Photo Credit: Gavin Baker Photography

The Formula Regional Americas Championship has continued a steady stream of growth, and heading into 2024, the trajectory has continued to move upward.

With 13 drivers already announced for the series, the series is set to grow its numbers ahead of its seventh season with teams who find themselves returning to the series and two new teams growing the grid.

Additionally, changes have been made to the schedule. The October weekend which was at Virginia International Raceway has been replaced with the series first ever trip to Canada when FR Americas travels to Ontario’s Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. On top of this, the series will take its first trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in June as the series has a record of 21 races this season.

Also, the championship will have a non-points event in May at Laguna Seca, marking the first time ever that FR Americas will race on the west coast.

For other changes this season, the series has also adopted new engines, using the new 1.65-liter Ligier Storm V4 engines.

Here is the FR Americas schedule for 2024:

April 13-14: NOLA Motorsports Park

May 2-5: Laguna Seca (non-points)

May 16-19: Road America

June 13-16: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

June 20-23: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

July 25-28: New Jersey Motorsports Park

Aug. 29 – Sept. 1: Canadian Tire Motorsports Park

Oct. 31 – Nov. 3: Circuit of the Americas

The 2023 champion, Callum Hedge, dominated the series last year and won 13 out of 18 races before moving on to drive for HMD Motorsports in Indy NXT. The other two race winners remain in the series.

With the changes out of the way, let’s look at the 14 currently announced drivers for 2024.

One of the two race winners from 2023 returning to the series is Oliver Westling, who rode a wave of improvement in 2023 to take two wins and four podiums in the second half of the FR Americas season last year. Driving for JENSEN, Westling has considerably built up more pace across the partial season in 2022 and full season in 2023 he had raced in. With his success and wins at NJMP and CotA, expect Westling to continue growing in 2024 as he becomes more comfortable with the car and challenges for the title.

A team that is hopping onto the grid in FR Americas after competing in Formula 4 United States last year is Momentum Motorsports, and they will field an entry with 41-year-old Anthony Autiello. Autiello has raced previously in a wide variety of disciplines of racing. He started his career 14 years ago in Formula Continental, a category of formula racing which is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. Additionally, the Rhode Island native has competed in prototype racing and sports car racing.

One driver who got the chance to compete in a round of F4 US last year was Justin Garat, who is continuing to race with Speed Factory this year. Garat is a recipient of the Parella Motorsports Holdings Powering Diversity Scholarship and competed in F4 US at the Road America round last year, where he had a best finish of 18th place across three races. Garat also is a race winner in the Florida-based Formula Inter series where he got to take on a bunch of competitors who have gained experience in various forms of open-wheel racing.

Joining the field for Atlantic Racing is James Lawley, who raced in the final 12 races of the F4 US season with the same team. Lawley picked up top-10 finishes in one race at each of the last three tracks that F4 US competed at as he finished off his season with a best finish of 7th in the final race of the season at CotA. Lawley’s average finish improved considerably toward the end of the season as he competed more in the series and made the jump to FR Americas coming off of his best finish of the 2023 season.

The first of nine drivers for Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport is Patrick Woods-Toth, who advanced to FR Americas through scholarship after winning the 2023 F4 US championship. Woods-Toth utilized unmatched consistency to cruise to the title by 82.5 points. He finished the season with a series-high 14 podiums as he found himself on the podium of seven of the last eight races. Woods-Toth also raced in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship during the offseason, where he finished third in the championship while also winning Rookie of the Year.

Finishing second in F4 US last season was Titus Sherlock, who picked up two wins and four podiums as he finished in the points in every race but one, a feat only accomplished by himself and teammate Woods-Toth. The highlight of Sherlock’s season was his performance at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Across the three races, Sherlock finished first, fourth and second as he worked his way into a position to challenge for second in the championship. Sherlock finished 14th in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship with three best finishes of eighth. 

Another driver for Crosslink who had experience racing in F4 US was Jett Bowling. Bowling competed in the last twelve races of the F4 US season and had his first points finish in the final race of the VIR weekend where he picked up tenth place. Bowling also had the chance to compete in Formula Regional Oceania where he finished 12th in the championship. He had three consecutive top-10 finishes at Ruapuna that helped him secure the series’ most improved driver award.

Crosslink’s fourth and final driver that got experience competing overseas in the offseason in Formula Regional Oceania is Landan Matriano Lim, who finished sixteenth in the championship with a best finish of ninth at Taupo. Matriano Lim completed a full season in F4 US as well where he had a best finish of 13th in the second race of the weekend at VIR as he continued to gain experience throughout the season.

The next driver to have moved up with Crosslink after competing with them during the season is Alex Benavitz, who finished 15th in F4 US last year. Benavitz considerably improved in the second half of the season and picked up an impressive run of four consecutive points finishes including a run of three top-six finishes in those four races from the final race at NJMP to the final race at VIR. Benavitz pushed himself up the standings on top of other full-time drivers on that run and took the next step in his career as he moved up to FR Americas.

Heading into Crosslink drivers who have experience in FR Americas, no driver in the series got off to a better start than 2023 runner-up Ryan Shehan, who won the first two races of the season at NOLA to give himself an early points lead. Shehan picked up 11 more podiums throughout the rest of the season and picked up the fastest lap during a race at Mid-Ohio as he continued to race near the front of the field all season long. Shehan is a driver who has lots of experience and after getting two wins last year, should compete for wins in this season as well.

Another driver who competed in FR Americas last year with Crosslink was Canadian Nicole Havrda, who won the West Coast-based Formula Pro USA championship that runs the same cars as FR Americas in 2023. Havrda hit the ground running in the two rounds she competed in during the FR Americas season last year, picking up two top-five finishes at NJMP before picking up one more at VIR to finish 12th in the championship with 38 points. Havrda will have the chance to build on that in 2024.

Kevin Janzen competed in 12 races last year with Crosslink in FR Americas and had a best finish of 7th in the second race of the season as he finished fourteenth in the championship. Janzen is the most experienced driver in the series and enters the season having been a part of the FR Americas program since 2021.

Rounding out the field is Ricco Shlaimoun, who is competing for Crosslink after having competed in the 2018 F4 US season, where he got a best finish of 18th competing at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Shlaimoun also has gathered experience outside of open-wheel racing competing in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS division and in Lamborghini Super Trofeo programs.

The Formula Regional Americas Championship will start their season on April 13 at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana.