USF PRO 2000
At Toronto Motorsport Park in Ontario, Canada. The first race started off badly for Hughes in his Turn 3 Motorsport entry. He qualified second and was pushed wide at the first corner by his pole sitting teammate which also caused drama for several others. Hughes pitted to check damage and was able to resume in 14th and charged through to sixth.
In the next race, he took a big step toward his ultimate goal of taking out the championship when he dominated the race for the win.
“I was happy to just not do any overtaking in that race. The last two races, we ended up being in the pits and had to do a bunch of overtaking the rest of the race. It was nice to just stay out in front and I can’t thank the Turn 3 crew enough for giving me an amazing car. It was nice to just stay out in front,” he said.
USF 2000
The round was without VRD Racing’s Xavier Kokai for a second time. But at this round at Toronto there was another Aussie in the field with Australian Formula Ford Series points leader Eddie Beswick in an Exclusive Autosport entry.
His first race came to an untimely conclusion. He had a great race for a while, up to fifth at one stage, but was caught up in a move by fellow countryman Quinn Armstrong in an accident he couldn’t avoid. Armstrong crashed out of the second race, and both were classified outside the top 10.
FANATEC GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA
Australian Tom Sargent and American Kyle Washington had their best round to date in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS. They took their first Pro-Am victory at VIRginia International Raceway. He handed off to Sargent early when the pit window opened before the race’s halfway mark.
The victory came in GMG Racing’s debut of their all-new Type 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Washington had to start the 90min race last after a transponder glitch in qualifying. As the race entered the final 30mins was in front when the Pro-Am leader was handed a drive-through penalty for an earlier incident.
The penalised driver was quick to rebound and mount a final challenge. The race went down to the wire in a nose-to-tail battle. Sargent was able to prevail for the victory after a frantic fight to the finish in the final two laps.
“He [Kyle] never put a foot wrong, just quickly turned over laps, and then we had an absolutely perfect pit stop, the best we have done all year, and we have all been working really hard on those. We nailed that and from then on it was up to me to bring it home,” said Sargent who has been racing in America since his victory in the 2022 Bathurst 6 Hour with now Supercar driver Cameron Hill.
ITALIAN F4
At Paul Ricard for the fifth round, Jack Beeton (US Racing) was second in the first two races. Teams had to gamble between wets and dry tyres for the third after a downpour beforehand. Most of the front runners went for wets including Beeton and were forced to pit for slicks and finished well out of the points.
Fellow countrymen Gianmarco Pradel (US Racing) and Mrad (PHM AIX Racing) were further down the field. Pradel did get seventh in Race 2. That came after a ninth in Race 1 before a post-race penalty cost him three spots. Mrad’s best result was 16th in the same race. Earlier he lost five places in Race 1 with a penalty that put him outside the top 20.
FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN
The Paul Ricard circuit also host Round 6 of the FREC. Driving for Prema Racing, James Wharton, had a sound race where he started and finished sixth before a 10th in the second outing.