Bowling Among The Best of The Best from Formula Regionals at 71st Macau Grand Prix
CHARLOTTE (November 22, 2024) – Last weekend, Jett Bowling and his Kiwi Motorsport team became the first driver/team duo to represent Formula Regional Americas Championship (FR Americas) at an FIA FR World Cup Event. After receiving an invitation from the FIA, the group traveled to the Macau Grand Prix, where they competed in the FR World Championships.
“We’re thrilled to have had Jett Bowling and Kiwi Motorsport represent our paddock at the Macau Grand Prix,” said Race Director Scott Goodyear. “The Macau Grand Prix is such an iconic event, so to have one of our drivers racing there is something really special. The FIA did a great job pulling together the best of the best from around the world, and we’re glad they included one of our teams to be a part of it.”
Bowling spent the weeks leading up to Macau preparing for the event while racing around the world. The 19-year-old joined the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine grid at Barcelona and Monza to gain experience with the chassis raced in Macau, before reuniting with his Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport team—the same group he raced with at Macau—for the FR Americas season finale at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Just days after confirming himself as the FR Americas Third-Place Champion, Bowling was off to China for the historic event.
“This whole season hasn’t really been leading up to Macau, but in a way, I guess it has,” said Bowling after finishing the FR Americas season at COTA. “Seat time has been our main focus. When Macau came up as an opportunity, we knew most of the racers would be European, and it’s an aggressive race style in Europe. That was the main reason for going overseas for those two races—just to get that experience and get used to the tire that we’d be racing on.
“If you told me two years ago that I’d be going to Macau, one, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what Macau was—and if you told me I’d be driving a Formula Regional car, I’d would have laughed and said that’s not a thing,” Bowling continued. “It’s been a crazy journey—to think I qualified four-and-a-half seconds off the pole last year in F4 U.S. at COTA, and this year, I was two-tenths off the pole in FR Americas. It’s been really, really awesome. The progression I’ve had—to think that I was going to stop racing because of a karting injury—and now I’m going to Macau, it’s been a blessing.”
“The FR World Championship at the Macau Grand Prix is going to be another string to the bow in helping Jett develop,” said Garry Orton, co-owner of Kiwi Motorsport, of the event. “It’s probably one of the toughest FR races in the world—a street race with concrete walls. Jett will develop immensely as a driver through the experience—the concentration level that’s going to be required and all the rest of it, is going to help him long term in whatever he does. Looking more immediately, it’ll be great preparation for FR Oceania Championship, which he’ll do again this winter. With all of it, when he comes back to FR Americas next season, he’ll be far stronger than the rest of the caravan—it’s pretty exciting.”
Finishing in the top 20 during the qualifying race, Bowling and his Kiwi Motorsport team were caught up in an early incident in the main event to finish 26th.
Another alum from the paddock, 2021 F4 U.S. Champion Noel Léon, finished on the podium with a third-place result in both the qualifying race and main event for the FR World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix.
