ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — The incomparable 4.014-mile Road America circuit will play host to what promises to be an exciting USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire season finale.
All three championships for both drivers and teams in USF Pro 2000, USF2000 and USF Juniors remain undecided.
Each series will hold pivotal tripleheaders on Friday and Saturday, September 25-26, after which over $1.3 million in scholarships and awards to assist in graduation along the highly acclaimed open-wheel racing development ladder will be presented at the post-season awards banquet at the nearby Osthoff Resort & Spa on Sunday evening.
USF Pro 2000 Title Up For Grabs
Six drivers representing six different teams still hold a mathematical chance of securing the USF Pro 2000 championship. At stake is a scholarship valued at almost $600,000 to assist in graduation to Indy NXT in 2027.
The two leading exponents, Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport) and Leonardo Escorpioni (Turn 3 Motorsport), are both seeking back-to-back USF Pro Championships and scholarships. Meanwhile, locally based Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros lies only 35 points adrift with a maximum possible haul of 99 points still on the table.
Andres Cardenas (JHDD powered by ECR), Thomas Schrage (TJ Speed Motorsports) and Frankie Mossman (VRD Racing) have a steeper mountain to climb but remain in contention with 15 of 18 races in the books.
Jeffers, the reigning USF2000 champion from San Antonio, Texas, has won three times this season and currently holds a 17-point edge over Florida-based Brazilian Escorpioni, who stepped up directly from USF Juniors after clinching championship honors in 2025. Escorpioni has won a series high five times but was forced to skip the double-header event early last month on the streets of Markham, Ontario, due to visa constraints.
Argyros, from Newport Beach, Calif., also remains firmly in the mix and will be relishing a return to Road America, where in June he swept to victory in both races of a doubleheader.
Peruvian Cardenas secured his first win at Markham, while Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, finally broke through for his first victory in the most recent race on the famed Milwaukee Mile oval just an hour or so to the south of Road America.
Schrage has overcome severe budgetary constraints but has completed more laps than anyone else this season and, uniquely, has finished among the top 10 in every race bar the season opener.
The final championship protagonist, Mossman, who, like Argyros, hails from Newport Beach, Calif., is the only non-rookie among the top six and is still seeking an elusive maiden victory.
Garzon vs. Majman in USF2000
The battle for this year’s USF2000 championship and a scholarship valued at $409,816 to advance next year to USF Pro 2000 is effectively a two-horse race.
Colombian teenager Sebastian Garzon began the year on a tear for DEForce Racing, winning three of the first four races and finishing on the podium in all of the first six. He continues to lead the standings, although fellow 16-year-old Brad Majman, from Melbourne, Australia, has kept the pressure on. A second-place finish and a win from the two most recent races on the streets of Markham has brought Majman to within 13 points heading into this weekend.
Majman not only has momentum on his side, but Road America is also the home event for his team, Pabst Racing, based in nearby Oconomowoc, Wis. Furthermore, Majman claimed a win, two additional podium finishes and two pole positions from the tripleheader at the same venue in June.
Majman’s teammate – and fellow Australian – Eddie Beswick lies third in the points table and also has fond memories of the Wisconsin track after securing his maiden victory on the same weekend.
Exclusive Autosport’s Evan Cooley, from Mokena, Ill., winner of the only oval race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in May, remains within sight of Beswick’s third place in the championship.
Second-generation racer Oliver Wheldon, from St. Petersburg, Fla., has been one of the revelations of the season for VRD Racing. Wheldon was too young to contest the first two races on his hometown streets, but he made a splash on his debut on the Indianapolis Grand Prix road circuit by snaring all three pole positions. He also swept both race wins at Portland International Raceway in Oregon last month to vault his way to fifth in the points chase ahead of fellow rookie and VRD Racing teammate Joao Vergara, from Miami, Fla.
Pasiewicz Leads USF Juniors
The only championship with a red-hot favorite to clinch honors during the final weekend is in USF Juniors. Polish former karting star Karol Pasiewicz holds a commanding 80-point advantage with only 99 points still to be won.
Pasiewicz is riding a streak of seven consecutive top-five finishes and has already won four times for Olivia Racing. Merely a fourth-place finish from one of the final three races will be enough for Pasiewicz to clinch a scholarship valued at $251,516 to graduate to USF2000 in 2027.
The battle for second, however, is well and truly up for grabs with second through eighth separated by only 41 points. The Teams Championship also is tightly contested with last year’s champions, Zanella Racing, holding a slender 22-point edge over VRD Racing.
After winning two of the first three races, Virginia-based Lebanese racer Max Mokarem still lies second in the points chase for Zanella Racing. But his advantage has been trimmed to only seven points over the top American among a multi-national field, Bex Cranston, from Greenwich, Conn., who has finished on the podium in his last three races for Exclusive Autosport. Cranston will celebrate his 18th birthday on Friday and would like nothing more than to secure his maiden victory.
Zanella teammates Olivier Mrak, from Ottawa, and Florida-based Brazilian Victor Couto are also within comfortable striking distance of second in the final points table, as are Canadians Cole Medeiros (Exclusive Autosport) and Edward Kennedy (VRD Racing), who has taken the series by storm, winning three times after being obliged to skip the opening six races of the season before attaining the minimum age of 14.
