Alex Popow Wins First-Career Race in F4 U.S. at COTA

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    Alex Popow Wins First-Career Race in F4 U.S. at COTA

    AUSTIN, Texas (November 1, 2024) – Alex Popow dominated in Formula 4 United States Championship (F4 U.S.) at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) on Thursday. The 18-year-old Venezuelan American led practice, took the pole in qualifying, and led the race from flag to flag to earn his first-career win in his F4 U.S. series debut. 

     

    Notes of Interest:

    • In his series debut, Alex Popow earned his first-career F4 U.S. win at Circuit of The Americas on Thursday afternoon.
    • The victory marked the first F4 U.S. win for MLT Motorsports, which expanded to a two-car team for the season finale at COTA.
    • After entering the weekend with a 5.5-point margin, Nicolas Stati extended his points lead with a runner-up finish in Race 1.
    • With his third-place result, Connor Roberts extended his podium streak to five consecutive races. Since Round 8 at NJMP, Roberts has earned one win, two second-place results and two third-place finishes.
    • Three teams were represented on today’s podium with MLT Motorsports earning their first win, Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport finishing second and Team Roberts Racing taking third.

     

    After earning the pole earlier in the day, Alex Popow led the field down the front stretch for a two-by-two rolling start. Next to him was Alex Crosbie (No. 41 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422), while the second row was filled with championship rivals Nicolas Stati (No. 15 AGI Sport Ligier JS F422) and Daniel Quimby (No. 24 Cruise America / MIR Raceline / FIJI Airways / GalvanizeIns Ligier JS F422). As the green flag waved, Popow immediately jumped ahead of the field, while Stati overtook second. With a great start from fifth, Connor Roberts (No. 46 ApexSpeed.com / Entropy Cellars Ligier JS F422) climbed into third by the completion of the first lap, as Crosbie dropped to fourth and Daniel Quimby (No. 24 Cruise America / MIR Raceline / FIJI Airways / GalvanizeIns Ligier JS F422) to fifth. 

    In an all-green race, Popow made consistent, quick laps, setting a new track record in his Ligier JS F422 and opening up nearly a three-second lead as the race approached its halfway point. During the closing laps, Stati steadily chipped away at the gap, picking up a full second during the race’s final 10 minutes. Despite his best efforts, Stati was unable to get close enough to make a run at the lead and instead had to settle for second while Popow sailed away to his first-career victory.

    As they crossed the line, Popow led, followed by Stati in second and Roberts in third.

     

         SEE MORE: Race 1 Official Results

     

    “This is incredible,” said Popow after climbing from his car. “We’ve been fighting all year to get a proper ride and it finally came to fruition here with MLT at COTA. It's incredible to sweep the day—P1 in practice, quali and to take the race win—it’s just awesome. It’s definitely special to win here, especially after F1 was here just a week ago. My dad used to race here and he won here around 2014, so it’s so cool to be able to come back here and win myself.”

    F4 U.S. will contest Race 2 at COTA today at 3:55 p.m. CT. A live stream of the event will be available at YouTube.com/SpeedTourTV, with live timing and scoring accessed on the Race Monitor app. Additional news and updates will be posted on the series’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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