From the “this makes sense based on what we’ve been told” file, the new US Formula 4 Championship, announced back at Circuit of The Americas last month, will have its first race weekend May 27-28 at Lime Rock Park alongside Pirelli World Challenge.
It goes along exactly with what SCCA Pro Racing president Robert Clarke told me at Austin about the planned schedule and series partnerships for races it would attend.
“Greg Gill (interim CEO, WC Vision) and I shook hands on a deal with PWC this next year,” Clarke told me last month. “Considering our late introduction, we’re looking at late-April to mid-May timing for first event.”
And so late May fits that timing almost to a T.
The 2016 United States F4 Championship season kicks off with a 2-day race weekend at @limerockpark with @WCRacing May 27-28!
— F4 U.S. Championship (@F4Championship) October 21, 2015
The not-so-subtle undertone of running on the May 27-28 date, if you’re paying attention to calendars, is it runs on the same weekend as all three rungs of the Mazda Road to Indy ladder in Indianapolis.
The Indy Lights’ Freedom 100 runs Friday, May 27, with Pro Mazda and USF2000 running a day later at Lucas Oil Raceway just outside Indianapolis.
For a series that’s just getting off the ground and hasn’t directly said it’s competing with the Mazda Road to Indy for potential customers, it’s a pretty clear sign that it wants to attract any customers of young drivers and/or their key stakeholders to enter into this championship and is using its low costs of entry as a major selling point.
Or, it’s one hell of an intriguing coincidence.
More information on the new series is linked here.