The first level of the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire - USF Juniors - will kick off theiir 2024 season at NOLA Motorsports Park this weekend, and the field is full of well-known kart racers
(Photo: USF Pro Championships / Gavin Baker)

The 2024 USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire series will kick off this coming weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park (April 5-7) and the stacked field of 26 drivers is filled with the familiar names of young racers who have starred on the national karting scene in recent years. The series ran its annual Spring Training event at the NOLA venue back in late February, on the Monday and Tuesday after the Texas Sprint Racing Series kicked off its 2024 schedule at the facility’s kart track. It’s now time to begin the six-weekend, 16-race USF Juniors schedule that will crown a champion in late August at Portland International Raceway, the title winner walking away with a scholarship worth $263,700 to move to USF2000 in 2025.

Former Junior karting frontrunner Jack Jeffers is back with Exclusive Autosport in 2024, having won three USF Juniors races last season
(Photo: USF Pro Championship / Gavin Baker)

Texan Jack Jeffers leads the sophomore class as he returns to the series with Exclusive Autosport, having won three races in 2023. The former Speed Concepts Racing driver won the YACademy Winter Series in February and will be a primary title contender this season. Exclusive Autosport will also field a Tatuus JR23 for national shifter kart driver Anthony Martella, who is also running Pro Shifter with Rolison Performance Group this season under the guidance of Danny Formal. Autobahn Margay Ignite and Ignite Challenge Series driver Evan Cooley will run alongside Jeffers and Martella at Exclusive, having impressed in both the series’ Fall Combine at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last October and the YACademy Winter Series in February. Brazilian karter Joao Vegara, who moved his karting efforts to the US in 2021, will also race with the team.

Rotax Winter Trophy winner Ayden Ingratta is expected to be a title challenger for Jay Howard Driver Development this year
(Photo: USF Pro Championship / Gavin Baker)

Like Exclusive Autosport, which is also based in the Indianapolis area, Jay Howard Driver Development will have a Speed Concepts Racing graduate under their USF Juniors team; two to be exact. Canadian Ayden Ingratta raced in several karting events over the first three months of this year, winning at the Rotax Winter Trophy in Orlando, and he’ll be joined by G3 Argyros, who last drove for SCR in 2022 and finished third in the ROK Cup Florida Winter Tour. Badger Kart Club member and Route 66 Sprint Series veteran Ava Dobson will also return to the series after running the Road America and Circuit of the Americas events last season. National level karting veteran Timothy Carel will also make his open wheel debut with JHDD in 2024.

2016 SKUSA SuperNationals Micro Swift winner Vinicius Tessaro will race with DE Force this season
(Photo: USF Pro Championship / Gavin Baker)

Multi-time Brazilian karting champion Vinicius Tessaro will join the championship-winning DE Force Racing, following in the footstep of fellow Brazilian Nicolas Giaffone. Tessaro has enjoyed success in the US already, having won the SKUSA SuperNationals in Micro Swift in 2016. Leandro Juncos, son of Juncos-Hollinger Racing co-owner Ricardo Juncos, has been karting for 10 years after start at the age of four. Although he doesn’t have years of karting experience like many of the drivers in the USF Juniors program, Texas Brady Golan started testing with Nash Motorsportz in KA100 Junior in 2020 and run numerous events with the top national operation at CalSpeed Karting in Fontana in 2021 before moving to Skip Barber and F4. DE Force has also started a Driver Development team that will run brother Rodrigo and Patricio Gonzalez from Mexico. Both drivers competed in both USPKS and SKUSA Pro Tour competition in 2023.

Skip Barber Formula Car Series championship will take his $100,000 scholarship to VRD Racing this season
(Photo: USF Pro Championship / Gavin Baker)

Hoboken, NJ’s Max Taylor transitioned from Junior to Senior karting over the course of the 2023 season, racing with Rolison Performance Group, and he’ll help lead the USF Juniors line-up for VRD Racing in his second season at the entry level of the USF Pro Championships. Taylor was the runner-up in both the X30 Junior and KA100 Junior categories in the SKUSA Pro Tour last season. VRD’s drivers will include 2023 Skip Barber Formula Car Series champion Sebastian Wheldon, who finished fifth in X30 Junior in the United States Pro Kart Series in 2022. Multi-time ROK Sonoma title winner and 2022 Challenge of the Americas 100cc Junior champion Christian Cameron will also run under the VRD Racing banner this season. Former Speedsportz Racing team driver Jeshua Alianell graduated from Alan Rudolph’s program and then scored back-to-back championship runner-up finishes in the Skip Barber Formula Race Series in 2022 and 2023 and he’ll steer as Skip Barber liveried machine for VRD this season.

Top Florida karting outfit Zanella Racing will make their USF Juniors debut this year
(Photo: USF Pro Championship / Gavin Baker)

Well-known karting operations InterMS and Zanella Racing will make their USF Juniors debuts at NOLA. InterMS will run Augie Soto-Shirripa and SKUSA SuperNats X30 Senior podium finisher Ariel Elkin, while Jose Zanella’s squad will feature karting stars Leonardo Escorpioni and Diego Guiot, the runner-up in KA100 Junior in last year’s Texas Sprint Racing Series. Escorpioni graduates from a strong Junior career that included a runner-up finish in KA100 Junior at the 2022 SKUSA SuperNationals.

The USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire drivers hit the track on Friday for three test sessions ahead of official practice at NOLA Motorsports Park. They’ll qualify on Saturday morning and will run their first of three races in the afternoon. They’ll cap the weekend with two races on Sunday. The full ladder system will be on display at NOLA this weekend as the Skip Barber Formula Race Series will also feature karters like Ryan Giannetta, Caleb Campbell, and Oliver Wheldon. The USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 series will round out the weekend’s line-up, all starting their push to win the unparalleled scholarships offered by Andersen Promotions andn the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire.

Live streaming of the coverage, with commentary by EKN’s own Rob Howden, can be viewed on the USF Pro Championships’ YouTube channel or on www.usfjuniors.com

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