Junior single-seater racing reached fever pitch in the United States around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while the Kyojo Cup held its first round of 2025 and French F4 its second. Feeder Series reviews all the action.

By Feeder Series

IndyCar and its support series were the main single-seater attraction this weekend – at least on track – as they began a three-week stretch in Indianapolis, the racing capital of North American open-wheelers. In the main event, Álex Palou may have taken his fourth IndyCar victory in five races, but in the support series, this was the weekend that dominance came to an end.

A mistake from Dennis Hauger on the opening lap of the first Indy NXT race put polesitter Lochie Hughes in prime position to slash his championship lead. One step below in USF Pro 2000, Ariel Elkin broke through for his first two victories as title contender Alessandro de Tullio finished all three races outside the top 10. And USF2000 had perhaps the most dramatic twist after the unbeaten Liam McNeilly’s winning streak came to an end because of travel complications.

Dominance continued in the F4-spec series, however. Rio Shimono topped every session in Japan’s all-female Kyojo Cup, which held its first weekend with open-wheel cars, and Alexandre Munoz won a further two races in French F4’s Dijon round to extend his points lead to 47. And while not covered in this report, F5 competitor Mads Hoe won all three races in Nordic 4 as Melvin Kalousdian did the same in Formula Nordic, which shared the racetrack with its Danish counterpart.

Keep reading to find out exactly what played out this weekend.

1. Indy NXT: Hauger keeps points lead, but Hughes the star at Indianapolis road course
2. USF Pro 2000: Elkin wins twice as Garcia extends points lead
3. USF2000: Jeffers takes maiden victory and points lead in McNeilly’s absence
4. French F4: Munoz dominates again to extend points lead to 47
5. Kyojo Cup: Shimono dominates as Onaga makes big steps forward

Indy NXT: Hauger keeps points lead, but Hughes the star at Indianapolis road course

Dennis Hauger left the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with another victory and his championship lead intact, but teammate Lochie Hughes’ maiden win in race one, coupled with Hauger’s disappointing day, reduced the gap between them to 15 points.

Hughes had already topped qualifying – barely, with Callum Hedge only 0.0006 seconds behind – as group two pacesetter Hauger was a quarter of a second slower. The Andretti Global teammates were neck and neck entering the first corner in race one, but upon turning in, Hauger touched wheels with Callum Hedge, himself next to Myles Rowe, and dropped to last after taking to the escape route.

That contact helped Caio Collet to third, and the Brazilian took second exiting Turn 7 as Hughes skipped away.

The first caution period came out on lap nine after debutant Juan Manuel Correa and Niels Koolen both stopped on track with damage. Hauger was already 13th by the restart at the end of lap 12, and he continued marching through the field, finally breaking into the top 10 on lap 19.

He then gained two more positions on lap 28 after James Roe spun at Turn 14 and collected Nikita Johnson. Both cars retired with damage.

With four laps remaining, De Alba aced the restart and pulled alongside Rowe, but he locked up at Turn 1 and ran wide, relinquishing a position to Hedge. Out front, Hughes kept Collet at bay and crossed the line 0.7299s in front for his first series win. With Hauger only eighth, the Australian was just three points off the championship lead.

Hughes had pole again for race two and held first place, and this time Hauger maintained second through the opening corners ahead of Hedge. Rowe passed on Collet at Turn 4 for fourth, with De Alba following him through at Turn 7.

A caution came out two laps later after Jack William Miller was hit by Nolan Allaer at Turn 1 and left stranded in the grass. When it ended, the race’s complexion changed. At the restart, Hauger used the outside line at Turn 1 to snatch the lead from Hughes. Rowe made the same move on Hedge for third as De Alba, in a reversal of Friday’s late restart, went past as well.

Hedge lost pace and came under threat from Collet, who passed him at Turn 1 on lap 23 and pulled away. Josh Pierson then began to pressure the New Zealander and made an ambitious attempt on lap 27 at Turn 10 – but he ran wide, disrupting Hedge. That moment gifted Koolen, who had started 10th, two spots.

Both De Alba and Collet closed on Rowe in the final laps, but neither made moves, with Collet locking up and losing time on his last-lap attempt at Turn 10.

