Top-10 finish for Hailie Deegan on single seater debut

Hailie Deegan scored points on her first ever weekend in formula car racing as she secured a top-10 finish in the Formula Regional Americas season finale at COTA, having made significant progress during the course of the event which culminated in a tenth-place finish in challenging conditions.

Photo credits: Toney Driver Development

Hailie Deegan scored points on her first ever weekend in formula car racing as she secured a top-10 finish in the Formula Regional Americas season finale. Racing for Toney Driver Development at Circuit of the Americas, Deegan made significant progress during the course of the event which culminated in a tenth-place finish.

After finishing final practice inside the top-5, Hailie qualified 11th before ending race one just outside the top-10. Racing on a damp track with slick tyres in race two, Deegan banked valuable experience and finished tenth as she competed confidently alongside drivers with greater single seater experience.

Deegan took the next step in her motorsport journey at Circuit of the Americas as she entered her first ever single seater race weekend. The talented American driver has spent the majority of her career racing on ovals in NASCAR.

After securing three victories and 49 top-10 finishes across ARCA series, Deegan stepped up to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2020. Securing five top-5 results, Hailie’s best championship finish came in 2021 where she finished 17th.

For 2024, Deegan stepped up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series where she competed for AM Racing in the #15 Ford Mustang. In 17 starts, Hailie achieved a best result of 12th which came at Talladega Superspeedway.

After parting ways with the team midway through the season, Deegan has switched to single seater machinery and it was recently announced that she would competed full-time in the Indy NXT Series with HMD Motorsports in 2025.

In preparation for this step up, Deegan has participated in two official Indy NXT test sessions within the last month. Firstly getting to grips with the car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Deegan then tested at Barber Motorsports Park where she completed 106 laps at the undulating road course.

Stepping down to Formula Regional Americas machinery at Circuit of the Americas, this provided a perfect opportunity for Deegan to get a competitive introduction into single seater competition at a circuit she had experience of. Hailie made three starts at the Texan track in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with a best result of 14th, before also gaining experience in the NASCAR Xfinity Series earlier this season.

On-track action got underway on Wednesday with Hailie participating in all-four scheduled test sessions. It was an encouraging day of running for the Toney Driver Development racer whose fastest time came in the opening session of the day.

Her best lap of a 2:08.840 placed her eighth, before further improvements were made in the solitary practice session on Thursday morning. Improving by almost three full seconds, Deegan’s quickest time of a 2:06.052 saw her end practice inside the top-5, a superb effort in spite of her lack of experience.

Qualifying followed shortly after and was the next new challenge which Deegan faced. She continued to improve her times throughout the session and although she was not quite able to match her fastest lap from earlier in the day, it was a still a good effort on debut. At the end of the twenty-five-minute session, Hailie had set the 11th fastest time and had beaten a number of regular Formula Regional Americas competitors.

Photo credits: Toney Driver Development

Due to a post-session disqualification for Landan Matriano Lim, Deegan lined up from tenth position for her first ever standing start in formula car machinery. Despite her relative inexperience, it was a clean getaway from Hailie and although she fell to 14th at the end of lap one, her main aim was to gain experience of a new style of racing. Deegan was running directly behind Jake Pollack and applying pressure to her fellow debutant.

As she continued to lap faster than Pollack, her rival then found the gravel on lap five with Deegan also passing Brady Golan as he retired with damage to his car. The recovery of Pollack’s machine led to the safety car being deployed with the neutralisation leading to just two green flag laps remaining in the race.

Restarting from 12th position, Deegan was challenging her more experienced rivals ahead and was able to pass veteran Kevin Janzen as she closed in on the top-10. Although she just ran out of time to make any further progress, Deegan was the third fastest driver on track during the final lap and this gave her considerable encouragement on debut. Taking the checkered flag in 11th position, Hailie missed out on scoring her first points in the series by less than half a second.

After a strong performance on her formula car debut, Deegan faced a further challenge in the second and final race of the weekend. Conditions had changed at Circuit of the Americas with light rain in the air and thus the track was slippery with all drivers fitting the slick tyres.

Deegan got the car off the line well, however she had a small spin exiting turn two and this initially dropped her to the rear of the field. A good second half of the lap saw her end the first lap in 13th position, before losing out to a recovering Jett Bowling.

By the end of the third lap, Deegan was up to 12th after overtaking both Anthony Autiello and Hayden Bowlsbey. Separate issues for both Bowling and Ricco Shlaimoun then promoted Deegan inside the top-10, with the safety car deployed to retrieve Bowling’s car.

When the racing resumed, Bowlsbey moved ahead, however he was required to pit to replace his front wing and this saw Hailie move back inside the top-10. She was able to hold this position to the conclusion of the race to score her first ever points in Formula Regional Americas in her debut weekend in the series.

Deegan drove maturely in race two where she dealt with treacherous conditions superbly. This enabled her to score an excellent top-10 result and finish inside the points as she begins her formula car career.

It was a hugely encouraging weekend for Toney Driver Development racer who banked vital experience in a new car at a demanding circuit. Deegan will be aiming to carry this knowledge forward into her full season programme in the Indy NXT Series where she will race for HMD Motorsports.