Wickens scores his first Formula BMW USA victory
The Canadian National Anthem played for the second time this weekend as BMW Junior and Rookie driver Robert Wickens (Team Apex Racing USA) won Round 6 of the Formula BMW USA Series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. 16-year old Wickens, of Etobicoke, Ontario, the third-place finisher of yesterday's Round 5 race, finished 3.440 seconds ahead of fellow BMW Junior Reed Stevens (HBR Motorsport Team USA) in the 12 lap contest. Wickens, starting from the sixth starting position, took over the lead from polesitter Tobias Hegewald (Atlantic Racing Team) on lap seven. He recorded the fastest lap of the race (1:46.997) on lap 10 as he drove to his first Formula BMW USA victory. Hegewald recovered to round out the podium, for an excellent weekend's work.
Robert Bunker (AIM Autosport) was fifth and Matt Lee (Twintooth/BRM Motorsport) finished eighth for their season's best result.
Kevin Lacroix's accident and resulting retirement on the opening lap of the race did not allow him to score any points, but he retained his lead in both the Overall and Rookie points. Fourth-place finisher Maxime Soulet (Gelles Racing) closed to within nine of Lacroix in the Overall points and Wicken's win moved him to third, only one point from Soulet.
Wickens and Stevens each moved up one position in Rookie points to second and third respectively. Lacroix now leads Wickens by just two points.
"My car was spectacular today," said a happy Wickens. "I need to thank my sponsors MMG Financial, Cameron Motorsports, F1-K International, Malcom McMaster, Bob Cameron and Panielle. They all made it possible. Today it was a little bit of luck and a little bit of a fast car. I had a car to win, but two yellow flags definitely helped a lot."
Stevens, who equalled his best result of the season today said, "This weekend we had trouble in qualifying. We were not able to qualify as far forward as we wanted, but I had a car capable of winning. A good result depended on a good start and very good opening laps. We were lucky today. We had a fantastic start and two yellow flags really helped us to get into the second position."
A disappointed Hegewald said, "I was a little bit unlucky today. I had a really good start and was in the lead for the first 6 laps. After getting hit by Stevens, I was third and I couldn't do anything."
The top-finishing Rookies were Wickens (P1), Stevens (P2) and Bunker (P5). Rounds 7 and 8 of the 2005 Formula BMW USA Series will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on June 18 - 19 in support of the United States Grand Prix.
Round 6 - Results (12 laps)
1 Robert Wickens (R) (Team Apex Racing USA): 24:53.3672 Reed Stevens (R) (HBR Motorsport Team USA): 24:56.8073 Tobias Hegewald (Atlantic Racing Team): 24:57.8554 Maxime Soulet (Gelles Racing): 25:05.5345 Rob Bunker (R) (AIM Autosport): 25:07.4136 Daniel Herrington (Jensen MotorSport): 25:07.9127 Tom Sutherland (HBR Motorsport Team USA): 25:10.0838 Matthew Lee (R) (Twintooth/BRM Motorsport): 25:10.4109 Darin Marcus (R) (Gelles Racing): 25:10.63210 Paul Rees (Walker Racing): 25:12.06511 Adrien Herberts (R) (Atlantic Racing Team): 25:12.76812 Jonathan Summerton (Walker Racing): 25:13.21713 Ryan Campbell (R) (Gelles Racing): 25:15.14014 Jules Duc (R) (Jensen MotorSport): 25:24.02015 Derek Burseth (Burseth Racing): 25:28.35716 Edoardo Piscopo (R) (EuroInternational): 25:37.16117 John Zartarian (R) (Jensen MotorSport): 9 laps Accident18 Doug Boyer (R) (Jensen MotorSport): 6 laps Accident19 Justin Moon (R) (Gelles Racing): 4 laps Accident20 Richard Philippe (R) (Team Autotecnica): 3 laps Accident21 Race Johnson (R) (HBR Motorsport Team USA): 3 laps Accident22 Kevin Lacroix (R) (AIM Autosport): 1 laps Accident23 James Davison (R) (HBR Motorsport Team USA): 0 laps DNS
Championship points after 6 of 14 races:
1. Kevin Lacroix (AIM Autosport, 72), 2. Maxime Soulet (Gelles Racing, 63), 3. Robert Wickens (Team Apex Racing USA, 62), 4. Richard Philippe (Team Autotecnica, 49), 5. Reed Stevens (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 49), 6. James Davison (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 35), 7. John Zartarian (Jensen MotorSport, 23), 8. Rob Bunker (AIM Autosport, 18), 9. Justin Moon (Gelles Racing, 18), 10. Edoardo Piscopo (EuroInternational, 18), 11. Jonathan Summerton (Walker Racing, 15), 12. Daniel Herrington (Jensen MotorSport, 14), 13. Tom Sutherland (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 13), 14. Tobias Hegewald (Atlantic Racing Team, 12), 15. Race Johnson (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 8), 16. Matthew Lee (Twintooth/BRM Motorsport, 8), 17. Darin Marcus (Gelles Racing, 4), 18. Doug Boyer (Jensen MotorSport, 2), 19. Adrien Herberts (Atlantic Racing Team, 2), 20. Paul Rees (Walker Racing, 1), 21. Derek Burseth (Burseth Racing, 0), 20. Ryan Campbell (Gelles Racing, 0), 21. Nathan DePagter (DRE Autosport, 0), 22. Jules Duc (Jensen MotorSport, 0), 23. Scott Harnell (SDH3 with Cinema Concepts, 0), 24. Ryan Phinny (Gelles Racing, 0)
Rookies: 1. Kevin Lacroix (75), 2. Robert Wickens (73), 3. Reed Stevens (56), 4. Richard Philippe (54), 5. James Davison (41), 6. Rob Bunker (33), 7. John Zartarian (29), 8. Edoardo Piscopo (25), 9. Justin Moon (22), 10. Race Johnson (19), 11. Matthew Lee (19), 12. Darin Marcus (15), 13. Adrien Herberts (13), 14. Doug Boyer (5), 15. Ryan Campbell (4), 16. Jules Duc (3), 17. Nathan DePagter (0), 18. Ryan Phinny (0)
