Golan kicks off Road America weekend with FR Americas win

Brady Golan secured his second Formula Regional Americas Championship (FR Americas) win of the 2026 season during the opening race of the Road America weekend. Evagoras Papasavvas earned his second podium of the season with a runner-up finish.

Earning his first podium, rookie driver Harbir Dass recorded a career-best third-place finish. Over the last eight days, Dass became both a college graduate and FR Americas podium finisher.

Three teams were represented on today’s podium with Toney Driver Development winning the event with Golan, Crosslink Motorsports finishing second with Papasavvas, and Kiwi Motorsport taking third with Dass.

Whitney Strickland won in the Masters Cup class for the third time this season.

After recording the fastest lap in qualifying, Papasavvas (No. 71 Crosslink Motorsports Ligier JS F3) led the field to the starting grid. When the lights went out, it was second-place starter Golan (No. 40 Toney Driver Development Ligier JS F3) who got the jump to take control of the race. Points leader Shipman (No. 10 Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3) challenged for the lead after starting third, but ultimately settled into second instead.

A mid-race restart gave the field another chance to mix up the running order. Golan maintained control of the race, while drivers jockeyed for position behind him. Pole sitter Papasavvas had climbed back up to fourth after dropping to seventh on the initial start, and the restart gave him the opportunity to gain even more ground. Racing three-wide down the front straight, Papasavvas emerged in second. Behind him, Dass (No. 9 Kiwi Motorsport Ligier JS F3) was also climbing up through the pack, settling into third as the field stretched out. When the checkered flag waved, Golan crossed the line first, followed by Papasavvas in second and Dass in third.

“Honestly [Road America] has been one of my weaker tracks, so to win here just shows how good our car is this year,” said Golan. “I’m stoked with the team; they’ve done an amazing job and I’m really proud of these guys. The race was good; it’s hard to escape the cars behind in this place, but I think we did a good job of it. We got one at the start and had some competition going into [Turn] five on lap one, but we kept the lead the whole time. It feels great to win here. Thanks to everybody on the 40 crew; everybody’s done an amazing job. I have to thank some of my teachers, too—I just took a final this morning.”

With a steady performance, Whitney Strickland (No. 21 TF Companies / Hillenburg Motorsports Ligier JS F3) was the first Masters Cup driver to cross the finish line, winning the class for the third time this season.

“Man, that was fun,” said Strickland. “Y’all wait until the next race; I’ll be right there in the middle of it. I actually had a broken car—the vibration was terrible and there was something wrong with my turbo. I think I would’ve done tremendously better without those problems, but I’m glad for the win. I appreciate TF Companies letting me come out here. Everyone who is back there managing the company for me—I appreciate those guys. I also want to thank my wife for being the team cook and Hillenburg Motorsports.”

RESULTS

FR Americas will contest a doubleheader tomorrow with the lights going out at 10:40 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. CT, respectively, for Races 2 and 3. The races will be streamed on YouTube.com/@RacingAmericaTV, with timing and scoring available on the Race Monitor app. Additional news and updates will be posted on the series’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.