The Australian AU4 championship returns to Adelaide’s The Bend this weekend for the penultimate round with Canterbury racer Jackson Culver in a tight three-way tussle for the Gen1 title.
The 14-year-old from Loburn led the series after the opening round before slipping back to third after their first visit to The Bend last month. He’s eager to return to the winners circle and close down the 13-point deficit to leader Lewis Gotch.
“Hopefully we can pull some points in this weekend but I’m sure it’s going to be a close battle all the way to the end of the championship,” said Culver.
“It’s going to be the longest track I’ve raced on so far, nearing a two-minute long lap time, probably the fastest, flowing track we’ve been to as well. It’ll make for a fun weekend and a lot of good racing. With the hill section it feels [on the sim] a lot like Sydney.”
This weekend the competition moves onto the 4.95km International circuit, last time out the Formula 4 cars raced on the shorter 3.4km West layout.
Culver came away from his last visit with a hat-trick of second places, even leading one race and taking the chequered flag side by side with Gotch, but just didn’t quite have the pace to beat the local South Australian driver.
“We’ll be focusing on getting the car better and myself better and hopefully the results will come from that.
“And focusing on the passes, making them one nice clean pass that sticks. I’m expecting more close battles, that’s why I’ve got to make sure I get that clean pass done so I can pull away.”
The Australian drivers have the benefit of more easily testing at the tracks prior to race weekend but for Culver, being a Year 10 student at Rangiora High School, means he has to rely heavily on simulator work to prepare himself. He only gets the series regular Thursday test driving the car to learn the track, which is one day prior to each round.
“The simulation is a huge benefit for me, they’re very same, same [track and sim] so being able to figure out where the bumps are and the braking points is good. Also figuring out where you can push the limits for qualifying, all of that coming into play is really good going into Thursday and already knowing a heap when we haven’t been able to go testing there.
“Literally I’ve been testing everything and anything. I’ve also been figuring out the data on the sim, changing one thing at a time and figuring out what that does to the car so that when I go back there I can then tell my engineer immediately what I feel is going on so we can get straight to the point.
“I’ve also been working on a good food plan, honing in on my skills, reaction times and strength as well.”
After starting his single-seater career in Formula First and with time in Formula Ford, mastering the tyre management of a wings-and-slicks car is also a new skill Culver is adapting to.
“You have to watch the tyres and figure out when is the right time to push and when it isn’t because the races are 25-minutes long so you don’t want to overcook your tyres, especially if there’s a safety car [period] and you’re behind it weaving for five or six minutes. Trying to figure out where the sweet spot is for the tyres is something I’m learning.”
The AU4 championship format has two grid-setting qualifying sessions and one race on Saturday, and two races on Sunday.
The older series Gen1 Formula 4 cars run behind a grid of modern Gen2 machines in which fellow Kiwi driver Marco Manson is also fighting to get back into the championship lead after also succumbing to a local driver last time out and falling back to second place. Culver must race in Gen1 because he’s under 15-years of age.
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