The first official pre-season test for the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire wrapped up Tuesday at Sebring International Raceway. Ideal conditions brought slightly faster lap times than on Monday, especially as competitors began to gain a little more experience on the newly introduced Continental tires.
Pabst Racing led the way in both USF Pro 2000 and USF2000 through the efforts of Christian Brooks and Sam Corry, albeit by incredibly small margins. It was a similar story in USF Juniors where Jimmie Lockhart narrowly emerged fastest for VRD Racing.
A trio of Pabst Tatuus IP-22s topped the times in USF Pro 2000, separated by just 0.008s. Brooks edged out 2023 USF2000 champion Simon Sike and Jace Denmark, as all three set their fastest times of the test during this morning’s opening session.
“The first outing with Pabst Racing went to plan,” said Brooks. “The team has been incredible and gave me a very solid piece. I’m looking forward to getting some more seat time and dialing in the driving. More than ready to get back to work.”
Francesco Pizzi didn’t quite match his best time from yesterday for TJ Speed Motorsports, but still ended the test with the fourth-fastest time. Nicolas Monteiro found a significant improvement in the final session for DEForce Racing, vaulting to fifth overall ahead of Turn 3 Motorsport rookie Adam Fitzgerald.
Pabst Racing’s Corry picked up from where he left off on Monday by continuing to set the pace in USF2000.
Jay Howard Driver Development rookie Michael Costello was the first to eclipse Corry’s best from yesterday but Corry found a little more improvement just before the lunch break as he turned the fastest time of the two-day test at 1m03.186s.
“Today went really well,” said Corry. “We were able to try a bunch of different things with the car and with the team. We were able to lead the pack and ended the day P1 as well. I am really happy with how the couple of days went here in Sebring. As we ran with the Continental tire on a longer run, we noticed that it doesn’t have a super hard fall off, it kind of stays plateaued and you are able to run consistent times. I really enjoyed the test and thank you to all the Pabst team for giving me such a fast race car.”
Remarkably, the top nine drivers today turned laps within a half-second of Corry’s best time. Costello’s time remaining good enough for second, narrowly ahead of Max Garcia (Pabst Racing) and Nico Christodoulou (VRD Racing).
A pair of rookies, Michael Boyiadzis (Jay Howard Driver Development) and Ayrton Houk (DC Autosport) ended the day fifth and seventh, sandwiching Indianapolis, Ind.’s Elliot Cox, who posted his best time while topping the charts in the final session.
There was a slightly larger improvement in lap times today for the USF Juniors competitors when compared to Monday, around 0.4s. The level of intensity certainly ramped up, too, as no fewer than seven youngsters on the first rung of the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire ladder managed to eclipse Bruno Ribeiro’s fastest day one time.
Lockhart, who placed fourth at the conclusion of his rookie season in USF Juniors, winning the final two races of the season at Circuit of The Americas, made a big jump this morning to turn what remained as the fastest lap of all at 1m06.055s. Lockhart ended the day narrowly ahead of Hudson Potter.
Also extremely close behind were Jay Howard Driver Development teammate G3 Argyros and yesterday’s pacesetter Ribeiro, for DEForce Racing.
“Things have gone well today,” said Lockhart. “Yesterday was a bit of nuisance. We had a lot of issues and didn’t get out really much at all in the first two sessions. We were able to get out in the third session and get some times in and really be able to test the new tire. Day two has been pretty good, to be on top all day and run without any issues. I definitely like the Continentals but they are a lot harder to handle because the sidewalls are a lot harder and have a lot less give to them, so they are a lot more snappy mid to exit but they definitely have a lot more grip. I think they will give us a lot more pace this year.”
Alex Popow (Exclusive Autosport) and Ava Dobson (Jay Howard Driver Development) also were comfortably within two-tenths of a second of the front-running times.
The next official outing for USF Pro Championships will be Spring Training at NOLA Motorsports Park on February 26-27.