Photo: Photography Yoss Yoss
Pedro Juano Moreno leaves Queretaro as the NACAM Formula 4 points leader after winning the final race of the weekend.
Following Marco Alquicira’s path to victory from eighth on the grid in race one on Saturday, the expectations for overtaking were high for Sunday’s two races.
Cristian Cantu promptly delivered a win from fourth on the grid in race two of the weekend, with his main challenger being title rival Moreno who had started three places further back than him.
Moreno had to juggle the pressure he was applying on Cantu with attacks from David Cardenas and Diego de la Torre behind once he had got up into second place, and he took the fastest lap for the fifth race in a row with his runner-up spot. Cantu’s victory meanwhile was his sixth successive podium.
De la Torre had pole for race three, but Cardenas immediately swept past him to take the lead on lap one. Esteban Rodriguez ran in third, with a gap quickly opening up to the rest of the pack.
Early trips to the pits, some of them race-ending, ruled out Dewey Richards and Cantu from fighting for big results while Moreno had to rise up the order and by lap nine was fighting Rodriguez for third.
After getting past him he took a few laps to hunt down de la Torre, but did not get close enough to attempt passing until lap 14 when he hit his rear on the pit straight. De la Torre then locked up but managed to stay ahead, but on the next lap Moreno caught him out and darted through into second.
He had over 3.5 seconds to make up on Cardenas, and closed the gap just in time – helped somewhat by traffic – to overtake Cardenas for the win into turn one on the final lap and to move into the championship lead.
De la Torre dropped behind Rodriguez and then Arturo Flores before retiring in the pits, which lifted the battling Alquicira and Alexandra Monhaupt up to fifth and sixth after they had been battling all race.
Julian Diaz and Cantu were a lapped seventh and eighth, with the latter losing the points lead on victory countback to Moreno.
Results round-up
Race 2 (26 laps)
1 Cristian Cantu RE Racing 31m50.662s
2 Pedro Juan Moreno Ram Racing +0.797s
3 David Cardenas Ram Racing +1.757s
4 Diego de la Torre Richard Motorsport +2.881s
5 Arturo Flores Ram Racing +4.505s
6 Alexandra Monhaupt Ram Racing +7.071s
7 Marco Alquicira Santinel Racing Team +22.216s
8 Julian Diaz Morelia Racing Team +1 lap
Ret Eduardo Alquicira Santinel Racing Team
Ret Dewey Richards Richard Motorsport
Fastest lap: Moreno, 1m02.389s
Race 3 (27 laps)
1 Moreno 27m35.425s
2 Cardenas +0.800s
3 Esteban Rodriguez RE Racing +9.594s
4 Flores +11.845s
5 M Alquicira +51.582s
6 Monhaupt +53.426s
7 Diaz +1 lap
8 Cantu +1 lap
Ret de la Torre
Ret Richards
FL: Moreno, 1m02.408s
Championship standings
1 Moreno 105 2 Cantu 105 3 Cardenas 89 4 M Alquicira 59 5 Monhaupt 56 6 Flores 46 7 de la Torre 39 8 Diaz 32 9 Joe Sandoval 18 10 Rodriguez 15