Nicol continues his streak at Barber while Field, Clapham and Glace impress

It was a trip to the Alabama Rollercoaster and the Barber Motorsports Park for the second Radical Cup North America weekend of 2025. Taking on the picturesque Leeds, Alabama facility, Radical Cup teams and competitors raced alongside the NTT IndyCar Series for the first time this season.

While the on-track action was intense, so was the weather as strong storms moved through the area several times, causing issues in the paddock and some weather delays.

When the dust had finally settled, the rain had moved through, and the final checkered flag was flown, it was Jon Field (Platinum Class) and Raiden Nicol (Pro 1500) who dominated the weekend, picking up three wins each, with Nicol winning overall in two of the three. Brady Clapham doubled up in Pro 1340 with Vaughn Glace coming home with one victory in his first Radical Cup event of the season.

“Congratulations to all our race winners,” said Tom Drewer. “Jon Field made a solid return to the series, taking three race wins, and Raidan Nicol is showing that he is the driver to beat in Pro 1500.

“While weather caused some issues this weekend, the on-track action was great, and it is always a treat to come back and race at Barber Motorsports Park.”

Qualifying

Platinum

1. Wayne Williams
2. Jon Field
3. David Alban
4. Steve Jenks
5. Ben Blander

Pro 1500

1. Raiden Nicol
2. Spencer Schmidt
3. Jack Yang
4. Ryan Persing
5. Austin Riley

Pro 1340

1. Brady Clapham
2. Vaughn Glace
3. Dermot Ennis
4. Kenny Naill

Wheel-to-Wheel Races

The first race of the weekend endured a long caution before one racing lap could be completed.

In the 26-lap race, Jon Field in his ONE Motorsport SR10, bested the field of SR10 XXRs to take the race one victory. Only the third-quickest driver in the Platinum class, the ex-American Le Mans Series driver galloped away from the field to score the class win by a gap of more than 13 seconds.

Behind him, Steve Jenks in the Group-A Racing No. 68 machine stood on the podium in the second position, just ahead of ONE Motorsports’ Wayne Williams, who stole the pole position late in the qualifying session earlier in the day but encountered mechanical issues in the first wheel-to-wheel action. ONE Motorsports’ Chip Romer was the best of the rest in the fourth position, followed by JBR’s David Alban in P5.

Raidan Nicol and PRIMAL Racing continued their domination in the Pro 1500 class, outpacing Spencer Schmidt in the Graham Rahal Performance machine. Beating the faster Platinum class cars and winning outright, Nicol took the class win by more than 30 seconds as the race ran primarily green after the first full caution.

The battle behind him for second ended with Schmidt just three tenths of a second ahead of ONE Motorsports’ Matt Romer, who was also the race one recipient of the Sunoco Hard Charger Award. Ryan Persing, racing out of the Cameron Motorsport camp and a rookie in the series, was fourth on the results sheet, just ahead of Jack Yang in fifth, but first in the Gold class running order.

On the track, Pro 1340 was won by Vaughn Glace, but in the tech shed, he was stripped of the win. Glace’s car was found to be below the minimum ride height ruling and thus handing the win to the second-place finisher of Brady Clapham and RySpec Racing. With Clapham inheriting the victory, the podium was completed by Graham Rahal Performance’s Kenny Naill and Ennis Racing’s Dermot Ennis.

Friday afternoon was the home of race two as all three race one winners doubled up on their wins for the day. Field claimed the Platinum class victory, this time by only 0.383 over Jenks in the 22-lap affair. Steve Jenks scored his second podium result of the day as he stood on the second step of the podium with Wayne Williams in third making the Platinum podium in race two a carbon copy of race one.

Raiden Nicol went flag-to-flag in the second Pro 1500 race of the weekend as the podium remained unchanged from race one. Nicol finished third outright, scoring his fifth victory of the season and took a commanding lead in the championship points as he looks to put a stranglehold on the series.

Spencer Schmidt and Matt Romer completed the podium with Jack Yang finishing fourth on track but leading the Gold class contingent while Canadian Austin Riley was fifth.

Keeping with the trend, the Pro 1340 victor repeated his podium position from race one, with Brady Clapham earning his second victory of the day for RySpec Racing, although it wasn’t without controversy.

Vaughan Glace had rebounded from his race one disqualification to lead the class until the final lap, when Clapham fired one down the inside of Glace on the penultimate corner. While there was contact and a post-race review of the incident, Clapham kept the position, with Glace finishing second, nine seconds ahead of Kenny Naill in P3.

Saturday’s race three was met with some drama as some on-and-off storms moved through the area throughout the day, causing havoc amongst the paddocks.

Just as the Radical Cup North America program was about to hit the track for race three, a lightning and thunder storm passed through the area, delaying the start. With the start delayed for 90 minutes, officials shortened the race to 30-minutes without the typical mandatory pit stop.

In the wet-weather race, ONE Motorsports was the dominant team in the Platinum class as Jon Field and Wayne Williams led a team one-two finish. Field tripled up on the weekend wins taking home some hardware with Williams and Ben Blander rounding out the podium in second and third. Slip-sliding his way to a fourth-place result, Louis Schriber crossed the line in fourth ahead of rookie PRIMAL Racing driver James Long.

With another impressive outright win against the Platinum class’s Jon Field, PRIMAL Racing and Raiden Nicol scored their sixth race win of the season and sixth trip to the Pro 1500 podium’s top step.

Dominating the season to date, Nicol has been the only Pro 1500 driver to win a race this season, dominating both in wet and dry weather competition.

Canadian Austin Riley earned his best result of the season, sliding his way into the second position and an impressive third outright, with Matt Romer finishing fifth outright to complete the Pro 1500 podium and putting a trio of different teams in the top three positions.

Valour Racing’s Jack Yang was fourth on track but led the Gold class for his third straight win in the class over the weekend, with Chris Huhn in P5.

Fighting all weekend long for a race win, Vaughn Glace managed to make his trip to the top step of the podium in race three.

Tip-toeing his way around the slick Barber facility, Glace finished an outstanding fourth outright in the lowest powered Radical class to win Pro 1340 by 6.670 over Brady Clapham.

Kenny Naill earned his third podium result of the weekend as he stood on the third step of the podium three times, with Dermot Ennis classified in fourth.

“It was a challenging weekend weather-wise, but we soldiered through and the performances were spectacular,” said Drewer. “A huge thanks to our teams, drivers, officials, and track crew for all the hard work. On to the next one.”

Next up for the Radical Cup North America program is a trip to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and the famed Road America to race alongside the NTT IndyCar Series for the second time this season.

Remaining 2025 Radical Cup North America Schedule

Road America: June 19-22
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: July 25-27
Road Atlanta: September 11-13
Lime Rock Park: October 17-18
Radical Cup World Finals – VIRginia International Raceway – November 7-9

Radical Cup North America events are open to local and regional Radical racers of all ages with eligible cars to participate. More information, including links to register for events and obtain licensing, can be found at www.radicalmotorsport.com. Stay tuned to the Radical Cup social media pages for the latest series news and updates.