It is a big weekend for our friend Spike Kohlbecker who will begin his first F4 races in the US at Mid-Ohio.
The weekend starts with Practice #1 on Thursday at 3:30pm CDT and Practice #2 on Friday at 10:00am CDT. Qualifying also happens on Friday at 3:05pm CDT.
The weekend climates in two races. Race #1 on Saturday at 10:40am CDT and then Race #2 on Sunday at 2:50pm CDT. You can live stream the race via Fanracing.live.
It’ll be great to get the season under way and Spike is looking forward to it:
How is the competition stacking up this year?
Crazy strong field of cars! There has been some talk of how COVID has impacted racing. In the case of the Formula 4US series, there has been no change to the size of the field and the level of competition. The news is that there will be nearly 30 cars lined up to kick of the United States Championship Series in Mid-Ohio – that would make it the largest field in the history of Formula 4. The Formula 4 series is run as a “ladder series” to Formula One around the word but this year’s group of drivers in the US will be the largest in history.
What have you been doing to get prepared for the season?
1- Working out a lot: I do runs and bike rides thru Kirkwood and have been meeting my personal trainer for training sessions at Kirkwood Park since the Kirkwood YMCA has been closed. I also have an online racing simulator that I can race virtually. I have raced nearly a thousand laps on the Mid-Ohio racetrack on my simulator, so it has been put to good use.
2- Dallas Testing session: I spent five days in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend with my team and my engineer from Indianapolis, Tim Neff. I had three days on track after getting the car set up – but first I had to get my custom seat fitted (see the picture of that fun process!) How were the results of the test? After getting the car sorted out, we ended up being the fastest car on the track by 4/10ths of a second so all in all a good session. I had some good competition at this test session including two good drivers, one from Puerto Rico and one from Australia.
3- Mid-Ohio Testing: I spent two days with the team at the Mid-Ohio track testing the car along with 20 other cars in my class (picture of the track is attached – it’s crazy difficult when you’re at 125+mph). It was a great two days to ensure I will be ready for the first race. We had all kinds of track conditions and I was fastest in the rain and had good sessions in the dry. I never put on new tires because I felt like I still needed to learn the track. With old tires we were about 4/10ths of a second off the fast lap that another driver did with new tires. Adding new tires makes you about 1.0 – 1.5 seconds faster at Mid-Ohio so I feel good about my progress over the two days.
4- Laguna Seca, CA: I’m here in California now with my team, Kiwi Motorsports. This is a three-day test session with a mixed field of cars to maximize track time. This is an iconic racetrack that will be an excellent warm up for my official championship Race #1 in late June at Mid-Ohio. My parents and I have been very careful when traveling and this event is closed to the public and everyone always has a mask on. (UPDATE: WE QUALIFIED ON POLE POSITION FOR SUNDAY’S RACE)
