Two wins for Ty Fisher in his first year in the USF Junior program (Photo: Gavin Baker Photography - USF Pro Championships)

As the first step on the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire ladder system to IndyCar Series, it should be no surprise that this year’s USF Juniors grid is filled with talented kart racers from around the world, many of whom we’ve watched in recent years in national competition in the United States. The USF Juniors series kicked off in late April with a tripleheader at NOLA Motorsports Park and then moved to Barber Motorsports Park during the first weekend of May, and three different drivers came away with wins over the six races of the series. All three have spent the last few years honing their skills on kart tracks in the United States and Canada, and the experience and training is paying off.

Racelab / TB Kart USA’s Ty Fisher capped the 2024 karting season on the KA100 Junior podium at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas and the 14-year-old Canadian is now the current USF Juniors point leader on the strength of two wins and six straight top-five finishes. Fisher is driving for Zanella Racing, a team with deep roots in American karting with team owner Naka Zanella. Fisher’s Zanella Racing teammate Leonardo Escorpioni is no stranger to running up front in karting either, having been a top-10 driver in both SKUSA and USPKS competition in 2022 and 2023. Like Fisher, Escorpioni has been on the KA100 Junior podium at the SuperNats, finishing second in 2022. Escorpioni has won three of the six USF Juniors races held thus far and is only one point behind Fisher.

Ty Fisher has enjoyed making the jump from karting to USF Juniors in 2025 (Photo: Gavin Baker Photography – USF Pro Championships)

VRD Racing’s Joao Vegara won the opening race of the season at NOLA and is fourth in the points, just 20 markers out of the lead. Joao focused his karting on the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex in South Florida and, in 2021, he finished sixth at the ROK Vegas event at the Rio. Second-generation driver Oliver Wheldon is Vergara’s teammate at VRD Racing and he has a stout US karting resume, with many wins and podiums through Cadet and Junior karting. The SuperNationals podium success trend continues with Wheldon, who finished third in Mini Swift in 2021 and third in X30 Junior in 2023 in Las Vegas. Last year, he won the Skip Barber Formula Race Series championship on the strength of nine wins to score a $100,000 scholarship to move up to USF Juniors. This season, Wheldon currently sits third in points with five top-five finishes in six races.

SKUSA Mexico drivers Rodrigo and Pato Gonzalez have looked very good at the start of their sophomore seasons. Rodrigo finished on the podium at Barber Motorsports Park and banked those points to move up to seventh in the standings, ahead of 2023 Texas Sprint Racing Series KA100 Junior champion Diego Guiot, who runs for Zanella Racing. Patricio is currently 12th in the championship.

Leonardo Escorpioni for Zanella Racing has three wins in 2025 (Photo: Gavin Baker Photography – USF Pro Championships)

Former karters continue to shine in the upper two series on the USF Pro Championships ladder as well. Florida’s Max Garcia has both USPKS and SKUSA championships and series runner-up finishes to his credit, and is a multi-time SuperNationals podium finisher, and he currently dominates in the USF Pro 2000 championship standings. The Pabst Racing driver has two wins and an incredible eight straight top-five finishes and, as a result, he holds a 57-point lead over Turn 3 Motorsport’s Alessandro de Tullio after the Indy Grand Prix road course weekend. De Tullio has been a top-ranked single speed karter for several years, but is now totally focused on his burgeoning car career. Two-time SKUSA SuperNationals X30 Senior podium finisher Ariel Elkin, who’s raced with Racelab and TB Kart in Vegas, won two races at Indianapolis to advance to fifth in the championship.

After this past weekend in Indianapolis, former Speed Concepts Racing driver Jack Jeffers is the point leader in USF2000 standings after scoring his first series win, running with Exclusive Autosport for his third straight season. Fellow ex-SCR driver G3 Argyros has logged two podiums and five top-five finishes to sit fifth in the points for Pabst Racing. SKUSA SuperNationals 27 double Junior class winner Sebastian Garzon also won the Lucas Oil School of Racing Formula Car series in 2024 to gain a scholarship for USF2000 this season, and the DE Force driver has five top-10 finishes and a single top-five result on the season thus far to put him eighth in the standings. Just ahead of Garzon in seventh is Pabst Racing’s Caleb Gafrarar, who is also competing in the United States Pro Kart Series program with Hotz Driver Development, notching a third-place result at the Carolina Grand Prix at Trackhouse Motorplex the week before Indy. Gafrarar posted a podium finish at St. Petersburg and has three top-fives in what has been an up-and-down start to the season.

USF2000 driver Jack Jeffers is coming off victory at the Indy GP weekend (Photo: Gavin Baker Photography – USF Pro Championships)

The USF 2000 and Pro 2000 drivers will be back on track next week at the Carb Night Classic, where they’ll take to the 5/8-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Freedom 75 and Freedom 90 oval races on Friday, May 23. USF Juniors drivers will be return to competition at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on the June 6-8 weekend, where they’ll support the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts ‘4 Hours of Mid-Ohio’.

You can watch all the action on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@usfprochampionships

Learn more about the USF Pro Championships here:

https://www.usfprochampionships.info/

Check out the USF Juniors website for more series-specific information:

https://www.usfjuniors.com/about/the-series

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