St. Petersburg, Fla. – Turn 3 Motorsport will kick off the 2022 Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires season this weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida alongside the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The challenging 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit will host two races over the weekend for both the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship.
With new car builds debuting in both the Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000 Series in 2022, the team has spent the pre-season building and testing the race cars to prepare for the start of the year.
Driving the #2 Indy Pro 2000 car will be series rookie Jonathan Browne of Ratoath, Ireland. The 21-year-old has built an impressive resume in the U.K. and Ireland with multiple Formula Ford victories as well as a GB3 podium and is now set on making his mark in the Road to Indy.
#2 Jonathan Browne // Indy Pro 2000 Championship
Human Centred Movement / CRPS Awareness
“We have had a positive few days testing over the past month, and I’m feeling more and more comfortable in the car every session,” said Browne. “I’m looking forward to getting to St. Petersburg and racing on a street circuit for the first time. It will be a challenge that I’m excited for, and I can’t wait to kick off the season this week!”
Graduating to the Indy Pro 2000 series will be Josh Green in the #3 Indy Pro 2000 car. The 19-year-old made a splash at last year’s USF2000 season finale after charging to the lead and winning both his and the team’s first race in the series. Now, Green is ready for the next level challenge of the Indy Pro 2000 series.
#3 Josh Green // Indy Pro Championship
SessionGuardian / Zimperium / Lionfish Consulting / Mark Green / JHG Investments
“I am super excited to get going for 2022,” said Green. “I have loved driving the new Indy Pro car since the moment we hopped in, and I can’t wait to get racing. St. Pete is one of the most challenging circuits on the calendar, and that makes putting together the perfect lap that much more rewarding. As always, I can’t thank everyone at Turn 3 enough for the long hours put in throughout the off season as well as my sponsors SessionGuardian and Zimperium. I look forward to seeing everyone out in sunny Florida!”
Christian Weir will return to the USF2000 series in the #32 car after joining the final three events in 2021 and making an impact in his first season of racing. The 15-year-old was even honored with the USF2000 AiM Move of the Year Award for passing five cars in the last lap of Race 2 at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Weir used last season to gain racing experience across multiple series in preparation for the 2022 championship and is now set to take the wheel once again for the full season.
#32 Christian Weir // USF2000 Championship
ProFlo / Ferguson / eComfort.com
“I am really looking forward to my first full season in the USF2000 Championship,” said Weir. “It will be my first race back since suffering a broken back last year, but the limited winter testing that we did went very well. To be back with Turn 3 Motorsport will provide consistency and an opportunity for growth not only from year to year, but throughout the 2022 season as well. Both myself and the team have goals set high, and the quest to achieve those goals begin this weekend in St. Pete!"
Joining Turn 3 Motorsport with Ignite Autosport in 2022 will be 2021 Rookie of the Year Spike Kohlbecker who will pilot the #33 USF2000 car. The 19-year-old finished seventh in last year’s USF2000 Championship with a podium finish and top-ten results in 13 out of 18 total races, setting the bar high for a strong sophomore season in the series.
#33 Spike Kohlbecker // USF2000 Championship
Ignite Autosport / Margay Racing / TierPoint / PSL / RSolution / TrueTitle / Ruckus Racing / Messmer Cares / Alvear / Cfx
“The first race is only minutes away from starting now, and I couldn’t be more excited to get on with it,” said Kohlbecker. “I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s hard work in the off-season put to use at St. Pete and can’t wait to get back to racing. Let’s go get ‘em!”
Turn 3 Motorsport is going into 2022 after being crowned victors in both the USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 season finales last year. After a strong off-season testing program, the team hopes to carry their momentum forward into this weekend’s event in St. Petersburg.
“Finally it’s time to go racing,” said Team Owner Peter Dempsey. “It’s been an extremely tough winter with all the updates to the cars. Everyone on the team has put in a huge amount of time and effort to get us ready for the first race. I’m so grateful to have had a fantastic group help our team get to this stage. I feel we have a very nice balance of drivers in both series. We have teamed up our experienced drivers, Josh and Spike, with drivers that have a lot to learn in their first full season of racing in the USA, Jonathan and Christian. The atmosphere in the team has been good, and I feel we are all ready for the fight in 2022.”
Indy Pro 2000 and USF2000 will start the weekend with practice sessions tomorrow followed by qualifying and races on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A full weekend schedule is detailed below.