Callum Hedge survived a mid-race scare and prevailed in a thrilling last-lap battle with Christian Brooks to finish fifth in Sunday’s Indy NXT race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The result is Hedge’s fifth top-five finish in 11 starts this season, which keeps him fourth in the championship standings ahead of the final three rounds.
Andretti Global’s Louis Foster, the 2023 New Zealand Grand Prix runner-up, led all 75 laps from the pole to win his sixth race of the season.
Jacob Abel, another former Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship driver, finished second, 3.34 seconds behind, to keep the pressure on Foster in the championship battle. Abel is now 91 points behind the runaway leader.
“I built a really strong gap at the start, and then once I realised my pace was really strong, we just backed (off) massively,” Foster said. “I was just massively tyre-saving kind of halfway through the race.”
Hedge qualified seventh for the race, his second-ever on an oval, and battled with his car through the early stages.
A nervous moment on Lap 36 saw the Kiwi slide sideways through Turn 2 while running fifth, but he did well to keep control in a move Indy NXT’s social media team described as ‘the save of the season’.
The slide did, however, cost him several places, which he recovered on the run to the flag.
Hedge and Brooks ran side-by-side over the final two laps as they fought for fifth, with the Kiwi prevailing.
Andretti Global’s Bryce Aron, another Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship alumni, followed through to pinch sixth off Brooks at the line.
Two safety car periods restricted Foster’s chances of pulling away even further. The first came on Lap 3 when his Andretti Global teammates Jamie Chadwick and Caio Collet came together. Collet was able to continue, but Chadwick was forced to retire.
Collet was penalised for avoidable contact and blocking
The second caution came on Lap 52 when Josh Pierson slid into the Turn 4 wall. He was uninjured.
Despite her DNF, Chadwick remains fifth in the standings, behind Hedge, who has increased his advantage over her to 32 points.
Indy NXT returns next weekend at the Grand Prix of Portland.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski
