Photo: Bill Wagenblatt
Titus Sherlock won in Formula Regional Americas’ disrupted non-championship round at Laguna Seca last weekend.
There was pre-event testing, then Friday featured practice and the 25-minute first qualifying session. A second qualifying session was to follow on Saturday morning, along with the half-hour first race. The four Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport drivers taking part were then to have a quiet Sunday, with only race two on their schedule. All of their track action was shared with cars from other categories, including several types of prototype sportscar, an Indy car and a Formula 4 entrant.
Sherlock was the fastest FRegional driver in practice, setting a 1m21.968s to lead Ryan Shehan and Jett Bowling by 0.035 and 0.669s seconds respectively. Landan Matriano Lim was 3.504s off the pace in fourth.
In Q1 there was a sizeable 1.085s gap between the top two, with Sherlock setting a 1m22.236s to take pole. Shehan was second fastest, Bowling was a further 0.258s behind in third and Lim was 3.578s slower than Sherlock. He redeemed himself in Q2, improving his pace considerably but still qualifying fourth. This time Bowling took pole, with his 1m22.573s putting him 0.334s ahead of Sherlock. Shehan was 0.659s off pole and Lim was 1.118s behind.
The weather worsened later in the day and so the FRegional drivers did not head out for their first race, with initially no update on if the race could be fitted into Sunday’s schedule. Eventually it was decided not to, meaning Bowling lined up on pole for what would be the sole 13-lap race on Sunday afternoon.
Bowling had already lost the lead by the opening corner, and once behind Sherlock there was no way of getting back past. He initially had a small gap to Shehan in third, and was still only half a second behind Sherlock on lap seven.
Sherlock’s lead surpassed two seconds after 11 laps, then Bowling spun while trying to lap some of the other cars on track and that left the winner with a 3.013s gap to Shehan at the finish. Bowling met the chequered flag in third, 17.456s behind, and Lim was a very distant fourth as he was almost seven seconds slower than Sherlock on the last lap alone.
Race results (13 laps)
1 Titus Sherlock Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport 18m06.719s
2 Ryan Shehan Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +3.013s
3 Jett Bowling Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +17.456s
4 Landan Matriano Lim Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +28.647s
Pole: Bowling, 1m22.573s
Fastest lap: Shehan, 1m22.100s