USF2000 review: How 2022’s closest junior series was dominated in ’23

Photos: Gavin Baker Photography

USF2000 had a notably close title fight in 2022, but this year the champion was crowned early and had a huge points gap. Was the series actually more competitive than last year though?

The pole margin in the 2023 USF2000 season opener in St. Petersburg was just 0.0804 seconds, continuing from a 2022 season where such margins were common. The next day, pole was claimed by 0.0428s. Were we in for another super close year of action?

Pabst Racing’s Simon Sikes took a second pole in a row at Sebring by 0.025s, but then he topped qualifying for race two of the weekend by over half a second and claimed his first win.

At Indianapolis Motor Speedway the pole margin for Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson was 0.2489s, a small gap but still bigger than every one from 2022. Sikes cut that gap back down to 0.0053s when Johnson also took pole for race two, then beat his rival by 0.0565s to earn race three pole.

Qualifying for the Freedom 75 was a similar story, with DEForce Racing’s Mac Clark prevailing by just 0.057s. At Road America the poles were shared between Jay Howard Driver Development’s Lochie Hughes and Clark, and the fight to be fastest was decided by 0.1304s and then 0.11s on a lap that takes more than two minutes to complete.

It got even tighter at Mid-Ohio, but only because of a grid penalty for JHDD’s Evagoras Papasavvas. He had been fastest by 0.2515s, but race one pole went to Sikes by 0.0933s over DC Autosport’s part-timer Ethan Ho. Sikes also got race two pole, by 0.119s.

Even the bumpy streets of Toronto could not break up the field too much at the front, with Papasavvas claiming race one pole by 0.3404s in a crash-shortened session. Had it gone the full distance, it would likely have been a closer pole battle. That was shown in qualifying for race two, as Sikes prevailed by 0.1859s.

Portland hosted the season finale and the short track, which is harder to master than it may look, had qualifying decided by 0.2891s. So clearly it was a pretty competitive year at the front in USF2000 this year, except we went from a championship being decided by six points in 2022 to being won by 103 points and two races early in 2023.

This year’s champion won six races, a feat achieved by the 2010 champion, 2012 and ’13 runners-up and every champion from 2015 to 2020 before the series became more closely contested at the front.

So how did Sikes buck the recent trend with his romp to the 2023 title, in which he spent the equivalent of more than twice as much time as anyone else at the front of races?

The key was applying his previous one-and-a-half seasons’ worth of experience to maximise his car for races (even though he took four more poles than any other driver). In the season opener he climbed 10 places from his starting position, and he only missed out on victory the next day due to Johnson entering the race with fresher tyres than the opposition.

He fought for victory until after the final corner, and took victory behind the pace car in race two. He could have won by a margin without disruptions like that throughout the race.

At IMS he was fighting for victory until a penultimate lap crash in race one, he won from second on the grid in race two and set the fastest lap to earn race three pole. Again, he was right in the thick of the fight to win until his attempt to make a pass for the lead actually cost him victory.

He rose from ninth to third in the Freedom 75, the season’s only oval race, and at Road America put in a fine performance to win race one but mysteriously faded from second to 10th in race two. This was a very rare exception of Sikes falling back in a race rather than leading the way or doing his best to put pressure on whoever else was.

Lochie Hughes

At Mid-Ohio he only lost race one victory with a few corners to go after duelling with Papasavvas, and was dominating race two before a caution period. Once racing resumed, he lost another win in somewhat wild circumstances.

Hughes rolled several times after striking the turn two kerbs and eliminated Sikes’ rear wing. That cost him the lead to Clark, and the race was neutralised again. Before it restarted, Sikes retired his from second at the end of the penultimate lap.

He had redemption with a dominant victory a few hours later, winning a 20-lap race by 10.311s.

An early gamble to switch from wet-weather tyres to slicks earned Sikes victory in the first race in Toronto – hit by pre-race rain – but after building a comfy lead in race two he made a mistake on a drying track and finished second rather than first. He ended the season with three podiums at Portland as his Pabst team thrived, and in race three he led a team one-two and with third place 15s behind.

Since they were usually very close to him in qualifying, did Sikes’ rivals lack the consistency, or pace, in races to challenge for the title?

Prior to the final round, Sikes had 12 top-five finishes, Johnson had 11, Hughes had 10 and Clark had nine. After Portland, Sikes had 15, Johnson had 13, Hughes had 11 and Clark had 10. Sikes made the podium in 14 out of 18 races, Johnson and Hughes only managed eight in comparison. Each of the would-be title contenders had one very low-scoring weekend, which Sikes avoided, although Johnson and Papasavvas matched him in only twice failing to finish in the top 10. That’s better going than the 2013, 2020 and ’22 champions managed.

The final title margin was the second largest since the series’ 2010 revival, behind only Kyle Kirkwood’s huge 202-point gap at the top of the standings in 2018.

2023 USF2000 standings