Hauger stretched his advantage over Hughes to more than a second by lap 20. That gap became two seconds by lap 27, three by lap 32 and 4.7739 seconds by the chequered flag on lap 35.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1, Group 1	Lochie Hughes, 1:14.7840	Callum Hedge, +0.0006s	Myles Rowe, +0.4457s
Qualifying 1, Group 2	Dennis Hauger, 1:15.0089	Salvador de Alba, +0.1097s	Caio Collet, +0.1251s
Qualifying 2, Group 1	Lochie Hughes, 1:14.8433	Callum Hedge, +0.3379s	Myles Rowe, +0.4298s
Qualifying 2, Group 2	Dennis Hauger, 1:15.0426	Caio Collet, +0.1042s	Salvador de Alba, +0.1134s
Race 1 (35 laps)	Lochie Hughes, 47:03.1364	Caio Collet, +0.7299s	Myles Rowe, +2.0349s
Race 2 (35 laps)	Dennis Hauger, 46:08.6657	Lochie Hughes, +4.7739s	Myles Rowe, +10.8320s

Standings	Drivers	Rookies
P1	Dennis Hauger, 187	Dennis Hauger, 187
P2	Lochie Hughes, 172	Lochie Hughes, 172
P3	Myles Rowe, 134	Liam Sceats, 90
P4	Caio Collet, 117	Evagoras Papasavvas, 77
P5	Salvador de Alba, 111	Sebastian Murray, 63
P6	Josh Pierson, 102	Tommy Smith, 57
P7	Liam Sceats, 90	Nikita Johnson, 55
P8	Callum Hedge, 88	Hailie Deegan, 54
P9	Jordan Missig, 78	Max Taylor, 26
P10	Evagoras Papasavvas, 77	Juan Manuel Correa, 25

Report by Michael McClure

Read the previous round’s report here.

USF Pro 2000: Elkin wins twice as Garcia extends points lead

TJ Speed Motorsports’ Ariel Elkin starred at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking pole for all three USF Pro 2000 races and winning both the first and third as Jacob Douglas took his maiden series win in race two.

In race one, Elkin led the opening lap despite a challenge from Jacob Douglas, who went wide while trying to overtake Elkin around the outside of Turn 1. The safety car came out at the end of the lap after Jorge Garciarce and Logan Adams collided in Turn 12, while Frankie Mossman also pitted to replace his front wing.

On the restart at the end of lap four, Douglas overtook Elkin in Turn 1 and held the lead until lap 15, when he experienced a mechanical issue and fell down the order. Elkin stayed first through a late safety car period to take his maiden series win ahead of Mac Clark and Max Taylor, who swapped positions on the final restart.

Elkin started from pole again for race two and led the first lap as Douglas, starting second, ran deep and fell behind Clark and Taylor. The following lap, Douglas got past Taylor after Clark forced the American wide, while behind them, Sebastian Manson and Michael Costello crashed exiting Turn 12, bringing out the safety car.

The Israeli held the lead through another safety car period for Carson Etter’s spin into the gravel at Turn 3. At the race’s resumption on lap 11, Elkin held off Clark as Douglas reclaimed second by overtaking both Taylor and Clark around the outside of Turn 2.

Douglas began attacking Elkin for the lead just a lap later, but he dropped back into the clutches of Taylor, who overtook him at Turn 7 on lap 14. Taylor then made a move on Elkin on lap 19, but both drivers went onto the grass, with Taylor spinning and falling to 12th and Elkin rejoining in fifth.

With their off-track excursions, Douglas inherited the lead, which he held until the chequered flag for his maiden USF Pro 2000 win. Clark finished second as points leader Max Garcia rounded out the podium. Elkin finished fifth behind Jace Denmark, while Taylor earned a penalty for the incident and dropped to 13th.

Elkin led the way in race three as a multi-car pile-up at Turn 1 took Taylor, Garciarce and Alessandro de Tullio out of the race. Garcia briefly claimed the lead on lap 11 down the main straight, but Elkin took it back at Turn 2. Two corners later, Mossman spun Garcia, who collected Sebastian Manson, but both cars continued without substantial damage.

Elkin led until the end, taking his second win of the season ahead of Cooper Becklin and Costello. 

