2023 USF2000 Championship

The 2023 USF2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires was the fourteenth season of the USF2000 Championship since its revival in 2010. When the top rung of the Road to Indy ladder system, Indy Lights, was bought by Penske Entertainment (owners of IndyCar) in 2021 and the lower level series changed sanctioning to the United States Auto Club, changes were made to the other championships in the ladder. This, together with the Indy Lights being rebranded to Indy NXT, effectively ended the "Road to Indy" branding, with the three championships below Indy NXT now collectively called "USF Pro Championships Presented by Cooper Tires".[1] The USF2000 Championship served as the middle rung of this ladder.

Simon Sikes won the Drivers' Championship at the final race weekend at Portland with two races to spare. His team, Pabst Racing, won their second consecutive and fifth all-time championship.

Drivers and teams edit

Team No. Drivers Rounds
DC Autosport 57   Carson Etter[2] 11–13, 16–18
68   Ethan Ho[3] 3–7, 9–13, 16–18
DEForce Racing 1   Mac Clark[4] All
10   Jorge Garciarce[5] All
11   Brady Golan[2] 11–13
  Lucas Fecury[6] 16–18
12   Maxwell Jamieson[7] All
Exclusive Autosport 90   Jacob Douglas[8] 1–7
  Thomas Schrage[9] 11–13, 16–18
91   Joey Brienza[10] 1–2, 8, 14–15
92   Nicholas d'Orlando[11] 1–2
  Lucas Mann[12] 5–7
  Jack Jeffers[13] 9–10
93   Avery Towns[14] 1–15
95   Chase Gardner[15] 1–15
Future Star Racing 56   Andre Castro[16] 1–2
58   Trey Burke[17] 1–2
Jay Howard Driver Development 6   Evagoras Papasavvas[18] All
7   Al Morey[19] All
8   Lochie Hughes[20] All
9   Louka St-Jean[21] 1–4
  Dane Scott[22] 9–10
  Logan Adams[2] 11–15
  Ava Dobson[23] 16–18
Pabst Racing 22   Simon Sikes[15] All
23   Jacob Douglas[24] 9–18
24   Max Garcia[25][26] 3–18
Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development 67   Elliot Cox[27] All
Velocity Racing Development 2   Nico Christodoulou[28] 14–15
14   Sam Corry[29] All
17   Nikita Johnson[30] All
18   Danny Dyszelski[31] 1–13
19   Gordon Scully[32] All
33   Max Taylor[12] 5–7, 9–13, 16–18
97   Zack Ping[33] 1–7, 9–13
  • TJ Speed Motorsports took over two cars from Cape Motorsports to enter the championship in 2023, but ultimately decided against it.[34][35]
  • Noah Ping was signed to compete for Velocity Racing Development, but dropped out and instead signed with VRD-partnered team Arden in GB3.[36][37]

Schedule edit

The 2023 schedule was revealed on October 17, 2022. It featured two street circuits, five road courses and one oval round. The championship returned to Sebring for the first time since 2013. All rounds except the weekends at Sebring and Indianapolis Raceway Park supported the IndyCar Series.[38]

Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 4–5 Cooper Tires Grand Prix of St. Petersburg  R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 Discount Tire Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
3 March 25–26 Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Sebring  R  Sebring International Raceway Sebring, Florida
4
5 May 12–13 USF2000 Discount Tire Grand Prix of Indianapolis  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana
6
7
8 May 27 USF2000 Cooper Tires Freedom 75  O  Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park Brownsburg, Indiana
9 June 17–18 Discount Tire Grand Prix of Road America  R  Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
10
11 July 1–2 Discount Tire Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio  R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
12
13
14 July 15–16 Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto  R  Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario, Canada
15
16 September 2–3 Discount Tire Grand Prix of Portland  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
17
18

