ARLINGTON, Texas – A pair of exciting races on a challenging new street circuit opened a new season of USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire in style, and with two debutant winners sharing the glory.
Reigning USF2000 champion Jack Jeffers, from San Antonio, Texas, was the premier force throughout the Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Arlington for the Exclusive Autosport team. Jeffers duly triumphed in Race Two this evening, but earlier in the day it was last year’s USF Juniors champion, Florida-based Brazilian Leonardo Escorpioni, who took advantage of a late miscue by Jeffers to claim a storybook victory for Turn 3 Motorsport.
It was the fifth time in as many years that the team run by former series frontrunner Peter Dempsey had triumphed in the opening race of the season.
VRD Racing’s Frankie Mossman, from Newport Beach, Calif., and Escorpioni’s teammate, Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla., completed the podium in Race One.
G3 Argyros, also from Newport Beach, Calif., executed a bold late pass in Race Two to snatch second place for Pabst Racing, while another strong third-place finish for Mossman was enough to ensure an early points lead in the quest for a scholarship valued at $593,056 to progress to Indy NXT in 2027.
Jeffers carried on from where he and Exclusive Autosport left off in 2025, on the crest of a wave, by earning his first-ever USF Pro 2000 Continental Tire Pole Award on debut during qualifying on Friday afternoon. Intriguingly, second position on the grid also was taken by another series debutant as Escorpioni qualified on the outside of the front row.
The race started a little later than scheduled due to some track delays earlier in the day, but under a gorgeous blue sky and in front of a sizeable crowd on the brand-new 2.73-mile temporary circuit, the start of the race was clean as Jeffers held off Escorpioni at the drop of the green flag and the field accelerated toward Turn 10 at the end of the back straightaway.
Jeffers wasn’t quite so fortunate at the same point one lap later when he left his braking a touch too late, slid wide on the exit and allowed Escorpioni to take the lead. Moments later, the caution flags waved following an incident also at Turn 10 which sidelined top-10 runners Thomas Schrage (TJ Speed Motorsports), from Bethel, Ohio, and Sebastian Manson (Turn 3 Motorsport), from Auckland, New Zealand.
Escorpioni continued to run out front until shortly after the green flag waved again. This time, Jeffers executed a well judged pass which began in Turn Four and finally was completed as the leading pair entered the tricky left-hand sweeper known as The Horseshoe, aka Turn Six.
Jeffers looked set for an impressive victory until a sudden downshift problem caused him to lose control at the right-handed Turn Nine leading onto the long back straightaway and spin into the wall. It was a heart-breaking end to the race for the native Texan.
The incident ensured the race would finish under caution, gifting Escorpioni the win and enabling Mossman, who started seventh, to claim second after a race-long battle with Costello and Peruvian Andres Cardenas for JHDD powered by ECR.
After celebrating his 16th birthday on Sunday as the youngest driver in the field, Christian Cameron, from Sonoma, Calif., drove a fine race for TJ Speed Motorsports to finish fifth. Close behind him at the finish line were Brady Golan (Turn 3 Motorsport), from Austin, Texas, and Canadian Anthony Martella, who salvaged a fine result after a disappointing opening round for Exclusive Autosport. Martella also earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after starting way back in 20th.
Race Two later in the day saw Jeffers once again starting at the front after claiming his second Continental Tire Pole Award. Almost all of the 22 positions on the grid were determined by each driver’s best lap from the opening race, rather than their second-fastest laps from qualifying.
Jeffers more than atoned for his earlier disappointment by leading Race Two from start to finish. An early scrap for second between Escorpioni and Cardenas ended badly for Escorpioni as he was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after six laps to replace a damaged front wing. Undaunted, Escorpioni once again displayed his class by rising from 16th to seventh at the finish following the issuance of a variety of penalties. He also claimed a bonus point after recording the fastest lap of the race.
A couple of those penalties were attributed to Cardenas – one for initiating an accident and a second for blocking – which relegated him to 13th in the final results despite finishing second on the road.
Argyros dived past Mossman at Turn 10 on the final lap to take a fine second, while Jeffers’ teammate Evan Cooley, from Mokena, Ill., overcame a difficult start to his dual-pronged season in USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 by taking fourth. Cooley also took home the Tilton Hard Charger Award after having started 19th.
Behind him in fifth also represented a strong performance from JHDD powered by ECR’s JT Hoskins, from Sarasota, Fla., who drove an excellent race after starting from 15th.
