Bianca Bustamante completes four rounds in USF Juniors tilt

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 30) – Filipino race car sensation Bianca Bustamante hurdled her first four races in the USF Juniors Championship, a pre-test to the prestigious Road to Indy development racing program in the United States.

Bustamante is also using her USF Juniors stint as her preparation for her debut in the W Series next month, the all-female support race of the Formula One.

In her debut races last April 23-24 at the Ozark International Raceway in Missouri, Bustamante finished last in the 17-driver field during the qualifying as she tallied her best lap time at two minutes and 33.128 seconds.

The lone female driver in the competition, Bustamante rebounded from her qualifying stage performance and finished 14th in the first race of the season with an improved best time of two minutes and 26.521 seconds.

She further increased her standing in the second race at Ozark after an 11th place finish with a bit slower best lap time of two minutes and 27.275 seconds.

The Filipina racing wunderkind earned seven points in Race 1 and 10 points in Race 2.

The 17-year-old Bustamante continued her campaign at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama this week as she wounded up in 15th place in the qualifying round with the best time of one minute and 28.408 seconds.

Bustamante, who drives for the IGY6 Motorsports team, again finished 15th in the third official race of the 2022 USF season after clocking in her best time of one minute and 29.108 seconds.

In Race 4 on Friday, she was faster and occupied the 12th spot with her best lap time of one minute and 28.481 seconds.

“We started off 2.5 seconds from the front runners and by Race 2 we had cut that gap down to one second. It was a great feeling to make progress each session capped by my best 20 lap race run to finish off the weekend,” Bustamante said after her last race in Alabama.

The rising Pinay athlete notched six points in Race 3 and nine points in Race 4 as she now has a total of 32 points in this year’s USF Juniors Championship.

She will make her W Series debut next weekend on May 6-8, as their race will coincide with the inaugural F1 Miami Grand Prix.