By Tony DiZinno

The field of 16 USF2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires competitors in their Tatuus USF-22 chassis took the green flag at 8:54 p.m., 24 mins after the scheduled start of 8:30.

Additional infield temporary lighting helps to illuminate the 0.686-mile Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park as some of the taller floodlights aren’t fully lit.

The sun is setting as the race is about to get going. Ambient temp of 72 for race start. 

Clark led the field away ahead of Papasavvas with Johnson up to third past Gardner, Hughes completing the top five. 

Gardner making a run on the low line around Johnson. He completes the pass after Lap 6 at the start of Lap 7. Further back in the pack, Cox and Garcia are big movers up three spots apiece to eighth and ninth from 11th and 12th on the grid. 

First full course yellow end of Lap 12 for Dyselzki stopped at pit in Turn 3. This wipes out a 1.6-second lead Clark had on Papasavvas. 

Restart comes end of Lap 17 start of Lap 18 as Clark, who’s kept the No. 1 DEForce Racing entry up front since the start, leads away. Gardner and Johnson remain side by side for third a little further behind.

Sikes closing on Hughes for P5, inside going into T1 L26 and clear for P5 exiting T4 L26. Hughes trying him back on the next lap and the two title combatants remain side-by-side. 

Clark has the gap on Papasavvas back to 1.6 seconds at L30. 

He’ll also be closing on traffic in the next several laps; Scully in P15 is last car running. Clark clears him on L34, through T3 and T4. Gets Jamieson a couple laps later. 

Halfway home in the Cooper Tires Freedom 75 – Lap 38 of 75 – and order is: 

Clark, Papasavvas, Gardner, Sikes (now fourth after passing Johnson), Johnson, Hughes, Morey, Cox, Garcia and Garciarce in top 10 with Towns, Corry and Brienza on the lead lap, Jamieson and Scully lapped and Dyselzski out of the race.

The gap from Clark to Papasavvas is 1.966 seconds at half distance.

Johnson now back by Sikes for fourth in the battle for best of the rest outside the podium runners. Sikes regains the spot on Lap 44. 

Clark has extended the gap to 3.381 seconds by Lap 47. 

With 25 laps to go, the top 11 cars are on the lead lap. Garcia is now up to eighth past Cox on Lap 52. 

Sikes has closed to mere hundredths on Gardner for third and completes the pass end of L63 exit of T4, after reeling him in. Gardner repossess him thought exit of T4 on the following lap in what has quickly blossomed into a great battle. 

Ambient temp has dropped three degrees to 69F since race start as at 9:21, the track is completely lit.

The Sikes/Gardner battle rages for four more laps, but Sikes finally completes the pass after the exchange by the end of L68. Further back Garcia gains another spot, now up to P7.

Five to go on L70. 

Clark brings it home after an authoritative flag-to-flag performance from pole. Papasavvas second and Sikes third, a smart drive that may pay dividends for him later this year.

“It feels great. I knew we had a strong car coming to the race and we put it together yesterday. To put it together with these boys… it’s been since Portland when we had a win. So it’s been a bit of a drought!” said Clark, referencing his most recent win in 2022. This is his second USF2000 win, first on an oval.

Talking championship aspirations for the rest of the year:

“For a Canadian reference… this is the TSN Turning Point of our season! We can fight for the championship. We have what, four rounds left? Lots of racing.

“Now it’s about being smart. We clawed back a little bit of ground. You can’t have a DNF, you can’t have a mechanical failure. It needs to be all brains from here.”

Any advice he received coming in?

“I got some good advice; well my dad taught me how to drive. Hinch was texting me before the race! He’s won big races before and he had a bit for me. It helped. 

Cooper Tires Freedom 75 Unofficial Results

By Tony DiZinno

Mac Clark will led the 16-car field to green for tonight’s USF2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires race, the Cooper Tires Freedom 75, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The young Canadian in the Tatuus USF-22 drove his No. 1 DEForce Racing car to two laps at 44.962 seconds and an average speed of 109.853mph around the 0.686-mile oval.

Evagaoras Papasavvas was next in the first Jay Howard Driver Development entry ahead of Chase Gardner (Exclusive Autosport), Nikita Johnson (VRD Racing) and points leader Lochie Hughes (JHDD).

