This past weekend (April 25-26) marked the third and fourth rounds of competition for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. The second weekend of the 2014 season took teams back to the East Coast, as the series visited the impressive Barber Motorsports Park. Located in Birmingham, Ala. The 2.3-mile long circuit looks suitable to challenge pro golfers with its beautiful landscape, but in fact it was the young drivers of the Mazda Road to Indy program who were challenged this weekend.

The sprawling and beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., played host to the third and fourth rounds of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda this past weekend (April 25-26) and JDC MotorSports was on hand to contest the event with its emerging young star Clark Toppe. The Texan was the sole pilot for JDC’s USF2000 effort at the series’ first official visit to Barber Motorsports Park, and he learned a great deal during the trip, working to find optimum balance in his car throughout the weekend.

When the Belardi Auto Racing squad unloaded at Barber Motorsports Park last Wednesday for the second weekend of the six-event Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, they were focused on making sure that their driver duo rolled off the truck with the speed to run in the top-10 and challenge for podium finishes. Canadian sophomore driver Daniel Burkett and French rookie Nico Jamin entered the event coming off solid results at the opening round of the series at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, highlighted by Jamin’s third place finish in Race #2.

The 2014 season didn't exactly start out on a high note for 18-year-old Peter Portante with incidents during both Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda races at the St. Petersburg season opener. But after hard driving and good thinking, his confidence was restored this past weekend in the #24 Arms Up Motorsports Intercity Lines, Inc./Spargo Construction entry at Barber Motorsports Park for Rounds Three and Four.

Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park, ArmsUp Motorsports earned its first podium finish of the 2014 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda season. Twenty-three year old Aaron Telitz from Birchwood, Wis., started in fourth Saturday afternoon to race clean and methodically to the podium.