This weekend, the entry level of the USF Pro Championships ladder gets its 2025 season going. In this preview, Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about the new year of USF Juniors competition, its fourth since its inception.

By Jeroen Demmendaal

It’s early April, which means the bottom rung of the USF Pro Championships ladder is finally kicking off its 2025 season, more than a month after the USF Pro 2000 and USF2000 season openers in St Petersburg, Florida.

USF Juniors was introduced in 2022 by Andersen Promotions as a targeted and more affordable rival to Formula 4 United States, and it seems to be working. The series has more than 20 full-time Tatuus cars set to take the green at the season opener in Louisiana. F4 US, meanwhile, shrivelled to only eight drivers for its first round of 2025.

This USF Juniors season also reshuffles the deck on the driver front, as the entire top seven in the 2024 standings moves on to the next challenge. As per usual, the champion gets a scholarship – worth $249,675 this year – to move up to USF2000. Additionally, the Skip Barber Racing School will once again give the champion of its Formula Race Series a $100,000 scholarship to advance to USF Juniors.

The calendar

The 2025 schedule is the same as 2024’s, except for one change: the round at Virginia International Raceway has been replaced by an extra weekend at Mid-Ohio in early June. USF Juniors is on the IndyCar Series support bill at the Barber round, the second visit to Mid-Ohio and the season finale at Portland.

Races 1–3: NOLA Motorsports Park, Louisiana (11–13 April, road course)

Races 4–6: Barber Motorsports Park, Alabama (1–3 May, road course)

Races 7–8: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio (6–8 June, road course)

Races 9–10: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio (3–6 July, road course)

Races 11–13: Road America, Wisconsin (24–26 July, road course)

Races 14–16: Portland International Raceway, Oregon (7–10 August, road course)

The format

A race weekend usually comprises one to two practice sessions, a qualifying session and two or three races. Like IndyCar and Indy NXT, USF Juniors splits the field in two for qualifying and sets the grid via two separate sessions.

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, each driver’s fastest race lap in race two is used to determine the grid for race three.

Race points are handed out to all finishers, with a race win generating 30 points and a clear premium placed on finishing in the top five. Drivers from 20th downwards earn a single point. The pole winner gets an additional point, as does the driver leading the most laps in each race and the driver who sets the fastest race lap.

Where to watch

To watch the USF Juniors sessions and races this year, check the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel. It will broadcast most sessions free of charge, depending on whether the track in question has a live camera feed set up (which in the past wasn’t always a given). For live timing and extra content, download the USF Pro Championships app.

Teams and drivers

VRD Racing

VRD Racing cruised to the teams’ championship last year as Max Taylor took the drivers’ title while also racing in USF2000. Dan Mitchell’s outfit have entered three cars for this weekend. The team had lined up Ryan Giannetta for one of the seats back in October, but he jumped up to USF2000 just before St Petersburg and does not seem likely to move back down.

Oliver Wheldon (#98) was never officially announced as a VRD driver, but he appears on the NOLA entry list and the series website, and it has long been expected that he would follow in the footsteps of his brother, F4 driver Sebastian Wheldon. The younger son of two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, the 14-year-old won the Formula Race Series in 2024, succeeding his brother, and then finished fifth in the YACademy Winter Series. Sebastian just missed out on the Juniors title last year, finishing third – can Oliver improve on that?

Israeli karting graduate Matan Achituv (#77) is the second VRD rookie. The 14-year-old began competing in the United States in 2024 and did a partial season in the Formula Race Series, followed by a YACademy Winter Series campaign in which he finished sixth overall.

The only sophomore in VRD’s line-up is João Vergara (#10). The Brazilian finished eighth overall in his rookie Juniors year with Exclusive Autosport in 2024 and will now aim for the championship as the highest-placed returning driver. The 17-year-old is still waiting on his first podium finish, however, so a title run requires a considerable improvement on his 2024 form. Winning a race in the YACademy Winter Series was a good step in the right direction.

Jay Howard Driver Development

After entering as many as seven cars in 2024, JHDD have reduced their car count for their second year in USF Juniors. Jay Howard has only rookies in his 2025 Juniors line-up, and they come from all over the world.

Liam Loiacono (#6) comes over from Australia, where the 17-year-old secured three wins and six additional podiums in Australian Formula Ford on his way to fourth overall in 2024. He signed a contract with JHDD after impressing in a test at Mid-Ohio last summer.

From the United Kingdom, Harry Moss (#5) comes over to JHDD for his first season in open-wheel cars. The 17-year-old spent two years back home in the Ginetta Junior Championship, finishing 16th overall in 2024, and now switches to cars without roofs.

A Belgian with Swiss residence, Karel Staut (#4) has done a lot of F4-level testing but has raced competitively only in karting so far. The 14-year-old, who hails from karting hub Genk, came on JHDD’s radar last fall and impressed the team in testing.

