News and Updates

Lucas and the Kiwi Motorsport team left the World Famous Laguna Seca Raceway with the most productive weekend of the season so far: a race win, a second place, back-to-back FPUSA-4 lap records, and an extended championship lead. Across Rounds 7 & 8 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the 3.6-kilometre, 11-turn Monterey road course, the #191 was fastest in the FPUSA-4 class in both qualifying sessions and came away with a result that showed both the speed and the racecraft Lucas has been building all year. 

The weekend started under difficult conditions. Friday's practice was heavily disrupted by incidents and clean-up, leaving the whole field with almost no representative running before the weekend's first race. Lucas and the team went into Round 7 on Saturday with limited data, and he answered by putting the #191 on pole. The race became a two-driver fight at the front between Lucas and season-long rival Erik Doan, the pair pulling clear of the field. Lucas led, set the fastest lap, and had opened a gap when contact between the two leaders on lap eight ended Doan's race and left Lucas with a damaged sidepod. Rather than retire, Lucas kept the car going, held on through a late full-course yellow, and brought it home in second. The lasting headline from Saturday, though, was the clock: Lucas set a 1:30.225, a new FPUSA-4 lap record at Laguna Seca! 

Sunday's Round 8 asked a different kind of question. Tire damage sustained in Saturday's contact meant the team, on the advice of coach and manager Jeff Bucknum, elected to replace tires beyond the weekend allocation, accepting a four-place grid penalty in exchange for safe, fresh rubber. Lucas made the point about pace emphatically in qualifying, taking pole and a new Laguna Seca record a 1:29.862 — lowering his own lap record from the day before and becoming the first FPUSA-4 driver to break the 1:30 barrier at the circuit. The penalty however still dropped him to fifth on the grid for the race. 

In he race, he was able to quickly gain three positions by Turn 3, and spent the opening laps stalking Doan.  A decisive move at Turn 4 on lap eight got him in front, he then managed the gap all the way to the flag to win Round 8. 

The two rounds cap a weekend Lucas will remember not only for the results but for how he raced. Early in the weekend the pressure to beat Doan showed; by Sunday it had turned into a measured, patient drive under real pressure. Full credit belongs to the Kiwi Motorsport crew, who rebuilt the car Saturday night and set it up to win, and to Jeff Bucknum, whose eye caught the tire issue before it became a safety problem. Lucas leaves Monterey with an extended lead in the FPUSA-4 championship and the season's momentum firmly with him. The title fight resumes when Formula Pro USA returns to Laguna Seca for Rounds 9 & 10 on October 2–4.

Let's go racing.