Portland USF2000 Practice #1 Results, Stats and Notes

By Patrick Stephan

Good morning and welcome to Portland International Raceway for the final weekend of the USF Pro Championships presented by Cooper Tires.

Both USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 ran test sessions yesterday ahead of their triple header’s to decide the 2023 champions (and scholarship winners).

We’ll get caught up with the USF2000 notes first, then jump over to USF Pro 2000. I will note, with such a busy weekend and 4 series to cover (NTT INDYCAR, INDY NXT,, USF 2000 and USF Pro 2000, it will be a little tough to watch every session for every series, so please forgive us if we don’t have all the details immediately – though of course actual races will take priority and we should be able to cover those appropriately.

Yesterday afternoon’s first test session for USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires was led Max Taylor (1:29.7570), Mac Clark and Nikita Johnson. Run in wet conditions, the session had three red flags:

Red Flag at: 12:06:44.117 Contact: Car 8 (Lochie Hughes) in Turn 11
Red Flag at: 12:25:38.950 Contact: Car 9 (Ava Dobson) in Turn 8
Red Flag at: 12:42:18.033 Contact: Car 6 (Evagoras Papasavvas) in Turn 4

The second session was paced by Thomas Schrage (1:20.2718), Jorge Garciarce and Ethan Ho. Per series notes, Schrage brought out the red flag with contact in Turn 4 in that session.

Coming in to the weekend, Simon Sikes leads Lochie Hughes by 69 points for the title and the scholarship to advance to USF Pro 2000 in 2024. Nikita Johnson is 3rd, just 10 points further back.

Full Time Sheets and the point standings are below, but it’s notable that this is a 3 race weekend, so it’s possible, although highly unlikely Hughes could close that 69 point gap. Race winners receive 30 points, with 2nd getting 25, then 22, dropping predictably down to a single point for 20th. There is a bonus point available for pole position, most laps led and fastest race lap.

Basically any reasonable finish is likely to lock the title up for Sikes, even if Hughes can run the table in all three races.

And that brings up to today’s first practice session held at 9:00am on a cool, perhaps in places damp track under hazy skies here in Portland.

Jacob Douglas and his Pabst Racing teammate Max Garcia were quickest in the session with the leader turning a 1:12.5309. As noted, I wasn’t able to watch the entire session, but I did learn that Elliot Cox would go off the track at Turn 11 and make impact with the tire barrier. Cox didn’t turn any laps in yesterday’s test sessions (according to the time sheets – I was in transit personally), so it’ll be up to the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development crew to get him back on track and ready for the qualifying session from 11:15-11:45 Pacific Time.

Point leader Simon Sikes was 12th quick, with his closest rival Hughes 7th.

USF2000 Portland Practice #1 Results:

Pos	Car #	Driver	Best Time	Diff	Best Lap	Total Laps	Best Lap	Team
1	23	Jacob Douglas	1:12.5309	1:12.5309	18	19	18	Pabst Racing
2	24	Max Garcia	1:12.8473	0.3164	17	18	17	Pabst Racing
3	6	Evagoras Papasavvas	1:12.9439	0.413	10	18	10	Jay Howard Driver Development
4	1	Mac Clark	1:12.9783	0.4474	15	15	15	DEForce Racing
5	33	Max Taylor	1:13.2126	0.6817	15	17	15	VRD Racing
6	10	Jorge Garciarce	1:13.2362	0.7053	13	16	13	DEForce Racing
7	8	Lochie Hughes	1:13.2835	0.7526	17	19	17	Jay Howard Driver Development
8	90	Thomas Schrage	1:13.6025	1.0716	15	17	15	Exclusive Autosport
9	68	Ethan Ho	1:13.7514	1.2205	16	17	16	DC Autosport
10	12	Maxwell Jamieson	1:13.7898	1.2589	17	17	17	DEForce Racing
11	7	Al Morey	1:13.8349	1.304	17	20	17	Jay Howard Driver Development
12	22	Simon Sikes	1:13.9313	1.4004	9	10	9	Pabst Racing
13	11	Lucas Fecury	1:14.4229	1.892	19	19	19	DEForce Racing
14	14	Sam Corry	1:14.5392	2.0083	17	17	17	VRD Racing
15	19	Gordon Scully	1:14.6029	2.072	19	19	19	VRD Racing
16	57	Carson Etter	1:14.7817	2.2508	18	19	18	DC Autosport
17	9	Ava Dobson	1:16.5957	4.0648	18	19	18	Jay Howard Driver Development
18	17	Nikita Johnson	No Time	‑‑‑	‑‑	‑‑‑	‑‑	VRD Racing
19	67	Elliot Cox	No Time	‑‑‑	‑‑	‑‑‑	‑‑	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development

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USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires Point Standings Entering Portland

