Formula 4 Championship Powered by Honda Race Report

Honda Performance Development (HPD) engines have helped many drivers reach Victory Lane since its inception, but this weekend the manufacturer provided the next generation of open-wheel drivers with a stepping stone to future glories.

The new F4 Championship Powered by Honda debuted this weekend with three races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, each of them won by Konrad Czaczyk. Each of the open-wheel, FIA sanctioned F4-spec series cars is powered by an HPD/Honda K20 engine, the same power plant used in the Honda Civic Type-R.

"We are very proud to be part of the F4 series, and this weekend was a great start to a championship that has great potential," said Honda Performance Development Chief Engineer and Commercial Division Manager Marc Sours. "The HPD power plant provided great competition and, for young drivers just getting started in open-wheel racing, it is an engine that you can build a program on without breaking a team's budget. The teams and drivers were very complimentary of not only the engine, but of the entire package, and that bodes well for the rest of the year and beyond."

Czaczyk, who was born in Florida but is studying in Poland, dominated the opening weekend, leading wire-to-wire not only in Saturday's opener, but also in both ends of Sunday's doubleheader at Lexington, Ohio.

"The cars are amazing, and they were so responsive and fun to drive," Czaczyk said. "I've never driven anything like them. Some people weren't sure what to expect coming into the weekend with a new series and a new car, but everything was great."

Fellow Floridian Kyle Kirkwood chased Czaczyk home in each of the three weekend races, scoring a trio of second-place finishes in the opening weekend of F4 competition. Each of the three events saw a different driver finish third, however, and seven drivers earned top-five finishes over the two days of racing.

"I am very happy with this weekend and the start of the 2016 F4 championship," said Derrick Walker, president and CEO of SCCA Pro Racing, which sanctions the U.S. F4 Championship Powered by Honda. "We are very proud of our partners Honda, Crawford Composites and Pirelli. We knew that we had to provide a professional atmosphere and a challenging race weekend, and thanks to the work of our partners, our teams and our officials, we were able to do that."

In an additional part of the weekend at Mid-Ohio, the F1600 Formula F Championship Series also contested a tripleheader format over the two days. Using Honda power in their open-wheel machines, Peter Portante, Calvin Ming and Neil Verhagen each claimed victories. The series will next run in Pittsburgh, August 5-7.

Video News Releases from this weekend's F4 Championship Powered by Honda event at Mid-Ohio are being posted on a specially created "Honda Racing/HPD Trackside" YouTube channel produced by the Carolinas Production Group. CPG will be providing video highlights packages following Honda Racing/HPD events during 2016. The video packages can be found at https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.

About Honda Performance Development:
Honda Performance Development, Inc., (HPD) is Honda's racing company in North America and is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Founded in 1993, HPD is the technical operations center for Honda's high-performance racing programs. HPD specializes in the design and development of race engines, chassis and performance parts, and technical/race support. It also offers parts and race support to Honda and Acura grassroots motorsports racers, and is expanding its support of racing series and programs to make Honda racing products available to participants in all racing disciplines, from karting and Quarter Midgets to the highest levels of pro racing.

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