USF Pro 2000, Super Formula Lights, Formula Regional Japan and Chinese F4 were all on track this weekend as rain affected all four series’ running. Feeder Series reviews what unfolded in each series.

By Feeder Series

For a moment on Saturday, it seemed as though we would be covering three series rather than four in this review. Persistent rain on Saturday afternoon at the Milwaukee Mile led to the stoppage of the weekend’s first IndyCar race, the running of which was prioritised over USF Pro 2000’s contest scheduled for later that day. After several hours of uncertainty about whether the event would even take place, the race was bumped to Sunday at 15:00 local and ultimately started 20 minutes earlier, though it did run in full. The Indy NXT race, which was unaffected by the rain, will be covered later today.

That was more than could be said for FR Japan’s second race and Super Formula Lights’ third race at Sugo, each of which awarded half points after being truncated. Chinese F4 joined the East Asian contingent with a round at Chengdu, where rain brought a twist to qualifying. Keep reading to find out more about how all the races unfolded.

Two other junior single-seater series not covered in detail were on track this weekend. SMP F4 was in action at the NRing circuit, and Ivan Pigaev was the dominant force all weekend, taking both pole positions and three victories out of four. The race two win went the way of Maksim Arkhangelskiy, while the championship lead remains Platon Kostin’s, albeit with a narrowing advantage over Pigaev.

As he has done in all but two races this year, Formula Nordic champion Hampus Varis took victory in the two Formula Nordic races at Knutstorp this weekend. Fredrik Lindholm, his closest challenger in the championship standings, finished second in both races, with Vera Jurland coming home third in race one before Tim Sköld had the honour in race two. One more round remains at Mantorp in three weeks’ time.

USF Pro 2000: Schrage takes lights-to-flag maiden win in rain-delayed Milwaukee race

Thomas Schrage emerged victorious in a rain-affected weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, leading every lap of the race from pole en route to his first ever USF Pro 2000 win. Leonardo Escorpioni, who returned after missing the last round at Markham through visa issues, finished in second place, with Evan Cooley taking the final podium position.

“I just didn’t really know what was going to be the best course of action behind lapped cars and keeping Escorpioni behind me,” Schrage told Feeder Series after the race. “I had a really loose car and I just ran the bottom the whole race and figured, well, if my fronts go, then we’re screwed. But I just kept adjusting the car, how we took the corner and everything I did with the pedals as well inside the car. [We] had clean air the whole race, so that helped a lot.”

On Friday in practice, it didn’t appear likely that Schrage would become the driver to beat. The TJ Speed Motorsports driver finished 16th in both sessions, with Cooley topping practice one and Escopropioni leading practice two. It was his first outing at the circuit after Indy NXT driver Nicolas Stati took over his car at the series’ Milwaukee test in June.

When qualifying rolled around on Saturday morning, the Indy NXT rubber that normally increases grip for USF Pro 2000 cars actually made the track slippier and more challenging. In those tricky conditions, Schrage took pole position ahead of Cooley by 0.0115s, with Escorpioni qualifying in third at roughly the same margin to Cooley. Exclusive’s Anthony Martella, who will finish the remainder of the season in USF Pro 2000, took fourth.

“I didn’t test here, so I was a step behind everyone else, but I knew that we have a car and the package to put it on top,” Schrage said. “I’m on the lead side of things in clean air, so hopefully we can stay here. That’s the number-one goal at all times, but just managing the deg of the tyres and being able to pull out a good lead at the end is more important than trying to be aggressive at the start.”

The race was initially scheduled for Saturday afternoon but was postponed to Sunday after rain washed out any track activity on Saturday afternoon. This caused some logistical challenges in the paddock as several drivers and teams had made arrangements to leave Milwaukee on Saturday evening. 

When the race did get underway nearly 24 hours after its planned start, Schrage – who said Sunday that ‘the waiting game was a good thing because it threw some people out of rhythm’ – dominated a caution-free affair, expertly managing lapped traffic and staying out of messy situations. By the end of the 75-lap race, the TJ Speed driver had lapped nine of the 18 drivers at least once.

Behind the race leader, Turn 3 Motorsport driver Escorpioni jumped Cooley on the opening lap and kept pace with the race leader. He was never able to get close enough to challenge for the win, eventually finishing 1.2791s behind Schrage.

