Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

Lochie Hughes will propel his way into Indy NXT through scholarship after the 22-year-old became the second Australian ever to win the USF Pro 2000 title at Portland International Raceway on Friday evening.

Before Hughes, the only Aussie to win the championship was Trans-Am’s Matthew Brabham in 2013. By winning the title, Hughes won a scholarship valued at $681,500 to fund a ride in Indy NXT next season.

Hughes finished seventh in the race and only had to finish above Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark to secure the title in the second-to-last contest of the season. Hughes entered the race with a 35-point lead over Denmark.

The road to the championship for Hughes came after a strong start after winning the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg. He took command of the championship with a weekend sweep at Road America and picked up a win in the previous race at Toronto, giving him an average finish of 2.91 in the last eleven races heading into the series’ final weekend.

Before 2024, Hughes had a similarly strong start in USF2000 where he won the opening race in 2023 and was in the championship hunt before a poor weekend at Mid-Ohio knocked him back. He still finished as the season’s highest-finishing rookie. Hughes also won the 2022 Formula 4 United States Championship and was a runner-up in 2019 in the Australian Formula 4 Championship.

In the past five seasons, three champions: Kyle Kirkwood, Sting Ray Robb and Christian Rasmussen, all ended up in IndyCar after winning the scholarship. Louis Foster and Myles Rowe, the 2022 and 2023 winners, are both in the top 10 of this year’s Indy NXT standings.

For full results from the race at Portland, check out usfpro2000.com/results