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.

RC Enerson augmented his lead in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda by claiming two accomplished victories today at Barber Motorsports Park. The 17-year-old from New Port Richey, Fla., grasped the lead at the start of Race One this morning from polesitting Frenchman Florian Latorre, and went on to win handsomely for his family-run Team E Racing.

The new auto racing season is barely under way but the level of intensity will be high when all three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy travel this week to Barber Motorsports Park in rural Alabama. Talented young Americans Zach Veach, Spencer Pigot and RC Enerson have grasped early advantages in their respective championship chases and will be looking to maintain their momentum as each series will host a pair of races which will once again run in support of the Verizon IndyCar Series.