“It was a good race,” Escorpioni said. “I messed up a little bit in quali. That’s why we didn’t get the pole. After that, we knew it was going to be a tough race. We knew how hard it is to pass here with the dirty air and everything, so it was about managing everything, waiting for a safety car that never happened, saving a little bit. And then at the end, we were a little too far [and] burned up the tyres too much also trying to catch back up.”

USF2000 full-timer Cooley finished third for Exclusive Autosport, following up his Freedom 75 victory with his maiden USF Pro 2000 podium on his third start in the series. The 19-year-old had been three seconds back with 20 laps to go before a snap of oversteer at Turn 2 caused him to clip the wall with his right-rear, leaving him to limp home to his first series podium, 10.0191s behind the winner.

“I was struggling with understeer for the first half of the race, and that definitely knocked my car pretty loose,” Cooley said. “It was a handful to hang on to at the end and lost a lot of pace from that, so just happy to bring it home.”

After the opening laps, the field slotted into a single-file line for the most part, with no caution periods and limited overtaking for position leading to an uneventful affair. One exception was G3 Argyros, who went from eighth to fourth in the 75-lap race. The Pabst Racing driver made up two places on the opening lap, overtook part-time entrant Jeshua Alianell of TJ Speed on lap 12 and scythed past Martella on lap 67.

Martella lost one position from his initial starting spot to finish in fifth, while championship leader Jack Jeffers had a largely anonymous weekend and finished in sixth place, 23.4131s behind Schrage. Frankie Mossman finished as the best VRD Racing driver in seventh. Markham race two winner Andrés Cárdenas went from 12th to eighth, Brady Golan finished in ninth and Logan Adams went from 14th to 10th.

With points leader Jack Jeffers finishing sixth, Escorpioni roughly halved the championship gap before the round from 33 to 17. Argyros remains in third place, now 35 points behind the championship leader as the last driver in realistic title contention.

Cárdenas and Schrage are 66 and 69 points behind Jeffers, while Mossman, 85 points behind, is the last remaining driver with a mathematical chance at the title.

Report by Vincent van der Hoek and Michael McClure

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Thomas Schrage, 27.1249	Evan Cooley, +0.0115s	Leonardo Escorpioni, +0.0228s
Race (75 laps)	Thomas Schrage, 35:20.9628	Leonardo Escorpioni, +1.2791s	Evan Cooley, +10.0191s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Jack Jeffers, 332	Turn 3 Motorsport, 346	Jack Jeffers, 332
P2	Leonardo Escorpioni, 315	Exclusive Autosport, 287	Leonardo Escorpioni, 315
P3	G3 Argyros, 297	Pabst Racing, 259	G3 Argyros, 297
P4	Andrés Cárdenas, 266	VRD Racing, 218	Andrés Cárdenas, 266
P5	Thomas Schrage, 263	TJ Speed Motosports, 200	Thomas Schrage, 263
P6	Frankie Mossman, 247	JHDD powered by ECR, 177	Teddy Musella, 185
P7	Brady Golan, 189	Comet/NCMP Racing, 32	Colin Aitken, 172
P8	Teddy Musella, 185	FatBoy Racing!, 12	Christian Cameron, 144
P9	Colin Aitken, 172		JT Hoskins, 143
P10	Michael Costello, 166		Evan Cooley, 54

Read the previous round’s report here.

Super Formula Lights: Suzuki takes first SFL wins in Sugo sweep

Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki had a perfect weekend at Sugo, taking three wins and scoring more points than he did in the previous three rounds in which he competed.

The 19-year-old was fastest in both qualifyings. In the first qualifying he was 0.195 seconds ahead of B-Max’s Evan Giltaire and 0.200 ahead of teammate Kiyoshi Umegaki. In the second qualifying Umegaki was second 0.272s behind and Akshay Bohra was third, 0.473s behind to make it a TOM’S 1-2-3.

The front two held their positions off the line in race one while Umegaki was passed by B-Max’s Kotaro Shimbara. Umegaki then lost fourth to Delightworks Racing’s Yusuke Mitsui at Turn 10. 

No further position changes occurred up front in the 26-lap race. Suzuki took his first win of the season ahead of the B-Max duo of Giltaire and Shimbara, who were one and twelve seconds behind respectively.