Second in points, Simon Sikes, will roll off from ninth in his Pabst Racing entry.

Michael d’Orlando of Cape Motorsports won the last two USF2000 races on the oval in 2021 and 2022. Christian Rasmussen (JHDD) took the 2020 win, with other winners with this Tatuus chassis including Cameron Shields (Newman Wachs Racing) in 2019 and Kyle Kirkwood (Cape) in 2018.

The only oval on the schedule means the USF2000 field has a slightly different points structure.

A win is 45 points, second 38, third 33, fourth 29, fifth 26, with the remainder of the top 10 23-21-20-18-17 and then 15 for 11th down to 2 for 20th.

Hughes holds a 14-point lead on Sikes (185-171) with Johnson on 144, Papasavvas on 106 and Sam Corry on 94 completing the top five.

Qualifying Results

By Patrick Stephan

Simon Sikes brought the field to green with contact near the back as the flag was waving. Four wide down the front straight and Papasavvas gets by as the field makes it through Turn 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7…maybe…yes, 8, 9, and someone goes of at Turn 10…it’s the 90 of Jacob Douglas in the grass on the outside of Turn 10.

Jorge Garciarce is also involved and he limped his car to pit lane with the left front suspension broken and pointed the wrong direction.

On the start, the field packed up before the green flew and accordioned with the Chase Gardner getting into the rear of Jorge Garciarce as row 6 met row 5. Not sure of Gardner got help, but seemed like some were launching and others hadn’t gone yet and the field was very tightly packed.

Lap 3 order under yellow is Papasavvas, Hughes, Johnson, Clark, Corry, Sikes, Cox, Garcia, Taylor, Scully, Dyszelski, Ho, Towns, Morey, Jameison, Mann, Ping, Gardner (back on track with new front wing), Garciarce (also coming back out after suspension repairs), and Douglas.

Towns and Taylor get penalties for jumping the original start.

Back to green. Hughes gets the lead from Papasavvas, who is also passed by Nikita Johnson. Sikes gets back to 4th, Clark, Cox, Corry, Garcia, Taylor, Dyszelski are the Top 10.

Taylor warned to serve the penalty or he will be black flagged, Towns had already come down.

Sikes inside of Johnson to 2nd at Turn on Lap 7. Report of debris (hatch cover) on track near Turn 14, but off line. Surface flag being shown there.

Garciarce gets a drive through for avoidable contact from that incident with Towns earlier.

Lap 7 completed order is Hughes by 1.8

Spin at Turn 5 by Elliot Cox, and…Full Course Yellow. Hughes, Sikes, Johnson, Papasavvas, Clark, Ho, Gardner, Scully, Morey, Dyszelski, Ping, Mann, Taylor, Corry, Cox, Garciarce,Towns, Jameison, Douglas.

Corry and Cox had been battling earlier, but haven’t see a replay of what put Cox in to the tire barrier inside Turn 5. Race Control must have seen it though as Sam Corry is assessed a penalty for avoidable contact. He is already out of the car after having already pulled the car to pit lane after the incident. Clean-up taking a bit as Cox car is placed on the flat bed and tire barrier repairs are made.

The top three on the track are also the top three in USF2000 points entering this race. Hughes has 154, Sikes 147, Johnson 119, and Papasavvas 93. Corry came in to the race in 5th, with Mac Clark 6th – that should change with Corry now out.

Hughes leads the field to the restart zone that begins at Pit In but they don’t launch until nearly the front straight. Sikes took the lead on the outside, but slipped to the grass slightly and Hughes got the lead back by Turn 2. Johnson is now P2.

Lap 13 completed and Hughes leads by 0.43, Johnson is second, Garcia also got by Sikes who is now 4th, Clark, Ho, Papasavvas, Gardner, Dyszelski, Scully.

Gardner is now off the track at Turn 9. Told to stay in the car and most of the track stays green.

Last lap Sikes goes around Garcia to get back on the podium at Turn 7 and we see Gardner sitting next to the tire barrier drivers left of Turn 9…possibly had pulled off to that spot.

