Gill Carries His F1600 Fundamentals Into a Fight for Third in the Pro Standings
Parker Gill raced Trois-Rivières last year in a car with no wings and treaded tires. He came back in a Radical and finished on the podium.
MARKHAM, Ont. – Parker Gill was second in Friday practice at Trois-Rivières, third in qualifying, fourth in Race 5 and third in Race 6. It was his second podium of the season in the Emzone Radical Cup Canada presented by Michelin and it moved him to 135 points, fourth in the Pro standings and five behind Timothé Pernod in third.
Gill, from Ajax, Ontario, is in his first season in the Radical SR3 XXR. He has finished in the top five in every race he has completed this year. His only non-finish came in Race 2 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in May.
The Same Corners, One Year and One Car Apart
Gill’s only prior experience of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières came in 2025, when he raced there in the F1600 Championship.
This year he qualified third and finished fourth and third. He was asked what changed.
“Definitely I felt these cars flow better around this track,” said Gill. “With the downforce and the slick tires, the corners were arguably easier in this car. Whereas with the F1600 they’re very rough over those bumps, very easy to lock up, and with no downforce you’re hoping that it rotates. Whereas these cars, it’s glued the majority of the time.”
What an F1600 Is, and What It Withholds
The F1600 Championship is an Ontario-based open-wheel series, and its cars are defined as much by what they do not have. No wings, no downforce, and one spec tire that has to work in every condition.
The series calls itself the first major stepping stone into car racing after karting in Canada. Parker Thompson, Zacharie Robichon, Mac Clark and Zachary Vanier all came through it.
Gill spent two seasons there and finished fifth in Class A of the 2025 championship on 287 points, running car No. 4.
“With the F1600 you’ve got no downforce, no slick tires, so you really learn how to control the slide of the car going around the corners and pushing past the grip limit,” he said. “So coming into these cars, it definitely was an easier transition. I knew that to go fast, to get anything out of these cars, you’ve got to push it past what the downforce gives you.”
The One Thing That Did Not Carry Over
The SR3 XXR makes 232 bhp from its Gen 5 engine and weighs 620 kg, over 350 horsepower per tonne, and its LMP-derived bodywork is built to make downforce rather than avoid it. The drafting Gill learned in a car with none of it still works. Following closely does not.
“The biggest difference with these cars is the aero wash,” he said. “That was the biggest thing to learn. You can’t follow as closely as you could in the F1600. The driving style you get in F1600, the drafting, the momentum, it all translates perfectly for these cars. It’s just that at certain tracks the aero wash is pretty rough to figure out.”
His Argument About the Ladder
Gill makes a specific claim about where drivers should go after karts, and he makes it as a preference rather than an observation.
“I’m one of the strong believers that the F1600 is a good starting platform, and then move into this faster car,” he said. “Having the two seasons under my belt in a car, I feel like the transition from karting to Radicals is too big.”
The series appears to agree with him. On 16 July 2026, FEL Motorsports launched an F1600 Pathway Award, a free entry into the 2027 Emzone Radical Cup Canada presented by Michelin. Radical Canada is listed among the F1600 Championship’s sponsors.
Markham
Gill is fourth on 135 points, five behind Pernod and 15 behind Alex Tagliani in second. Brady Clapham leads on 220. Four races and 160 points remain.
Markham is a circuit nobody in the field has driven, and Gill’s plan for it is preparation rather than adaptation.
“The biggest thing is going to be the track walk on the Thursday. Try and take in as much information as I can, because with Markham, it’s green. No one’s been there, everything’s new for people,” he said.
He will also arrive having driven a version of it. “I know it’s just got released, I think this week, so going to try and find that, get at least a few laps in beforehand,” he said. “If we can’t get the Markham street circuit, just run as many street circuits as you can on the sim so that you get the feeling.”
Races 7 and 8 run on August 15 and 16.
About FEL Motorsports
FEL Motorsports grew out of a deep base of automotive roots from FEL Automotive Learning and Promotion. FEL, the parent company of FEL Motorsports, has over three decades of experience in the automotive event industry working within Canada and the U.S. By combining the expertise gained from working with luxury automotive brands with some of Canada’s most experienced motorsport personnel, FEL Motorsports executes premium race event weekends at tracks in Ontario and Quebec. FEL Motorsports is focused on growth and sustainability in the Canadian Motorsports landscape by giving back to its teams through prizing and prize money.
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Contact
Chris Bye · cb@feldrives.com · 905.704.8585
Peter Lockhart · pl@feldrives.com · 647.990.2299