Race results edit

Rd. Track Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race winner
Driver Team
1   Streets of St. Petersburg   Lochie Hughes   Simon Sikes   Lochie Hughes   Lochie Hughes Jay Howard Driver Development
2   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Nikita Johnson   Nikita Johnson Velocity Racing Development
3   Sebring International Raceway   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Lochie Hughes   Lochie Hughes Jay Howard Driver Development
4   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing
5   Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course   Nikita Johnson   Nikita Johnson   Nikita Johnson   Sam Corry Velocity Racing Development
6   Nikita Johnson   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing
7   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Lochie Hughes   Lochie Hughes Jay Howard Driver Development
8   Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park   Mac Clark   Mac Clark   Mac Clark   Mac Clark DEForce Racing
9   Road America   Lochie Hughes   Mac Clark   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing
10   Mac Clark   Danny Dyszelski   Lochie Hughes   Lochie Hughes Jay Howard Driver Development
11   Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course   Evagoras Papasavvas   Nikita Johnson   Evagoras Papasavvas   Evagoras Papasavvas Jay Howard Driver Development
12   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Mac Clark DEForce Racing
13   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing
14   Exhibition Place   Evagoras Papasavvas   Mac Clark   Nikita Johnson   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing
15   Simon Sikes   Nico Christodoulou   Simon Sikes   Nico Christodoulou Velocity Racing Development
16   Portland International Raceway   Jacob Douglas   Evagoras Papasavvas   Jacob Douglas   Jacob Douglas Pabst Racing
17   Jacob Douglas   Simon Sikes   Jacob Douglas   Jacob Douglas Pabst Racing
18   Jacob Douglas   Jacob Douglas   Simon Sikes   Simon Sikes Pabst Racing

Championship standings edit

Drivers' Championship edit

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th   16th   17th   18th   19th   20th+ 
Points 30 25 22 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Points (O) 45 38 33 29 26 23 21 20 18 17 15 14 12 11 9 8 6 5 3 2
  • The driver who qualified on pole was awarded one additional point.
  • One point was awarded to the driver who led the most laps in a race.
  • One point was awarded to the driver who set the fastest lap during the race.
Pos Driver STP SEB IMS IRP ROA MOH TOR POR Points
1   Simon Sikes 4 2 2 1* 13 1* 3 3 1* 10 2 17* 1* 1 2* 3 2 1* 447
2   Nikita Johnson 3 1* 16 8 3* 3 2 5 3 5 5 4 2 7* 18 4 3 7 344
3   Lochie Hughes 1* 3 1* 4 2 2 1* 6 12 1* 4 19 22 15 3 5 13 10 335
4   Evagoras Papasavvas 2 4 3 10 19 9 6 2 8 19 1* 2 4 6 7 2 5 6 323
5   Mac Clark 11 20 4 2 14 4 10 1* 16 2 3 1 3 4 13 8 4 9 318
6   Jacob Douglas 8 15 13 3 15 6 20 2 6 23 6 15 13 5 1* 1* 2 249
7   Sam Corry 5 11 8 19 1 5 16 12 19 20 7 3 5 9 6 16 17 3 222
8   Jorge Garciarce 13 5 9 6 6 10 14 10 9 4 8 8 20 14 4 17 6 14 212
9   Max Garcia 6 7 18 12 4 7 15 3 20 5 7 2 15 6 18 5 207
10   Chase Gardner 12 14 5 9 5 15 15 4 4 7 10 7 6 8 17 193
11   Al Morey 15 10 15 11 7 17 13 8 18 13 9 16 10 12 9 7 10 13 172
12   Elliot Cox 18 18 7 5 16 7 17 9 5 18 22 23 23 17 14 10 8 12 145
13   Danny Dyszelski 16 7 10 17 4 8 7 16 10 8 12 15 8 141
14   Ethan Ho 18 15 8 11 5 7 9 6 9 12 19 7 11 137
15   Gordon Scully 19 8 12 12 11 18 9 15 14 14 18 14 16 16 16 9 12 15 133
16   Maxwell Jamieson 17 9 17 14 10 19 19 13 17 16 16 11 17 10 10 14 14 18 121
17   Avery Towns 20 12 14 16 12 13 18 11 21 15 21 18 11 11 8 101
18   Max Taylor 17 16 8 6 21 11 22 19 11 9 8 86
19   Zack Ping 21 17 19 13 9 20 11 20 11 14 20 18 60
20   Thomas Schrage 13 10 9 18 19 4 55
21   Nico Christodoulou 5 1 48
22   Logan Adams 15 21 21 3 11 40
23   Carson Etter 19 13 14 15 11 16 38
24   Joey Brienza 10 16 14 18 12 37
25   Trey Burke 7 6 29
26   Nicholas d'Orlando 6 13 23
27   Louka St-Jean 14 19 11 18 22
28   Brady Golan 17 12 13 21
29   Jack Jeffers 11 12 19
30   Lucas Fecury 12 15 17 19
31   Lucas Mann 20 14 12 17
32   Ava Dobson 13 16 19 15
33   Andre Castro 9 21 13
34   Dane Scott 13 17 12
Pos Driver STP SEB IMS IRP ROA MOH TOR POR Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished
(Outside Top 10)
Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify
(DNQ)
Brown Withdrawn
(Wth)
Black Disqualified
(DSQ)
White Did not start
(DNS)
Blank Did not
participate
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
(1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
(1 point)
* Led most race laps
(1 point)
Not awarded if more than
one driver led most laps
Rookie

