Snatching the round win at Adelaide has put North Canterbury teenager Jackson Culver back into the lead of Australia’s junior Formula 4 championship.
A convincing race win, two runner-up spots, pole and two fastest laps have seen Culver go from third to a narrow one-point lead in the Gen 1 AU4 championship with one round remaining.
Returning to The Bend for consecutive rounds, this time on the longer International circuit, the 14-year-old Rangiora High School student says the solid work in testing paid dividends come race weekend.
“Satisfied with the round win this weekend. We put a lot of hard work in on Thursday and Friday to get the car where it needs to be, but that’s what you have to do,” said Culver, reflecting on his weekend, who relies on simulator training back home to prepare, unable to travel to Australia for testing between rounds.
“The track to the simulator was pretty close to identical, so then it was just figuring out how fast you can take it in the real car and learning the track a bit better.”
However, come the first qualifying session on Saturday, a mechanical issue prevented him from setting a competitive lap, and he was forced to start the opening race last, in sixth position of the Gen1 cars.
“The first qualifying was a little frustrating because we had a gearbox issue where it just wouldn’t downshift, so we lost the entire qualifying. We had just one lap, but it was super low because we had the downshift problem, but pleased to come back in Q2 and get pole by two-tenths.”
It was a remarkable comeback as the clock ticked down on the 10 minutes between the two qualifying sessions, while his team worked frantically to get the car on track.
“I was just sitting in the car trying to put my mind at ease, memorising the lap and figuring out what I had to go out and do. The boys did a really hard job to get the gearbox fixed in time, so I was super happy,” he said.
Once back on track, Culver snatched pole position for Race 3 by a healthy margin. Recording the fastest lap in the first race also put him on pole for the second race.
From the back of the grid, Culver got one car off the start in Race 1 and another two in turn one and leapt into third place before the end of the opening lap.
“I then hunted down Lewis [Gotch] for one or two laps. The top two were battling, so that made it a little easier. I got up to Lewis to make sure I was on his back at the end of the straight, went around the outside, and then blocked the inside, so that kinda sealed the deal.
Then it was chasing down Koby [Wilson], who was a couple of seconds up the road.”
The race then had a safety car period towards the end, but Culver just didn’t have the pace to push for the win before the chequered flag flew a few laps later after 25 minutes of racing.
From pole in the second race, Culver eventually raced off to win by 15 seconds, but he had his work cut out on the opening lap.
“We had a decent start. Koby managed a better start, but I got ahead and pulled three car lengths halfway through the lap. I thought I didn’t need to block at turn six, but Koby went for a dive-bomb and got ahead, so I stayed behind him for another lap.
“On the exit of triple-R I backed out because I saw a Gen2 car fly off into the grass in front of us. He came back on and just about took out Koby, so I went straight through both of them and managed to pull away.”
Off pole again for the final race, Culver struggled against Wilson on older tyres. Drivers are only permitted one set of tyres for the weekend and must manage them through qualifying and all three races.
“We were a little bit unlucky with the tyres as Koby had better ones because he didn’t use them in one race after his engine blew so he had about 6/10ths a lap on us. It was a matter of keeping a clean head, pulling away from Lewis to stay P2 so we could win the round.”
Following scrutineering after the final race, Gotch was disqualified for changing his tyres, and fell from a healthy series points lead at the beginning of the weekend to third, elevating Culver to the top of the championship by the slimmest of margins.
With just 13 points separating the top three going into the final round, it will be a winner-takes-all grand finale. Culver has won two of the four rounds.
“It’ll be quite a tense last round to be honest, but I really hope we can come out on top and I’ll be putting all the work in and go back out in four weeks and see what we can,” said Culver.
The final round was slated as a return to Sydney Motorsport Park in mid-September, but it will take place at Queensland Raceway, a track none of the AU4 competitors has been to so far.
In the faster Gen2 cars at the head of the field, it was another good day for New Zealand drivers. Two wins for Marco Manson put him at the head of the overall championship by just six points, while fellow Aucklander William Beck holds down third place.
The older series Gen1 Formula 4 cars run behind a grid of modern Gen2 machines. Drivers must be over 15 to race the top category.
Header Image: Supplied
