Alex Crosbie won a thrilling race at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) to capture his first career victory in Formula 4 United States Championship (F4 US) competition. After a closely contested battle with Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport teammate Nicolas Stati (No. 15 AGI Sport Ligier JS F422), Crosbie (No. 41 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422) emerged victorious in Race 1 of the New Jersey Lottery SpeedTour weekend.

Starting two by two, Stati led the field until the green flag. However, as is the fashion for the 2024 season, the F4 USA field showed just how competitive the new Ligier JS F422 chassis and Ligier Storm engine could be, immediately widening two and three positions as they raced towards Turn 1. Stati had the lead at the start, but as they reached Turn 1, fourth-placed starter Pablo Benites Jr. (No. 44 Scuderia Buell Ligier JS F422) pulled away to take the lead. He pulled away to initially establish a gap, but it didn’t take long for Benites Jr. to find himself under pressure from Stati and Crosbie as his car began to lose grip. The trio raced nose-to-nose for position for the entire 10 minutes, and eventually Stati and Crosbie emerged victorious, taking first and second place respectively.

A battle ensued between the Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport teammates as they pulled away from Benites Jr. The two drivers were less than a second apart in the final 20 minutes of the race, swapping positions until Crosbie finally emerged as the leader and began racing towards the chequered flag. By the time they took the chequered flag, Crosbie had just 0.490 seconds behind Stati, with Benites Jr. crossing the finish line in third place.

During post-race inspection, officials found that the #44 car and the car plus driver had failed to meet the minimum weight. A post-race Steward’s Decision was issued, dropping Benites Jr. to fifth in the official results. As such, Barrett Wolfe (No. 13 Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F422) was promoted to third and earned the final podium position.

“It was definitely a tough race,” Crosbie said from atop the podium. “Nicholas made it hard for me to get past and I couldn’t get away. I got a lot of pressure from him but it was definitely a great, clean race and we had a lot of fun.”

RESULTS

F4 US will host a pair of matches at NJMP on Sunday, with lights out at 11:05 a.m. ET for Race 2 and 4:25 a.m. ET for Race 3. Live coverage of races from the New Jersey Lottery SpeedTour weekend can be viewed at YouTube.com/SpeedTourTV, with live timing and scoring available on the Race Monitor app. Additional news and updates can be found on the series’ Facebook , Instagram and twitter.