Callum Hedge had a perfect weekend at the Road America SpeedTour, racing with Formula Regional Americas Powered by Honda (FR Americas) at the 4.048-mile Wisconsin circuit. The New Zealander started every race from the pole position and led every lap en route to a trio of race wins. With 75 points added to his total, Hedge left Road America with the championship point lead.
“I didn’t come here expecting to have the perfect weekend,” said Hedge after the race. “The guys that I’m racing against are very, very good. I raced Ryan (Shehan) back in New Zealand and he was pretty competitive. It’s really cool to come away with a perfect weekend—fastest in all the sessions and all the races, and I also got the championship lead. I can’t complain about that.”
When the lights went out, the field got off to a clean start with Hedge in the point position. Nick Persing (No. 39 OPI Commercial Builders Ligier JS F3) started from the second position, but found himself under attack before the field reached Turn 3. With Ryan Shehan (No. 66 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3) driving by, Bryson Morris (No. 39 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3) pulled to the inside of Persing as they entered Turn 5 and emerged ahead of the No. 29. Just one turn later, Persing was under fire from Manuel Roza (No. 12 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3), who drove by to take over the fourth position.
At the same time, Cooper Becklin (No. 19 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3) was working to climb back through the field after falling as low as the sixth position. On a charge, Becklin raced side-by-side, slowly ticking off the fifth and fourth positions before a full-course caution slowed the field. With a quick off while exiting Turn 12 just before the halfway point, Becklin once again fell in the running order leaving him to fight back through the field.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1431]
While Becklin continued his climb, Oliver Westling (No. 1 JENSEN Ligier JS F3) worked his way up to the third position, passing Morris with 15 minutes left on the clock. As the clock ticked down to eight minutes, Westling had an off in Turn 12, allowing Becklin to get by and move into the third and final podium spot.
Drivers had one more dash to try picking up track position as the field was shown the green and white flags simultaneously with just two minutes left on the clock. Hedge led the field toward the checkered flag, with Shehan and Becklin in tow. Meanwhile, Roza recorded his best finish of the season in fourth, and Max Hewitt (No. 22 Save22 Ligier JS F3) recorded his first-career top five in FR Americas competition after spending the last four years running only sim races.
“My goal from the start was the championship to try to win the SUPER FORMULA prize,” Hedge explained when asked if his focus will turn to solely the championship, or if he’ll continue to focus on each race at a time. “That’s been the goal since Day 1, so we will be pushing hard, but I’ve got a couple Porsche races in between that I’ve got to put my eyes to now.”
At the conclusion of the race, Hedge was awarded the Omologato Perfectly Timed Move of the Race for his perfect weekend. As part of the award, he was presented with a bespoke Omologato timepiece.
FR Americas is back on track June 22-25 for the PERMCO Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, a SpeedTour event, where they will contest rounds seven-nine of their 2023 season.