Jay Howard’s British youngster Teddy Wilson continued to impress in the penultimate meeting of the Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda by adding another second-place to his tally and narrowly missing out on podiums in two other races.
Hot on the heels of his multiple podiums at Pittsburgh and Mid-Ohio, Scholl Concepts-backed Wilson looked a formidable contender from the start at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP). Against a 31-strong field, the 17-year-old rookie posted a new qualifying record of 1:19.385 to secure pole position for race one. He also claimed the Cameron Das Fast Qualifier Award, having broken Das' NJMP qualifying record set in 2016.
Indy 500 driver Jay Howard said, “"Teddy did a good job all weekend and claiming pole position in qualifying started off the weekend on the right foot. He came so close to winning, however coming away with a second place finish was a good day for us. I am looking forward to the next round at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) where I hope to see Teddy get the top step of the podium that has eluded him."
Wilson made the transition from karts to single-seaters at the start of the season with team Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD). He has been consistently on the podium since his debut, with the exception of Road Atlanta where a serious mechanical problem put him out of the points that weekend and affected his Championship campaign. Prior to his Transatlantic F4 debut, Wilson raced karts in Europe and the UK and was MSA British Cadet Champion.
Wilson said, “A podium finish and setting a lap record at New Jersey was a good result, however there was potential to get on the podium in the first two races, which I didn’t maximize. I was really disappointed as my overall placings didn’t reflect the strong drives I also had in races one and two.”
New Jersey was the penultimate round of the hotly contested F4 US Championship with more experienced rivals Dakota Dickerson, Benjamin Pedersen, Christian Rasmussen (also of Team JHDD) and James Raven leading the title chase for the driver championship. Lying in seventh, with Super License points up for grabs, Wilson still has everything to drive for.
“I would like to thank Scholl Concepts, a leading worldwide manufacturer of surface finishing systems, for their backing at New Jersey and everyone involved in JHDD,” said Teddy, “I am still chasing that win and I hope it will come at COTA.”
The final round of the F4 United States Championship Powered by Honda takes place at the F1 US GP at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on October 19-21, 2018, as support race.
