For his final race of the 2024 season, Texan Jett Bowling is taking on the ultimate challenge of the famous, unforgiving streets of Macau, China.
The race at the mouth of the pearl river has a storied history since it began in 1954. Over the years many of the world’s greatest racing drivers have taken on the famous 6.120 km, 3.803-mile circuit, and it has garnered a reputation as one of the greatest tests for young up and coming Formula 3 and now Formula Regional level drivers trying to make it through to Formula One or IndyCar.
In 1983 Ayrton Senna was first F3 winner at the Macau Grand Prix and since then the likes of Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen, Takuma Sato, Jenson Button, Jacque Villeneuve and more recently Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Logan Sargeant and tackled the circuit.
Sargeant, now an ex-Williams F1 driver, took a podium finish in 2019 and like many others has taken on the famous streets with great memories of the challenge on their way to F1 and Indy car.
This is a bold adventure and challenge for 19-year-old Bowling, who is in his rookie season of Formula Regional racing in what has turned out to be a breakout year for the Dallas-based teenager.
In January and February this year, Bowling competed in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship in New Zealand, becoming the most improved driver for the 15-round series. Returning to the USA, he then competed in Formula Regional Americas, finishing an excellent third overall ending the season at his home F1 track the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), in Austin Texas.
In October Bowling competed in two rounds of the Formula Regional Europe Championship at Barcelona and Monza as a warmup to Macau, where he again will take on many of the drivers he competed against in Europe.
This year is the 71st Macau Grand Prix and now the FIA has sanctioned it as the FIA FR World Cup. Drivers from all over the world at the Formula Regional level will meet to compete around the famous streets of the Guia circuit. Jett Bowling is one of only two Americans competing this weekend. The other is Ugo Ugochukwu of New York, who is part of the McLaren F1 driver development programme, and previous teammate to Kiwi Louis Sharp in the GB3 Championship.
This weekend’s two races to decide the FR World Cup takes place 14-17 November 2024. The event is made up of two races: a qualifying race that will decide the starting grid for the main event and the Grand Prix, the first for Formula Regional cars and the inaugural FIA FR World Cup.
All competitors will use an identical Tatuus T-318 chassis with a 1.742 L (106 cu in) turbocharged inline-4 engine developed by Autotechnica and Alfa Romeo.
Bowling will drive the #21 car for Kiwi Motorsport, the team he has been with since he began his car racing career just two years ago. It will also be Kiwi Motorsport’s first time at Macau, but it comes hot on the heels of the recent news that Kiwi Motorsport has partnered with the most successful team in American racing, Chip Ganassi Racing. Kiwi Motorsport are the most successful junior FIA American team so the partnership appears to be an excellent fit all round as hope to nurture young talent for the Ganassi racing program in the future.
Two current driver mentors at Kiwi motorsport, Roberto Moreno of Brazil and Martin Donnelly of Northern Island, are each former winners of the prestigious Macau Grand Prix on their way to Formula One fame.
Free practice sessions are spread out over two days, with 40-minute sessions taking place early Thursday and Friday morning. The two 40-minute qualifying sessions will also take place on Thursday
and Friday.
The qualifying race on Saturday, which sets the grid for the main race, will consist of 10 laps over one hour. The main race will consist of 15 laps over one hour on Sunday afternoon. All times listed below are in GMT+8.
Free Practice 1 – (14 November, 09:15 – 09:55) – local time (Five hours behind NZ time)
Qualifying 1 – (14 November, 15:25 – 16:05)
Free Practice 2 – (15 November, 09:15 – 09:55)
Qualifying 2 – (15 November, 15:25 – 16:05)
Qualifying Race – (16 November, 15:30 ~ 16:30)
Race – (17 November, 15:30 ~ 16:30)
Where to watch
Sessions will be streamed live on FIA’s YouTube channel
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