After he secured three wins and nine podiums in his first season in USF Juniors, Exclusive Autosport driver Jack Jeffers is back and aiming for the title he was fighting for last year.

In 2023, Jeffers, 17, finished third place in the championship, 76 points behind DEForce Racing’s Nicolas Giaffone.

The highlight of Jeffers season on the track was an impressive streak of seven performances lasting from the final race of the round at Virginia International Raceway in June to the first race at the Circuit of the Americas in October where Jeffers finished with all three of his 2023 wins, six podiums and an average finish of 2.14.

A lack of consistency to keep up those results throughout the season is what hampered Jeffers’s chances of winning the championship. Jeffers attributed one weekend in particular, two races at Barber Motorsports Park where he finished 15th and 8th, as a weekend that motivated him to achieve better results.

“That flipped a switch to me,” Jeffers said. “(I told myself) I gotta wake up and I really got to start performing now if I want to win the championship.”

Despite his incredible run of form, Jeffers fell short of the championship. While many of his championship rivals around him including Giaffone and teammate Joey Brienza moved up to USF2000 for 2024, Jeffers chose to remain in USF Juniors to take a second shot at winning the championship.

Jeffers said that the experience he has over the rest of the field will allow him to give himself the best chance of winning a scholarship reserved for the series champion valued at $263,700 to move up to USF2000 in 2025.

“I definitely think I could have won the championship last year if it wasn’t for my poor weekend at Barber,” Jeffers said. “Other than that, I pushed as far as I could into the last rounds.”

Jeffers also mentioned what Giaffone did the previous season, winning five of the first seven races. Jeffers might be in a position to have a similar start. Outside of Barber, Jeffers finished on the podium at every circuit USF Juniors raced. Jeffers sees getting out of the gate well as a crucial part of building a points gap that would allow him to win the title. 

Beyond the standings, one of the aspects of so far in USF Juniors that Jeffers has really enjoyed is being able to drive for Exclusive Autosport.

Jeffers said that he had talked with other teams across the USF Pro Championships before deciding to sign with Exclusive Autosport. After having a very comforting conversation with team owner Michael Duncalfe over the phone, Jeffers and his family talked over their options and chose to test with the team at Sebring.

“I gelled immediately,” Jeffers said. “When I met Michael (Duncalfe), I felt good with him. I met Lou (D’Agostino), the engineer, who’s an amazing coach. I felt right at home.”

Jeffers relied on teammates Brienza and Chase Gardner to help him with the process of getting up to speed once he began testing to get ready for the season.

The path to racing Jeffers took was a long road which involved years of karting. It all started when he received a kart as a Christmas present when he was nine. Eventually, his success led to him being able to represent the United States on the world’s stage when he got to compete in Portugal and Italy. 

He eventually progressed to the Lucas Oil Race Series, where he won the championship on the final race’s last lap at Sebring where he secured an 8th place. Jeffers had six wins and 10 podiums during that season as he continued to learn more about developing his racecraft.

It all led to Jeffers reaching where he is today. A race winner already in USF Juniors who believes that with the team he has, he has a great chance of winning the title in 2024 and securing his future as he moves up to the next level. 

“It’s gonna take me and Exclusive Autosport as a team to just, every weekend, keep pushing,” Jeffers said. “We need to push our hardest and just gain every single thing we can as a team.”