USF Pro 2000 Championship
American automobile racing series
The USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Continental Tires, formerly known as the Star Mazda Championship, Pro Mazda Championship, and later Indy Pro 2000 Championship, is an open-wheel racing series serving as the third step on the Road to Indy ladder system, between the USF2000 Championship and Indy NXT. The series is sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC) and operated by Andersen Promotions. The series' champion is awarded a scholarship package to advance to Indy NXT competition for the following season. It competes on all open-wheel disciplines: road courses, street courses, and ovals.
The series' primary sponsor is the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company via their Cooper Tires brand.
Many Pro Mazda graduates have gone on to race in top-tier open-wheel series, including American Formula One and NASCAR driver Scott Speed, IndyCar Series drivers Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe and Raphael Matos, and Rolex Sports Car Series and NASCAR driver Michael McDowell.
History
Background
In 1983, a number of Formula Ford race cars powered by Mazda rotary engines were built by Hayashi Racing in Japan and imported to the United States for use by the Jim Russell Racing School. Enough cars were constructed to run a one-make series, the Mazda Pro Series, which began in 1984 at the Long Beach Grand Prix. In late 1984, following modifications to the cars' rollover structures to bring them in line with SCCA regulations, the so-called "Formula Russell" became so popular that numerous regional and divisional series were established by the Jim Russell Racing School.
Throughout the remainder of the 1980s, the series would gain six geographic divisions, each of which held their own championship. Early Mazda Pro Series competitors included Johnny O'Connell, Tommy Kendall, Mike Groff, Jeff Krosnoff, Norm Breedlove (son of Craig Breedlove), and Jon Beekhuis.
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This entry incorporates text from “USF Pro 2000 Championship” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.