reprinted from https://prestonlambertracing.com/
This past weekend I competed in the US F4 west coast championship in Buttonwillow, California. I arrived back in America late Tuesday night after 2 months of racing in Europe as a factory driver for SODI Kart. I had 1 day of rest, then we headed to Buttonwillow on Thursday morning. Friday was the practice day.
The first day consisted of four 30 minute sessions. Getting back into the groove of driving a race car after nearly 3 months out of the seat, I got up to speed quickly and was feeling comfortable. I was the quickest driver of the day, and I was the guy to beat for race day!
On Saturday morning, we had a warm up, qualifying and one race. In warm up I was the quickest driver again, but on the in lap the car started to understeer and I hit a curb hard, the team checked the suspension and noticed the front sway bar broke. The team replaced the broken part just in time for qualifying! I managed to qualify on pole position by over 7 tenths, and set a new track record on that layout!
In the race I managed to get a good start and I had over a second gap on the first lap, but I got into traffic and I lost the gap and the lead, but 2 corners later I made the pass for the lead and pulled almost a 5 second gap by the end of the 30 minute race! I also had the fastest lap! It was an amazing feeling to win my first car race!
Sunday was a little harder, I started the day off strong with qualifying on pole, I also beat the track record, which I set the day before! For the race the driver in second place put on new tires, and the entire race he was pressuring me and the gap was about half a second for most of the race. Our laps were within a tenth every lap, but I managed to get it done in the end! I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend! P1 in every single session! Thank you to the whole World Speed crew for the amazing car! A massive thank you to VMB Driver Development for this amazing opportunity!
Thank you to all my sponsors –
- VMB Driver Development
- Trackmagic
- Turn One
- Content HQs
- StepUp karting
- Pat Beckley
- Chegg
- Curtis Family
Thank you to everyone that supports me! I’m very excited for the year to come, stay tuned!