Hughes wins by 0.35 over Johnson and Sikes.

In victory lane Hughes notes his up and down weekend, even though he finished well. Tries to say “always a bridesmaid never a bride,” but laughing says, “always a bridesmaid, never a groom…or whatever that is.”

The 21 year old from Gold Coast Australia notes in victory lane that it’s already Mothers Day back home so he says hello his mom. Nice sentiment and I’m sure appreciated at 2:30am on Sunday morning in Australia.

The order is unofficial, I believe Mac Clark has a 5 second penalty coming for blocking earlier in the race. It was announced as a 5 second post race penalty…perhaps pushing him from 5th to 11th.

• This is Lochie Hughes 3rd win of the season (St Pete #1 and Sebring #1)
• If this race weekend was scored like outdoor motorcross, Hughes is the overall winner having gone 2nd, 2nd, 1st at IMS.
• The Top 3 in points will remain as noted above.
• Hughes had started 4th
• Biggest mover of the race – Ping 19th to 11th.

By Patrick Stephan

Welcome to the first race of a busy day the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires took the green flag bright and early at 8:00am Eastern Time with the Air and Track Temp about 68F, and 92% humidity making it quite muggy here.

The start was as chaotic as you’d expect with Sikes taking the lead from Johnson at Turn 2. Further back the field stacked up at the exit of Turn 1 and Gordon Scully and Max Taylor wound up losing their front wings in Turn 2.

That brings out the yellow flag.

Simon Sikes brings them back to green after 2 laps, and again keeps the lead, but he has a trio of BRD cars in Dyszelski, Johnson, and Corry behind him as they settle nose to tail through Turn 2.

Further back, Elliot Cox is making moves in several turns, including 12 to get up to 13th from his 18th starting position.

Lap 3 also shows Mac Clark and Lochie Hughes getting back to 5th and 6th respectively.

Nikita Johnson moves to second on Lap 4 as Sikes gets out to a 1.8 second lead.

Lap 5 we get a couple incidents as Zack Ping is off at Turn 7. Al Morey and Maxwell Jameison get together when Jameison gets a run on the inside but doesn’t have the angle and can’t get the car turned so they make left front to right rear contact, taking them both to the outside and off the track.

Order with 6 laps completed is Sikes, Johnson, Dyszelski, Hughes, Clark, Douglas, Ho, Gardner, Cox (P10), Papasavvas, Garciarce, Garcia, Towns, Taylor, Morey, Jameison, Ping, Scully.

Back to green and Sikes is able to get a clean jump and lead through Turn 1. Note they had put the lapped car of Max Taylor up behind Taylor helping the leader a bit on that start.

Chase Gardner is now getting a drive through for his incident at Tun 7 earlier and Jameison will also get a penalty should he return – both are for avoidable contact. Watching now, quite a few people are trying the same move as Jameison, he just couldn’t get his car to rotate and Turn for that 90 degree right hander.

Fight up front has Sikes leading Hughes, Johnson, Clark and Corry in the Top 5. Douglas is 6th and Cox is up to 7th as they both came through in a scramble that pushed Dyszelski wide in Turn 2.

Papasavvas also gets Dyszelscki on Lap 11 as he moves to the 9th spot. Race Control comes back and corrects that saying there was a shortcut, and they’ll have to swap those spots back.

Gardner missed the penalty the first opportunity but does come down pit lane before the black flag is shown a second time.

Sikes lead as the white flag is shown is 1.2 seconds over Hughes is trying to hold off Johnson in what would be a better battle if we could see it (camera was following a car all by itself for a bit 😉 ).

Sikes takes the win by 1.6738 over Hughes with Johnson joining him on the podium. Mac Clark, Sam Corr and Jacob Douglas follow. The timing sheet say Papasavvas is 7th, but race control announced that car would get a post race penalty for a short-cut. Cox listed 8th for now, then Dyszelski and Garciarce round out the Top 10.

Note on the short cut. Race control had announced before the race they would monitor shortcuts electronically with timing and scoring loops in that area and penalties could be enforced during or after the event -including post race time penalties.

