Photo: US F4
Daniel Quimby overhauled Nicolas Stati to become United States Formula 4 champion in the final race of the season at the Circuit of the Americas.
Alex Popow Jr, son of the long-time sportscar racer from Venezuela who won an IMSA class title in 2016, was the driver to beat throughout the weekend and took two wins from three.
The MLT Motorsports driver was making his debut, with his single-seater experience prior to the weekend including a Formula Inter title, a USF Juniors outing and success in the Formula FARA series for first-generation F4 cars.
In practice he made his mark in a second-generation car straight away, going fastest by 0.879 seconds over Connor Roberts. Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport duo Nicolas Stati and Alex Crosbie were 1.2s behind in third and fourth, and Atlantic Racing Team’s Daniel Quimby was fifth.
Kekai Hauanio (Crosslink/Kiwi) was the top Ligier JS F4 Series runner in ninth, 3.971s off the pace in an older car and only fastest in his class by 0.074s over Teddy Musella.
Popow’s advantage was drastically cut in qualifying, a 2m11.816s lap earning him pole by just 0.192s over Crosbie. Stati and Quimby trailed by 0.479s and 0.867s respectively, with 2.576s covering the eight drivers in newer vehicles. A further 0.457s back in ninth overall was Ligier poleman Musella, who beat Scuderia Buell team-mate Sacha van’t Pad Bosch by 0.569s. Champagne Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni was next best, 1.163s slower than Musella.
The first race of the event concluded Thursday’s track action, and Popow took a lights-to-flag win. He finished 1.394s ahead of Stati, who got ahead of Crosbie at the start and increased his championship lead from 5.5 to 13.5 points with Quimby slipping back to sixth.
Roberts completed the podium while Musella was fourth overall – and ahead of Crosbie – as he took the Ligier series win. Rival Hauanio was running second in the class until his car lost power right at the end and stopped just short of the finish line. Leonardo Escorpioni ultimately took second, almost 20s back from Musella, with Maite Caceres picking up third after Bacon Zelenka was penalised for contact with Brad Majman on the last lap and later suspended for the rest of the weekend having also spun van’t Pad Bosch around one lap one.
Popow won by 1.3s again in race two on Friday, this time managing to rebuild his advantage after a mid-race safety car. Quimby took second after a crucial move at the start to get ahead of rival Stati, who held off Crosbie for third. However, Stati received two penalties – one for contact and one for his defensive moves – that demoted him to sixth and cut his points lead to just 3.5. With Crosbie also penalised for contact, it was Roberts that picked up third in front of Barrett Wolfe.
Musella took advantage of battling between van’t Pad Bosch and Escorpioni to take the Ligier series win in ninth overall. That was enough to wrap up the title one race early – even as Hauanio fought back to fifth after being made to start from pit-lane as a penalty for double contact with Escorpioni in race one.
In Saturday’s finale, Crosbie started from pole and kept the lead at the start while Quimby swept around the outside of Popow and Stati to take second.
Stati spent the early laps battling his way by Popow, knowing that finishing one place behind Quimby would be enough to be champion. However, he was followed past Popow by Roberts and couldn’t keep the latter behind him for long, with the former also eventually repassing him too.
Crosbie survived a final-lap restart to take victory, and while Quimby was also caught by Roberts before the caution, he held on to finish second – enough for him to snatch the title from Stati, who was unable to fight back from fifth.
There was an entertaining multi-car scrap for the last win in the Ligier series until Hauanio and Escorpioni tangled once again over the lead, triggering the late caution. Van’t Pad Bosch picked up victory ahead of Musella.
Results round-up
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Alex Popow Jr MLT Motorsports 31m12.019s
2 Nicolas Stati AGI Sport +1.394s
3 Connor Roberts Team Roberts Racing +6.188s
4 Teddy Musella Scuderia Buell +9.689s
5 Alex Crosbie Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +9.690s
6 Daniel Quimby Atlantic Racing Team +15.562s
7 Leonardo Escorpioni Champagne Racing +28.174s
8 Barrett Wolfe Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +35.273s
9 Maite Caceres International Motorsports +36.478s
10 Lincoln Day MLT Motorsports +36.561s
Pole: Popow, 2m11.816s
Fastest lap: Popow, 2m11.815s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Popow Jr 30m02.192s
2 Quimby +1.373s
3 Roberts +4.492s
4 Wolfe +7.559s
5 Crosbie +7.769s
6 Stati +12.498s
7 Seth Gilmore Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +13.273s
8 Day +14.115s
9 Musella +14.219s
10 Escorpioni +18.593s
FL: Crosbie, 2m12.560s
Race 3 (12 laps)
1 Crosbie 30m07.539s
2 Quimby +0.447s
3 Roberts +0.947s
4 Popow Jr +1.716s
5 Stati +2.921s
6 Gilmore +3.456s
7 Wolfe +3.634s
8 Day +4.662s
9 Sacha van’t Pad Bosch Scuderia Buell +5.860s
10 Musella +7.150s
FL: Crosbie, 2m12.379s
US F4 standings
1 Quimby 227.5 2 Stati 223 3 Roberts 194.5 4 Crosbie 190 5 Wolfe 114 6 Pablo Benites Jr 102 7 Day 78 8 Popow 62 9 Gilmore 10 Marcelo Ponti 0
Ligier JS F4 standings
1 Musella 254 2 Kekai Hauanio 202.5 3 Caceres 137 4 Bacon Zelenka 136.5 5 Brad Majman 134 6 Drew Szuch 108 7 Christopher Parrish 42 8 Harbir Dass 73 9 Jake Pollack 65 10 Demitri Nolan 25