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	Simon Sikes	368
2	Lochie Hughes – R	299
3	Nikita Johnson	289
4	Mac Clark – R	274
5	Evagoras Papasavvas	265
6	Chase Gardner – R	193
7	Sam Corry – R	191
8	Jorge Garciarce	186
9	Max Garcia – R	172
10	Jacob Douglas	158
11	Danny Dyszelski	141
12	Al Morey – R	139
13	Elliot Cox – R	112
14	Ethan Ho – R	111
15	Gordon Scully – R	106
16	Maxwell Jamieson – R	104
17	Avery Towns – R	101
18	Zack Ping – R	60
19	Max Taylor – R	51
20	Nico Christodoulou – R	48
21	Logan Adams – R	40
22	Joey Brienza – R	37
23	Thomas Schrage – R	31
24	Trey Burke	29
25	Nicholas d’Orlando	23
26	Louka St-Jean – R	22
27	Brady Golan – R	21
28	Jack Jeffers – R	19
29	Lucas Mann – R	17
30	Carson Etter – R	17
31	Andre Castro	13
32	Dane Scott – R	12

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USF2000 Portland Thursday Test Session #1

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Best Time	Diff.	Gap	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps
1	33	Max Taylor	VRD Racing	1:29.7570			78.773	17	18
2	1	Mac Clark	DEForce Racing	1:29.8051	0.048	0.0481	78.730	13	14
3	17	Nikita Johnson	VRD Racing	1:30.3190	0.562	0.5139	78.283	18	18
4	19	Gordon Scully	VRD Racing	1:31.1157	1.359	0.7967	77.598	20	20
5	14	Sam Corry	VRD Racing	1:31.4284	1.671	0.3127	77.333	20	20
6	6	Evagoras Papasavvas	Jay Howard Driver Development	1:31.5549	1.798	0.1265	77.226	11	12
7	10	Jorge Garciarce	DEForce Racing	1:31.8978	2.141	0.3429	76.938	12	13
8	68	Ethan Ho	DC Autosport	1:32.1243	2.367	0.2265	76.748	17	18
9	7	Al Morey	Jay Howard Driver Development	1:32.4666	2.710	0.3423	76.464	11	12
10	90	Thomas Schrage	Exclusive Autosport	1:32.8397	3.083	0.3731	76.157	16	17
11	11	Lucas Fecury	DEForce Racing	1:33.5373	3.780	0.6976	75.589	13	13
12	8	Lochie Hughes	Jay Howard Driver Development	1:34.0109	4.254	0.4736	75.208	2	3
13	12	Maxwell Jamieson	DEForce Racing	1:36.7069	6.950	2.696	73.112	6	11
14	9	Ava Dobson	Jay Howard Driver Development	1:40.6828	10.926	3.9759	70.225	5	6
15	57	Carson Etter	DC Autosport	1:48.1402	18.383	7.4574	65.382	1	4
16	22	Simon Sikes	Pabst Racing	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
17	23	Jacob Douglas	Pabst Racing	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
18	24	Max Garcia	Pabst Racing	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
19	67	Elliot Cox	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Dev.	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0

USF2000 Portland Thursday Test Session #2

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Best Time	Diff.	Gap	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps
1	90	Thomas Schrage	Exclusive Autosport	1:20.2718	-.—-	-.—-	88.081	25	26
2	10	Jorge Garciarce	DEForce Racing	1:20.9684	0.6966	0.6966	87.323	21	24
3	68	Ethan Ho	DC Autosport	1:21.2547	0.9829	0.2863	87.015	26	27
4	11	Lucas Fecury	DEForce Racing	1:21.5028	1.2310	0.2481	86.750	26	26
5	12	Maxwell Jamieson	DEForce Racing	1:21.7928	1.5210	0.2900	86.443	24	25
6	33	Max Taylor	VRD Racing	1:22.5029	2.2311	0.7101	85.699	12	13
7	17	Nikita Johnson	VRD Racing	1:22.5933	2.3215	0.0904	85.605	6	7
8	14	Sam Corry	VRD Racing	1:23.0176	2.7458	0.4243	85.167	12	13
9	19	Gordon Scully	VRD Racing	1:23.3839	3.1121	0.3663	84.793	15	16
10	57	Carson Etter	DC Autosport	1:23.5217	3.2499	0.1378	84.653	24	25
11	24	Max Garcia	Pabst Racing	1:24.0869	3.8151	0.5652	84.084	9	9
12	23	Jacob Douglas	Pabst Racing	1:24.4929	4.2211	0.4060	83.680	9	10
13	22	Simon Sikes	Pabst Racing	1:25.1743	4.9025	0.6814	83.011	10	11
14	1	Mac Clark	DEForce Racing	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
15	6	Evagoras Papasavvas	Jay Howard Driver Development	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
16	7	Al Morey	Jay Howard Driver Development	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
17	8	Lochie Hughes	Jay Howard Driver Development	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
18	9	Ava Dobson	Jay Howard Driver Development	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0
19	67	Elliot Cox	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Dev.	No Time	-.—-	-.—-	No Speed	0	0