Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

The 2025 USF2000 field might be one of the most wide-open the series has seen in years. All but five drivers in the field that are currently announced to take on the Streets of St. Petersburg this weekend are rookies. 

And the drivers who are returning all finished outside of the top ten in the 2024 standings, which means there is so much room for surprising contenders and winners in USF2000 this year.

The drivers aren’t just the newcomers for this upcoming season in USF2000, as there are two new teams joining the grid: Kevin Houk’s Benchmark Autosport, which will field his son Ayrton Houk in a single-car entry. Additionally, Synergy Motorsport joined USF2000 with Australian Formula Ford’s reigning champion, Eddie Beswick. Beswick drove for the team in Australia as well.

So with so many new drivers and a handful of new teams coming in, it’s very likely that the winner of the USF2000 title and the $405,050 scholarship – that has declined by $50,000 from its 2024 number – to help costs with advancing to USF Pro 2000 will be someone who is new to the series. The last series rookie to win the USF2000 title was Braden Eves, who won with Cape Motorsports in 2019.

The calendar for the series will not change from 2024. It’s going to be the same eight circuits distributed over eighteen races in the same corner. The cars get a change, there will be an increase in horsepower which should improve lap times in 2025. A full version of the schedule can be found at the end of this preview, and all races are able to watch on either the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel or the USF Pro Championships app.

The title frontrunners:

Liam McNeilly became the first British driver to win a USF Juniors race in 2024 for Jay Howard Driver Development and enters USF2000 with the same team after a well-deserved promotion in 2025. McNeilly fought hard for the USF Juniors title and came up short in 2024 but has been on a tear in off-season testing. As far as raw pace goes, McNeilly is the fastest driver in the field. Between testing in the fall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and in the spring at NOLA Motorsports Park, he has led a majority of USF2000 sessions.

McNeilly also carries some of the most impressive form in the entire USF Pro Championships, having come off a sweep at Portland International Raceway. Five wins and eight podiums last year was only the start of what McNeilly will be able to achieve in the United States, and his ability to showcase his talent at a wide variety of circuits and circumstances makes him a prime candidate for a USF2000 title in 2025.

One driver who McNeilly fought with a lot in USF Juniors last year was Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers, who was right up there with McNeilly at spring testing last Saturday. Jeffers finished fifth in USF Juniors in 2025 and is one of the prime candidates in USF2000 after being one of the few Juniors drivers last season to score a top five finish at every circuit the series traveled to, a mark only four other drivers on the field got to hit.

After taking three wins in USF Juniors in 2023, Jeffers is looking for a bounce-back year and has all the speed necessary to be able to do it. As Exclusive Autosport fights back toward the front of the field in USF2000 in 2025, Jeffers will be a key and necessary piece to that puzzle.

Heading over to DEForce Racing, Colombian Sebastian Garzon enters the USF Pro Championships as one of the most accomplished karters in the Americas in recent years. He also is an open-wheel champion having raced in the Lucas Oil Formula Race Car Series. Garzon has a level of adaptability that few young drivers competing in America have, the ability to seamlessly fit into any car and be fast in it. He was already in sixth place in both sessions against drivers who have much more experience in the USF2000 car than he does. 

If you want a dark horse candidate to fight for the title in 2025, Garzon is your pick. He might have some catching up to do in the first few rounds, but carries potentially the highest ceiling of anyone in the field.

Given that Pabst Racing has won the USF2000 drivers title in each of the past two seasons, it is also worth throwing both of their drivers in this category as well. Caleb Gafrarar and G3 Argyros both have found themselves near the front of the field in preseason testing and will contest for wins throughout the season in a car which will certainly be a rocketship like past years. That’s not to take away from the drivers, who both are great as well. but Pabst builds such quick cars every year and I’m excited to see how the drivers utilize them.

Argyros took a huge step forward during his first USF Juniors season and got a shocking USF2000 win from 14th on the grid in the series finale at Portland, culminating in a move to Pabst. He is a driver who has been able to take the jump up a level throughout 2024 and it is possible that Argyros can take an even larger leap in his second season in open-wheel racing than he took in his first.

Gafrarar was the fastest Pabst driver during last Saturday’s test at NOLA and showed some great pace, hanging right around drivers like Jeffers and McNeilly over the course of the day. He also had a strong season in 2023 competing in the Skip Barber Race Series where he picked up multiple race wins as well. Expect Gafrarar to be a driver who hits the series in stride in 2025.

Also in contention for wins:

If you want another candidate lurking in the shadows that might put up a shot at the championship fight, Exclusive Autosport’s Evan Cooley could also be right near the top at the end of the season. Cooley had a strong performance in the offseason in both spring testing and the YACAdemy Winter Series, finishing near the top of both. 

Cooley got a podium in his first ever USF2000 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then followed it up with a fourth-place finish in Toronto across his two rounds he competed in last year. Dipping his toes into the water with performances that strong, you can expect Cooley to continue to move forward and challenge for podiums and wins in 2025.

Turning gears to another open-wheel series, Brad Majman and Teddy Musella both saw success during the inaugural season of the Ligier JS F4 Series. The two combined to win over half of the races.

Liked watching them battle last year? You’re in luck. Both of them are going to be in USF2000 next year as two open-wheel drivers who have already proven themselves in a high-stakes environment.