The most experienced of the four JHDD rookies is JT Hoskins (#9), who will run his first full Juniors season following an eight-race campaign in 2024. The Buffalo native is a late bloomer too, having only started racing two years ago at age 15.

InterMS

On paper, InterMS has one of the most experienced lineups, with two sophomores and a rookie. On the other hand, the two returnees were the lowest-placed full-timers in 2024, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

Michael Suco (#24) joins the team after finishing 21st in his rookie season with VRD. The 19-year-old from Alabama collected one top-10 finish.

That same statistic applies to Hudson Potter (#25), who ended the year one position behind Suco. The 18-year-old from Kentucky joined InterMS partway through last year after previously competing with JHDD.

The only rookie in the InterMS squad is Emma Scarbrough (#26), one of three female drivers in the field. The 16-year-old from outside Atlanta, Georgia, already tested extensively with the team before the 2025 season and also tested an F4 car with Campos Racing in Spain last year. She will make her open-wheel racing debut this weekend after six years of karting.

Exclusive Autosport

Exclusive return to two cars for the 2025 Juniors season after fielding between three and five in 2024.

Brenden Cooley (#92) is the younger son of team shareholder Joshua Cooley, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and current USF2000 competitor Evan Cooley. The 15-year-old already ran a few Juniors races in 2024, taking a best finish of 15th, and racked up a lot of testing miles throughout the year. He also finished 10th overall in the YACademy Winter Series.

The other Exclusive car goes to Kaylee Countryman (#90). Also aged 15, the Arizonan spent the past three years in karts. She is set for a full season in USF Juniors after a partial 2024 campaign in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series.

DEForce Racing & DEForce Racing Development

DEForce’s approach of having their own in-series development squad is paying dividends in 2025, as both drivers from last year’s DEForce Racing Development line-up move on to the main squad.

Mexican brothers Patricio Gonzalez (#15), aged 16, and Rodrigo Gonzalez (#18), aged 19, did not really set the series alight in 2024. Last year they finished 15th and 20th overall respectively, but now they each get a chance to prove that they’re ready to fight for the top spots.

They are joined by three rookies. Thomas Nordquist (#17) was eighth overall in the Skip Barber Formula Race Series last year, and the 21-year-old University of Nebraska student now embarks on his first season on the IndyCar ladder.

Lincoln Day (#16) is set to combine a USF Juniors campaign with a season in FRegional Americas. The 19-year-old Wyoming native came seventh overall in F4 US in 2024.

The third rookie is the most remarkable one because of how he got here. Vilho Aatola (#14) is the first driver supported by the Indy Junior Academy Finland-USA, which was started by Finland’s first and only Indy 500 competitor, Tero Palmroth. Aatola tested with DEForce and JHDD last fall, then competed in the YACademy Winter Series with JHDD and spoke with Pabst Racing about a possible USF2000 campaign. In the end, however, the 16-year-old signed with DEForce as he continues his first year in open-wheel racing.

DEForce Racing Development, meanwhile, have announced only one driver, American-Mexican rookie Juan Pablo Vallarta (#19). The 15-year-old from Texas only started karting in 2022 but has shown considerable talent since, and he fits in well with the long line of young karting graduates guided by DEForce. Vallarta was missing from the entry list for NOLA, however, so it remains to be seen if and when he appears on the grid.

Zanella Racing

Home to the 2025 YACademy Winter Series champion, Zanella Racing will be a force to be reckoned with this year in their second season in the series.

That champion, Leonardo Escorpioni (#55), finished ninth overall with one podium in his rookie Juniors season and stays with Zanella for another year. Based on his recent form, the 15-year-old Brazilian is a pre-season favourite to run at the front.

Diego Guiot (#12) also stays with Zanella for a second year. The American-Mexican driver had a slightly less impressive rookie season compared to Escorpioni, but the 17-year-old from Texas showed plenty of promise, with regular top-10 finishes in the second half of the season on his way to 14th overall.

Among all the series’ rookies, Ty Fisher (#37) has had possibly the best pre-season. The 14-year-old Canadian stepped up to cars this winter after spending several years on the North American karting scene and finished third overall in the YACademy Winter Series, winning two races and ranking as the best rookie in the field.

The team’s other rookie is Maddie Colleran (#29), the third female driver in the field. The 15-year-old from Ohio only started karting in 2023 and took part in a number of Lucas Oil School of Racing events throughout 2024.

Pole Position Motorsports

The only new team for 2025 and the brainchild of French engineer and former racer Yannick Rolland, Pole Position Motorsports enter a single car for Connor Aspley (#27). The 19-year-old from Missouri also competed in the Formula Car Race Series in 2024 and finished ninth overall, grabbing one win in the process.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker