Monday, June 17, 2013

Americans Find Success In Junior Formulas

Four American-born drivers picked up victories this weekend in junior Formula racing in three different countries.

At Milwaukee IndyFest, Floridian-born, American-Australian Matthew Brabham scored a grand chelem in the Pro Mazda race, winning from pole, leading every lap and setting fastest lap. It was Brabham's fifth win of the 2013 Pro Mazda season and leads Diego Ferreira by forty-nine points. Colombian Juan Piedrahita finished second with American Spencer Pigot rounding out the podium. Brabham's Andretti Autosport teammate Shelby Blackstock is third in the points, sixty-six markers back with Spencer Pigot and Scott Anderson rounding out the top five in the standings. The Pro Mazda will be on track next at Toronto. The remaining five race weekends are all doubleheaders.

In the Indy Lights race at Milwaukee, Pennsylvania's own Sage Karam scored his first career Indy Lights victory from pole over Andretti Autosport's Carlos Muñoz and Zach Veach. Veach led the first fifty-six laps before Karam got by and took the lead once and for all. Veach scored his first career podium finishing third. It's the first win for an American driver in Indy Lights since Josef Newgarden lapped the field at Loudon. Muñoz leads Karam by eighteen points. Gabby Chaves is third ahead of Freedom 100 winner Peter Dempsey, St. Petersburg winner Jack Hawksworth, Jorge Goncalvez and Veach. Indy Lights head to Iowa next Saturday night.

Hoosier Conor Daly led every lap from pole position as he won the first race of the GP3 Series weekend at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. This is Daly's second career win in GP3. He won at Barcelona last year. Daly went on to finish eighth in race two and is second in the championship, trailing Tio Ellinas by four points. The GP3 Series heads to Silverstone in a fortnight.

In Lausitz, American Gustavo Menezes won the second race of the German Formula Three weekend as a support series for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race. Menezes came from fourth on the grid to pick up his first win in the German-based series. Menezes finished fifth and fourth in the first and third races of the weekend. He currently sits fourth in points, one hundred and sixty-two points back of points leader Marvin Kirchhöfer. Menezes raced the past two seasons in Pro Mazda. German Formula Three have a month off before their next round at the Nürburgring.