There was lots of great racing to be seen at Portland International Raceway in both Formula 4 and Formula Regional during rounds 7 and 8 of the Formula Pro USA Western Championship. On Friday, F4 driver William Ferguson put a 2.9 second gap between him and 2nd place in the first qualifying session. The provisional order being Ferguson, Jack Holmes and Athreya Ramanan. During the second round of qualifying on Saturday, Holmes was able to bring the gap down to 1.3 seconds leaving the same starting order for race 1.
The Festival Chicane at PIR is very well known for creating first lap incidents in multiple race series. With a very wide entry into a very narrow exit it is very inviting to the second row, but one mistake can turn into a multiple car crash in an instant. Luckily, both FR and F4 kept it clean through the first few corners. Ferguson stretched his lead out early while Ramanan found a rhythm and started to catch the leader but was too far back to force the issue. Ferguson took the win and fastest lap with Ramanan second and Holmes in third for race 1.
The Formula 4 pilots managed to keep it together through the first couple corners in race 2, Ferguson was again able to create an early gap on the rest of the field. The VMB Driver Development pilot continued to stretch his lead to 8 seconds and claimed victory along with fastest lap of the race, Ramanan second and Holmes third.
Telo Stewart, William Ferguson, Jan Trojan
Ferguson;
“The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) put on a great event at Portland International Raceway. PIR is an awesome track, with lot’s of grip and high speed corners it creates very exciting racing. Now, looking ahead to Laguna Seca in just a few weeks time, we’re hoping to continue to stretch the Championship lead as we near the end of the season.
I really want to thank my family for coming out to watch me race this weekend as well as Steve Brisentine from the VMB Driver Development program for making the drive up on Sunday. Suren and Jan have once again given me the quickest car on the track and I couldn’t do it without their support, and the support from Telo at World Speed”
