Everett Stack conquered in a very convincing manner his maiden win in the Euroformula Open. The 18-year-old from Virginia showed a constant progression throughout the season, with two podium finishes along the way, and was already one of the heroes of Race 2 this morning at the Red Bull Ring.
In Race 3, which closed the Austrian weekend, he took no prisoners, and except for a couple of seconds, he did not lose P1 for the entire race, although he had to fight hard against his teammate Joss Garfias. The Motopark driver was clearly very happy with the success: “It has been an intense season so far, but we worked very well with the team, and here at the Red Bull Ring, I felt very confident. This morning I defended well, but then I got this penalty, which was my fault. Here in Race 3, except for a couple of small mistakes when fighting with Joss, I did a good job … and had a lot of fun.”
Stack made perfect use of the pole position in the reversed grid, taking the lead at kick-off ahead of Garfias and de la Torre, soon passed by Shin, Kucharczyk and Pearson. The victim of the first phase was Yevan David, who was involved in a contact and had to pit, rejoining later to finish 11th.
The race saw Stack, Garfias, Shin and Kucharczyk covered by 1.5 seconds and fighting almost constantly. Kucharczyk took third from Shin in lap 6, while by lap 12, Garfias started to attack Stack more fiercely. He took the advantage a couple of times but couldn’t keep it in the following corner, while the American never lost his temper and his momentum.
In the championship standings, things remain extremely tight, with Kucharczyk leading by only ten points on Shin (277 vs 267) and David (246) and Garfias (241) not far away.