Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

In just his first season with Turn 3 Motorsport, Australian Lochie Hughes has put together an incredible season.

Highlighted by unmatched consistency, Hughes will carry a 35 point lead over Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark into the final two races of the season at Portland International Raceway and will be able to lock up the championship in the first of those two races with a win.

Last year in USF2000, Hughes had a strong first half of the year but fell behind his championship rivals as the season progressed. This time around, he is close to putting it together for all 18 races.

Hughes has built up this gap in part by what has been a scorching second half of the season, highlighted by a weekend sweep at Road America and eight podium finishes in the last eleven races.

Hughes was able to use these 11 races, including the third-place finish at the points-and-a-half race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, to take a firm grasp on the championship as he showed that regardless of where the series traveled, that he’d still be able to perform well.

If you stack up Hughes’ average finish against his closest championship rivals over that time, you can see just how his consistency has put him above and beyond the rest of his competition in USF Pro 2000.

With an average finish that would put him on the podium, Hughes has been a cut above the rest throughout the season.

What stands out is the variety of tracks he has put wins together on. Hughes has been an accomplished racer on street courses ever since he jumped into USF2000 last season and won at St. Pete. He won again there this season and also picked up a win at USF Pro 2000’s other street course, Toronto.

While that St. Pete win to open up the season set Hughes up in a good spot, this second half of the season with four wins has been where he has shined. With one more win in Portland, his tally of five wins in the closing half of the season would put him in unique company in recent USF Pro 2000 memory with some IndyCar talents.

One thing to note to close this off is that while Hughes is in a great position, Portland is a track that provides chaos. The 2022 USF2000 championship weekend where Michael d’Orlando sprung from behind into the championship shows just how this final track can shape up the order in the closing stages.

However, if anyone can weather the storm, it would be the driver who has put together an impressive second half across all tracks and that would be Lochie Hughes. If he can pull that off, a spot in Indy NXT is within his grasp.