Both Louis Foster and Myles Rowe should be front runners in Indy NXT this year. As the 2024 USF Pro 2000 season is about to get underway, the hunt is on to find their successor as the last two series champions. In this season preview, Feeder Series tells you all you need to know.

By Jeroen Demmendaal

It’s a new year with new opportunities for USF Pro 2000, the second-highest level on what until recently used to be known as the Road to Indy. With the entire top six of last year’s championship not returning to the series, this offers a possibility for other drivers to step up to the plate in 2024.

Will it be a sophomore who takes the title and becomes the successor to Myles Rowe, or does one of the exciting rookies in the field develop into the driver to beat? The fact that either scenario is equally plausible is a testament to the strength and health of USF Pro 2000.

After a few years with fields in the low double digits, USF Pro 2000 has mirrored the growth seen in Indy NXT in the last two seasons. For 2024, Feeder Series expects a solid field count of around 20 full-time drivers, with a few part-timers thrown in for good measure. At the end of the line lies that crucial scholarship worth almost USD 700,000 for graduation to Indy NXT, so expect the usual fireworks.

2024 is the first season in which USF Pro 2000 uses tires from their new series partner Continental Tire. After many seasons on Cooper rubber, drivers in all three series in the USF Pro Championships (USF Pro 2000, USF2000 and USF Juniors) will have to get used to a new supplier. While pre-season testing hasn’t presented any obvious issues, it will be interesting to see who best adapts to the Continentals.

The calendar

Compared to 2023, USF Pro 2000 has traded in its Sebring round for a tripleheader at NOLA just outside New Orleans. The round at COTA in Texas has also been scrapped and is being compensated for with extra races at the Indianapolis Road Course and Road America. Like last year, this translates into an 18-race run for the championship.

• Round 1/2: Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida (8-10 March)
• Round 3/4/5: NOLA Motorsports Park, Louisiana (5-7 April)
• Round 6/7/8: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Indiana (9-11 May)
• Round 9: Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indiana (24 May)
• Round 10/11/12: Road America, Wisconsin (6-9 June) 
• Round 13/14: Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course, Ohio (4-7 July)
• Round 15/16: Streets of Toronto, Canada (19-21 July)
• Round 17/18: Portland International Raceway, Oregon (22-25 August)

The format

The road course and street circuit rounds usually comprise two practice sessions and a qualifying session. At rounds with two races, the grid for the second race is usually set based on the fastest race lap in race one or the second fastest lap in qualifying, whichever is quicker. At three-race rounds, fastest race laps in race two are used to determine the grid for race three.

The schedule for the oval race at Indianapolis Park, the only one on the calendar, consists of one practice session and an individual, two-lap average qualifying run for each driver.

Race points are handed out to the top 20 finishers, with a race win generating 45 points and a clear premium on finishing in the top five. The pole winner gets an additional point, as do the driver leading most laps and the driver that sets the fastest race lap. 

Where to watch

To watch the USF Pro 2000 sessions and races this year, check the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel. It will broadcast all sessions free of charge. For live timing and extra content, download the USF Pro Championships app.

Teams and drivers

Pabst Racing

Dominant champions with Myles Rowe in 2023, Pabst Racing clearly had found *something* during off-season testing when it rocked up in St. Petersburg last year. After a few seasons as a midfield competitor, the Wisconsin-based team of talent scout extraordinaire Augie Pabst suddenly became the team to beat in USF Pro 2000, as it had been already for several years in USF2000. In other words, its 2024 crop of drivers has big shoes to fill.

Jace Denmark, who like Rowe was a rookie in USF Pro 2000 last year, continues for another year with the team after finishing seventh overall in 2023. Like Rowe, he tried to move up to Indy NXT, but budgetary limitations mean that Pro 2000 has turned out the more feasible option. If he puts everything he learned last year into practice and the Pabst cars are once again the bee’s knees, the youngster from Arizona should be a title contender.

Teammate Simon Sikes was the feelgood story of the 2023 USF2000 season. Perennially challenged in terms of funding, the Georgian could finally run an entire season last year and immediately won the championship in style, as well as that all-important scholarship to progress to USF Pro 2000. Staying with Pabst makes all the sense in the world, and for once, Sikes can race without having to worry about whether he will be at the next race. 

