Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

It was a perfect USF Juniors debut for 15-year old Sebastian Wheldon, who won the opening race of the season for VRD Racing at Louisiana’s NOLA Motorsports Park on Saturday in commanding fashion.

Wheldon started on the outside of row 1 after finishing the top of his qualifying group. He passed polesitter and Jay Howard Driver Development driver Liam McNeilly in the first couple of corners to take the win by nearly eight seconds.

Wheldon is the son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon’s teammate Max Taylor was able to charge from a starting position of fifth to take second place away from McNeilly in the opening laps. However, McNeilly fought back on lap 5 as he closed the gap into the final sector and moved to the outside of Taylor before Taylor forced McNeilly off the circuit. 

McNeilly would have another shot down a straight on lap 9 to put himself into second, where he would finish. Taylor would finish behind him to round out the podium.

In their return to USF Juniors as a team, International Motorsport saw Ariel Elkin take full advantage of a 13th place starting position to move up to fifth place. Elkin was a podium finisher last year in the final weekend of the Formula 4 United States Championship.

Joining Elkin in the top five was reigning Brazilian F4 champion and DEForce Racing driver Vinicius Tessaro, who finished fourth.

The second race will take place at 11:45 a.m. central time tomorrow. Qualifying will take place for that race at 8:00 a.m. central time.

For full results, check out the results page on the USF Juniors website.