The USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire season kicked off this past weekend on the famed Streets of St. Petersburg as the Jay Howard Driver Development program brought four drivers to the Sunshine State. With one driver in USF Pro 2000, a trio of competitors took part in the USF2000 effort as the Indianapolis-based program walked away with multiple podium results.

In the first round of the 2024 USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire in St. Petersburg, USF2000 and Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD) driver Evagoras Papasavvas had an impressive weekend, earning a pair of podium results, including a P2 result in race one on Friday followed by a third-place finish in race two on Saturday, leaving the weekend second in the championship point standings.

A sweep of The Andersen Companies Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has catapulted 14-year-old Max Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., into an early lead in the quest for this year’s USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire title chase and a scholarship valued at $458,400 to progress onto the next level of the USF Pro Championships ladder in 2025.

The record will show that 14-year-old Max Garcia started from the pole position for Pabst Racing and won today’s first of two races that will comprise The Andersen Companies Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the opening round of the new USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire season. But that doesn’t come close to telling the whole story.

Following the long off-season, Evagoras Papasavvas is returning to the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire series with Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD) and will commence a new campaign beginning this weekend at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.