General Comments
This round of the 2018 FIA F4 U.S. Championship at Pittsburgh International Race Complex brought great results in regards to the Drivers Championship! Going into the weekend, we stood in third place within the Drivers Championship but as the weekend concluded, we moved forward into the second spot trailing by 26 points to first place. The next race weekend will take place at New Jersey Motorsports Park where I have raced at before and feel very confident that we can produce some great results to move us closer to the top spot of the Drivers Championship. The series will then head to the season finale at Circuit of the Americas with Formula One to end the season and I look forward to battling for the championship up until that time. I would like to send out a big thank you to Global Racing Group for providing me with a top class team and car and of course all of my partners for the support! Pittsburgh was a huge event in regards to exposure as the weekend consisted of seven different racing series which joined the F4 US Championship.
Qualifying – Saturday, August 4, 2018
Qualifying results put me in fifth position for the start of Race 1, a good result considering that my championship rivals would be starting behind me! As the session got underway, I knew that we had a good setup on the car as we immediately went toward the front of the timing board. The laps continued and the lap times dropped but we were missing around 0.3-0.5 of a second to make it on the very top spot for the start the first race. Slightly disappointed with a P5, I was still very happy to know that we would be starting in front of our rivals in the championship so I knew that this race was going to be very important in that regard.
Race 1 – Saturday, August 4, 2018
Starting from fifth position based on qualifying results, I knew a race win and many championship points would be possible. As the lights went out, I had a great start and moved up to fourth by the end of the first lap. The second lap brought out a lengthy full course caution for six laps, slightly frustrating as it would take away opportunities to continue making up places and battling for a race win. As the full course caution came to an end, I knew that the restart would be very important as there were only three laps left. Happily, I was able to make up one more spot as the green flag dropped and I moved forward into P3 and remained there as the checkered flag came out. Overall, this was a great result as my championship rivals finished P5 and further back!
Race 2 – Sunday, August 5, 2018
Starting in fifth position again based on the fastest Race 1 lap time, I knew that we would be in a strong position for the start of the race! As the lights went out, I had a great start off the line and maintained my position for the opening lap. This race saw a lot more green flag laps which was nice as I was closing the gap to one of my championship rivals who was running P4 at the time. Then about half way through the race, an incidental accident occurred, 
sending me back to P21. I tried to make up as many positions as possible but simply didn’t have enough time to get back into the points for this race. Overall this race didn’t hurt us too much as another championship rival also finished outside of the points, a good positive to take away from the race!
Race 3 – Sunday, August 5, 2018
Starting in 10th position based on the fastest Race 2 lap time, I knew we had some work to do in order to get as many points as possible. As the lights went out, we again had a great start off the line and I was able to work my way up to P8 by the end of the first lap. I found myself behind the points leader in the drivers championship but ahead of another rival driver, so overall a good scenario thinking of the long term championship. The race would see another full course caution period lasting for about 5 laps which unfortunately took away further opportunities for passing within the race. As we went back to green however, I was able to make up one more position and finish the race in P7, still a good result in relation to our rivals in the championship. Overall this was a slightly strange mix of results but despite this, we still moved up to P2 in the Drivers Championship which I’m very happy about!
Thank you,
Benjamin