Jay Howard Driver Development tops team championship standings after dominating performance in mid-season event
The record for the most teams to score points at a Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda event was broken at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 29-July 1 after 10 of the 13 teams entered produced top-10 results, but Jay Howard Driver Development dominated the standings, earning the most points ever collected by a team at a single event.
The four-car team lost its first-place standing to Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport after Event 2 at Road Atlanta, trailing by four points leading into Rounds 7-9. However, in dominate fashion, JHDD reclaimed the lead with a combined six podiums from Christian Rasmussen of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Teddy Wilson of Holbeach, England, heading the team championship standings by 79 points after the midseason event.
“Mid-Ohio was an exceptional weekend for us as a team, we scored a lot of points, got two drivers on every podium and scored two wins. It was a great team effort,” said JHDD team principal and four-time Indy 500 driver Jay Howard after scoring 113 team points at Mid-Ohio. “Road Atlanta did not go great, lots of things out of our control made it a long weekend for us. It shows what a great team of people we have, to get back to our winning ways and take over the lead in the team constructors championship. We will work hard to stay on top.” 
While four Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport drivers continued to finish in the top-10 consistently during the third F4 U.S. event, the second-year team’s performance was hindered after an incident in Round 8 caused its fifth driver and leading scorer Jose Blanco of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to retire the race early. The damages sustained from the incident caused Blanco to also miss the final race of the weekend.
“As a team it is very satisfying to have four cars in the top 10 regularly. Jose had a disappointing ending to his weekend at Mid-Ohio, but that will only make him stronger for Pittsburgh,” said Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport co-owner Garry Orton. “Most of our drivers come straight from karts and have had very little race car seat time. We worked hard with each of them at test days, teaching the fundamentals but at the end of the day it’s up to them to take what we are telling them and put it into place on the track. All of our drivers have done a great job and are improving each round.”
The tie for third between Global Racing Group and DC Autosport with Cape Motorsports was broken after DC Autosport claimed its maiden victory.
“It was fantastic to finally get a win,” DC Autosport team principal Don Conner said. “We had a lot of podiums leading to Ohio but no wins, and let’s be real, we're here to win, not finish second. I think the whole team was relieved to finally get a win.”
DEForce Racing’s single-car squad continued to rack up points, keeping it in close contention with the top-four multi-car teams. Abel Motorsports and Primus Racing Team also scored valuable points at the third F4 U.S. event.
Miller Vinatieri Motorsports, Group-A Racing and Century Auto Racing edged their way into the team championship race, scoring their first points of the season to round out the top-10.
Team Championship points are calculated from teams’ top-two drivers’ standings from each individual race. In case of a tie, the team with the most race wins will be awarded the higher position.
The F4 U.S. Championship is back in action for the Keystone Speedfest Aug. 3-5 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Advanced discounted tickets to the event and a full list of standings can be found at F4USChampionship.com.
