Photo: F4 US Championship
James Hinchcliffe’s protege Mac Clark was the star of United States Formula 4’s truncated round at Road America.
Gonella Racing driver Clark took pole for the opening race on Sunday and won it, but was not rewarded with points.
On lap one a multi-car crash at turn 6 led to the pace car being summoned, and another crash at the restart that involved pre-event points leader Jason Alder meant more time was spent at a set pace and not a single full lap of green flag action took place. As a result, for the second year in a row, a non-championship race was declared.
The drivers returned to the track on Monday, with the first race using the qualifying results to set the grid, and Clark fended off DEForce Racing’s Noel Leon and Velocity Racing Development’s Nico Christodoulou on the final lap to win again.
Jay Howard Driver Development’s Bijoy Garg and Matt Christensen were also in that battle for a while and finished fourth and fifth, with Garg earning pole for the final race on the basis of taking fastest lap.
Christodoulou prevailed in the last race of the day, which ran to full distance, finishing two seconds ahead of Christensen and three seconds ahead of Clark. Eighth place for Leon was enough for him to leave the circuit at the top of the standings, eight points ahead of Christodoulou.
After his Sunday retirement, Alder stalled before the start of the first Monday race and therefore had to start from the pitlane but didn’t even make it past the first lap and then didn’t even make the start of the final race.
He’s still comfortably third in the standings despite his torrid weekend thanks to his double win in the Road Atlanta season opener.
Results round-up
NC Race (7 laps)
1 Mac Clark Gonella Racing 28m25.214s
2 Matt Christensen JHDD +0.870s
3 Nico Christodoulou Velocity Racing Development +3.073s
4 Noel Leon DEForce Racing +5.493s
5 Trevor Russell TR Racing +5.988s
6 Rodrigo Gutierrez DC Autosport +6.331s
7 Ryan Shehan Crosslink/kiwi +6.919s
8 Gabriel Fonesca Crosslin,/kiwi +8.957s
9 Lucas Mann Momentum Motorsports +9.971s
10 Seth Foley JHDD +11.075s
Pole: Clark, 2m18.756s
Fastest lap: Clark, 2m23.892s
Race 1 (8 laps)
1 Clark 31m45.063s
2 Loen +1.823s
3 Christodoulou +2.211s
4 Bijoy Garg JHDD +3.022s
5 Christensen +3.122s
6 Mann +7.897s
7 Gutierrez +8.528s
8 Viktor Andersson Crosslink/kiwi +11.219s
9 Fonseca +13.487s
10 Shehan +13.801s
P: Clark, 2m18.756s
FL: Garg, 2m20.109s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Christodoulou 31m56.709s
2 Christensen +2.217s
3 Clark +3.554s
4 Arias Deukmedjian crosslink +5.620s
5 Mann +8.348s
6 Justin Arseneau ICArrr +8.574s
7 Garg +9.508s
8 Leon +9.654s
9 Fonseca +9.655s
10 Andersson +10.697s
FL: Garg, 2m19.489s
Championship standings
1 Leon 83 2 Christodoulou 75 3 Alder 68 4 Clark 50 5 Christensen 50 6 Deukmedjian 50 7 Gutierrez 28 8 Mann 22 9 Garg 18 10 Fonseca 17