Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

The USF Pro Championships travel to NOLA Motorsports Park in Louisiana for their first weekend of the season where USF Juniors, USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 will all be competing alongside each other.

With 65 drivers competing, there’s bound to be plenty of action as USF Juniors kicks off their season and USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 pick up on where they left off in St. Pete.

Here are five things to watch out for this weekend:

Max Garcia is on fire:

Max Garcia had the start of dreams in USF2000 in St. Petersburg, as the 15-year-old Florida native put his Pabst Racing car on pole and won both races on the Streets of St. Petersburg. It should come as no surprise after four top-five finishes and strong preseason results that Garcia would be near the front, but the way in which he was able to keep calm and composed after falling behind on race starts was truly impressive. With a 16-point championship lead, it will be exciting to see how he does in NOLA this upcoming weekend.

Nikita Johnson and his hometown win:

Nikita Johnson capped off his weekend at St. Pete with a win in his home city, his second top-five finish of the weekend. Johnson showed lots of pace throughout the entire weekend and will head into NOLA with a narrow eight-point deficit to Lochie Hughes in first place. Johnson is a driver who has continued to show all the potential that he has and as part of a VRD Racing team that will have drivers who are competitive this weekend in all three series, watch out for Johnson to continue to build on his growing experience in the series.

USF Juniors starts here:

With the largest field ever for the series, USF Juniors and its 26 cars will be pulling up to the Pelican State for a shot at a scholarship to advance to USF2000. Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly was the quickest driver throughout testing at NOLA and hops across the Atlantic Ocean to compete after a strong season that had him place 3rd in Britain’s GB4 Championship. Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers finished 3rd in USF Juniors last season and picked up a top-10 finish in the opening USF2000 race of the season as well.

Lochie’s strong start:

Changing teams in the offseason is never an easy thing to do, but Turn 3 Motorsport’s Lochie Hughes fit comfortably in his new colors when he won the opening race of the USF Pro 2000 season at St. Pete. Hughes is coming off of a season where he won the opening race in USF2000 in 2023 when he got a strong start that put him firmly in the championship hunt. Heading into NOLA, he has the chance to build on to his championship lead and take advantage of the pace that the Turn 3 Motorsport cars were able to bring into the opening round.

A Return To Louisiana:

For the first time since 2015, the USF Pro 2000 series will be competing at NOLA Motorsports Park, a 13-turn, 2.74 mile circuit which drivers and teams got acclimated to as part of the series’ official test in February. It’ll be fascinating to see how the drivers adjust to the new circuit especially as they continue to get used to racing on the new Continental Tire, which has a longer period of time before the tire heats up. Many drivers have already gotten the chance to race at NOLA in other series before but this will also be a first-time experience for many others.