The third Pabst car is for Christian Brooks, who also fits the trend of drivers in constant search of funding. Last year’s adventure with OnlyFans sponsorship petered out as quickly as it came, even if he did win the season opener and demonstrated he can be as fast as anyone out there. On paper, Brooks completes a very strong Pabst squad, and the rest of the grid will have their work cut out.

Turn 3 Motorsport

The biggest threat to Pabst in 2024 may well come from Turn 3, as the team owned by Peter and Mandy Dempsey is expanding its squad to five cars. The team already pulled out of USF2000 a few years ago to completely focus on USF Pro 2000, and during the winter there were even some whispers about a potential partnership with a leading IndyCar team. So far, that deal hasn’t materialised yet, but Turn 3 will be a force to be reckoned with.

Based on pre-season testing, rookie Lochie Hughes may very well be the Turn 3 driver to beat this season. The Australian just missed out on the USF2000 title last year, but he is a proven winner and already has an F4 US championship title in his back pocket. Don’t be surprised if he is a championship contender from the get-go.

For Adam Fitzgerald, signing with Turn 3 offers the opportunity for a fresh start after a very difficult 2023. After being involved in the crash that claimed the life of Dilano van ‘t Hoff and having to recover from his own injuries, the young Irishman will be happy to just be back behind the wheel of a race car again. The car and all tracks are new to him, meaning he will need some time to adjust to a different environment, but Fitzgerald is an exciting addition to the field.

Elsewhere in the team, still only 15-year-old Danny Dyszelski switches to Turn 3 after two seasons in USF2000, while Ethan Ho is another newcomer graduating from USF2000. Both will face rookie campaigns focused on learning and staying out of trouble. The fifth and final car is for Tyke Durst, who comes over from F4 US where he finished 18th overall in 2023.

DEForce Racing

Kiko Porto missed out on the title in 2023 and now has moved on, which means DEForce Racing has to find a new leading man. Mac Clark seems to fit that bill perfectly. The young Canadian won USF Juniors in 2022, was fifth overall in USF2000 last year and is now setting his sights on the next level.

Whether he can be a championship contender remains to be seen, but Canada’s leading prospect on the Road to Indy is a driver to watch. Three wins and a raft of podiums demonstrated his potential in USF2000, and his Pro 2000 debut at COTA last year immediately generated two more podium finishes.

Jorge Garciarce did alright in his sophomore year in USF2000 with DEForce, but as his eighth place overall demonstrates, he usually fell short of really troubling the top drivers. His full rookie year in USF Pro 2000 will likely be a learning exercise, as his debut in the series at COTA last year (two finishes outside the top 10) illustrated.

What to expect from Nicholas Monteiro is a lot harder to gauge. He propped up the field more often than not in 2023, but that may also have been down to the limited resources of his small Neotech team. Being part of the DEForce organisation in his second year should help him improve on last year’s results, but the Brazilian is still unlikely to be a regular front runner based on pre-season testing form.

TJ Speed Motorsports

To say that 2023 was a disappointment for TJ Speed is an understatement. The team of veteran Aussie engineer Tim Neff sold its Indy NXT equipment to focus completely on USF Pro 2000, and on paper it had an exciting driver line-up with Francesco Pizzi, Lirim Zendeli and Christian Weir. However, an excess of incidents and payment issues for all three drivers throughout the season means that Neff is basically starting from scratch heading into 2024.

The only driver formally signed up so far is David Morales, as the Dominican-American returns home after several seasons in Europe. Morales spent the last two seasons in GB3, finishing 22nd and 13th overall respectively, which doesn’t immediately scream championship contender.

The second car will be filled by another driver who returns to the US after a less than stellar stint in Europe. However, Hunter Yeany’s Instagram announcement that he will contest the entire 2024 USF Pro 2000 season with TJ Speed was rather premature. He will be in the car in St. Petersburg, but the team has told Feeder Series that funding for the remainder of the season is not yet secured.

Liam Sceats will also be on the grid in Florida in a third car, but his situation is similar to that of Yeany. The ambition is for the Kiwi to run the full season, but to do that, he will need to find more sponsorship.

Exclusive Autosport

Just like TJ Speed, Exclusive Autosport has also had to regroup over the winter. A few years ago the Canadian team still had ambitions of moving into Indy NXT; now it has elected to focus on the USF Pro Championships. Both Salvador de Alba and Joel Granfors did very well in USF Pro 2000 in 2023, but whether the 2024 line-up can repeat that performance remains to be seen.