Garcia still holds the championship lead with 202 points after finishing fourth in race three. De Tullio’s nightmare weekend put him 57 points behind Garcia and just two ahead of Elkin, who is rumoured to be tight on budget for the rest of the season.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Ariel Elkin, 1:20.6432	Max Taylor, +0.1096s	Jacob Douglas, +0.1572s
Race 1 (25 laps)	Ariel Elkin, 40:31.9408	Mac Clark, +0.7191s	Max Taylor, +1.5314s
Race 2 (25 laps)	Jacob Douglas, 38:02.9393	Mac Clark, +0.7223s	Max Garcia, +5.7313s
Race 3 (25 laps)	Ariel Elkin, 39:21.0162	Cooper Becklin, +4.3760s	Michael Costello, +5.3377s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Max Garcia, 202	Pabst Racing, 250	Max Garcia, 202
P2	Alessandro de Tullio, 145	Turn 3 Motorsport, 151	Ariel Elkin, 143
P3	Ariel Elkin, 143	TJ Speed Motorsports, 143	Jacob Douglas, 123
P4	Mac Clark, 140	Exclusive Autosport, 112	Max Taylor, 121
P5	Jacob Douglas, 123	VRD Racing, 95	Michael Costello, 108
P6	Max Taylor, 121	Jay Howard Driver Development, 46	Joey Brienza, 80
P7	Michael Costello, 108	Comet/NCMP Racing, 34	Owen Tangavelou, 74
P8	Jace Denmark, 103	FatBoy Racing!, 32	Sebastian Manson, 66
P9	Nicholas Monteiro, 90	DEForce Racing, 29	Tanner DeFabis, 53
P10	Cooper Becklin, 88		Carson Etter, 40

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

USF2000: Jeffers takes maiden victory and points lead in McNeilly’s absence

Jack Jeffers finished first and third in the two USF2000 races on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s race course to steal the championship lead from early dominator Liam McNeilly, who was sidelined entering the weekend because of reported travel issues.

Having missed practice on Thursday, McNeilly was confirmed absent to Feeder Series Friday morning by Jay Howard Driver Development team owner Jay Howard. His absence handed his rivals a golden opportunity, and VRD Racing took advantage at first by locking out the front row for race one, with Teddy Musella ahead of Thomas Schrage

Neither led the first lap, however. As Musella locked his brakes at Turn 1, went off track and dropped to the rear, Schrage attempted to defend from Jack Jeffers, who found a way past at Turn 8 to take the lead.

Following a safety car period on two due to a collision between Jeshua Alianell and Christian Cameron and a called-off restart, the race finally resumed on lap six, with Jeffers out front pulling away from Schrage. The Exclusive Autosport driver remained unchallenged until the end, becoming the first driver other than McNeilly to stand atop the podium this season.

Thomas Schrage in second finished 2.4422 seconds behind, and G3 Argyros rounded out the top three with his second podium of the season. Musella, who was 20th on lap one, surged to fourth by the end.

Just as in race one, Musella started on pole for race two, this time alongside race one winner Jeffers. This time, Musella held onto the lead on the opening lap despite pressure coming from third-place starter Schrage, whose strong start put him on Musella’s gearbox as the second lap began.

The Ohio native then overtook Musella for the lead at the first corner shortly before the safety car came out for Timothy Carel, who stopped in the grass in Turn 7. 

Three laps later, the race resumed with Schrage holding off Musella in the opening sector as third-placed Jeffers fell into the clutches of Caleb Gafrarar and 2023 USF2000 champion Simon Sikes, making a one-off appearance for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development. They both Jeffers a lap later, leaving the Exclusive Autosport driver to defend fourth from three cars.

But the four-way battle ended in tears when Grafarar collided with Sebastián Garzón and Jeffers, dropping them to the back of the pack as the safety car came out for the second time.

Despite a high-speed collision between Evan Cooley and Cameron on the restart, which put both drivers out of the race, the race stayed green until the end. Schrage took his first win of the season ahead of Musella and Jeffers, with Argyros and Sikes rounding out the top five.

