Photo: US F4
Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport’s Patrick Woods-Toth took the United States Formula 4 points lead at Road America on a busy weekend for the safety car driver.
Gonella Racing’s Carl Bennett led practice by 0.040 seconds over Jay Howard Driver Development’s Michael Costello, then in qualifying the laptimes were considerably quicker on a repaved track that was continually gripping up and Crosslink/Kiwi’s Jesse Lacey claimed pole with a 2m17.924s lap.
They were fastest by 0.131s over Woods-Toth, with Doran Motorsports Group’s Alex Berg and Crosslink/Kiwi’s Lewis Hodgson setting identical laptimes for third but with Berg getting the position having set his first.
Frankie Mossman (JHDD) and Titus Sherlock (Crosslink/Kiwi) qualified fifth and sixth, just 0.010s apart, and were the only other drivers within a second of Lacey.
The pole advantage was lost on race one’s opening lap, as Woods-Toth passed Lacey for the lead. Four of the race’s seven laps were spent under caution conditions, and when green flags were waving there was little Lacey could do to find a way back past.
Woods-Toth won by 0.834s, with Mossman in third after an up-and-down race. He lost several positions on a battle-filled opening lap, but recovered to fifth before the caution period began. After the restart he took fourth from Sherlock in a three-wide move, then took a few corners to dispense of Berg too. Berg lost another spot to Costello before the finish, while Sherlck fell to seventh behind Bennett.
Race one’s fastest laps set race two’s grid, with Woods-Toth on pole ahead of Mossman, Lacey and Costello.
Mossman took the lead around the outside into turn one, then the race was neutralised due to several drivers getting caught up in an incident at turn three. Although Mossman was ahead, he had jumped the start and would have 10s added onto his race time.
Racing resumed on lap five and Mossman led Lacey and Berg, but Costello got into second place before another caution period on lap six. The next restart was also short-lived, with the track going to full course yellow conditions before the safety car was summoned again. The race finished behind it, with Mossman’s penalty demoting him to 10th while Costello inherited a half-points victory due to the lack of green flag action. That also meant race one’s fastest laps set the race three grid too.
Michael Boyiadzis finished eighth and picked up a four-race suspension for causing a collision, while Dane Scott and Everett Stack were relegated to pitlane starts for race three due to also causing collisions.
Pole-sitter Woods-Toth led the first three laps of race three before the safety car came out due to Aidan Potter and Alex Benavitz clashing at turn 12.
Mossman and Lacey fought over second pior to the neutralisation, and did so again on the lap seven restart. They were behind the safety car again on lap eight though due to Logan Adams crashing at turn 12, and race control decided to finish the race behind it with Woods-Toth winning ahead of Mossman.
Pre-event points leader Jimmie Lockhart was absent from the weekend.
Results round-up
Race 1 (7 laps)
1 Patrick Woods-Toth Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport 28m32.018s
2 Jesse Lacey Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +0.834s
3 Frankie Mossman JHDD +1.275s
4 Michael Costello JHDD +1.730s
5 Alex Berg Doran Motorsports Group +2.924s
6 Carl Bennett Gonella Racing +3.640s
7 Titus Sherlock Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +4.331s
8 Lewis Hodgson Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport +4.753s
9 Cole Kleck Velocity Racing Development +6.709s
10 Tyke Durst Gonella Racing +7.917s
Pole: Lacey, 2m17.924s
Fastest lap: Woods-Toth, 2m21.503s
Race 2 (8 laps)
1 Costello 30m01.826s
2 Lacey +0.611s
3 Berg +2.265s
4 Sherlock +2.454s
5 Woods-Toth +3.612s
6 Max Taylor Velocity Racing Development +4.379s
7 Augusto Soto-Schirripa International Motorsport +6.167s
8 Michael Boyiadzis JHDD +8.173s
9 Logan Adams JHDD +9.646s
10 Mossman +9.701s
FL: Costello, 2m24.000s
Race 3 (9 laps)
1 Woods-Toth 29m51.417s
2 Mossman +0.868s
3 Lacey +1.410s
4 Berg +2.099s
5 Sherlock +2.294s
6 Soto-Schirripa +3.454s
7 Matthew Higgins Era Motorsport +3.667s
8 Bacon Zelenka Bacon Racing +4.729s
9 Durst +5.242s
10 Daniel Cara +5.431s
FL: Bennett, 2m17.722s
Championship standings
1 Woods-Toth 103 2 Lacey 76 3 Costello 54.5 4 Jimmie Lockhart 50 5 Berg 49.5 6 Mossman 44.5 7 Sherlock 44 8 Bennett 37 9 Hodgson 27 10 Cara 15