The announcement of a new US Grand Prix in Austin is great news for F1 fans in the United States and for F1 generally. The news that there are at least one and possibly two groups working at establishing a new American F1 team since the failure of USF1 is also heartening. But what effect will this have on the junior formula racing series currently running in America?

Aside from the various SCCA sanctioned open wheel series currently running, the United States has the following development series running on a national scale committed to developing junior race car drivers: USF2000, the F2000 Championship, Star Mazda and Indy Lights. Of these four series, all of them but the F2000 Championship are tied to the Road to Indy programmed sanctioned by the IRL. It will be imperative that in 2012 that at least one of these series be racing as support to the US Grand Prix but which ones?

The best bet would be that the USF2000 and Star Mazda Series occupy a place on the card as they have supported other non-IRL series. Indy Lights is too closely aligned with Indycar and the F2000 Championship is arguably less a professional development series and more of a broad based pro-am series. Ideally Formula Atlantic will be back on the scene and they would make the perfect fit with their F1-style standing starts and long-running history of supporting F1 racing as well as producing some top F1 drivers in the past. The key thing about whichever series supports the US Grand Prix is that it truly be a development series and that it showcase some of the most promising up and coming North American drivers. With a race date two years away, the administrators of these series need to think about how they can best showcase their talent at this international event. They really need to put together a package that will attract media attention and sponsorship to their series and drivers and they should start to work on this now. This is an opportunity for the young guns of North America to shine in front of F1. Everybody involved in junior racing should make a concerted effort to put their best foot forward.

What do you think?