When Braden Eves won USF2000 in 2019, beating out Hunter McElrea and Christian Rasmussen, he was the up-and-coming man. Then he had a massive accident at Indianapolis in 2020, which took some time to recover from. A second place overall in USF Pro 2000 in 2021 with Exclusive seemed to put his career back on track, but fifth overall in his third season (this time with Jay Howard) was a step backwards.

Eves did little to no racing in 2023 due to budget constraints, and you do get the feeling that this is his last-chance saloon. Everyone in the paddock wants to see the Ohio native succeed, yet anything else less than the championship in his fourth season would feel like a disappointment, and the competition is tough. But any driver who can beat McElrea and Rasmussen in a direct fight is worth keeping an eye on.

His teammate at selected races will be Avery Towns, who made a decent debut during the last two rounds of last season but still has plenty to learn. As a rookie, he finished 17th overall in USF2000, and you could argue that another year there might have been a wiser choice, but Towns is keen on a part-time run in USF Pro 2000.

Jay Howard Driver Development

What looked like an exciting pairing at the beginning of the 2023 season fizzled out halfway through, as Reece Ushijima and JHDD decided to part ways early. Teammate Ricardo Escotto was a decent competitor and a surprise winner at Indianapolis but has also chosen to move on. As series champions with Christian Rasmussen in 2022, no doubt Jay Howard and his team would like to return to the role of title challenger again in 2024.

The question is whether that is feasible with Frankie Mossman, the only full-time driver signed up thus far. The young American is without doubt talented, as his forays in F4 US in 2023 showed, but his move up to USF Pro 2000 is an aggressive one. A likelier scenario, then, is that 2024 will be a learning experience for Mossman.

At the moment of writing it is unclear who else will race for JHDD in 2024. Jay Howard was initially keen to hold on to his USF2000 ace Lochie Hughes, but the Australian’s decision to sign with Turn 3 left him empty-handed. Michael Boyiadzis is a candidate for a part-time schedule in a second car, having tested several times in pre-season, but won’t appear in St. Petersburg because of injury.

VRD Racing

They’ll only run one full-time car in 2024, but don’t be surprised if VRD plays a major role in the championship battle this season. The reason is simple: 15-year-old Floridian Nikita Johnson is a force of nature. The youngster finished third overall in USF Juniors in 2022, second overall in USF2000 last year and this season he will do a double campaign of both GB3 and USF Pro 2000.

An intense year lies ahead for Johnson, in other words, but he is without doubt one of the brightest prospects in American open-wheel-racing at the moment. To wit, he did five USF Pro 2000 races with VRD at the end of last season, in which he claimed two wins and two more podiums. How long he will stay on the Road to Indy remains to be seen (Johnson has made no secret of his desire to race in F1), but no doubt a lot will depend on how he performs this season.

VRD will also field a second car at select venues this season, with Shawn Rashid doing a few USF Pro 2000 races, including St. Petersburg.

BN Racing

Formal press announcements don’t seem to be a thing at BN Racing, but that doesn’t matter. It has been pretty obvious for a while now who Bryn Nuttall plans to put in his cars, and above all, it’s great to see the experienced team manager slash engineer slash mechanic slash driver coach back on the USF Pro 2000 grid again.

Ricardo Escotto was the first driver signed up by BN a while back, jumping ship from JHDD. His rookie year wasn’t spectacular, but the Mexican did win at Indianapolis and clinched a few more top 10 finishes. His relative experience at this level will be an asset for the team.

His teammate is Colombian Nicolas Baptiste, and a big unknown. After fairly unremarkable seasons in Italian F4 and FRECA, the 18-year-old spent 2023 on the sidelines. It’s difficult to say what to expect from Baptiste, but he showed decent pace during pre-season testing.

When BN Racing announced its return to the series, it said it planned for three cars. During recent pre-season testing, the team ran another Mexican in its third car in the form of Esteban Rodriguez, but his experience is limited to a few part-time seasons in F4 NACAM, and so far, he has only received a testing licence.

Comet/NCMP Racing

The final entry on the grid is a one-car effort for Logan Adams. The youngster from Indiana is the grandson of Mark Dismore, a former Indy 500 competitor who owns Comet Engines, a karting supplier, and the New Castle Motorsports Park go-kart track outside Indianapolis. Adams did a partial F4 US campaign with JHDD last year but has little other experience and will focus on learning.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography