Photo: Australian F4
Round two of the revived Australian Formula 4 championship took place at The Bend Motorsport Park, and James Piszcyk dominated the event.
There were two test sessions on Friday, with only four drivers contesting the first. AGI Sport’s Nicolas Stati set a 2m01.713s to be fastest by 2.605 seconds over team-mate Seth Gilmore. There were 11 cars in the longer second session, and Piszcyk lowered the pace to 1m49.9789s. He led Stati by 0.1016s, with Jam Motorsport’s Blake Purdie 0.7874s behind in third.
Saturday began with practice, and Piszcyk was fastest by 1.0959s over Stati after setting a 1m50.8431s. Purdie trailed by 1.4537s, and Gilmore was 2.2388s back in fourth as 13 drivers took part.
Qualifying began just over two hours later, with the field back down to 11 cars, and Piszcyk topped both sessions. He claimed race one pole in Q1 by 0.4213s over Purdie, with Stati 0.7767s behind, and in Q2 improved to 1m49.3115s to take three pole by 0.3772s over Purdie. There was again big gaps at the top, with Stati 0.947s off pole in third.
Piszcyk led lights-to-flag in race one, building a three-second lead in six laps. After that Purdie closed in, and was 1.2s behind at the end of the 15-lap race. Stati lost touch with them in the race’s final third and finished 7.7s behind, and Jam’s Sebastien Amadio was an even lonelier fourth.
Gilmore spun but still finished fifth, and AGI’s Imogen Radburn passed Nathan Gotch at turn one on lap three and overtook John-Paul Drake on lap five before soaking up pressure from both to finish sixth.
Race one’s results set race two’s grid, and Piszcyk had another lights-to-flag victory despite a bit of a lurching start. Mark Wilson spun off on lap one and it meant the afety car led the field for three laps, then after racing resumed on lap five Piszcyk pulled away from Purdie.
It took him three laps to get a second clear, and he finished the 13-lap race 2.661s ahead. Stati lost third to Amadio on lap one, and tried reclaiming the place at multiple corners on laps two, five and six before finally getting past Amadio aroud the outside of turn one on lap seven.
Jayden Hamilton had a big spin on lap eight and finished ninth, having previously been in seventh.
Race three had lap one drama as Drake went into the back of Hamilton, resulting in him going through the gravel and Hamilton losing his rear wing. The safety car was called, and the restart took place on lap four of 13.
Piszcyk was dominant after that, winning by 8.3728s and setting the lap record on the final tour. Stati finished second after passing Purdie just before the last corner on the penultimate lap.
The fast-starting Amadio overtook Gilmore for fourth on lap one, then was holding him off after the restart. That allowed Radburn to keep with them and then get involved in their fight. On the last lap Radburn snatched sixth in a photo finish.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 James Piszcyk AGI Sport 27m44.5415s
2 Blake Purdie Jam Motorsport +1.2055s
3 Nicolas Stati AGI Sport +7.7967s
4 Sebastien Amadio Jam Motorsport +27.6666s
5 Seth Gilmore AGI Sport +39.4911s
6 Imogen Radburn AGI Sport +52.7834s
7 John-Paul Drake Jam Motorsport +53.9820s
8 Nathan Gotch Formula Race Academy +54.6137s
9 Jayden Hamilton Tim Macrow Racing +1m32.0925s
10 Mark Wilson Formula Race Academy +1m36.9746s
Pole: Piszcyk, 1m49.6313s
Fastest lap: Purdie, 1m50.2433s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Piszcyk 27m36.0557s
2 Purdie +2.6615s
3 Stati +8.4205s
4 Amadio +16.5293s
5 Gilmore +20.3134s
6 Radburn +25.2987s
7 Drake +40.5658s
8 Gotch +41.1637s
9 Hamilton +47.6014s
10 Tim Boydle Formula Race Academy +1 lap
FL: Piszcyk, 1m50.3758s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Piszcyk 28m18.2416s
2 Stati +8.3728s
3 Purdie +9.4371s
4 Amadio +21.4776s
5 Radburn +21.6134s
6 Gilmore +21.9748s
7 Gotch +47.9766s
8 Wilson +54.9327s
9 Boydle +1 lap
Ret Drake
P: Piszcyk, 1m49.3115s
FL: Piszcyk, 1m50.1051s
Championship standings
1 Piszcyk 150 2 Purdie 97 3 Stati 91 4 Gilmore 70 5 Amadio 70 6 Radburn 26 7 Drake 25 8 Gotch 22 9 Mark Rosser 16 10 Joanne Ciconte 14