Thomas Schrage: Over The Hump

BETHEL, Ohio – The last time I wrote one of these I was a few months out of shoulder surgery and back in the fight in USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire. A lot has happened since, and it starts with how last season ended.

My second USF2000 win came at Road America.

After the Freedom 75 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park last May, I was leading the USF2000 championship for the first time. We won at Road America and stretched the lead to 27 points. Then it got away from us. A clash at Mid-Ohio left me level on points with my main rival, and in Toronto I went out of both races with damage. At Portland we did the only thing left to do: pole and the win in Race 1, second in Race 2. A racing incident in the finale dropped me down the order, and I finished the year third in the championship, one point out of second. Still, three wins and 11 podium finishes in my first full season was a lot to be proud of. Losing a lead like that is something you carry, and I chose to carry it as a lesson instead of a weight.

TJ Speed Motorsports gave me a chance to drive their USF Pro 2000 car at Indy.

In October, Tim Neff offered me a seat in a TJ Speed Motorsports USF Pro 2000 car for the USF Pro Fall Combine at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was my first time in a Pro 2000 car after two and a half seasons in USF2000, and it humbled me. More power, more downforce and more grip than I had ever asked a car for, and a fraction of the laps to learn it. I started near the back of the times and spent the weekend chipping away. That set the pattern for everything since. Show up, learn, improve, repeat.

I have been here before, in a way. F1600 with Rice Race Prep and the championship in 2022. Six weeks in England that autumn with the Team USA Scholarship, racing Formula Fords at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. A mid-season USF2000 debut in 2023, and a 2024 where we had to skip events for budget. Every category has taught me the same lesson in a different accent: the car changes, the competition gets sharper, and the only thing that carries over is how you work. By the time I climbed into a Pro 2000 car I knew what I did not know, and how to close the gap.

The winter was the hardest part of the year. I had no contract for 2026 and no budget to test. We pieced the program together and arrived for the race on the streets of Arlington, Texas, in March with very few laps and a plan to earn the rest.

We had mixed results on the streets of Arlington, Texas.

The opener did not go to plan. I qualified eighth, made a mistake in Race 1 and put the car in the barrier. A DNF in your first race in a new series is a hard way to start. In Race 2 we went from 16th to ninth, and that is the result I took home from Texas.

From there the season became a climb. I was 10th in points after Indianapolis and seventh after the Freedom 90 at IRP. After a pair of sixths at Road America, then fourth, sixth and fifth at Mid- Ohio, I was placed fifth in the championship heading to Portland.

Two people changed the middle of our year. Francesco Pizzi joined us at Road America as team coordinator and driver coach. He raced this car for TJ Speed himself a couple of years ago, so the simulator work before every event, the second set of eyes on the data and the honest debriefs come from someone who has done it: the difference between knowing what to do and knowing why. Around the same time Patrick Hagens, who has known me since I was just starting in karts and who has believed in me the whole way, stepped in to help manage the program, making sure we had what we needed and building the relationships that set up both myself and our partners for success. It let me concentrate on driving. Through the middle of the season we were consistently in the fight, and I knew podiums and wins were close. We just had to get over the hump.

Markham brought our first podium finish.

Getting to each race was its own job. My dad and I work together at Airport Electric Service, our family’s small electrical business in Bethel. Before the brand-new street race last month in Markham, Canada, a run of storms sent the business into overdrive, and the work we put in together is what paid for the next weekend. That is how this season has gone, one race at a time, and we are still in points contention with three to run.

Markham was new to everyone. The circuit build ran late, Friday was lost and qualifying was cancelled, so the Race 1 grid was set by points. We finished fifth. Afterwards I told the team we were better than that. Race 2’s grid was set by best race lap; we started fourth and finished third, my first USF Pro 2000 podium and the team’s second of the season. We had shown up prepared, and I believe we had a car that could have won.

Leading the race from pole position at Milwaukee.

The second oval race of the year came two weeks later Milwaukee. In June the series held an open test at the Milwaukee Mile and we could not afford to run it. I went anyway, spotted for the team, walked the track and learned everything I could from behind the wall. On race weekend we had two 30-minute practices and then single-car qualifying. I took pole by eleven thousandths of a second, my first in the series. The weather pushed the race to Sunday. Seventy-five laps, all green, and we led every one of them. My first USF Pro 2000 win, and the team’s first of the year. Tim and the whole crew earned it.

That brings me to this week. We are at Road America for the tripleheader season finale. We are placed fifth in the championship and three points from fourth. We have completed more laps than anyone else, all of them on the same engine, and have finished among the top 10 in every race but the first.

That winning feeling!

Tim has put together a fresh engine for the weekend after the one that carried us through the first 15 races. The plan is simple: qualify at the front, race like Milwaukee, and finish the season the way the last two months have gone.

Then the work starts again. The offseason is about securing the budget for 2027 and returning to TJ Speed as championship contenders. I know what a championship feels like and I know what losing one feels like. Next year I want the whole thing.

None of this happens alone. Thank you to our partners, Doug Mockett & Company, Airport Electric Service and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, who stayed with us through a season that ran on belief. Thank you to the Team USA Scholarship and Jeremy Shaw, who backed me in 2022 and have never stopped. Thank you to my family, who live every lap of this with me. And thank you to Robert and Mandy Duffy from R4D-Motorsport, our newest supporter who stepped up to make sure we could be here for this last event.

Until next time,
Thomas Schrage