McNeilly and Vergara quickest in USF2000 and USF Juniors test at IMS

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly topped the times in USF2000 post-season testing on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

Over the course of two days and six sessions, McNeilly set 106 laps and a fastest lap of 1m26.1548s to lead Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros by 0.2143 seconds.

McNeilly, the 2024 USF Juniors runner-up, started off the test action last Saturday by setting the fastest lap in session one. His best time was a 1m26.3269s, and he led Exclusive Autosport’s Anthony Martella by 0.2281s.

In a slower session two it was Argyros who led the way, a 1m26.7431s earning him to spot by just 0.0376s over Martella and 0.0857s over McNeilly. There was 0.0344s between Mayer Deonarine (Velocity Racing Development) in fourth and Brady Golan (DEForce Racing) in sixth, and he was only 0.1781s off the top.

McNeilly returned to the top in session three and lowered the pace to 1m26.4904s. Christian Cameron (VRD) was second fastest and Caleb Gafrarar (Pabst) was third, both less than 0.16s slower than the pace-setter.

Sunday began with McNeilly setting another new benchmark, as many drivers set personal best laptimes. Behind he and Argyros were Cameron and Deonarine, and the top 11 were covered by 0.943s.

McNeilly was the only driver to lap sub-1m27s in session five, but it was very close at the top as 0.0948s split the top four. Cameron, Argyros and Deonarine occupied the positions immediately below McNeilly on the timesheet.

The test concluded with Deonarine beating McNeilly to first place by 0.0493s, with the pair both breaking the 1m27s barrier and Deonarine setting a 1m26.9410s.

Absent from the test was Thomas Schrage, who the day before it began was named by VRD as one of its drivers for 2025. The 19-year-old won the F1600 Championship Series and the Team USA Scholarship in 2022, and then came fourth in the Formula Ford Festival, and for the last two years he has been racing in USF2000.

His 2023 only included two outings with Exclusive, but he did take a fourth place finish, and this year he made a mid-season switch from the team to VRD and ended his incomplete campaign with three poles, two podiums and 12th in the standings.

USF Juniors was testing at IMS on the same days as USF2000, and VRD’s Joao Vergara set the pace on Saturday. He led Exclusive’s Brenden Colley by 0.2716s in session one, set the fastest lap of the test in session two as he went 0.8387s faster than team-mate Ryan Giannetta, and in session three he was just 0.152s up on International Motorsport’s Augusto Soto-Schirripa.

Alex Popow replaced Soto-Schirripa for Sunday, and topped the times in sessions four and five to go second fastest overall. His 1m29.7985s in the latter session was 0.168s slower than Vergara’s benchmark, and in session six Vergara beat him to first place by 0.1038s.

Test results