m30.8132s to lead Zanella Racing’s Max Mokarem by 0.4127 seconds. Only two others were within a second of him, and two drivers were disqualified for having underweight cars.

Machado Perez lowered the pace to 1m29.8826s in session two, 0.1354s faster than Cooley, as all but two of the 17 drivers on track improved. Zanella’s Leonardo Serravalle was disqualified from the results for being underweight again.

That violation was committed with four cars in session three, and those who did set laptimes that counted improved their pace. A 1m29.1521s put Machado Perez way clear of the rest, lapping 0.4151s faster than Cooley, whose team-mate Justin Di Lucia was a further 0.0505s behind. Mokarem was the only other driver within a second of the pace.

On Sunday, Cooley got within 0.1316s of the time to beat with his last lap of session four, which he topped by 0.025s over non-improver Machado Perez. Serravalle also failed to improve, while Jay Howard Driver Development swapped out Kekai Hauanio and Josh Main and brought in Indy Anderson.

Machado Perez was back on top in session five, setting a 1m29.3029s. Cooley was second, 0.1148s off and 0.0406s ahead of Di Lucia who was fastest of the eight improvers.

Testing concluded with another Machado Perez-led session and just 13 drivers on track. Only two drivers set personal bests, and there were big gaps. Machado Perez set a 1m29.2367s to be fastest by 0.4283s over Cooley, and Olivia’s Karol Pasiewicz was 0.7053s off in third.

Test results