Photo Credit: RTD Media | Formula Race Promotions

In only his first season in the F1600 class of Formula Race Promotions, K-Hill Motorsports’s Wesley Gundler continues to make a resounding impact.

At the series’ last round at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, Gundler finally broke through after a run of top-five finishes to secure his first career win in the series in the second race of the weekend as he pushed into third place in the championship standings.

Now, at Road America, Gundler took advantage of a strong draft in Friday’s first practice session and set a time which was nearly two seconds ahead of the field and the fastest time in a practices session at Road America in series hsitory. He also set a 2:23.669 in the second practice session, taking the top spot as well.

That was only one of the many fantastic stories to come out of Friday practice, read up before the series gets ready to qualifying tomorrow:

F1600:

Practice 1 (Overall):

1. Wesley Gundler – 2:22.246
2. Robert Perona (M) – 2:23.922
3. Ayrton Cahan – 2:24.491
4. Chace Supplee – 2:24.604
5. Cooper Travis – 2:24.834

Practice 1 (Masters): 

1. Robert Perona – 2:23.922
2. Scott Rubenzer – 2:25.409
3. David Adorno – 2:25.469
4. Phil Kingham – 2:26.836
5. Bob Reid – 2:27.622

Practice 2 (Overall):

1. Wesley Gundler – 2:23.669
2. Gabe Cahan – 2:23.936
3. Robert Perona (M) – 2:24.241
4. David Adorno (M) – 2:25.383
5. Chace Supplee – 2:25.443

Practice 2 (Masters):

1. Robert Perona – 2:24.241
2. David Adorno – 2:24.383
3. Phil Kingham – 2:25.762
4. David H. Livingston, Jr. – 2:26.169
5. Gary Gecelter – 2:27.108

Beyond Gundler’s dominance in both session, arguably the best performance of the day may have came from Robert Perona, who ran right at the front of the masters class field all day and ran in the top five of the overall session in both the morning and afternoon. Perona’s 2:23.922 time in the first session was the quickest of the masters times during the day.

David Adorno, coming off of two masters class victories in Pittsburgh, ran competitive times near the front of the class field as well. Adorno also ran in the top ten overall in both sessions.

Gabe Cahan stepped up in the pace in the second session to a 2:23.936 to become the third driver to drop into the 2:23s during practice. Cahan and his brother are brother doubling up in F1600 and the Atlantic Championship this weekend.

But Gundler remained on top of the second session and capped off what was a fantastic practice day for the series rookie at his first time racing F1600s at the track.

“Practice was really good, and we finally got a good tow down the straights,” said Gundler. “This is one of those tracks where it’s hard to get away from the rest of the crew. I’ve never ran against these drivers here, but I have three races trying to figure it out.”

F2000:

Practice 1:

1. Nick Palacio – 2:14.989
2. Carter Sheets – 2:17.320
3. Bob Wright – 2:17.835
4. Sebastian Newberg – 2:18.038
5. Glenn Cordova – 2:18.272

Practice 2:

1. Nick Palacio – 2:14.350
2. Carter Sheets – 2:17.068
3. Sebastian Newberg – 2:18.893
4. Bob Wright – 2:19.420
5. Glenn Cordova – 2:20.865

Nick Palacio was the class of the field in F2000 practice today as he picked up the class lead in both sessions by over two seconds. Layke Motorsport’s Carter Sheets was second-quickest in both sessions and improved throughout the day as he dropped three tenths of the second off his first session to sit second place in both sessions.

Additionally, Sebastian Newberg and Bob Wright traded third and fourth place throughout the course of the sessions. Glenn Cordova picked up fifth in both as well out of the six-car field.

Atlantic:

Practice 1 (ATL-016):

1. Dudley Fleck – 2:02.585
2. John Mcaleer – 2:03.704
3. Richard Zober – 2:04.249
4. Kirk Kindsfater – 2:08.554

Practice 1 (ATL-Open):

1. J.R. Smart – 2:03.272
2. James French – 2:05.169
3. Brandon Schwarz – 2:06.240
4. R. Bruce Hamilton – 2:08.353
5. Charles Livingston – 2:08.355

Practice 1 (Atlantic Juniors):

1. Gabriel Cahan – 2:10.642
2. Kaylee Countryman – 2:10.881
3. Justin di Lucia – 2:11.038
4. Ayrton Cahan – 2:17.029

Practice 2 (ATL-016):

1. Dudley Fleck – 2:00.573
2. Richard Zober – 2:02.316
3. Kirk Kindsfater – 2:05.575

Practice 2 (ATL-Open):

1. James French – 2:05.368
2. J.R. Smart – 2:06.692
3. R. Bruce Hamilton – 2:07.488
4. Charles Livingston – 2:08.578
5. Brandon Schwarz – 2:08.601

Practice 2 (Atlantic Juniors):

1. Justin di Lucia – 2:10.886
2. Gabe Cahan – 2:11.410
3. Kaylee Countryman – 2:11.768
4. Connor Aspley – 2:13.562
5. Ayrton Cahan – 2:16.272

Dudley Fleck ran the quickest overall times across all the FRP classes with his 2:00.573 he set in the Atlantic-016 class in the afternoon to take the class lead in practice over championship leader John McAleer.

As far as championship leaders in the other two classes, Brandon Schwarz sat in the top five in the Atlantic-Open practice sessions as J.R. Smart and James French battled at the top. The leader in the title race in Atlantic Juniors, Justin di Lucia, led over Exclusive Autosport teammate Gabe Cahan, who also ran second place in F1600 practice.

“There’s a lot of time we still need to find and we’re getting used to the braking here,” Gabe Cahan said. “In the race, the slipstream is going to be interesting to see. We’ll just try to keep clean for the first race and see how the group runs together.”

Saturday and Sunday Session Schedule (all times local):

* = Will be livestreamed on SpeedTour TV YouTube

Saturday:

Atlantic/F2000 Qualifying 1 – 9:00 a.m.

F1600 Qualifying – 11:00 a.m.

F1600 Race 1 – 2:05 p.m.

Atlantic/F2000 Race 1 – 4:15 p.m.*

Sunday:

F1600 Race 2 – 11:40 a.m.

Atlantic/F2000 Race 2 – 2:35 p.m.

F1600 Race 3 – 3:20 p.m.

📋 Full Friday Media Report

You can find details about FRP events on the FRP website at racefrp.com and on social media throughout the event weekend.