Bowmanville karting series champ earns seat with F4 racing team this weekend
Published March 8, 2023 at 9:04 am
A karting champion with a string of championships under his belt will get behind the wheel of full-size race car this weekend at the opening race of the F4 U.S. Championships in New Orleans.
Patrick Woods-Toth, a 19 year-old Montrealer and the defending champion in the 2022 Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship at Bowmanville’s Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, caught the eye of the Kiwi Motorsports team after a three-day F4 program at the Radford Racing School in Chandler, Arizona last December.
Woods-Toth, who also captured the Canadian Karting Championship and the Canadian Open Championships and was the top North American at the world championships in Italy last year, earned himself a scholarship – the first driver so awarded – to the racing school through a nomination by Fellows, a legend in Canadian racing and the owner of the Bowmanville track.
Woods-Toth impressed both F4 Racing Director Scott Goodyear – another Canadian racing legend – and Kiwi Motorsports team owners Garry Orton and Teena Larsen, and after a test with the Kiwi team at MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas last month a deal was struck to enter the teenager in the F4 United States Championship season opening rounds, March 9-12, at NOLA Motorsport Park.
“I am super excited to welcome Patrick, a fellow Canadian, to our team,” said Larson. “Patrick has an amazing karting bio and I’m positive this weekend at NOLA will see the start of an amazing open-wheel racing career.”
Ron Fellows was able to accompany Woods-Toth to the Texas track for his test with Kiwi Motorsport and said the driver performed “extremely well.”
“It seemed to be a natural progression to quickly get a deal done with Garry and Teena to provide Patrick with this F4 opportunity,” Fellows said. “We are all looking forward to watching Patrick’s progression.”
Woods-Toth’s campaign in the F4 U.S. series gets underway with three feature races over the four-day schedule.
“I really appreciate having this opportunity with the Kiwi Motorsport F4 team for my first season of car racing,” said Woods-Toth. “In the short time I have spent with the team we have established a great relationship and I’m confident we can achieve some great results together.”
Patrick Woods-Toth with Canadian Tire Motorsport Park track owner Ron Fellows