Nicole Havrda scores top-five in Formula Regional Americas home round at CTMP

Nicole Havrda returned to the top five in Formula Regional Americas for the fifth time this year, securing a P5 finish in Race 2 at her home race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park that solidifies her seventh place in the championship standings.

Photo credits: Gavin Baker

Nicole Havrda returned to the top five in Formula Regional Americas, securing a fifth-place finish in Race 2 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park during the sixth and penultimate round of the season.

The Shift Up Now athlete, who has already scored three podiums this year in her first full-time campaign in the championship, added a notable result to her points tally in her home race, paired with a P7 and a P6 in the weekend's other races, solidifying her seventh place in the championship standings.

After stellar performances at Road America and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the second and third points-paying rounds of the season, where Havrda stepped onto the podium and collected five top-5 finishes out of six races, the Canadian had a solid weekend at Mid-Ohio, where she finished sixth twice. However, she endured a challenging weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park, where an injury sustained in a practice accident made her races on the highly demanding circuit extra difficult.

Despite this, Nicole still collected valuable points and headed to the iconic Mosport circuit, now known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which hosted eight F1 Canadian GPs between 1967 and 1977.

On the fast and technical circuit, Nicole made progressive improvements over the weekend, starting with a P7 in the sole practice session. However, she faced a difficult qualifying session, leaving the Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport driver ninth on the grid with a 1:17.354 lap, meaning she would have to make up for it in the three races with recovery drives.

"Today was an interesting day here at CTMP," she commented. "Practice went well; I worked on a bunch of things and made some good improvements. Qualifying was a complete mess; that was my worst quali of the season—I just couldn’t find the speed."

Race 1 on Friday afternoon saw fellow Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth starting from pole, retaining the lead on the first lap and leading Titus Sherlock and Jett Bowling. Havrda had a good start, passing Kevin Janzen and moving up into eighth place.

She then attacked and passed Ricco Shlaimoun on the second lap and continued to charge up the field, although the group of cars ahead had gained over a second in the battles. Nicole’s next target was Hayden Bowlsbey, and once in clear air, she was a couple of tenths faster and started to close in. Bowlsbey and Lawley were battling for the top five, and Havrda aimed to join in.

Nicole continued to set personal best laps, with a 1:17.1 that gained her half a second.

A caution with 15 minutes to go led to a restart for the final 10 minutes. Havrda applied pressure on Bowlsbey but eventually fell behind, losing a couple of seconds. Ahead, Woods-Toth had opened a 2-second gap in the lead, which was neutralized by the caution, forcing him to build an advantage again, but he kept Sherlock at bay.

Nicole was back on a competitive pace by lap 12, building a gap to Janzen behind, but she couldn’t quite keep up with Bowlsbey, who dipped under the 1:16 mark. In the final minutes, positions settled, with Nicole - battling a turbo issue - losing ground to Janzen again and therefore focusing on maintaining her consistent pace. She held on and crossed the line in P7, gaining two positions from the start in a very solid first race.

Patrick Woods-Toth won, followed by Titus Sherlock and Jett Bowling on the podium.

"Starting the race near the back, I had a great first lap and got past two cars, but then couldn’t find a place to pass the others in front of me since it is such a hard track to pass at" - Nicole explained.

Photo credits: Gavin Baker

Havrda would line up from eighth on the grid for the second race on Saturday morning, which saw Woods-Toth, Sherlock, Bowling, and Matriano-Lim in the first two rows - although the latter was soon out of the race on lap 1.

Nicole had a great start, moving up into fifth place on lap 2 - and she immediately opened a gap on Janzen and Shlaimoun, trying to catch up with Lawley. Running in 1:17.5, she gained a few tenths on Lawley while extending a 5-second advantage to Janzen.

The top three pulled away, with Woods-Toth driving away from Sherlock as he was busy keeping Bowling at bay; Havrda was the closest driver to the car ahead, and she set another personal best with a 1:17.3 on lap 6, closing the gap to under a second as she increased the pressure on Lawley.

Her opponent, however, defended well, allowing no openings, and Nicole settled into fifth. Behind her, Shlaimoun passed Janzen for sixth and was recovering with good lap times, but had 5 seconds to close as time was running out.

Woods-Toth won Race 2 as well, with a 2.2-second advantage over Titus Sherlock; Bowling was third, followed by a larger gap to the rest of the field, with James Lawley and Nicole Havrda completing the top five.

It was another strong race for the Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport driver, recovering three places from the start and securing her fifth top-five finish of the season, her first since the Indianapolis round.

"We made some big improvements with the car and my driving", Nicole said. "My turbo was down 6 km/h in Race 1, which is a lot since the back straightaway is so long."

Photo credits: Gavin Baker

Race 3 on Sunday morning had the potential to be another strong result for Havrda as she geared up to complete her home round. Starting from sixth on the grid, she soon showed enough speed to repeat the result from Race 2, and she indeed moved straight into the top five at the start, after a blistering getaway that saw Nicole gain two positions off the line, climbing to fourth.

On the first lap, however, she was hit and spun around, forcing the young Canadian to fight her way back from the rear of the field. Luckily, she could rejoin the race, but she was down to the tail end of the pack.

Luckily, a caution allowed her to catch back up to the pack in the opening minutes. Patrick Woods-Toth led from Bowlsbey and Bowling. The race went green on lap 6, and Nicole, ninth at the restart, passed Shlaimoun, then Janzen, moving up into seventh in yet another strong first part of the race for the home hero, with now 11 minutes to go.

Ahead, Woods-Toth opened a 1.5-second gap, taking advantage from several battles through the field, while Nicole picked up another position when Titus Sherlock dropped down on lap 6.

Up to sixth, she kept a good pace, continually improving her personal best - although it wasn’t quite enough to catch James Lawley for fifth. However, she was safe enough to retain P6 in the final laps, securing another highly-positive finish and good points.

"Such a fun weekend racing in my home country", Havrda said. "I really enjoyed meeting everyone who came by and said hi."

"Race 3 was very hectic; I got an amazing start and moved up from P6 to P4, but then in Turn 4, I got hit from behind, which caused me to spin. I got lucky, and there was a safety car, so I fought my way back from last to finish in P6."

After three solid races, Havrda retains seventh in the championship standings having secured 121.5 points, only 10.5 points behind sixth-placed Hayden Bowlsbey.

The 2024 Formula Regional Americas will wrap up its season from October 31 to November 3 with a double-header at Circuit of the Americas, Texas.