By: Ashley McCubbin

MARKHAM, Ontario —- Being in the midst of your rookie season with a series can bring forth its own challenges. Now try going to a track that nobody has raced at on top of that.

Jack Jeffers is set to embark on that challenge this weekend, as he will be competing in the USF Pro 2000 Championship event as part of the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.

“You have to keep an open mind,” Jeffers told News From The Pits. “It’s a brand new street course, so it’s gonna bring a lot of new challenges so I just want to see, you know what it’s like we have to track walk later today. See I will kind of just approach it slowly and open-minded and just kind of see. You can’t really go into any expectations yet.”

Going into the weekend, like several drivers, Jeffers did get a chance to run some simulator laps.

“I’ve run a few laps, got the layout down and seen where all the bumps and everything are,” he commented. “But again it’s like how realistic and you know how truthful it is gonna be. So I got a few laps on the sim, but not a whole lot of prep.”

Thus far through the first 12 races of the season, Jeffers has had a solid rookie campaign with just three finishes outside of the top-five, including a couple wins.

“Until this last weekend at Portland, we had a really consistent season,” he commented. “We have a few wins on the season, and we’ve been up in the top-three, top-five, a lot, and we were second in the championship until last weekend at Portland.

“There’s just a lot of bad luck to be honest, but so far I think the season’s going good, I know the development side, everything’s going good. A lot of new faces and a lot of new things are in play right now. So all the pieces are kind of coming together, but so far it’s been, it’s been a good season.”

Now heading into the final rounds of the season, the goals will remain the same with a focus on capturing checkered flags and trying to secure the championship.

“We’re still second place right now,” he added. “The gap is close so we’re just gonna try to catch the points leader and hopefully come on top of the championship and keep keep moving up the ladder.”