Suzuki also won out at the start of the second race and led his TOM’S teammates, who swapped positions at the start – with Bohra now in second and Umegaki in third. 

Up front, it was an uneventful race that only had 16 laps of green-flag running until a safety car was called for Art Taste Racing’s Yasuhiro Shimizu, who crashed at Turn 9. 

Suzuki won ahead of Bohra. While Umegaki crossed the line in third, he was demoted to 10th with a five-second time penalty, meaning Giltaire inherited the final podium spot. 

A big crash overshadowed the third race, which Suzuki won ahead of Giltaire and Mitsui. At the start, Shimbara stalled, and JMS Racing Team’s Nobuhiro Imada rear-ended him. The race was instantly red-flagged. 

An attempt to resume racing was made, but after four laps behind the safety car, another red flag was brought out and the remainder of the race was cancelled. Half points were awarded.

With that, merely seven points separate the top three going into the final round at Motegi in two weeks time. Mitsui is first on 85.5, followed by Umegaki on 82 and Giltaire on 78.5. Suzuki rose to fourth on 47 points but does not have enough points to be in mathematical contention.

In the masters’ class, Imada won the first two races and “Dragon” the third race. “Ken Alex” leads the standings on 109.5 points, 10.5 more than “Dragon” in second.

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Tokiya Suzuki, 1:24.828	Evan Giltaire, +0.195s	Kiyoshi Umegaki, +0.200s
Qualifying 2	Tokiya Suzuki, 1:25.685	Kiyoshi Umegaki, +0.272s	Akshay Bohra, +0.473s
Race 1 (26 laps)	Tokiya Suzuki, 32:19.113	Evan Giltaire, +1.120s	Kotaro Shimbara, +12.134s
Race 2 (19 laps)	Tokiya Suzuki, 30:37.937	Akshay Bohra, +0.454s	Evan Giltaire, +0.594s
Race 3 (3 laps)	Tokiya Suzuki, 36:42.253	Evan Giltaire, +0.927s	Yusuke Mitsui, +1.796s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Masters
P1	Yusuke Mitsui, 85.5	TOM’S, 103	“Ken Alex”, 109.5
P2	Kiyoshi Umegaki, 82	Delightworks Racing, 85.5	“Dragon”, 99
P3	Evan Giltaire, 78.5	B-Max Racing Team, 85.5	Yasuhiro Shimizu, 67.5
P4	Tokiya Suzuki, 47	B-Max Engineering, 17	Nobuhiro Imada, 42
P5	Kotaro Shimbara, 38	LM corsa, 1
P6	Kazuhisa Urabe, 22	Buzz Racing, 0
P7	Akshay Bohra, 21.5	Art Taste Racing, 0
P8	Oscar Wurz, 19.5	JMS Racing Team, 0
P9	Rintaro Sato, 17
P10	Yuzuki Miura, 4

Read the previous round’s report here.

FRegional Japan: Championship remains tight with three winners at wet Sugo round 

Fourteen points separate the top three in the FRegional Japan drivers’ standings following a wet weekend at Sugo. TOM’S’ Yuzuki Miura leads the standings on 167.5 points, 2.5 ahead of Ponos Racing’s Ryota Horachi. Kento Omiya, Horachi’s teammate, trails them in third on 153.5 points. 

None of the trio nor anyone else could beat Dr.Dry Racing’s Rio Shimono in the first qualifying on Friday. Shimono took her maiden series pole, 0.318 seconds ahead of Omiya and 0.321s ahead of Masana Muto of TOM’S. Omiya was fastest in qualifying two, 0.309s ahead of Miura and 0.384s ahead of Horachi.

Shimono held her position as race one began, while Horachi jumped from fifth to third behind Omiya. 

Shimono built a comfortable gap and consistently lapped a second quicker than the drivers behind her. On lap nine, Miura closed on Horachi but couldn’t threaten a move at Turn 1. On lap 13, Omiya made a mistake and helped Horachi and Miura close up, but again, no positions changed. 

After 21 laps, Shimono won the race by 7.334s to become the series’ first female winner since Miki Koyama in 2022. 

Omiya held his lead as race two got underway, while Horachi passed Miura for second. The race was soon red-flagged after a big crash for Abbey Racing’s “Akita”, who spun on the exit kerb at Turn 7 and hit the wall rear-first, spreading debris on the racing line. 