Teams' championship edit

Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th+ 
Points 22 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1
  • Single car teams received 3 bonus points per race as an equivalency to multi-car teams
  • Only the best two results counted for teams fielding more than two entries
Pos Driver STP SEB IMS IRP ROA MOH TOR POR Points
1 Pabst Racing 4 2 2 1 10 1 3 3 1 3 2 5 1 1 2 1 1 1 476
6 7 12 11 4 7 2 6 12 6 7 2 5 3 2 2
2 Jay Howard Driver Development 1 3 1 4 2 2 1 2 8 1 1 2 4 3 3 2 5 5 413
2 4 3 10 6 7 6 6 10 11 4 12 9 6 7 5 10 8
3 Velocity Racing Development 3 1 8 8 1 3 2 5 3 5 5 3 2 5 1 4 3 3 372
5 7 10 11 3 5 7 11 6 8 7 4 5 7 6 7 9 6
4 DEForce Racing 10 5 4 2 4 4 8 1 9 2 3 1 3 4 4 6 4 7 272
11 8 9 6 9 9 10 9 12 4 8 8 11 9 9 9 6 11
5 Exclusive Autosport 6 9 5 3 5 6 9 4 4 7 9 7 6 8 8 11 12 4 157
8 10 11 9 8 12 11 10 11 10 10 10 8 10 10
6 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development 12 11 7 5 11 8 12 8 5 12 13 12 13 11 11 8 8 10 109
7 DC Autosport 12 12 7 10 5 7 9 6 9 10 10 7 9 74
11 11 12 12 11 12
8 Future Star Racing 7 6 17
9 12
Pos Driver STP ALA IMS IRP ROA MOH TOR POR Points

