Lacey shows speed at Road America

Melbourne teenager Jesse Lacey scored a hat-trick of podiums in the most complete weekend of his rookie Formula 4 United States Championship season.

In the second round of his first overseas campaign, Lacey backed up pole position with three straight podium finishes at Road America.

The string of solid results have cemented the Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport driver’s in the championship where he sits second behind Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth.

Fellow Aussie Lewis Hodgson started the weekend well by qualifying fourth and finishing eighth in race 1, but got caught up in dramas in race 2, slipping to 26th.

The final race was another tough blow for Hodgson, who was a non finisher in the third and final race.

The weekend started with a bang for Lacey, who set record-breaking pace to snatch a first career pole position.

The #16 Crosslink Kiwi driver claimed P1 with a 2:17.924, which was one tenth clear of Woods-Toth.

Lacey was the only driver to record a 2:17s lap time around the 4.048 mile circuit with Woods-Toth’s time a 2:18.055.

Alex Berg edged out the unlucky Hodgson after both drivers set the same time.

Lacey got the jump off the line in his new-look bright blue car and led the field through the first sequence of corners when racing got underway on Saturday.

However, Woods-Toth pulled alongside the Australian down the front stretch and snatched the lead.

Despite Lacey applying the blowtorch on his Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport teammate for the rest of the race, the Canadian claimed P1 by just 0.834s.

The heavily interuptted second race saw Lacey come within a second short of glory once again after penalties shuffled the leaderboard.

Frankie Mossman had crossed the line first, but received a 10-second penalty due to a jump start and dropped to 10th.

As a result Michael Costello was promoted to P1 after both he and Lacey muscled their way past Woods-Toth, who dropped to fourth in a dramatic race.

Woods-Toth harnessed the race two disappointment by catapulting to the lead with a super start in the finale.

He shot from fourth to point position, while Lacey found himself in a side-by-side battle with Mossman for second place.

Despite initially winning the duel, Lacey lost out to Mossman, but still secured third to extend his podium streak and finish a promising weekend on a high.

Lacey said he enjoyed the challenge of Road America and said the support of AGI Sport’s Adam Gotch helped him unlock some extra speed.

“Road America was an excellent track to drive,” he told AUTO ACTION.

“It was unfortunate the second race was spilt with too many red flags, but that happens sometimes in F4.

“I was also very thankful to have Adam Gotch from AGI Sport come over and engineer for the weekend. The setup of the car was so fantastic to drive, and I learnt a lot from his advice.”

Lacey and Hodgson will be back in action at the PERMCO Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio on June 22-25.

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