The race resumed with a safety car restart and ended after 14 laps with no position changes up front. Half points were awarded because of the shortened race distance. Omiya won and claimed the championship lead, while Horachi and Miura completed the podium, 14.891s and 15.173s behind Omiya. 

Shimono lost the lead off the line in the final race to the Ponos duo of Omiya and Horachi. However, the pair collided and both spun, while Shimono took to the grass in avoidance. 

Miura was now leading ahead of Ragno Motor Sport’s Lin Chenghua. Omiya ran third until he attacked Lin at Turn 11 on lap two, finally passing him on the run to Turn 1.

Omiya then closed in on Miura and attempted moves at Turn 1 on laps eight, nine and ten but couldn’t get past. He was closer for his dive down the inside on lap 11 – too close. Omiya hit Miura and sent the Toyota junior spinning. Both drivers continued with Omiya now ahead, although he received a five-second time penalty for the incident. 

And it proved costly. 

A safety car was called on lap 14 for the stricken car of N-Speed’s “Yugo”. The pack thus caught the leading pair, and when the race resumed on lap 18 for a two-lap shootout, Omiya couldn’t extend his gap enough. Miura won ahead of Horachi and Lin, while Omiya dropped to fifth. 

A spin on the opening lap of race two caused Muto to retire, and he did not start the final race. He fell from 20 to 58.5 points off the lead.

In the masters’ class, “Akita” retained the lead by 12 points despite not finishing on the podium once and not starting the final race. Yutaka Toriba led Masayuki Ueda in race one, and Ueda defeated Toriba in race two. Hideaki Irie, who finished third in class in the first two races, won the class in race three, with Toriba and Ueda behind.

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Rio Shimono, 1:27.689	Kento Omiya, +0.318s	Masana Muto, +0.321s
Qualifying 2	Kento Omiya, 1:27.411	Yuzuki Miura, +0.309s	Ryota Horachi, +0.384s
Race 1 (21 laps)	Rio Shimono, 30:05.379	Kento Omiya, +7.334s	Ryota Horachi, +7.962s
Race 2 (14 laps)	Kento Omiya, 1:07:12.538	Ryota Horachi, +14.891s	Yuzuki Miura, +15.173s
Race 3 (19 laps)	Yuzuki Miura, 31:19.351	Ryota Horachi, +0.795s	Lin Chenghua, +3.702s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Masters
P1	Yuzuki Miura, 167.5	Ponos Racing, 209.5	“Akita”, 172
P2	Ryota Horachi, 165	TOM’S, 181.5	Yukata Toriba, 160
P3	Kento Omiya, 153.5	Rn-sports, 93	Hideaki Irie, 142.5
P4	Masana Muto, 109	Dr. Dry Racing Team, 84	Masayuki Ueda, 132.5
P5	Rio Shimono, 84	Ragno Motor Sports, 66	“Yuki”, 80
P6	Lin Chenghua, 66	Abbey Racing, 31	Shoichiro Akamatsu, 70
P7	Hibiki Komatsu, 59	Aiwin, 27	Paul Wong, 61
P8	“Akita”, 31	Team LeMans, 19	“Yugo”, 48
P9	Yukata Toriba, 27	Fujita Pharmacy Racing, 12	“Seimei”, 20
P10	Shunji Okumoto, 20	Eagle Sports, 11	“Daisuke”, 14

Read the previous round’s report here.

Chinese F4: Shagaliev snatches points lead from Chan as Yu takes maiden win

A stellar weekend for Timur Shageliev in Chengdu saw him take the Chinese F4 championship lead away from Kimi Chan with just two rounds left in the season. 

Chan was fastest in the first qualifying session of the weekend, setting a time of 1:33.053 in wet conditions. His time was only 0.008 seconds faster than Shagaliev’s. Zhao Zijun rounded out the top three with a 1:33.301.

Later in the day, Zhao’s 1:23.171 was enough to top the timesheets in the second qualifying session of the weekend. Shagaliev qualified in second once again, while Chan qualified third. 

