ADAC Formula 4 Championship

James Wharton has enjoyed his best set of results in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship on the weekend, capped off with his first win in Europe.
 
The young Ferrari Driver Academy driver has been unable to replicate the same form from the Italian F4 Championship in the German championship this year, however three top five finishes at the Nürburgring saw him reignite his season.
 
Having qualified in P5 for the first two races, Wharton was unable to make up much ground in either race, moving up to fourth in the first outing and staying fifth in the second.
 
However, his best result came on Sunday afternoon in the weekend’s reverse grid race where he started from fourth and picked off drivers ahead of him one-by-one to eventually take the lead.
 
Once there, Wharton produced a mature drive to charge to the finish line, eventually winning by more than four seconds over Prema Racing teammate Conrad Laursen.
 
The weekend saw the 16-year-old move up to sixth on the outright standings and within 10 points of teammate Charlie Wurz with two rounds to go, while he also won all the three rookie races, elevating him to second in the standings.
 
Wharton will return to Australia for a small break, before returning to Germany for the penultimate round of the 2022 season on 19-21 August.

NTT IndyCar Series

 Will Power has retained his NTT Indycar Series lead, despite not having a productive weekend in Nashville as part of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
 
It was an opportunity missed for the Queenslander, who showed good pace early on in the event, but a tough qualifying stint prevented him from battling for the win.
 
In practice, Power produced the third fastest time across both sessions, before going fastest in the opening round of qualifying. Unfortunately, he couldn’t back up his efforts in the next round of qualifying, posting the eighth fastest time and missing out on the Firestone Fast Six.
 
It didn’t get much better in the 80-lap race, with Power crossing the line three places lower than where he started, while Scott Dixon’s second victory of the year put him just six points off Power in the standings.
 
Although it wasn’t the best result of Power, title rival Marcus Ericsson also had a disappointing round, finishing three places behind the Australian.
 
Three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin’s resurgence in form continued on the other hand, picking up his second podium in three rounds.
 
McLaughlin started the race in pole position and led for 22 laps, however he wasn’t able to hold off compatriot Dixon, the final gap between the two of them just one tenth after two hours.
 
The NTT Indycar Series has just three rounds remaining with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 in Illinois up next on 20 August.

IMSA SportsCar Championship

Matt Campbell has led an Aussie charge in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s most recent round at Road America, claiming a class podium during the IMSA Fastlane SportsCar Weekend.
 
Alongside regular co-driver Mathieu Jaminet in the Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R, Campbell and Jaminet took out second in the GT Daytona Pro class and 21st outright.
 
Qualifying in 21st outright and second in class, the duo didn’t make as much ground as they would have liked, however the weekend was still a success with Campbell posting the fastest class time during the race and collecting valuable points put towards their title charge.
 
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the other Australians competing in Wisconsin, with Cameron Shields, Aidan Read and Scott Andrews unable to deliver in their respective classes.
 
Both Shields and Andrews were in the LMP2 class with the former steering the Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 to sixth in class with James French, one place higher than Andrews and Gerry Krautin in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08.
 
Read, on the other hand, placed ninth in the GTD class alongside Rick Ware Racing teammate Ryan Eversley, the duo placing their Acura NSX GT3 two spots higher than where they started.
 
Only two more rounds remain in the Championship with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR scheduled for Virginia International Raceway on 28 August.