The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda is ready to commence the 2016 season, and it promises to be yet another enthralling rendition of the long-running championship. With new teams, plenty of new drivers, the return of the National Class, and a new chassis coming later this year, the future for the first step on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder looks bright. Let’s breakdown the season and see what is on tap in 2016.

The schedule remains relatively unchanged, with Road America joining the slate of 16 races on the schedule. The sole oval event remains the stop at Lucas Oil Raceway on the Friday before the Indy 500, while the season will again conclude with the Soul Red Finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Twenty-six drivers are entered for the season opening weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg, with four entries comprising the National Class field. Leading the charge will be five-time and defending champions Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing, who reload with three tremendously talented sophomore drivers in Canadian Parker Thompson, Russian Nikita Lastochkin, and Australian Anthony Martin. The most likely candidates to challenge Cape’s dominance at the front will be Pabst Racing, who claimed several wins last season with Jake Eidson behind the wheel. Pabst has also expanded to a three-car effort, with Yufeng Luo returning for his second season with the team, joined by American sophomore Garth Rickards and young Australian Jordan Lloyd.

Bolstering the grids this year are new efforts from RJB Motorsports, who will campaign two cars for Clint McMahon and Team USA Scholarship winner Michai Stephens. Former IndyCar entrant Chastain Motorsports will also field two cars for Sam Chastain and Austin McCusker. Two teams that only ran partial season efforts in 2015 return with a vengeance, with Afterburner Autosport entering two cars for Team USA Scholarship winner Dakota Dickerson and Brazilian Felipe Ortiz. JAY Motorsports will enter Luke Gabin, the Australian who competed with Team Pelfrey as a Mazda Motorsports scholarship winner in 2015.

Speaking of the yellow-clad Team Pelfrey, they return with another four-car squad featuring all rookies, with youngsters Jordan Cane and Robert Megennis joined by TJ Fischer and James Munro. John Cummiskey Racing, perhaps one of the biggest surprises during their rookie campaign in 2015, bring a Team Pelfrey alum to their squad with Ayla Agren partnering Lucas Kohl. ArmsUp Motorsports confirmed their two-car squad at the last minute, with USF2000 race winning veteran Victor Franzoni joining the team alongside the returning Max Hanratty. JDC MotorSports will also field an entry for Californian Tazio Ottis.

The National Class returns, with Spencer Racing the first team to commit to the returning class with Floridian Eric Filgueiras joining the fray. JDC MotorSports will also field a National Class entry for Robert Allaer, while Fat Boy Racing just committed to the season-opening race with two cars for Brenden Puderbach and Charles Finelli.

Now is where we get to the fun part and the analysis of the forthcoming season. If the past two seasons have taught us anything, it’s that Cape Motorsports tends to be slower out of the box since they are consistently bringing in new drivers each season. It’s in these early races that any serious championship contenders must take points away from the three Cape drivers. Last season Jake Eidson did just that, racking up a sweep at St. Petersburg. It wasn’t enough, though, to contain the Cape juggernaut later in the year as Nico Jamin won the last eight races of the season.

I think Pabst Racing will again be the best contender to unseat Cape from the throne. Jordan Lloyd is tremendously talented, having won the Australian F4 Championship after showing tremendous promise at John Cummiskey Racing in several early season outings. I’d keep a close eye on the Australian as the season kicks off. Over at Cape Motorsports, the Australian theme continues, as I think Anthony Martin will have enough to best his supremely talented teammates. Considering his fourth place finish in last season’s championship as a rookie driver on a rookie team, he could be the odds-on favorite.

I’d also mark Michai Stephens and RJB Motorsports as a team and driver combination to keep an eye on. While Stephens got into racing at a considerably later age than most, his talent is on-par with his peers. What he lacks is race experience at the higher levels, though, so once he masters the ins and outs of a race weekend and his new team learns what he and the car need to go quickly, he could throw up some surprise results.

Finally, the Ayla Agren-John Cummiskey Racing partnership is already proving fruitful. The young Norwegian driver has shown great speed in testing, and could be the first female to claim a win in USF2000 competition.

As always, there will be more questions than answers after this weekend’s season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Stay tuned right here for all the news as the season progresses.