Ayrton Houk: Building, Battling and Breaking Records

We’re proud of our new team, Benchmark Autosport.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The 2025 season was a year of firsts, challenges and some unforgettable highs. It was my second year in the USF Pro Championships Presented by Continental Tire USF2000 series and the first year for our brand-new team, Benchmark Autosport, founded by my dad, Kevin Houk. We built this program from the ground up, partnering with Don Conner of DC Autosport to create a competitive team that could take on some of the most established names in the paddock.

From the start, I came into this season more confident than ever. My rookie year taught me a lot, and I was ready to put that experience to work. We kicked things off with winter testing at NOLA Motorsports Park, getting the car dialed in and shaking off the off-season rust. Even when weather cut our pre-season test short, the car felt solid, and I knew we had the potential to surprise some people.

St. Petersburg provided a solid start.

The opening rounds at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg were electric – not just because of the street course atmosphere, but because I got to represent USF2000 at the Party in the Park fan event. Race 1 saw me climb from P15 to P9, earning a top-10 finish in our very first start as a new team. Race 2 was tougher, but the foundation was set: we had pace, consistency and a clean car heading into the rest of the season.

Round 2 at NOLA Motorsports Park tested our resilience like never before. A freak mechanical failure forced an engine change before the first official session, followed by more component issues throughout the weekend. But we never quit. By Sunday, we’d fought our way to back-to-back top-10 finishes. We even outperformed several top-tier teams; proof that Benchmark Autosport could battle with the best. Having longtime supporters John Sloat and Teresa Vorhees trackside made the weekend even more special.

The highlight of our year was leading from pole at IRP.

May brought us home to the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, where cold qualifying sessions put us at the back. We clawed our way forward in both races to earn P8 and P7 finishes, jumping to ninth in the championship points. Just a week later at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, I earned my first-ever Pole Position and set a new all-time USF2000 track record in the process! Standing on that qualifying high was unforgettable, even if race day didn’t go our way.

In June, Road America gave us our best road course qualifying (P8) and our strongest finish of the year (P6 in Race 1). Race 2 was looking promising until a failed air filter cost us power, and I made a mistake trying to recover. Still, we left feeling faster, sharper and ready for Mid-Ohio.

We had no luck at all during the Mid-Ohio visit.

The Fourth of July weekend at Mid-Ohio didn’t go the way we hoped. Despite strong pace, I couldn’t convert it into results, with incidents cutting short all three races. My crew worked overtime to get the car repaired, including a massive overnight rebuild after a pre-race accordion crash destroyed my front suspension. I’m grateful for their dedication, even if the results didn’t show the effort.

After Mid-Ohio, we made the difficult decision to end our season early. The remaining events, Toronto and Portland, are two of the most expensive on the calendar, and since we were no longer in the championship fight, we decided to conserve resources for 2026. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it was the right one for the future.

USF Pro Championships continued to help us learn and grow.

This season was about more than lap times and points. We proved that a brand-new, one car team could show up, compete and even break records. We battled through mechanical failures, on-track adversity and the steep learning curve of building a program from scratch. I’m leaving 2025 a better driver with sharper race craft, deeper experience and an even stronger determination to succeed.

I’m incredibly grateful to my parents, my sister, my sponsors; Binkley’s Kitchen and Bar, Little Red Door Cancer Agency, Team USA Scholarship, Cornerstone Environmental, Wings and Wheels Foundation, Big Check Race Fans; my investors, and everyone who has believed in me, especially those who came to the track to cheer me on.

I have some exciting plans brewing for 2026, so stay tuned!! We’re just getting started, and the best is still ahead.

-Ayrton