Kiwi drivers getting it done in USA. Your week in Motorsport.

Cassidy wins. Evans drives to survive in Formula E Championship battle.

Not to take anything away from Kiwi Nick Cassidy’s winning form in Formula E’s debut at Portland, Oregon, fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans must also be commended for a phenomenal drive to recover from a technical issue that required his Jaguar TCS Racing car to have the powertrain and battery units replaced.

The technical drama ultimately saw Evan’s miss qualifying altogether and start from 20^th on the grid. With just three rounds remaining in a tight championship, this was not the start to the weekend Evan’s was wanting or the ideal way to spend his 29^th Birthday.

Despite the adversity, Evan’s settled himself, focussing on the job at hand and steered to an almighty 16-place climb from the back of the grid, finishing in fourth. Mitch and the team’s decisive performance in Formula E’s most strategic “peloton-style” race to date saw the Jaguar driver move from 17th to second place within the space of three laps.

In the process Mitch also delivered an impressive time of 1:11:26 on Lap 27 to claim the race’s fastest lap title. This additional point meant Mitch gained 13 points, reaffirming his position in the fight for the championship title.

“It’s been an interesting day - it doesn’t feel like my birthday! We had a problem after FP2, so it was a massive race to get the car ready again and the team did a great job. Even after all the hard work, I unfortunately still wasn’t able to qualify which meant I started at the back. When we got into the race, the team and I executed our plan pretty well. I found myself in second at one stage with good energy and thought I might be able to secure a podium. To finish fourth is still good so I’m glad we’ve salvaged something from today. We’re at that part of the championship where you need to perfectly execute races, but I’m up for it and can’t wait to get to Rome.” Said Evans.

But full credit and the win must go to Kiwi, Nick Cassidy, who qualified in 10^th. Cassidy won the race by the narrowest of margins from UK Driver, Jake Dennis to win the Portland E-Prix by just 0.294.

“It’s cool. I’ve had a good run in America the last couple of years. I love racing here. That race was fun. Look it’s close. The guys we’re racing are top. Jake did an amazing job in quali. I think he was unlucky to be starting on pole - today wasn’t the race to be doing that. And António in these races is always fantastic as well. It’s close, it’s fun, it’s Formula E.

“To be fair, I saw Mitch up with me at stages, I saw Seb, I saw Sam. And we all started far back. So credit to Jaguar and credit to Envision Racing. What a car, what a powertrain.” Said Cassidy.

Cassidy now sits second in the Formula E Championship, just 1 point of the lead. Mitch Evans and Jaguar TCS Racing must execute flawlessly in the remaining two events for Mitch to elevate himself from fourth in the championship. But the next round is Rome where Evan’s has had previous success. It’s all on for the back end of the Formula E Championship.

Callum Hedge drives a perfect weekend at Mid Ohio

Young Kiwi, Callum Hedge is up to seven-straight victories with three wins in Formula Regional Americas Championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With tight competition throughout the field, everyone was fighting someone for position, but no-one could catch Hedge who led from flag to finish.

“I had a look at the longest winning streak in the FR America’s history, I think it’s eight, I’d like to have a crack at that record” said Hedge during a pre-race interview during the weekend. He would go on to claim two more victories for his Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport team and is on track to own that record.

Hedge is an alumnus of the Toyota 86 category in New Zealand, was the youngest F4 Champion and races with Team Porsche New Zealand in the Paytner Dixon Porsche Carerra Cup in Australia and will deservedly be knocking on the door of bigger international opportunities before long.

SVG lands Stateside ahead of NASCAR Debut. “It won’t be easy”.

Shane van Gisbergen has revealed his Kiwi/Chicago Bulls mash up helmet design and joined the Trackhouse Racing's team ahead of piloting the Project 91 Camaro in NASCAR.

While SVG is no stranger to driving a high horsepower Camaro in the Supercar series, he is also realistic about his NASCAR debut and is expecting a big learning curve.

“Biggest difference I guess from our supercar to the NASCAR I'm going to have to get used to is obviously you're sitting on the other side of the car, that's a big difference when we go to a street circuit, when you get used to the walls and stuff, you've got the whole car on the other side of you.” Says van Gisbergen.

“It's still a sequential gearbox, but I think it's a five speed instead of a six and you're obviously changing gears with the other hand as well, which will be a bit different. And then it has no doors either. So, you've got to climb in through the window, whereas normally we have doors on our car. I always ride foot brake, I think most people on NASCAR left foot brake, mainly with the ovals, but I'm told that you can right foot on the street circuit, so that'll suit me, because I feel like I'm going to go through the windscreen when I left foot brake. So yeah, I'm under no illusions it'll be easy!” Says van Gisbergen.

SVG will take to the streets of Chicago on Monday, July 3.