Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Bruno Ribeiro extended his Formula Regional Americas lead in a shortened round five at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
His Kiwi Motorsport team-mate Jett Bowling set the pace in practice, pipping Nicolas Ambiado by 0.085 seconds, with Crosslink Competition’s Titus Sherlock just 0.001s ahead of Ribeiro and 0.137s behind Bowling.
Bowling was quickest again in qualifying, setting a 1m13.274s to deny Ribeiro pole by 0.019s. Sherlock and Ambiado were 0.152s and 0.215s behind, then Crosslink’s Jake Pollack was best of the rest 0.687s behind in fifth.
The poleman successfully defended his lead into turn one, then a few corners later Ambiado made contact with Ribeiro that allowed him and Sherlock to get through.
There was 0.87s between the top two at the end of lap one, which Ambiado brought down to 0.325s before Bowling slowed with a mechanical issue on lap 10. While he lost two laps in the pits, Ambiado moved to the front with a 2.47s lead.
But he got a drive-through penalty for his earlier contact, converted into a 30s post-race penalty, which proved costly as Crosslink’s Barrett Wolfe crahsed out on lap 12 and caused a caution period.
Racing did not resume until lap 16, and on the restart Toney Driver Development’s Brady Golan immediately had an incident in which he went airborne and came to a stop alongside the pit straight.
Another caution period was triggered, and race control decided to end the race early at the end of the lap. That meant Ribeiro won, as Ambiado’s penalty demoted him to being the last driver on the lead lap in fifth.
Ambiado set the race’s fastest lap, so the next day got to start race two from pole.
Bowling made the best start but got boxed in on the inside of turn one in second place. Racing was paused before lap one ended as Momentum Motorsports’ Anthony Autiello failed to get off the grid and it took until lap five for his car to be cleared and for racing to resume.
This time Bowling messed up turn one and Riberio went past him, and Ambiado had a 1.3s lead. It was quickly brought down to 0.6s, a gap which was maintained almost every lap thereon.
Wolfe left the pits sans engine cover mid-race after a pitstop that put him a lap down, and Pollack crashed on the final lap.
Race three was cancelled due to scheduling issues at the track.
Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Bruno Ribeiro Kiwi Motorsport 26m37.134s
2 Jake Pollack Crosslink Competition +0.652s
3 Titus Sherlock Crosslink Competition +0.999s
4 James Lawley Atlantic Racing Team +2.304s
5 Nicolas Ambiado Kiwi Motorsport +28.940s
6 Connor Roberts Atlantic w/ Team Roberts +1 lap
7 Brady Golan Toney Driver Development +1 lap
8 Anthony Autiello Momentum Motorsports +1 lap
9 Jett Bowling Kiwi Motorsport +2 laps
Ret Barrett Wolfe Crosslink Competition
Pole: Bowling, 1m13.274s
Fastest lap: Ambiado, 1m13.855s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Ambiado 30m36.181s
2 Ribeiro +0.518s
3 Bowling +3.852s
4 Sherlock +4.826s
5 Golan +11.772s
6 Roberts +18.184s
7 Lawley +6.921s
8 Pollack +1 lap
9 Wolfe +1 lap
Ret Autiello
FL: Ribeiro, 1m14.765s
Championship standings
1 Ribeiro 209 2 Ambiado 198 3 Sherlock 153 4 Bowling 153 5 Golan 112 6 Nicolas Stati 82 7 Roberts 64.5 8 Lawley 59.5 9 Daniel Quimby 40 10 Pollack 34