The season has kicked off in the Formula 4 United States Championship and the Formula Regional Americas Championship with the Friday practice sessions from NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana.

Thirty-one cars took to the track for the opening session in F4 today, with Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport’s Lewis Hodgson sitting at the top of the timesheets after the first session with a 1:42.085.

Following him was Velocity Racing Development’s Jimmie Lockhart, who was four-tenths of a second slower. Closing out the top-three was Hodgson’s teammate, Titus Sherlock, who was barely behind Lockhart by the end of the session despite having a five minute penalty.

Sherlock said by the opening race tomorrow, he expects to be in a position to take a shot at the win.

“I think as a team, we’re pretty close,” Sherlock said. “We’re especially fast and we’ve been pretty much right behind the other teams.”

The later session for F4 had storm clouds hovering over. Less than ten minutes before the beginning of the session, rain began to fall.

The wet weather had noticeable impacts on the drivers as they tried to find a racing line, with two red flags coming out during the session. Jay Howard Driver Development’s Dane Scott found himself into the wall in turn 12 which brought out a red flag.

Later in the session, Luciano Martinez of Scuderia Buell would cause another red flag when he ran off the track into the gravel trap at turn 6.

After Martinez’s incident, the session would prematurely end. Jay Howard Driver Development’s Michael Costello, who dominated in preseason testing at NOLA last month, finished first. Hodgson would finish second, followed by Gonella Racing’s Carl Bennett.

In the Formula Regional Americas Championship practice sessions, Crosslink Kiwi’s Ryan Shehan would top the first session with a 1:34.754. Teammate and fellow Formula Regional Oceania Championship driver Callum Hedge would finish second, and Jensen’s Oliver Westling would finish third.

IGY6’s returning driver Hayden Bowlsbey would jump to the top of the charts in session two, followed by Crosslink Kiwi’s Cooper Becklin and then Shehan.

Qualifying for F4 US will be tomorrow at 8 a.m. local time, while FR Americas will have qualifying just after 11 a.m. local time.