Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

Ariel Elkin will now sit just two points behind second place in the USF Pro 2000 standings after a career-defining weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that saw the driver land on the top step of the podium twice.

It also was the most successful weekend in the history of TJ Speed Motorsports since they entered the USF Pro Championships in 2023. Elkin became the first driver in team history to win multiple USF Pro Championships races in the same weekend for TJ Speed.

It’s the culmination of an ambitious jump Elkin made during the offseason to skip a step in the American open-wheel ladder after finishing fourth in USF Juniors last season, foregoing USF2000 to progress straight to USF Pro 2000. The decision has proved to pay off for the 18-year old Israeli driver, as his Indianapolis performance has solidified his ability to be competitive at the next level.

Elkin won both his races from pole, with his second win coming with a convincing 4.3 second gap to Turn 3’s Cooper Becklin behind. His qualifying pace put him a tenth faster than VRD’s Max Taylor, who beat out Elkin for the USF Juniors title last season.

One-lap pace is something that Elkin might have a claim to be among the best in the entire USF Pro Championships, having set multiple track records last season in USF Juniors and having started from pole in four races, the second-most of any driver in the series.

Next week will present a new challenge for Elkin, who will contest his first-ever oval race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

USOpenWheelNation will be on-site for that race, the Freedom 90, so be sure to subscribe to our website for all the updates.

The race presents increased importance, with the series’ lone oval race dealing out 1.5x the amount of points of a normal race, as unlike other weekends in the series with multiple races, the Freedom 90 is a standalone race. Elkin is going to enter the Freedom 90 two points behind Turn 3’s Alessandro de Tullio and 59 points behind Pabst Racing’s championship leader Max Garcia.