Photo: FR Americas
Titus Sherlock and Bruno Ribeiro were the winners of the final two Formula Regional Americas races of the season at Circuit of the Americas.
Free practice and qualifying took place on Thursday, with Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport’s Jett Bowling leading the way in the former. He set a 2m03.836s to head team-mate Sherlock by 0.39 seconds, and IGY6 Motorsports’ Ribeiro was 1.077s off the pace in third. Toney Driver Development’s Brady Golan was the only other driver within two seconds of Bowling around the long lap.
Sherlock set a 2m03.715s in qualifying to take pole by a substantial 0.729s over Bowling, and Landan Matriano Lim initially made it a team 1-2-3 but then had all of his laptimes deleted. That promoted Ribeiro, 0.828s off the pace, to third on the race one grid ahead of Cole Kleck and Golan.
While Sherlock kept the lead at the start, Golan gained second place and Kleck took third after Ribeiro ran Bowling wide on the exit of the first turn. A lap later, Kleck got past Golan for second place.
On lap five, Golan locked up and pulled off in the Esses with his front-left tyre off the ground, while Jake Pollack had also come to a halt off track, leading to a lengthy caution period that would mean only half points were awarded.
When the race restarted with four minutes remaining, Kleck challenged Sherlock for the lead into Turn 1 but ran deep, allowing Bowling up into second. Kleck got back in front later in the lap, only for Bowling to snatch second back at the start of the final tour.
Race two began with a damp track and Golan made a stronger launch than Sherlock to take the lead. Bowling briefly ran third, only to spin out in the Esses and drop to the rear of the pack.
Sherlock got inside Golan at Turn 12 to reclaim the lead, with Golan edged wide and down to third behind Ribeiro. A lap later, Ribeiro challenged Sherlock for the lead but went deep himself and just managed to stay ahead of Golan.
Nicolas Ambiado and Hayden Bowlsbey were running right behind the top three until they tangled into Turn 2 on lap three, with Bowlsbey eventually called into the pits to change his front wing while Ambiado was able to complete the race minus his engine cover.
Up front, Sherlock defended once more into Turn 12 with Ribeiro using the cutback to claim the lead.
Golan eventually got past Sherlock once more, only for Kleck to pass him four corners later with Sherlock also coming back by again.
A brief caution followed now that Bowling was off and out of the race, leaving him just 1.5 points shy of taking second in the championship from Ryan Shehan.
Golan got back up to second after the restart but Ribeiro finished two seconds clear of him out front.
Kleck and James Lawley beat Sherlock to the line but all three received penalties; Kleck receiving an additional 10 seconds for failing to respect yellow flags, Lawley 5s for causing a collision and Sherlock 5s for not respecting the full-course yellow.
All this promoted Nicole Havrda up to third and Ambiado to fourth, with Kleck demoted to seventh behind Lawley and Sherlock.
Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Titus Sherlock Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport 30m02.111s
2 Jett Bowling Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +3.442s
3 Cole Kleck Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +4.693s
4 Bruno Ribeiro IGY6 Motorsports +5.273s
5 Hayden Bowlsbey IGY6 Motorsports +6.338s
6 James Lawley Atlantic Racing Team +6.776s
7 Nicole Havrda Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +6.907s
8 Nicolas Ambiado Velox USA/Speed Factory +7.400s
9 Ricco Schlaimoun Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +8.090s
10 Landan Matriano Lim Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +8.348s
Pole: Sherlock, 2m03.715s
Fastest lap: Sherlock, 2m04.884s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Ribeiro 28m29.497s
2 Brady Golan Toney Driver Development +2.151s
3 Havrda +8.955s
4 Ambiado +11.059s
5 Lawley +11.538s
6 Sherlock +12.202s
7 Kleck +14.906s
8 Lim +20.385s
9 Jake Pollack Jensen Global Advisors +34.779s
10 Hailie Deegan Toney Driver Development +50.841s
FL: Ribeiro, 2m07.466s
Championship standings
1 Patrick Woods-Toth 294.5 2 Ryan Shehan 188 3 Bowling 186.5 4 Sherlock 185 5 Ambiado 154 6 Havrda 139.5 7 Bowlsbey 137 8 Lim 84.5 9 Lawley 84.5 10 Kleck 71.5