Heading into the season’s only oval round at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Jeffers leads the drivers’ standings by two points over McNeilly and 13 over Schrage. In the teams’ standings, Exclusive Autosport lead the way on 166 points, with VRD Racing six points behind and JHDD a further two points behind.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Teddy Musella, 1:24.3272	Thomas Schrage, +0.4551s	Jack Jeffers, +0.6611s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Jack Jeffers, 24:11.6441	Thomas Schrage, +2.4422s	G3 Argyros, +5.8414s
Race 2 (15 laps)	Thomas Schrage, 24:24.9246	Teddy Musella, +0.9501s	Jack Jeffers, +1.4272s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Jack Jeffers, 165	Exclusive Autosport, 166	Jack Jeffers, 165
P2	Liam McNeilly, 163	VRD Racing, 160	Liam McNeilly, 163
P3	Thomas Schrage, 152	Jay Howard Driver Development, 158	Teddy Musella, 112
P4	Teddy Musella, 112	Pabst Racing, 108	Evan Cooley, 97
P5	G3 Argyros, 109	DEForce Racing, 59	Caleb Gafrarar, 87
P6	Evan Cooley, 97	Benchmark Autosport, 41	Sebastián Garzón, 82
P7	Caleb Gafrarar, 87	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development, 40	Jeshua Alianell, 69
P8	Sebastián Garzón, 82	Synergy Motorsport, 34	Brad Majman, 69
P9	Ayrton Houk, 75		Christian Cameron, 60
P10	Jeshua Alianell, 69		Anthony Martella, 59

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

French F4: Munoz dominates again to extend points lead to 47

Alexandre Munoz took two more victories at the Circuit Dijon-Prenois to become the first driver in FIA French F4 history to collect four wins in the first two meetings, giving him a 47-point gap over Jules Roussel ahead of the next round at Spa. 

Dijon-Prenois is demanding on tyres, and how drivers used their two allocated sets of fresh tyres played a major role throughout the weekend.

Munoz dominated the qualifying session, clinching a double pole position ahead of Montego Maassen, who was yet to score a point; Roussel; and Rafaël Pérard, the fastest rookie.

For the opening race on Saturday morning, Munoz had a clean start, while Roussel overtook Maassen. Further back, after starting seventh because of a penalty following an incident at Nogaro, Pérard had a superb launch and retook his original qualifying position of fourth at the end of lap one.

Outside the top 10, a four-car incident between Léandre Carvalho, Angelina Proenca, Niccolo Pirrì and Shen Zhelin brought out the first safety car. That was quickly followed by a second one caused by Sofia Zanfari.

After the restart following Zanfari’s incident, Munoz built a solid gap without being troubled by Roussel behind him. Pérard hounded Maassen, but the German maintained a solid defence to score his first fifteen points of the season. Louis Iglesias rounded out the top five in front of Caretti, who gained eight positions. 

For the reverse-grid race, polesitter Rintaro Sato had a poor launch and sank to sixth, with Arthur Dorison alongside him quickly grabbing the lead in front of Malo Bolliet and Iglesias. He and Pérard had a heated battle in the first couple of laps for third, with Pérard being pushed wide and dropping to 11th afterwards, while Iglesias picked up a post-race penalty that dropped him to the back of the grid for race three.

Despite having to face a safety car restart, Dorison remained untroubled and went on to win his second reverse-grid race after Nogaro in front of Bolliet. Starting 10th on his race one tyres, Munoz had an impressive recovery, finishing one-tenth shy of Iglesias in third but still scoring the fastest lap. 

Race three Sunday morning began similarly to race one, with Roussel overtaking Maassen for second on the second lap, but this time, Munoz had to defend in the opening laps. From seventh, meanwhile, Dorison had a stellar start to gain three positions.

Following the sole safety car period, deployed after Proenca flipped in the gravel, Munoz extended his advantage, scoring a third fastest lap in three races to win his fourth race, once again in front of Roussel and Maassen. Behind, Dorison’s tyres wore off and Pérard passed him on lap 17 to finish fourth, and Dorison was even passed by Bouzar on the final lap before spinning him off, with Bouzar falling to 26th and Dorison earning a 25-second post-race penalty. 

