Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport’s Callum Hedge won all three Formula Regional Americas races at Road America to move into the points lead.
Hedge was fastest in practice, then topped qualifying by 0.753 seconds over team-mate Cooper Becklin, with points leader Ryan Shehan the only other driver within a second of the pace.
Losing their fastest laps for causing qualifying to be red-flagged were Manuel Roza and Hayden Bowlsbey. Roza qualified ninth, while Bowlsbey was last but within 110% of the pole pace so qualified to race.
Hedge had an easy run to victory in race one, his only challenge being to ensure he set the fastest lap to secure pole for race two. He ended up winning by 6.820s over Shehan, who briefly fought with Bryson Morris and then battled past Becklin early on to take second.
Becklin stayed with Shehan until they came to lap Max Hewitt, after which Shehan pulled away in the final minutes.
Race two was red-flagged on the opening lap due to a startline incident involving Hewitt and Bowlsbey that needed clearing up, and it was eventually restarted behind the safety car before the field was released to race.
Hedge ran away to win, Shehan finished second, and Morris passed Becklin for third mid-race before Becklin regained the place at turn one a lap later and gapped himself. Nick Persing passed Morris the following lap, and was closing in on the top three until his pace started to drop off and late on he dropped back behind Morris and then lost fifth to Oliver Westling – who had dropped from sixth to ninth on the first racing lap – in a photo finish.
Despite retiring four laps from the finish of the 11-lap race, Austin Hill scored a point in 10th place.
Hedge was unchallenged again in race three, despite two safety car periods. Persing made a lap one error that dropped him from second to fifth, then he retired in the pits at the end of lap five.
Before then he was passed by a charging Westling, who got into a fight for third with Morris before he caused the second safety car period by stopping after turn 12.
Shehan finished second and had to resist a late Becklin attack post-restart as Morris fell to sixth. The reward of an attacking race for Roza was fourth place. Despite retiring, Westling earned a point for being 10th.
Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Callum Hedge Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport 35m19.465s
2 Ryan Shehan Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +6.820s
3 Cooper Becklin Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +12.478s
4 Oliver Westling Jensen Global Advisors +42.136s
5 Bryson Morris Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +43.050s
6 Nick Persing Cameron Racing +47.944s
7 Manuel Roza Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +50.042s
8 Rodrigo Gutierrez Velocity Racing Development +1m04.723s
9 Max Hewitt IGY6 Motorsports +1m17.369s
10 Hayden Bowlsbey IGY6 Motorsports +1m38.039s
Pole: Hedge, 2m05.363s
Fastest lap: Hedge, 2m03.377s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Hedge 34m26.242s
2 Shehan +5.159s
3 Becklin +7.339s
4 Morris +12.813s
5 Westling +25.099s
6 Persing +25.105s
7 Roza +27.205s
8 Gutierrez +34.562s
9 Kevin Janzen Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +1m41.047s
Ret Austin Hill Austin Hill Motorsports
FL: Hedge, 2m04.071s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Hedge 34m42.983s
2 Shehan +2.073s
3 Becklin +2.276s
4 Roza +4.292s
5 Hewitt +5.282s
6 Morris +8.092s
7 Gutierrez +8.577s
8 Hill +8.882s
9 Janzen +12.828s
10 Westling +4 laps
FL: Hedge, 2m05.187s
Championship standings
1 Hedge 123 2 Shehan 119 3 Becklin 78 4 Morris 62 5 Persing 52 6 Westling 51 7 Roza 50 8 Hewitt 20 9 Janzen 15 10 Gutierrez 14