Carl Bennett secured his first Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda (F4 U.S.) win in the season-opening race at NOLA Motorsports Park on Saturday afternoon. Kicking off his second season in F4 U.S., the result marked Bennett’s first-career podium finish in the series.
“This is my first win with formula cars, and that was just amazing,” said Bennett from the podium. “That was quite the battle that I had on the last lap. I’m still a little breathless right now. Just an amazing day.”
Michael Costello (No. 19 Jay Howard Driver Development / CSU One Cure / Lucas Oil / LHP Ligier JS F4) left the starting grid from the first position, but an incident on first lap relegated him to the seventh position by the time the field came back around to complete lap 1. Meanwhile, Daniel Cara (No. 10 Tenuta Foppa & AmbrosiLigier JS F4) rolled off from the seventh position, but he quickly climbed his way up to second with a strong start off the line. By lap 3, Cara took over the lead and paced the field for three laps before contact and a spin in Turn 2 took him out of contention.
Through all of the chaos, Bennett drove a steady race in his No. 9 Gonella Racing Ligier JS F4. After starting third, the driver climbed to second by the third lap, before passing Frankie Mossman (No. 6 JHDD / CSU One Cure / Lucas Oil / LHP Ligier JS F4) on a restart to overtake the lead on lap 9. With pressure from both Patrick Woods-Toth (No. 27 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F4) in second and Titus Sherlock (No. 31 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F4) in third, Bennett continued to hit his marks to lead the trio across the finish line.
READ MORE: Race 1 Official Results
F4 U.S. returns to the track tomorrow for Race 2 at 9:05 a.m. CT, followed by Race 3 at 1:50 p.m. CT. Follow the championship on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or use Race Monitor to follow live timing and scoring. This weekend’s races are streaming free at YouTube.com/SpeedTourTV.
WATCH THE STREAM: F4 U.S. Race 1 at NOLA