Schwartz and Jeffers fastest in USF2000 and USF Juniors at IMS

FORMULA SCOTT ARTICLE

USF2000 and USF Juniors both held their official post-season tests at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.

The two series used the road course of the iconic venue, since no junior single-seater series race on the oval anymore, and testing was split into six sessions. The first two of each day lasted 35 minutes, with a half-hour session following.

Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series champion Hudson Shwartz was the pacesetter from the off in USF2000, the Pabst Racing driver topping session one with a 1m26.2278s laptime that put him a third of a second clear of everyone else.

Session two was slightly slower, but Shwartz was on top again with a 1m26.6545s, and session three was even slower than that and this time Velocity Racing Development’s Sam Corry topped the timesheet by 0.0029s over Exclusive Autosport’s Joey Brienza and 0.0625s over Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing’s Elliot Cox.

Laptimes improved on Sunday and Schwartz returned to the top in the day’s first session with a 1m25.8372s. Brienza was 0.2067s behind in second place, and Pabst’s Max Garcia was a further 0.0048s slower in third.

Garcia edged Shwartz to the fastest time in the next session by 0.0261s, with his fastest lap putting him second overall in the test. Corry went third fastest, with his laptime placing him fourth in the end-of-test combined timesheet.

The final session was the closest yet, but once again Shwartz was fastest. He pipped Cox by 0.0239s and Pabst team-mate Jason Pribyl by 0.0285s, with Brienza and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Evagoras Papasavvas completing a top five covered by 0.0951s. Garcia and JHDD’s Michael Costello were only 0.15s off the pace in sixth and seventh.