Kirkwood Sweeps Fourth F3 Americas Race Weekend in Georgia
The combination of Abel Motorsports and 19-year-old Kyle Kirkwood is fast becoming one for the motorsports record books. Kirkwood, piloting his No. 8 Abel Motorsports Ligier/Honda F3 Americas machine, won all three F3 events at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, over the weekend. It was Kirkwood’s third weekend sweep in four F3 Americas weekends, and his ninth, tenth, and eleventh F3 victories in 12 races over the brief history of the series. Kirkwood has already won two major open wheel development series titles in the past year and is the heavy favorite to wrap up the inaugural F3 Americas Championship powered by Honda.
“It was a really good weekend for us. Kyle extended his points lead in the Championship, and we added to our lead in the Team Championship standings. Jacob Abel in our second car, the #51 Abel Construction Ligier/Honda, had a good weekend too. Kyle just continues to perform at a higher level than anyone else. He does what is needed to dominate. It’s amazing” noted team principal Bill Abel.
Young Jacob Abel impressed as well, in his second weekend of F3 Americas action at Road Atlanta. Against a much-improved, stiffer level of competition, Abel notched a fifth and two fourth place finishes, to move into fifth in the Driver’s Championship standings, just five points out of fourth.
“I’m still pretty new to the car and the series, but it was a good weekend," said J. Abel. "We had a couple of good results. Fourth isn’t bad against this level of competition. We’re ready to fight and get back on the podium in a few weeks at NOLA. We had two new entries at Road Atlanta who were super quick, making it harder. I am working on learning how to better manage my tires. It’s key, really one of the secrets to the whole thing.
Team Engineer Ian Brown noted, “Kyle was a bit under the weather at Road Atlanta, so we didn’t push him. It was a conservative weekend for him. We kept him out of the car in the final test session before we went racing, to conserve his energy. The competition is catching up now that we’ve all had these cars for a couple of months. Instead of us being 1-2 seconds quicker, now it’s a half a second. We’ll continue to work hard.”
Abel Motorsports has a few weeks to prepare its pair of F3 Ligier/Hondas for the final two weekends of the 2018 season, at NOLA Motorsports Park in Louisiana in mid-October, followed immediately by the F3 Americas Championship’s first appearance in support of Formula 1 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, the third weekend of October. The team’s goal is simple: earn both the Driver’s and Team Championships in the inaugural season of F3 Americas, before turning their attention to preparations for what will be an extremely full 2019 campaign in multiple major open-wheel development series.
Abel Motorsports is competing in multiple open-wheel developmental championships in 2018, the team’s second year of professional racing operations. Abel Motorsports has just debuted its official team website,www.abelmotorsports.com, and is accepting inquiries about driving opportunities in several different categories of cars including F3 and F4.