Sikes, a 22-year old from Atlanta, picks up his second win of the year. This was his 32nd USF2000 start after doing partial seasons with smaller teams from 2020 through 2022. Now with Pabst Racing, he’s got a win at Sebring, Indy and is currently 2nd in points.

Sikes came in to the weekend leading the points, but his 13th place finish yesterday allowed Lochie Hughes to resume the top spot in the season long battle. Sikes win today closes that gap to 7, with another race to run today at noon.

But, like previous seasons, and similar to others on the ladder, he still needs funding to finish this season. Ideally, performances like today will help attract the sponsorship necessary to keep him in the seat for race weekends to come.

Big movers of the race are Papasavvas from 19th to 7th (subject to penalty enforcement) and Elliot Cox from 18th to 8th.

USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires Discount Tire GP of Indianapolis Race #2 UNOFFICIAL Results

By Patrick Stephan

On the start we have three or four cars involved with three winding up backwards or sideways, including Jacob Douglas who had started on the outside of the front row. Looked like Douglas in the 90 had wound up about four back as they entered the braking zone. He then tried to dive inside of cars that had gone a little wide but probably got clipped and turned in to the curbing which he ramped over.

That send him into another car, who lost their front wing. Lucas Mann would come to a stop over at Turn 6 and need to be retrieved, bringing out the yellow flag.

The order under yellow is Johnson, Sikes, Cox, Hughes, Garcia, Clark, Taylor, Towns, Morey, Ho, Ping, Corry, Dyszelski, Jameison, Scully, Douglas, Garciarce, Papasavas, Mann.

Big movers on that start include Sikes from 4th to 2nd, Hughes from 11th to 4th, Taylor from 16th to 7th.

Back to green on Lap 4 and they come down single file and Johnson hugs the inside of the front straight, then pops out with Sikes alongside.

Lochie Hughes goes around Cox and picks up 3rd over in Turn 7. Lap 5 and the order is now Johnson, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Cox and Garcia.

Battle for the lead at Turn 1 and several cars lock tires, and get through…but over at Turn 7 bigger issues.

Max Garcia jumped Max Taylor on the inside line under braking, going over the top of Taylor and then Garcia landed on the rear of Eliott Cox car. Cox was on the more traditional line when Garcia came down on his car. Another big save for the halo’s on these open wheel cars.

Garcia wound up hard in to the tire barrier at the end of the back straight.

Lap 8 order under yellow is officially Johnson, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Corry, Dyszelski, Morey, Douglas, Gardner, Towns, Scully, Ping, Garciarce, Jameison, Ho, Cox, Taylor, Garcia, Papasavvas, Mann.

Race control is correcting the order as the tire barrier is being reset at the end of Turn 7. They moved Towns up to 6th as he had been passed under the yellow.

Green will come out again on Lap 10 and Johnson again protects the inside, but locks up under braking and with a bad angle, allowing Hughes to take the lead. Johnson had to bail and take the run-off (oval Turn 4 apron) and go around to rejoin at Turn 3. That will drop Johnson to 7th.

Next time by and Mac Clark takes the lead, with Hughes dropping to 4th.

Lap 12 order is Clark, Sikes, Corry, Hughes, Dyszelski, Johnson (6th), Towns, Morey, Douglas. Gardner is 10th.

Lead for Clark is 0.5017 on lap 13.

Lap 14 and again at Turn 1 we have tires locking at several spots in the field. The draft down the main straight is significant, but then some clearly don’t have enough grip to make the pass.

Johnson moves to 5th as the field takes the white flag.

At Turn 1, Sikes to the outside and Clark to the inside. They go side by side, and run wide and in to the grass…that makes Sam Corry the leader. He is able keep the lead with Hughes and Johnson getting side by side off Turn 14 as they raced for the finish line.

That gets us a podium of Corry, Hughes, and Johnson was 0.0336 out of 2nd.

This is Sam Corry’s first USF2000 win. He graduated from the inaugural season of USF Juniors. He finished second in that championship with three victories.

Corry started this race in 12th. Hughes in 2nd started 11th and Danny Dyszelski 4th started 14th. Johnson started on the pole, but got dropped to 7th with his own Turn 1 issues, and was able to get back on the podium.

Unofficial Results USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires Discount Tires Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race #1