Up and Down at Winton
After an up and down double round (Rounds 4 and 5) on Sept 3rd – 4th Jayden Ojeda has claimed another bagful of points to maintain his lead in the CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship.
Jayden has won his third Australian Formula 4 Championship round of 2018, with two race victories on Sunday in round five at Victoria’s Winton Raceway, and has found himself with a 21-point championship lead after Sunday’s three races.
Round Four (Saturday)
Championship leader Jayden wasn’t so lucky for the first race of round 4 after a suspension failure following some light contact with rival Cameron Shields resulted in a DNF, but he didn’t let that get him down.
In an eventful reverse grid Race 2 Ryan Suhle and Jayden Ojeda came through the pack to be running 4th & 5th by lap 3. With the pack backing up behind the leaders, Jayden had an unfortunate spin at turn 12, shuffling the #31 to the back of the pack.
Jayden stole the show in the final race starting P2 and getting the jump on Suhle to lead the race, reset the Winton F4 lap record and winning by a dominant eight-second gap, finishing 5th overall for the Saturday round.
“I tried to fight back for Race Two, we got up to fifth in the second or third lap but an incident just put me back in the field and ended up going a lap down which is a bit unfortunate, but we bounced back for Race Three which is great, showing that we had really strong pace.”
“We didn’t start the weekend off too strongly, but we’ve come back and hit it back hard. I’m really happy with the car, it’s amazing so the AGI Sport guys did their job. Hopefully tomorrow we are going to have a better day and get a few more points in the bag,” Ojeda said.
Round Five (Sunday)
Jayden well and truly made amends in Sunday’s Round Five with a couple of convincing race wins, winning two of the 3 races, and a podium 3rd in the reverse grid race for victory in the round.
The reverse grid race two offered a few more challenges with Ojeda starting fifth place on the grid and a couple of race incidents and safety car laps, but had Ojeda out the front in the point score by the end of the double-round weekend.
“Race two was hectic, there was so much going on, in the back of my mind I had to think about the championship so I couldn’t get my nose stuck into it too much but at the same time I couldn’t let myself become a victim so I had to try and figure out which one was the right hole to go into and we ended up third in that race,” Jayden said.
Jayden dominated Race 3 of round four on Sunday afternoon winning by a whopping 8.5 seconds and re-setting the Formula 4 lap record in the process. Team mate Ryan Suhle came home in 2nd to make it a 1-2 for AGI Sport.
“Sunday was obviously a lot better than Saturday, Saturday wasn’t ideal but Sunday we came back strong. Getting the round win and two wins on the Sunday has topped off what started as a not so great weekend – but now it’s turned into a great weekend for us” Ojeda said.
With only two rounds left in the championship the points are going to be all important with the AGI Sport drivers next heading to their home track at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend.
“Home testing track so we have done a few laps there, but I know Cam has been there as well and he was quick when he went out there so it’s all going to be very tight but hopefully the boys will give me a good car and I can then just do the job,” Ojeda said.
Round 6 of the 2018 CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship will return at Sydney Motorsport Park September 22-23.
The CAMS PAYCE Australian Formula 4 Championship will next visit the Shannons Nationals this week, with the penultimate round of the championship to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park on 21–23 September.
Round Five Results
Jayden Ojeda – AGI Sport: 65
Aaron Love – Team BRM: 47
Ryan Suhle – AGI Sport: 45
Cameron Shields – Team BRM: 42
Lochie Hughes – Team BRM: 22
Championship Standings after Round Five
Jayden Ojeda: 269
Ryan Suhle: 248
Cameron Shields: 242
Aaron Love: 217
Lochie Hughes: 155
