F4 U.S. Championships

Trackside report for Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course July 1, 2016- Practice Day

TODAY’S SCHEDULE (all times local):

7 a.m.  Gates open for teams

7:30 a.m. Crew chief meeting

8 a.m.  Registration begins

8 a.m.  Track inspection and track orientation

10:35 a.m First practice session begins

11:05 a.m. First practice ends

11:30 a.m. Tech inspection open

1:30 p.m. Tech inspection closes

1:55 p.m.  Second practice begins

2:25 p.m. Second practice ends

3 p.m. Tech inspection reopens

4 p.m. F4 Tire Marking

4:30 p.m. Drivers’ Meeting

5:00 p.m. Tech inspection closes

5:01 p.m. GEMS Seminar

6:00 End of Day

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Entry List

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Rain fell overnight. 7 a.m. drizzle continued and 8:15 a.m. heavy showers drove teams inside trailers.

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Crew Chiefs attended a meeting at 7:30 a.m. reviewing on-track procedures, tech operation and radio frequencies.

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10:35 a.m. first practice session started. The track was still wet from the morning showers. All 14 cars took the track but due to unresponsive transponders only 9 cars recorded lap times. Cameron Das of JDX recorded the best lap at 1:41.805. Less than two hundredths of a second separated the second and third best lap times. Darren Keane of JDX best lap was 144.301 and Baltazar Lequizamon was right behind him with the lap time of 1:44.523.  Durrett, Pederson, Kirkwood, de la Vara and Czaczyk did not have lap times recorded. Practice time ended on time at 11:05 a.m. However, due to a spin-out by de la Vara and Mount caused red flags to be thrown, leaving other cars parked in pit lane for long durations at a time. Drivers received about 20 minutes of on-track practice.

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Inspection of cars went smoothly throughout the day with only minor infractions that came with verbal warnings which do not effect points or standings.

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The sun parted through the clouds at 11:15 a.m.

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At 1:55 p.m the second practice session started. All 14 cars practiced and were timed. Durrett’s day was cut short after Das spun-out in front of him on turn 13 causing Durrett to get stuck in the gravel pit on his first lap. No contact was made but Das only finished two laps. Darren Keane from JDX racing captured the fastest lap of the day with the best time of 1:29.155. The grid ran extremely close in times from second to fifth place: Czaczyk 1:29.229, Forcier 1:29.445, Kirkwood 1:29.608 and Lequizamon 1:29.907.

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Drivers attended a class discussing race day procedures at 4:30 p.m.

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Honda hosted a GEMS software training seminar for drivers and team engineers to attend at the conclusion of the day.

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Quotes from practice results.

Kyle Kirkwood, Primus Racing- “Overall the car has been great. We have had minimal time in the car, but we’re still putting down quick lap times. It’s truly been worth the wait and I’m excited to kick-off the first race tomorrow.”

Austin Kaszuba, GMV Motorsports- “During our first practice session, the track was still a bit wet from the rain we had earlier in the morning. I utilized this session to practice standing starts and shake-down the car. Unfortunately, we only got in a few laps before we experienced some engine issues. While it’s not the start that I hoped to have, the entire GMV Motorsports team is working extremely hard on getting the car ready for tomorrow’s events. I am confident we will qualify well.”

Phil Picard, Momentum Motorsports Team Owner- “Today solidified that F4 U.S. is the environment where I want to build my business. SCCA Pro Racing worked at the top levels of professionalism. Max Crawford from Crawford Composite was on site with parts, Honda was available for accessible support and Speedcom was here with radios . Everyone worked together to create a great experience. We couldn’t be happier with our car’s performance. If the whole season goes like this, we will be very successful.”

View photos from today's events