AUSTIN, Texas (November 1, 2024) – Winning Race 2 at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), Teddy Musella clinched the Ligier JS F4 Series (JS F4) 2024 Championship. The Scuderia Buell driver has been the one to beat all weekend, topping the speed chart in every session, and now winning both races en route to locking in the title.
Notes of Interest:
- Teddy Musella leads the Ligier JS F4 Series drivers with five wins and 11 podiums this season.
- Leonardo Escorpioni earned his second podium of the weekend with another runner-up finish. The Champagne Racing driver also finished second in yesterday’s Race 1.
- After three fourth-place finishes this season, Drew Szuch finally broke through to earn his first-career podium with a third-place result in Friday’s event.
- Three teams were represented on the podium with Scuderia Buell earning their fifth win of the season, Champagne Racing finishing second, and family-owned Szuch Racing taking third.
Setting the fastest lap in Race 1, Sacha van’t Pad Bosch (No. 27 Scuderia Buell Ligier JS F4) led the field toward the waving green flag to start the race. Teddy Musella (No. 25 Scuderia Buell Ligier JS F4) started second, but going a bit too wide into Turn 1, he settled into fourth place for the first lap. Up front, van’t Pad Bosch was challenged by third-place starter Leonardo Escorpioni (No. 26 Champagne Racing Ligier JS F4). The two ran side by side while Musella and Maite Cáceres (No. 6 Abitab / Supermatch Ligier JS F4) battled for third behind them. Musella eventually won the battle against Cáceres as they raced through Turn 1 and then turned his focus to the front of the field as van’t Pad Bosch and Escorpioni continued to race wheel to wheel. A few turns later, Musella reached Escorpioni’s gearbox. Easily completing the pass, he pulled up to van’t Pad Bosch’s gearbox seconds later, making his way around his teammate to take the race lead.
Once in control of the event, Musella was unstoppable. A safety car period briefly slowed his pace as contact further back in the field sent Brad Majman (No. 95 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F4) into the tire barrier. With cleanup work complete, the race resumed with approximately nine minutes left on the clock. Musella once again jumped ahead of the pack and kept his sights forward. Behind him, Escorpioni settled into second and van’t Pad Bosch in third. Championship contender Kekai Hauanio (No. 29 N.E.Where Transportation / New’T Racing Ligier JS F4) had to start the race from pit lane after a penalty was assessed following Race 1. The Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport driver took advantage of the restart to jump up to sixth, and made his way around Cáceres to overtake fifth during the closing minutes. Racing three wide into Turn 12 on the final lap, van’t Pad Bosch and Drew Szuch (No. 28 Szuch Racing Ligier JS F4) both pulled wheel to wheel with Escorpioni. Szuch initially pulled ahead, but van’t Pad Bosch and Escorpioni pulled off an over-under move for both to overtake Szuch.
As they crossed the finish line, Musella led the field, followed by van’t Pad Bosch in second and Escorpioni in third. Szuch crossed the line in fourth, followed by Hauanio in fifth.
During post-race inspection, officials found a technical infraction on the No. 27 driven by van’t Pad Bosch, which the Stewards determined was in breach of the sporting regulations. As a result, van’t Pad Bosch was dropped to last place in the classification and lost all lap times.
“We had quite an unlucky start falling back to fourth, but I knew to just focus on the championship—take your positions when you can and don’t make any risky moves,” said Musella. “I ended up taking P1 at the end of it, so it was just a great result for our entire team. What a high it’s been—to come back from [a tough weekend at] Road America to win a championship is just an amazing feeling. Honestly, I’m at a loss for words with the amount of emotion I’m feeling. I want to thank my dad, my team at Scuderia Buell and everyone else that’s helped me throughout this journey.”
JS F4 will contest their final race of the 2024 season tomorrow at 8:50 a.m. CT. After the race, find the drivers of JS F4 and F4 U.S. at the SpeedTour Town Center where they’ll be participating in an autograph session from 11:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Tickets for the event are available at the gate or online at SpeedTour.net/Austin. Fans at home can stream the race live on SpeedTour.TV, or follow live timing and scoring on the Race Monitor app. Additional news and updates will be posted on the series’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
