F4 U.S. Championships

DC Autosport with Cape Motorsports made its Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda debut last weekend, participating in the opening rounds of the series at Virginia International Raceway.  Team owner Don Conner fielded entries for two drivers in the triple-header weekend, as American Dakota Dickerson and Brazilian Eduardo Barrichello piloted the team’s white Ligier JS 16 cars. Dickerson picked up where he left off last year, scoring three podium finishes in a strong and consistent weekend performance. Barrichello made his car racing debut at VIR, and recorded a top finish of 13^th in the 36-car field.

"I’m pleased with the weekend, and I think that it was a good start for the team,” Conner enthused. “It’s fantastic to be on the podium with Dakota for all three rounds and Eduardo ticked off his first race weekend with a good qualifying performance and a 13^th place finish. I’m excited to get to Road Atlanta to get back to work.”

The lone qualifying session was plagued by red flag stoppages, which made it extremely difficult to put together a true fast lap while maximizing tire temperature and track position. Dickerson did the best he could, but was slowed on two of his sequences, and this left him in the seventh position for Race 1.  Barrichello was able to find open track and squeezed the most from the car that he could, qualifying eighth in the timed run, putting him alongside his teammate on row four for the opening race.

In the opening race, Dickerson got a strong start and was quickly into fourth before the only caution flag of the race flew, and on the ensuing restart, he made a decisive move to take third before opening a comfortable cushion. The 21-year-old San Diego resident pushed hard to reel in the lead duo, but just didn’t have the pace to run them down as they were leveraging the draft.  A third-place finish sent him to the podium and kicked off the 2018 season with positive momentum.  Barrichello started in the race in eighth and stayed out of trouble to finish 13^th.

Dickerson powered from fourth to take over the lead on the opening lap of Race 2, but then fell to second on lap two.  Dakota continued to push to steal back the win, but he settled for a strong runner-up finish that surely positions him as a title contender for 2018.  Barrichello started on the outside of Row 11 and drove a clean race, finishing 18^th.  For a rookie driver in a deep field, this was a tremendous start.

In the final race of the weekend, Dickerson was again in the fight for the race win, but ended up battling for the final position on the podium, scoring his third top-three finish of the event. Dakota’s consistent pace and racecraft has positioned him second in the overall championship standings heading to Road Atlanta on May 10-12 for the second event on the 2018 schedule. Barrichello had a solid run in Race 3, pushing hard to advance to 15^th before a minor miscue sent him off-track. He recovered to claim 21^st in the final tally.

The weekend was a solid success for DC Autosport with Cape Motorsports, as in addition to Dickerson’s P2 position in the standings, the squad is also third in the current Team Standings.

DC AUTOSPORT – DRIVER RESULTS AND QUOTES

F4 US CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUNDS 1/2/3 – APRIL 27-29, 2018

VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY – DANVILLE, VA

DAKOTA DICKERSON - #9

Qualifying: 7^th – 1:16.894

Race 1: Start – 7^th / Finish – 3^rd    

Race 2: Start – 4^th / Finish – 2^nd 

Race 3: Start – 5^th / Finish – 3^rd

Driver Quote: “I’m really happy with how my first weekend with the DC Autosport guys went. We showed strong pace throughout the weekend and scored three podiums, securing valuable points for the championship. We will be working hard to improve on those results for the next round at Road Atlanta!”

EDUARDO BARRICHELLO - #91

Qualifying: 8^th – 1:16.894

Race 1: Start – 8^th / Finish – 13^th    

Race 2: Start – 22^nd / Finish – 18^th  

Race 3: Start – 20^th / Finish – 21^st

Driver Quote: “I enjoyed my time at VIR so much. Everything was new to me and it was a big learning curve. We had the speed and now I know a little more about the car and the team and I can wait for Road Atlanta.”