PALMETTO, Fla. – USF Juniors Presented by Cooper Tires will reach the halfway point in its inaugural season this weekend with a visit to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, in conjunction with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series. The triple-header Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio for the newly introduced pre-step to the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires will comprise one race on Friday, July 8, and two more in advance of the NCWTS headline event on Saturday.
With seven of 16 races already in the books, Canadian Mac Clark, from Milton, Ont., Canada, holds a healthy 37-point edge, 189-152, over Alessandro De Tullio, from Miami, Fla. Each race is worth 30 points for a win, in addition to bonus points for pole position, fastest race lap and leading most laps. At the conclusion of the season, the champion will take home a scholarship valued at more than $220,000 to ensure graduation into the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship in 2023.
Clark, 18, began the year on a tear by winning each of the first four races for DEForce Racing – two at the challenging new Ozarks International Raceway and two more at Barber Motorsports Park. But De Tullio, who recently celebrated his 16th birthday, bounced back at VIRginia International Raceway early last month to sweep all three races and vault himself into title contention.
De Tullio’s performance at VIR was all the more remarkable for the fact he started from the fifth position in the first two races and third in the finale. Furthermore, an early mistake in the second race had seen him fall to last place to set the stage for a stunning comeback drive.
VRD Racing teammates Sam Corry, from Cornelius, N.C., and Nikita Johnson, from Gulfport, Fla., also are firmly in the fight following a series of podium finishes for the pair of 14-year-olds.
The top four in the point standings between them have accounted for the vast majority of podium appearances thus far, although four more drivers – International Motorsport teammates Andre Castro, from New York, N.Y., and Alan Isambard, from West Palm Beach, Fla., along with the Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport pair of Titus Sherlock, from Prosper, Texas, and Jeremy Fairbairn, from Wellington, Fla. – have one top-three finish apiece to their credit.
Two drivers are due to make their USF Juniors debut this weekend. Giorgio Carrara, from Las Brenas, Argentina, joins the International Motorsport fold, while Madison Aust, from Fort Worth, Texas, will make her debut appearance with the Crosslink Kiwi team.
The 18-driver field will take to the undulating and challenging 2.258-mile road course on Thursday, July 7, for three 45-minute test sessions. The Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio will continue on Friday with 30 minutes of practice at 8:15 a.m. EDT, followed by a single half-hour qualifying period at 10:45 a.m. and the opening race at 12:20 p.m. Race Two is set to start at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday with the third and final race taking the green flag at 11:30 a.m.
Live streaming of all races can be found at RoadToIndy.TV, the new USF Juniors App as well as usfjuniors.com.