Try as he might, Canterbury teenager Jackson Culver narrowly missed the top step of the podium in the Australian AU4 championship at Adelaide’s The Bend and instead took home a hat-trick of second places.
The Gen1 category of the Formula 4 championship witnessed the most intense racing so far at the third round with the top three protagonists ending the weekend just eleven points apart.
The points table got turned upside down when third-placed Lewis Gotch won all three races from Culver and leapt into the series lead while earlier series leader Koby Wilson had a shocker and had his big advantage wiped out.
“Definitely the most intense battles we’ve had in the championship. Some super intense racing especially in race two when we crossed the line right next to each other,” said Culver after his maiden visit to the South Australian track.
“The first race was good, came home in second so it was a good start to the weekend.
“There was a bit of carnage in race two so we had a safety car which jumbled the field up a bit and we had some Gen2 cars right behind us as well.”
During the second race, Culver grabbed the Gen1 lead of the second race for several laps, lost it and regained it again for a few more before his tyres went off. That gave pole-setter Gouch a chance to nose back ahead as they diced through the last two corners before crossing the line side by side.
“In the third race everyone just went for the win because we were all so close in [lap] times. There was some good racing, definitely, but it was probably a little too close,” said Culver, who did a superb defensive job to hold second place at the chequered flag with the left-side of his front wing just hanging on.
Culver therefore took his third runner-up position for the weekend, second overall for the round but dropped one position on the championship points table to third.
However, the close points gap over the top three drivers going into the penultimate round back at The Bend next month is bound to make for some thrilling AU4 racing.
In the overall and Gen1 championship local Adelaide driver Jensen Marold moved into the series lead, ten points ahead of Kiwi driver Marco Manson with fellow Aucklander Williams Beck in third.
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