PHOTO CREDIT: RTD MEDIA (RTD-MEDIA.COM)

By: Eddie Fuhrer

Al Morey IV will take the next step in his young career when he will compete in the USF 2000 series, a transition which will involve a lot of change for the young driver.

Morey believes that despite the jump to the faster car and the different series, the testing time that he has gotten over the winter has been promising and that his pace is currently good.

“I’m not expecting the first race to go out and dominate the field by any means, but I’d like to be competitive,” Morey said. “I think we’ll be more than competitive and finding ourselves in the top 10 as soon as the season starts.”

Previously, Morey ran four race weekends in the Formula 4 United States Championship, where he found his footing and had a season-best finish of 9th in the third race at Virginia International Raceway.

While a lot changes from his F4 experience last year, he will remain with the same team. Morey will be driving for Jay Howard Driver Development in the upcoming season, a team which he has been driving for in both karting and single-seaters for multiple years.

“Having a figure like Jay Howard in the team, obviously that’s huge,” Morey said. “Seeing how much success he’s had in the past so having someone as a mentor to look up to like that has been very good.”

Morey went on to talk about how he feels the crew at JHDD is great, and how they always are able to put together fast cars.

“I think the whole team dynamic is very good,” Morey said. “All the drivers in USF this year, we are all very good friends.”

Al Morey IV

Sitting at just over a month until the first race of the season in St. Petersburg, Morey still has some more time in the car before action begins in March. He will be testing one more time at Sebring on February 28th.

When it comes to improving between now and when the season starts, Morey said that mindset is important to him.

“I’m going to learn everything that I can, squeeze every ounce of information I can out of the car, out of my self, to make myself best prepared for the races,” Morey said.

The differences Morey described between the USF 2000 and F4 cars mostly resulted from the additional amount of downforce which is produced.

That combined with a difference in top speed allows for the USF 2000 car to achieve quicker lap times than its F4 counterparts. The lap record at Mid-Ohio, a track which Morey raced at in 2022, is nearly four and a half seconds faster for the USF 2000 car than it is in F4.

“You can kind of sail the (USF 2000) car into a corner and it’ll stick more than a F4 car,” Morey said. “That’s a good thing, faster corners lead to more exciting racing in my opinion.”

You can watch Al Morey IV in action for Jay Howard Driver Development during the USF 2000 opening weekend in St. Petersburg from March 3rd to March 5th.