Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
TJ Speed’s Raoul Hyman has secured a scholarship with Honda to race in Super Formula next year after wrapping up the Formula Regional Americas title.
Hyman went into the final round at Circuit of the Americas with one hand on the title, and started strongly by taking pole position by over a second.
He converted that into victory and championship glory, although with the disadvantage of old tyres lost the lead on the opening lap to his title rival Dylan Tavella.
The Team Crosslink driver led the first 12 laps, and on the next lap the top two ran side-by-side at Turn 12. They were battling wheel-to-wheel until they reached the same corner two laps later when Hyman finally reclaimed the lead.
Victory was then secured as they got onto the pit straight as Tavella spun. It meant Hyman ended up winning by 9.345s, with team-mate Nick Persing crossing the line just behind Tavella. But Persing was then penalised 5s for causing a collision, dropping him to sixth.
Jason Alder claimed fastest lap and therefore pole for race two, becoming the second TJ Speed driver of the weekend to win on old tyres.
Hyman passed Alder on lap one, and was on course for victory until mechanical issues struck on lap five of 13.
That promoted Alder back into first place, and he held off some pressure from Tavella before pulling away to win.
Persing was attacking Tavella late in the race and managed to pass him for second towards the end.
Hyman rebounded from his race two retirement to claim his 11th win of 2022 in the final race of the season. He did so by 7.042s over Jensen Global Advisors’ Oliver Westling, on his second weekend in the series, and Ryan Yardley.
Results
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Raoul Hyman TJ Speed 31m35.879s
2 Dylan Tavella Team Crosslink +9.345s
3 Ryan Yardley Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +11.935s
4 Mac Clark Future Star Racing +12.210s
5 Jason Alder TJ Speed +14.239s
6 Nick Persing TJ Speed +14.651s
7 Cooper Becklin Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +17.044s
8 Oliver Westling Jensen Global Advisors +18.051s
9 Hayden Bowlsbey IGY6 Motorsports +44.631s
10 Kevin Janzen Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +1m59.542s
Pole: Hyman, 2m03.376s
Fastest lap: Alder, 2m05.046s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Alder 30m59.791s
2 Persing +3.291s
3 Tavella +3.884s
4 Yardley +6.340s
5 Westling +6.894s
6 Clark +7.378s
7 Bowlsbey +19.493s
8 Janzen +52.689s
9 Becklin +2 laps
Ret Hyman
FL: Hyman, 2m05.038s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Hyman 30m44.086s
2 Westling +7.042s
3 Yardley +23.864s
4 Persing +28.461s
5 Becklin +30.206s
6 Alder +31.991s
7 Tavella +1m04.141s
8 Clark +1m04.532s
9 Janzen +1 lap
DNS Bowlsbey
FL: Hyman, 2m07.101s
Championship standings
1 Hyman 362 2 Tavella 281 3 Alder 220 4 Yardley 204 5 Persing 178 6 Clark 160 7 Becklin 132 8 Westling 48 9 Nico Christodoulou 44 10 Rodrigo Gutierrez 35