The World Championship Formula III 25-lap final turned out to be an instant classic for a packed hillside at the World Championship Derby Complex Sunday afternoon, as defending champion Zach Dewald completed consecutive World Championship wins after he won the race to the checkered on his No. 57 Polaris.
Dewald held on after two red flags at the eight-lap mark and 18-lap mark, bunched the field back together with a staggered restart, and was met with stiff competition on both restarts by fellow racers Matt Goede and Reed Klinger.
The drivers also had to work through low-visibility conditions as snow dust flew up from the race surface immediately from the start.
“Pulled it off again. I can’t thank everybody on this sled enough, said Dewald to the crowd after the hard-fought victory.
Goede would take the runner-up position, with Klinger taking the third spot to make the podium. The No. 102 of Blaine Stephenson grabbed fourth, No. 111 Tanner Foss crossed the line in fifth, and No. 2 Tyler Town in sixth. The 22S of Andy Shoemaker took seventh, No. 04 of Luke Olson finished eighth, and Dakota Harris finished in the ninth position. The No. 220 of Gunnar Sterne finished 10th, while Joey Burch and McCaig rounded out the field in 11th and 12th.
Dewald came up to the start line and was the third sled from the inside, with Goede picking the far inside line as the pole sitter.
It was actually Klinger, an Athens native, who led the pack into turn one, but Dewald met him with speed out of turn two as the two were nearly side by side as they headed for the front stretch to complete the first lap. Dewald ripped an opening-lap time of 18.207, which was the fastest lap of the race, with Kilinger posting a second-best time of 18.622.
From there, Dewald gained time on the field and cleanly navigated the half-mile derby track with little stress up until lap eight. The No. 54 of Ryan McCaig forced a red flag at that point with a crash up in turns three and four. That bunched the field up for a staggered restart, and Dewald once again grew a lead for the next 10 laps before another red flag at the lap 18 mark. The restart saw Dewald in first, Goede in second, Klinger in third and Stephenson in fourth.
That’s when things got interesting, as Goede made a move inside on the leader up in turn two, which put Dewald on the high side and pushed him back to second down the backstretch. Dewald came into turn three with speed and pushed Goede to the outside to regain the top spot as the two battled down the front stretch.
“I didn’t like to do that to Matt, but it’s the WC man, it had to get done. He slipped under me in one and two, and I made a mistake. I knew he was coming underneath me; it was only a matter of time. I knew he was right there. I had to go through the dirt to get inside of him,” said Dewald on the tight battle with Goede late in the race.
Dewald controlled first from there and came around for the white flag. With lap traffic, he took one more lap around for the checkered flag to claim back-to-back championships.