PORTLAND, Ore. – Jack Jeffers drove an exemplary race this afternoon at Portland International Raceway to clinch the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire title with one race remaining on the season. Jeffers, a 19-year-old rookie from San Antonio, Texas, led from flag to flag for Exclusive Autosport for his sixth victory.
Jeffers’ closest rival, Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, worked his way from fourth on the grid to second, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Jeffers from clinching the championship and a scholarship valued at $405,000 to graduate onto the next step of the renowned USF Pro Championships open-wheel development ladder, USF Pro 2000, in 2026.
Schrage’s VRD Racing teammate, Teddy Musella, from Orlando, Fla., once again completed the podium in third.
The grid for today’s second leg of the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Portland tripleheader was established according to each driver’s second fastest lap during the lone qualifying session on Friday – or their fastest lap from the opening race of the weekend yesterday.
Jeffers duly claimed his fourth Continental Tire Pole Award of the season. He was joined on the front row by Musella, with Evan Cooley, from Mokena, Ill, aboard another Exclusive Autosport Tatuus lining up third ahead of Schrage, who failed to find a clear lap during the critical second phase of qualifying yesterday and was one of only three drivers to improve his grid position during the race.
Jeffers and Cooley worked together perfectly at the start, with Cooley immediately tucking in behind his teammate. Musella, meanwhile, found himself under siege under braking for the tight opening chicane from a third Exclusive car driven by Brazilian Lucas Fecury, who lunged through from his seventh starting position and forced Musella into the escape road.
Teammate Schrage also was inconvenienced, such that Jeffers and Cooley completed the opening lap in front of DEForce Racing’s Sebastian Garzon, from Neiva, Colombia, who started fifth, and teammate Jeshua Alianell, from The Woodlands, Texas, who had lined up eighth.
Cooley lost all hope of a good result when he ran off the road at the exit of the Turn Nine/10 chicane shortly before the end of lap two. Thankfully, that was no problem for Jeffers, who continued to lead from the DEForce pair, with Schrage soon hot on their heels.
Schrage overtook Alianell on the fifth lap to move into second, but it took him until Lap 11 to find a way through into second place. By then, Jeffers was already long gone in the lead.
The two leaders matched their pace for the remainder of the 25-lap race, but the relative positions remained unchanged and Jeffers’ comfortable win – and championship title – was assured.
Musella took until the seventh lap to find a way past Alianell, including a mistake at Turn One which cost him several seconds and left him with a mountain to climb if he was to challenge for the final podium place. But challenge he did. Musella narrowed the gap of more than five seconds to just a couple of car lengths with two laps to go, then took advantage of an error under braking by Garzon at Turn One to move past his rival into third.
Garzon limped home in fourth with a missing front wing, still well clear of Anthony Martella (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Woodbridge, Ont., Canada, who edged out Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros, from Newport Beach, Calif., after a race-long battle and earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after having started 12th.
Josh Cooley and Michael Duncalfe picked up the PFC Award as the winning car owners.
While the drivers’ title-fight has been settled, Exclusive Autosport and VRD Racing are still squabbling over the coveted teams championship. VRD currently holds a slender 16-point edge heading into tomorrow afternoon’s season finale with a maximum of 40 points to be earned.
Provisional championship points after 17 of 18 races:
1. Jack Jeffers, 411
2. Thomas Schrage, 360
3. Teddy Musella, 344
4. G3 Argyros, 281
5. Caleb Gafrarar, 273
6. Evan Cooley, 215
7. Anthony Martella, 206
8. Sebastian Garzon, 195
9. Lucas Fecury, 190
10. Eddie Beswick, 183
Jack Jeffers (#92 Corpay Cross Border Solutions-Exclusive Autosport Tatuus USF-22): “I can't quite describe it. I think the first feeling that came was fulfillment because, after the up and down season and how hard everybody around me has worked with me to get me to this point, it's fulfilling to see that our hard work paid off in the right way. So, yeah, I guess that's just how I feel. [On the pressure from Thomas and Teddy] It helped develop me. This is a development series. And when you have drivers as quick and as experienced as they are, it pushes you that you have to do your job day in and day out, no matter the circumstances. VRD put up a great fight, and it was never count them out no matter what. So, it really pushed me to be my best day in and day out. [On the team] I I don't even know where to start. The whole EA family, ever since I joined them in 2023, we jelled immediately. And from there, we knew that we were going to be champions one day. And ever since then, it's just been a project of developing me and keep developing the team and to turn it into a championship winning team. And, you know, after Louis Foster, there's always been high expectations at the team. So, the expectation is winning and we didn't do that last year. We did a lot of hard work over the winter and made sure that was the goal this year. And I think we succeeded at that pretty well.”
Thomas Schrage (#2 Doug Mockett & Company/Airport Electric Service/Boys & Girls Clubs-VRD Racing Tatuus USF-22): “We had a really rough start, just avoiding the chaos. It wasn’t easy and I just fell too far back at the start ultimately. We tried, we did everything we could today. We had the fastest car this weekend and I think we have shown that. I just couldn’t catch up and erase that gap that he built when I fell back to sixth. It’s disappointing to be second in the championship. If I had been 100 percent to start the year, I feel like we would have had a way better shot.”
Teddy Musella (#25 Triarsi Competizione/Don’t Sleep Energy Drink-VRD Racing Tatuus USF-22): “It was tough start. On the outside here, it's the worst position on the starting grid, starting P2. I just got pushed out wide and had to take the cut through. Then from there on, I tried to make a pass on the DEForce car and made another mistake and had to let him by. After that, the push to catch Garzon was quite good. I had to gain six seconds in about 15 laps so it was definitely a good push from there on. So, I think it's a good result for P3.”