That elevated Matteo Giaccardi to fifth from 11th, while Caretti gained 20 positions from 29th and Iglesias 18 positions from 30th.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Alexandre Munoz, 1:16.560	Montego Maassen, +0.063s	Jules Roussel, +0.203s
Race 1 (18 laps)	Alexandre Munoz, 30:27.980	Jules Roussel, +1.666s	Montego Maassen, +2.157s
Race 2 (20 laps)	Arthur Dorison, 30:50.708	Malo Bolliet, +3.594s	Louis Iglesias, +5.388s
Race 3 (22 laps)	Alexandre Munoz, 30:48.566	Jules Roussel, +2.759s	Montego Maassen, +6.353

Standings	Drivers
P1	Alexandre Munoz, 123
P2	Jules Roussel, 76
P3	Rafaël Pérard, 48
P4	Arthur Dorison, 42
P5	Louis Iglesias, 39
P6	Malo Bolliet, 33
P7	Montego Maassen, 30
P8	Matteo Giaccardi, 28
P9	Andy Consani, 22
P10	Guillaume Bouzar, 22

Report by Perceval Wolff-Taffus

Read the previous round’s report here.

Kyojo Cup: Shimono dominates as Onaga makes big steps forward

The Kyojo Cup kicked off its first round as an open-wheel single seater championship this weekend at Fuji, and Rio Shimono and Dr.Dry topped every session.

Already in the three practice sessions on Friday, Shimono was the one to beat, finishing 0.399 seconds ahead of runner-up Kokoro Sato of Inging in the combined results. 

In qualifying on Saturday morning, the gaps were a lot closer, at least in the battle for pole position. Shimono took pole for both the sprint as the final race by only 0.020s over TOM’S’ Hana Burton, with the pair finishing more than five tenths ahead of Miki Onaga in third. 

The sprint race on Saturday could not have started with more drama. The track was partly wet but all drivers opted to start on dry tyres. 

Because of the wet track, the field completed three laps behind the safety car. Onaga – the grid’s most experienced single-seater driver, who started third – attacked Burton on the run down to Turn 1 and overtook her around the outside. Burton then got a bad exit out of the first corner and lost third and fourth position to Rookie Racing’s Mako Hirakawa and Sato in the first sector, and she lost three more places with an off at Turn 3 on lap seven.

On lap nine, a collision at Turn 1 between TGM’s Maaya Orido and Fujisan Shizuoka Racing’s Yuika Hosokawa ended both drivers’ races early. The race continued without a safety car intervention, and Shimono won the 10-lap race, 9.638s ahead of Onaga and 12.152s ahead of Hirakawa.

Sunday’s race began with a double-file rolling start, and Shimono led the field from pole ahead of Onaga and Hirakawa.

Beginning from lap four, Sato attempted to overtake Hirakawa for third into Turn 1 on consecutive laps, but she was only successful on lap six after getting alongside Hirakawa at the exit of Turn 1 and taking the inside line into Turn 3. After losing the position, Hirakawa instantly faced pressure by Dojo Racing’s Ayumu Nagai, who finally overtook her into Turn 3 on lap nine.

Hirakawa fought back on the start-finish straight at the end of that lap but went wide in Turn 1, losing two more places. She then dropped to eighth at Turn 10 on lap 11 as Aimi Saito overtook her.

Shimono won the final race by 9.175s over Onaga and Sato and with that took the maximum amount of points this weekend. Such was the scale of her dominance that in green-flag conditions, she was on average 1.173s faster than runner-up Onaga in the sprint race, while her fastest lap time was 1.021s faster than second-fastest driver Hirakawa’s best lap. In the final race, Shimono was still 0.765s faster per lap on average than runner-up Onaga, while her fastest lap was 0.356s faster than the second-fastest driver, Saito in seventh. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Rio Shimono, 1:54.270	Hana Burton, +0.020s	Miki Onaga, +0.532s
Sprint Race (10 laps)	Rio Shimono, 20:53.724	Miki Onaga, +9.638s	Mako Hirakawa, +12.152s
Final Race (12 laps)	Rio Shimono, 21:12.708	Miki Onaga, +9.175s	Kokoro Sato, +11.881s

Standings	Drivers
P1	Rio Shimono, 33
P2	Miki Onaga, 24
P3	Kokoro Sato, 16
P4	Mako Hirakawa, 14
P5	Ayumu Nagai, 7
P6	Kilei Kanemoto, 7
P7	Hana Burton, 7
P8	Rami Sasaki, 7
P9	Aimi Saito, 4
P10	Itsumo Shiraishi, 1

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Header photo credit: Travis Hinkle