Kyle Kirkwood: A Topsy-Turvy Weekend

Kyle Kirkwood qualified second fastest for the opening round of the new Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda, made nary the hint of an error in his Cape Motorsports entry, overtook more than 50 cars during the three-race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway…and came away with merely an eighth and a 10th-place finish. Go figure! Please check out his side of the story at: http://teamusascholarship.org/?p=3842

Kyle Kirkwood: A Topsy-Turvy Weekend

JUPITER, Fla. – Hey everyone, it’s been quite a while since I wrote my last blog. Thankfully, I have been beyond busy with racing and I’ve now found a few moments to catch up!

After arriving back to the States from England I had gotten a lot of word that “NOW comes the hard part,” and everyone was right. There were a few options that I had for the 2017 season and the two that were the obvious stand-outs were the Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. If I had won the Mazda Road To Indy USF2000 200k Scholarship Shootout last fall it would have been a very easy decision, but since I didn’t it was very tough picking one… I did two tests in both cars; in F4 I ran both tests with Cape Motorsports at Nola Motorsports Park, just outside of New Orleans, and at Atlanta Motorsports Park, near Dawsonville, Ga. Then in USF2000 I tested once with the Capes at Barber Motorsports Park and once with Benik at Homestead-Miami. After those tests, I leaned toward F4 knowing it would be my second year with more experience than most of the other drivers in the series. This decision was very tough and took me until the very last minute to make up my mind.

Unfortunately, I unknowingly broke an F4 rule by testing the USF2000 car at Homestead, which brought me 10-place grid spot penalties for each of the first three races in F4. At the time, I had no idea and the rule wasn’t very clear, but it’s racing and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

Coming into the first round this past weekend, the best we could start for any of the races would be 11th. We were very fast – every practice session we were in the top five without a draft, which was worth as much as a second per lap