Musella came out on top in 2024 when he won the title, and he will go into 2025 with VRD Racing after showing strong pace in the offseason. I’d keep Musella in mind as a guy who will challenge for race wins right off the bat, having a unique distinction as a national-level open-wheel champion. With that being said, USF2000 is a higher level of competition for him, and he will have to get used to facing off against new and stronger competitors. I have no doubt that Musella will be able to rise to the occasion regardless.

One competitor he will be used to facing off against is Majman. He had a rough finish to the season at the Circuit of the Americas last year where he only scored once in the points and fell to fifth in the championship, but his highlight was a back-to-back-to-back string of wins at New Jersey Motorsports Park where he dominated for all three races during Ligier JS F4’s July stop at the circuit. Majman showed there how much raw talent he has, and if he continues to build, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to pull off more weekends like that in the future.

In the field as well:

One driver it will be interesting to watch in the midfield to see if he can rise to the top of the grid will be Jay Howard Driver Development’s Anthony Martella. Martella ran the first half of the USF Juniors season in 2024 before proceeding to take a jump to his home country of Canada to compete in the touring car class of the Canadian Sports Car Championship, where he finished second in the standings after becoming the series’ youngest-ever winner in Toronto.

Testing has looked good for Martella as well where he put himself in the top ten in both spring training sessions. I’ll be fascinated to see how he does and I think after a successful sports car season, he will be contending for podiums in his return to open-wheel action in 2025 with the added confidence that stepping away and getting success in another discipline of racing has given him.

Jay Howard’s Timmy Carel, VRD’s Christian Cameron and DEForce’s Jeshua Alianell are all graduates from USF Juniors who will be competing for the same teams they were on in 2024. Cameron and Carel both finished the season stronger than they started, picking up four top ten finishes each in the last six races of the season. 

As far as the returning drivers to USF2000 in 2025 go, they’re all drivers who sat outside of the top ten in the 2024 standings. Ayrton Houk will return as mentioned earlier in an entry fielded by his father under Benchmark Autosport after finishing 11th in 2024. Lucas Fecury will join Exclusive Autosport for the 2025 season after finishing 14th in 2024. Maxwell Jamieson and Brady Golan will be returning to the series as well with DEForce Racing. Golan will race in two open-wheel series in 2025, contesting both USF2000 and Formula Regional Americas.

Synergy Motorsport’s Eddie Beswick, driving for the team he won the Australian Formula Ford title with in 2024, also competed in one USF2000 round in 2024 where he had a best finish of 14th at Toronto. Additionally, South African Wian Boshoff will race for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, becoming the first driver to race under the flag of an African country in USF2000 since fellow South African Julian van der Wott in 2018.

Storylines and predictions:

If it sounded like I said there are a lot more drivers than normal who could be on for race wins, that is intentional. This field is so open for contenders and challengers to rise up as the season goes on and while there is a clear favorite at this point in Liam McNeilly, there are so many drivers who can present a challenge throughout the season. Last year, eight separate drivers won a USF2000 race. I think they’ll one-up that in 2025 with so many rookies coming into the series.

Prediction 1: There are nine or more winners in USF2000 in 2025.

Max Garcia got off to a hot start in 2024 and eventually won the title by kicking off the year with a sweep down in St. Pete. A lot of open-wheel champions across the country over the past few years have gone down to Florida and have had a strong showing, and I don’t see why in a series where drivers are trying to find their footing this will prove any different. I think the winner there is going to be in prime position to contend.

Prediction 2: The 2025 champion will win at least one race in St. Petersburg.

Having past experience in open-wheel racing is pretty much a given for most drivers heading up to USF2000, but being able to compete at a national level will be crucial to being able to move toward immediate success at the next level. After having fought hard in the Ligier JS F4 Series in 2024 and traveling across the country, I love both how Teddy Musella and Brad Majman have progressed as racing drivers and can see either one challenging for a title in 2025.

Prediction 3: Both of the Ligier JS F4 graduates, Teddy Musella and Brad Majman, will be in the fight to win races.

One of the highlights of the season calendar is always the only oval race on the USF2000 docket, the Freedom 75 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. If there’s anything about the Freedom 75, it is that it can cause a good upset due to the variability and novelty that is oval racing. Compared to everywhere else on the calendar, if anyone is going to make a name for themselves out of nowhere, it will be here.

Prediction 4: The Freedom 75 winner will be a first-time winner in the USF Pro Championships.

And finally, at the top of the preview I mentioned that no series rookie has won the USF2000 title this year. Given that each of the main title contenders I have listed are rookies, there is a near-absolute chance that record falls this year. I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t.

Prediction 5: A series rookie will win the USF2000 title.

Schedule:

Times for future rounds beyond St. Pete currently are unknown. Times for St. Pete are in eastern. All races can be viewed on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel or USF Pro Championships app.

Rounds 1-2: Streets of St. Petersburg – 2/28-3/1

Race 1: 2/28 at 4:45 p.m.

Race 2: 3/1 at 12:30 p.m.

Rounds 3-5: NOLA Motorsports Park – 4/10-4/13

Rounds 6-7: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – 5/8-5/10

Round 8: Indianapolis Raceway Park – 5/22-5/23

Rounds 9-10: Road America – 6/19-6/22

Rounds 11-13: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course – 7/3-7/6

Rounds 14-15: Streets of Toronto – 7/18-7/20

Rounds 16-18: Portland International Raceway – 8/7-8/10

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