Woods-Toth Showed Speed and Consistency en route to 2023 F4 Championship
In his first season of car-racing, Patrick Woods-Toth, the young man from Montréal, Quebec, Canada was crowned champion in the FIA F4 United States Championship (U.S. F4) earlier this month at the Circuit of the Americas.
Woods-Toth’s unlikely journey to become the 2023 driver’s champion started in December of 2022 with a scholarship to the Radford Racing School. As the 2022 Rok Senior Champion in the Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship (MRFKC), Patrick was awarded the scholarship and immediately made an impact at the school.
At Radford, Patrick got to cut his teeth in the same equipment that is used in F4 U.S. competition, and the driver got comfortable with the car and up to speed very quickly. His impressive performance at the three-day school caught the eye of F4 U.S. Race Director and Canadian racing icon Scott Goodyear, as well as Kiwi Motorsport team owners Garry Orton and Teena Larsen.
After a successful test with the team in Cresson, Texas, MRFKC and were able to promote Woods-Toth to the F4 U.S. series for the first race at NOLA Motorsport Park near New Orleans, Louisiana - where Patrick finished on the podium in all three of the weekend’s races.
Orlando Corporation then stepped up to sponsor Patrick, enabling him to continue his F4 U.S. season ahead of the next race at Road America. It was at the historic track near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin where young Woods-Toth became a true title contender. After taking his first two wins ever in car racing, Woods-Toth left Wisconsin with a 22-point lead in the championship.
Driving the number 27 car, an iconic number for Canadian racing fans, Woods-Toth notched further race wins at Mid-Ohio and the Circuit of the Americas en-route to becoming the 2023 driver’s champion in F4 U.S. At the wave of the final checkered flag on the 2023 season, the young Canadian was the definition of consistency, scoring 14 podiums in 18 races.
As the champion, Woods-Toth secured a scholarship to compete in the 2024 FR Americas series, which utilizes Formula 3 spec cars. Among other awards given to the champion, Patrick also received an invitation to the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony at the conclusion of the 2023 Formula 1 season. In addition, he also receives valuable FIA Super Licence points.
“This really is a world-class series, and I feel very thankful and lucky to have taken part in it,” Woods-Toth said at the F4 U.S. awards ceremony.
“Coming into this season, I didn't even know that I was going to be racing cars. So, to be up here with this trophy and this amazing accomplishment is unbelievable—it's been a roller coaster, to say the least. Thanks to Ron Fellows and Lynda Fellows, I got to do my first race. And you know, I thought that was going to be it, but Orlando came on with Carlo Fidani and he let us carry on with the whole season. The whole team has just been working so hard between all the races and every event to get a great result. To be standing here is surreal. I don't have many things to say. Just thank you to everyone; this is an amazing accomplishment for all of us.”
After such an impressive season, Woods-Toth has no doubt garnered attention from the motorsport scouts of the world. But Patrick has proved himself as a racing driver and is undoubtedly ready to take the next step, whatever that may be.
At the end of the 2023 MRFKC season, the series was able again to select another driver for the Karts to Cars F4 initiative. It was awarded again to the Rok Senior champion, and this season that was Nolan Bower of Whitby, Ontario, Canada. Like Patrick, Nolan will attend the Radford Racing School later this year and get to grips with an F4 car for the first time. The MRFKC remains committed to developing Canada’s young racers, with the transition of karting to cars being one of the most important steps for a driver.