ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (May 19, 2024) – Pablo Benites Jr. (No. 44 Scuderia Buell Ligier JS F422) earned his first-career Formula 4 United States Championship (F4 U.S.) win, as well as the first F4 U.S. win for his Scuderia Buell team. With an impressive drive, the Argentina-born racer climbed from his sixth-place starting position to take the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon.
Notes of Interest:
- Pablo Benites Jr. won his first Formula 4 United States Championship (F4 U.S.) race in just his sixth attempt after joining the championship last November at Circuit of The Americas.
- With three podium finishes during the Road America SpeedTour, Connor Roberts was awarded the Omologato Perfectly-Timed Move of the Race for his weekend performance, earning him a bespoke Omologato timepiece.
- Nicolas Stati finished on the podium in all three of this weekend’s races, with a first-place result in Race 1, and third-place finishes in Races 2 and 3.
- Once again, three teams were represented on this afternoon’s podium with Scuderia Buell winning the race, Team Roberts Racing finishing second and Crosslink Kiwi coming home third.
Daniel Quimby (No. 24 Cruise America / MIR Raceline / FIJI Airways / GalvanizeIns Ligier JS F422) led the field down the frontstretch to the wave of the green flag. While Quimby raced wheel to wheel with second-place starter Connor Roberts (No. 46 ApexSpeed.com / Entropy Cellars Ligier JS F422), drivers raced three-wide behind them. As they worked through the opening turns, Quimby claimed the lead as they fought for second behind him. With Roberts in second, Benites Jr. quickly climbed to third. As they crossed the line to compete the first circuit, only 0.058-seconds separated Quimby and Roberts. Benites Jr. was also in hot pursuit, just 0.249 seconds behind the leader. Less than a second behind, Nicolas Stati (No. 15 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422) and Alex Crosbie (No. 41 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422) were battling for fourth.
In the minutes that followed, Quimby, Roberts and Benites Jr. all jockeyed for the point position, with each of them leading the race at one point or another. As the clock ticked down, it became a five-car battle, with Stati and Crosbie both joining the fight. Continually racing two by two before flanking out to drive nose to tail, less than two seconds separated the group for the majority of the event.
As they passed the halfway point, Roberts nosed ahead as they crossed the start/finish line to hold a 0.040-second advantage over Benites Jr. However, it wasn’t long until Stati climbed from fourth to the second position. In fact, the 15-year-old Stati was in the lead as the field took the white flag, but Benites Jr. had the preferred line racing through Turn 5 on the final lap. Stati went wide, opening the door for Benites Jr. to overtake the top position, and did it again in Turn 6, allowing then third-place Roberts to drive by.
When they crossed the line, Benites led the way, followed by Roberts in second and Stati in third.
READ MORE: Race 3 Official Results
“This is amazing; I can't believe it,” said Benites Jr. atop the podium. “We made some changes for Race 2 and it was bad—it was really bad. We had no pace. We came back and we made some changes for the final, hoping that we’d be good, and it was amazing! I’d like to thank the team—they work so hard, all of them—my grandparents for making this possible, and all the people here.”
F4 U.S. takes on Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for its next round, June 20-23. A live stream of the Mid-Ohio SpeedTour will be available on YouTube.com/SpeedTourTV. Live timing and scoring can be accessed on the Race Monitor app, and additional news and updates about F4 U.S. are available on the series’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