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Andersen Promotions Announces Rebranding". www.usfpro2000.com. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Discount Tire Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio - Entry List" (PDF). USF2000 Championship. June 26, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  3. ^ "Ethan Ho Rejoins DC Autosport for 2023 Season". www.usfjuniors.com. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Wood, Ida (December 16, 2022). "USF Juniors champion Mac Clark stays at DEForce for rise into USF2000". Formula Scout. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  5. ^ Wood, Ida (December 14, 2022). "DEForce and JHDD make further signings in USF Pro series and F4". Formula Scout. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  6. ^ "DEForce Racing on X: "BREAKING.- @lucasfecury_ will make his USF2000 debut this weekend at Portland International Raceway!"".
  7. ^ "Jamieson Graduates to USF2000 with DEForce Racing". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  8. ^ Hodapp, Alycia (September 23, 2022). "DOUGLAS RE-SIGNS WITH EXCLUSIVE AUTOSPORT FOR THE 2023 SEASON". Exclusive Autosport. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  9. ^ "🚨DRIVER NEWS🚨 Exclusive Autosport is excited to announce the 2022 @TeamUSASchol Scholarship winner and Ohio resident @ThomasSchrage01 for this weekend's @USF2000 races at @Mid_Ohio! Welcome to the team, Thomas!". Twitter. June 27, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  10. ^ Hodapp, Alycia (November 10, 2022). "BRIENZA ADVANCES WITH EXCLUSIVE AUTOSPORT INTO USF JUNIORS IN 2023". Exclusive Autosport. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  11. ^ Wood, Ida (March 1, 2023). "IndyCar support series complete pre-season testing in Florida". Formula Scout. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  12. ^ a b "USF2000 Discount Tire Grand Prix of Indianapolis - Entry List" (PDF). May 11, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  13. ^ "Discount Tire Grand Prix of Road America - Qualifications - Race 1" (PDF). USF2000. June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  14. ^ Hodapp, Alycia (December 15, 2022). "AVERY TOWNS JOINS EXCLUSIVE AUTOSPORT FOR FRESHMAN USF2000 SEASON". Exclusive Autosport. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Entry List" (PDF). Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  16. ^ "Future Star Racing on Instagram: "Driving the #56 USF2000 Series car in USF Pro Championships Andre Castro! We are pleased to have Andre Castro Racing back with Team FSR in the next step of his racing career!". Instagram. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  17. ^ "US F2000 on Twitter: "@FStarRacing has announced @treyburkeracing will pilot the No. 58 car next week at @gpstpete"". Twitter. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  18. ^ Media, R. T. D. (December 9, 2022). "EVAGORAS PAPASAVVAS REJOINS JAY HOWARD DRIVER DEVELOPMENT'S USF2000 EFFORTS". RTD Media. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  19. ^ "Jay Howard Driver Development Adds Al Morey for 2023 USF2000 Campaign". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  20. ^ Wood, Ida (October 6, 2022). "US F4 leader Lochie Hughes stays with JHDD for step up to USF2000". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  21. ^ Media, R. T. D. (November 16, 2022). "CANADIAN LOUKA ST. JEAN SWITCHES TO USF2000 CAMPAIGN WITH JAY HOWARD DRIVER DEVELOPMENT". RTD Media. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  22. ^ Media, R. T. D. (June 5, 2023). "DANE SCOTT TO COMPETE IN USF2000 PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES WITH JAY HOWARD DRIVER DEVELOPMENT AT ROAD AMERICA". RTD Media. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  23. ^ "Feeder Series Americas on X: "DRIVER ANNOUNCEMENT | 🇺🇸 Ava Dobson will make her @USF2000 debut with Jay Howard Driver Development at Portland this weekend!"".
  24. ^ "Jacob Douglas Moves To Pabst Racing". Pabst Racing. June 12, 2023. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  25. ^ "Max Garcia (R)". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  26. ^ "Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Sebring Entry List". Twitter. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  27. ^ "DRIVE PLANNING Primary Sponsor for Renewed Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Team". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
  28. ^ "Hometown Boy Christodoulou to Race Streets of Toronto with VRD Racing". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  29. ^ Wood, Ida (October 11, 2022). "USF Juniors runner-up Sam Corry stays with Velocity for USF2000 step". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  30. ^ Wood, Ida (October 6, 2022). "VRD brings 14-year-old Nikita Johnson into USF2000 full-time for 2023". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  31. ^ "Dyszelski Joins VRD Racing's USF2000 Program for 2023". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  32. ^ Wood, Ida (February 2, 2023). "Gordon Scully steps up to USF2000 with Velocity Racing Development". Formula Scout. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  33. ^ "NEWS | Noah Ping's move to GB3 means a last-minute change for the @USF2000 squad of @VelocityRD, as Noah's brother Zack will take over his USF2000 ride". Twitter. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  34. ^ Wood, Ida (October 3, 2022). "TJ Speed expands into Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000". Formula Scout. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  35. ^ "TJ Speed Motorsports will focus on @USFPro2000 in 2023". Twitter. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  36. ^ Wood, Ida (October 20, 2022). "Velocity Racing Development signs Ping brothers for USF Pro series". Formula Scout. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  37. ^ Wood, Ida (March 1, 2023). "Noah Ping swaps USF2000 for GB3 campaign with Arden". Formula Scout. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  38. ^ "Andersen Promotions Announces 2023 Schedules and Scholarships". www.usf2000.com. Retrieved November 1, 2022.