Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
The grid for the 2024 USF2000 season is growing, with drivers moving up the single-seater ladder but also coming across from sportscars to race in the IndyCar support series.
DC Autosport has signed American drivers Carson Etter and Ayrton Houk, and the former is the more experienced of the two and already well known to the team. Etter was in DC’s USF Juniors line-up in 2023 and came 12th in the standings with a best finish of sixth. During the year he also did two USF2000 rounds with them, and an 11th place was his best result.
Houk comes from the world of wingless single-seaters, having been F1600 Championship Series runner-up for two years in a row. He was also a Team USA scholar last year, which led to him racing in the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy in England. In both events he finished 14th.
In a similar fashion to Etter, Lucas Fecury steps up to USF2000 with DEForce Racing. The Brazilian came 17th in USF Juniors and 18th in United States Formula 4 in 2022, and began last year by coming 15th in Formula Regional Oceania.
He then signed with DEForce to race in USF Juniors, where he took one podium and came ninth in the standings, and also did one USF2000 round with the team.
Ethan Ho juggled USF Juniors and USF2000 with DC Autosport in 2023, but rather than prioritise the latter series for this year he will instead make the step up the single-seater ladder to USF Pro 2000 with Turn 3 Motorsport after spending many years in the lower rungs.
The 18-year-old Taiwanese-American was Skip Barber Formula Race Series runner-up in 2020, and appeared in Formula 4 Western in 2021. He stayed in the category for 2022, coming seventh in USF Juniors with DC and 16th in the Motorsport Games F4 Cup. Ho also did the USF2000 finale with Velocity Racing Development.
USF Juniors adopted a new car last year, and it was first used in the YACademy Winter Series which Ho came seventh in as he reunited with DC. Over the rest of the year he competed in both USF2000 and USF Juniors.
His programme in the latter ended after round four of six, by which point he had taken a pole and a podium. From his five rounds in USF2000 he scored enough points to come 14th in the standings, and his best finish was a fifth place. He ended 2023 by returning to F4, taking a podium in the South East Asia championship.
Turn 3 has also recently signed Tyke Durst to its USFP2000 line-up. The 20-year-old did not venture into racing until he was 18, but he already has two US F4 campaigns under his belt. He came 21st in his rookie season, a sixth place being his best result, and was 18th in the standings last year.