Driver, Team Earn Pair of Top-Four Finishes at COTA
Nineteen-year-old racer Jacob Abel of Louisville, KY and his Abel Motorsports team wrapped up a strong 2020 season at Circuit of the Americas outside Austin, TX Sunday, in the season finale for the Formula Regional Americas Championship.
Abel and his #15 Ligier-Honda scored a fourth-place result in Saturday’s 35-minute opening round, backing that up with finishes of fourth and fifth in the Sunday doubleheader to conclude the Championship’s third season.
The finishes were good enough to secure fifth in the Driver’s Championship for Jacob, and fifth in the Team Championship for his Abel Motorsports squad.
“We came into COTA looking for a win,” commented the Butler University sophomore. “But considering the strength of the FRA field, with champions from all over the world coming to race with us, we did as well as I could have hoped. Given the situation with COVID-19 and the compressed racing calendar it was a very tough series this season. We packed a lot of racing and testing into just five months instead of the normal eight. And we competed part-time in another very competitive series at the same time. Our guys put in a lot of hard work to give me great cars each week all year. We were a single-car effort much of the year, too, which made finding the right setups that much more challenging. It was a really good year for us, all things considered.”
Team Principal Bill Abel agrees. “We ended this season on a high note at COTA for sure. We had good battles with some of the top drivers and teams in the series and showed our best pace of the season. Our team responded well to the various, unique challenges of this weird season. Jacob improved a lot during the year, especially in his ability to manage tire wear and manage race tactics. He really worked on refining his skills. Looking ahead, our plans for next year aren’t locked in yet, but we plan to do a lot of testing this winter to get ready for the coming season. We want to thank Honda, Ligier, SCCA Pro Racing, and the rest of the series partners who all did a great job putting together such a strong season in the face of COVID 19. We were fortunate to have the ability to compete in this Championship and we’re looking forward to the future.”
Jacob Abel will have one more opportunity to shine behind the wheel this fall, participating in the final 2020 round of the Acura GT Challenge in an Acura NSX GT3 Evo machine at Sebring International Raceway in Florida. He’ll continue to also pursue his degree at Butler and spend plenty of time training for 2021. The new season will be at hand before you know it, and Jacob Abel and Abel Motorsports plan on another front-running campaign next year.