In the first race, Shagaliev immediately snatched the lead away from Chan heading into the first corner and never looked back. The safety car was brought out to retrieve Zhang Jun’s stranded car from the run-off area. Shagaliev maintained his lead from the restart until the end. Chan crossed the line second, with Chen Zhuyuan coming home in third. 

However, Chan was disqualified post-race for a technical infringement, which promoted Chen to second and Yu to the final podium position. 

Huang Xiaofeng, who finished 12th in the first race, was awarded reverse-grid pole for race two. Starting from second, Yang Peng took the lead away heading into the first corner, while Yuanyang Zeshi moved up to second and set his sights on Yang for the lead. Heading into the second lap and facing intense pressure from Yuanyang behind, Yang locked up his tyres heading into Turn 1 and had to take to the escape road. 

With 23 minutes to go, Huang and Alfred Lao made contact at Turn 3. The contact sent Huang spinning on the track, and while he was able to get going again, Lao parked his car down the escape road and retired, bringing out the safety car.

The race resumed with 14 minutes left, and Yuanyang was immediately challenged by Josh Feng for the lead. Feng managed to overtake down the inside of Turn 13, but Yuanyang took the position back at the next corner before going wide heading into Turn 15, allowing Feng to swoop back into the lead and Chen Sicong to overtake him for second. 

Feng crossed the line first to take his second win of the season, with Chen in second. Shagaliev, who started 12th, made up nine positions to finish third.  

In the third race, Shagaliev took the lead away from Zhao as they headed into Turn 1. Chen Sicong made contact with the rear of Chan’s car at the first corner and headed to the pits to retire on lap three. Chan was able to continue, albeit with a bent rear wing.

The safety car was brought out with only four minutes to go as Andy Law and Ethan Liu were stranded on the track at Turn 14. Shagaliev won the race behind the safety car, with Zhao in second and Chen Zhuyuan in third. 

Yang was awarded reverse-grid pole for the final race as a result of finishing 12th in race three. Yang was able to maintain the lead heading into the first corner, but not long after, the safety car was brought out by Jason Chow, who was stranded on track at Turn 10.  

At the restart, Feng overtook Liu Shangqing for second just as Yu closed in on the drivers up ahead. Yu moved into the lead with an overtake down the inside of Feng and Yang at the final corner.

The safety car was brought out again on the sixth lap as Ken Chow had parked his car in the run-off area and had to retire, while Feng, who had a broken front wing, also parked his car in the grass. At the restart, Yu held onto his lead and maintained the position until the end. Zhao had to settle for second, while Shagaliev completed the top three.

With a 60-point swing, Shagaliev leads the standings with 255 points, 47 points ahead of Chan. The Champ Academy driver now has a difficult task ahead of him in Zhuzhou to make up for a disappointing weekend that yielded only two fifth places. Yu completes the top three in the standings with 176 points. 

Report by Kaylene Lau

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Kimi Chan, 1:33.053	Timur Shagaliev, +0.008s	Zhao Zijun, +0.248s
Qualifying 2	Zhao Zijun, 1:23.171	Timur Shagaliev, +0.120s	Kimi Chan, +0.131s
Race 1 (22 laps)	Timur Shagaliev, 32:36.023	Chen Zhuyuan, +11.554s	Yu Yan, +15.076s
Race 2 (21 laps)	Josh Feng, 31:41.655	Chen Sicong, +5.047s	Timur Shagaliev, +6.656s
Race 3 (22 laps)	Timur Shagaliev, 33:29.830	Zhao Zijun, +0.419s	Chen Zhuyuan, +0.815s
Race 4 (20 laps)	Yu Yan, 32:29.196	Zhao Zijun, +0.874s	Timur Shagaliev, +1.678s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Timur Shagaliev, 255	Asia Racing Team, 389
P2	Kimi Chan, 208	Champ Academy, 383
P3	Yu Yan, 176	Black Blade Racing, 347
P4	Zhao Zijun, 175	Blackjack Racing, 172
P5	Chen Sicong, 171	Pointer Racing, 113
P6	Chen Zhuyuan, 167	Kai Fei Motorsport, 48
P7	Josh Feng, 134	Black Blade GP, 40
P8	Yuanyang Zeshi, 75	She Power Racing, 31
P9	Zhang Jun, 39	Geeke Racing, 26
P10	Liu Taiji, 38	Venom Motorsport, 22

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Zyair Buckner