OWR: F2000 VIR Wrap-Up

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OWR: F2000 VIR Wrap-Up

Victor Carbone led every lap at VIR on his way to taking his first career F2000 Series victory over Australian rookie Daniel Erickson by two-tenths of a second.

Media Release | Posted April 12, 2010

The F2000 Series saw packed fields at VIR. (F2000 Series)

Victor Carbone led every lap at VIR on his way to taking his first career F2000 Series victory over Australian rookie Daniel Erickson by two-tenths of a second. Carbone, driving for Alegra Motorsports in his second F2000 season, timed his start beautifully from the outside of the front row, taking advantage of pole sitter Erickson, who had never done a rolling start before. Erickson would fall back to third, only to reel the Brazilian in from 1.8 seconds away as the two ran nose-to-tail for the closing laps in a thrilling start to the 2010 F2000 Season.

“My start was perfect, as soon as the green flag waved I was gone,” commented Carbone, who also gives Alegra their first F2000 win. “At the end, Erickson was super fast and was all over me but I was able to just barely hold him off. The car was amazing and it shows the great job the team did over the offseason.”

Erickson tried a last-lap pass attempt on Carbone only to have the door shut, but walks away from his first race ever with a second place effort, in a modest 33-car field. Additionally, in qualifying he set a new track record and earned bonus points for pole as the run for the 2010 national championship begins this weekend.

“I misread the start,” said Erickson, driving the #02 for Primus Racing. “I’ve never done a rolling start before and dropped back to third, by the time I got around (Tim) Kautz and into second, it took some work to catch Victor (Carbone). The car was good and quick all around.”

At the drop of the green, F2000 newcomer Tim Kautz went from sixth to second, and held station in third before two spins left him finishing well down the order.

Completing the podium was Carbone’s Alegra teammate Fabio Orsolon, also from Brazil. Cole Morgan finished fourth and set the fastest race lap.

“The outside line at the start got shuffled, I got pushed back to sixth and was boxed in with nowhere to go,” Morgan, the 2007 F2000 Champion, said. “I knew we had the fastest car out there, and the fast lap shows it.”

Remy Audette rounded out the top five, and was running solidly in third before a quick off-course excursion cost him precious time.

Jonathan Scarallo, driving his second F2000 year and now with the R-Sport team finished sixth. Scarallo said: “It was a fun race, on the start we got shuffled back to tenth and I was able to pick a bunch of guys off and nearly got Remy (Audette) on the last lap. R-Sport gave me a great car and hopefully tomorrow we can qualify a bit better. “

Finish seventh and winning the Masters Class was Phil Lombardi, in the #3 GTP Motorsports Van Diemen. “I am disappointed here today, we’ve been working hard on the car and it is numb to all the changes we’re making,” Lombardi commented.

Chris Gumprecht followed in eighth position, with rookie Chris Livengood in the Pinto-powered Van Diemen in ninth ahead of 2008 Masters Class Champion Tim Minor.

Dave Weitzenhof, seven-time SCCA National Champion, finished 11th in the only Citation chassis on the 33-car grid. Jesse Yorio followed in 12th, in the newest hardware and the only Piper in the field. Bobby Caldwell, Al Guibord Jr, and Tim Kautz made up 13th-15th.

The field ran an extra pace lap in “missing man” formation in remembrance of Joe Stimola, who was also the chief engineer for Alegra’s F2000 program. The Alegra team dedicated their win to Stimola.

Keith McCrone, driving for R-Sport, was the CellMark Paper Hard Charger of the day, going from 30th to 17th in the 14-lap caution free feature event of the afternoon at VIR.

Race Two

Cole Morgan held off Remy Audette and capitalized on Daniel Erickson’s misfiring engine to take his first F2000 win since taking the 2007 F2000 Championship title. Erickson, the Australian rookie, led from pole and had pulled out to a two second gap as Morgan and Audette diced for second. With three laps to go the Zetec in Erickson’s #02 started to misfire, and he ended up a distant tenth with a very sick-sounding motor. Fabio Orsolon finished third, making it an American-Canadian-Brazilian podium

“The start kind of just happened,” said Morgan, who went from fifth to second before taking the lead in his K-Hill Motorsports Van Diemen. “We were turning some really good laps and then the tires started to go away and Remy (Audette) caught me. (Daniel) Erickson slowed near the end and I knew Remy was all over me and I made sure he couldn’t get any runs.”

Morgan’s margin of victory was four-tenths of a second, compared to round one’s two-tenths margin of victory. Both VIR races were run in their entirety without any full-course cautions.

Audette, who was sporting a Sponge Bob charter on his steering wheel, commented: “I was pushing hard and felt faster than Cole in some areas, the team gave me an awesome car. During the last few laps I was hoping he would make a mistake but we’ll take second.”

Fabio Orsolon finished third for the second day in a row ahead of his teammate Victor Carbone, who won round one and Rob Nicholas, who wins the Masters Class.

“We struggled all weekend with broken parts,” Nicholas, driving under the K-Fast awning, said. “We got a great start, going to seventh from 13th and I had hooked up with (Jonathan) Scarallo for a few laps before he went off at Oak Tree.”

Scarallo started fourth and got shuffled backwards on the start. The young American was able to work his way back to fifth in the 33-car field, while setting fastest race lap. He recovered from a mid-race spin to finish seventh, behind his R-Sport teammate Keith McCrone.

Tim Kautz and Bobby Caldwell, both driving for Liberty Motorsports finished eighth and ninth, and Daniel Erickson hung on for tenth.

Daniel Erickson nailed his second-ever rolling start and pulled a nice lead out on Cole Morgan. The Australian, driving for Primus Racing, scored poles for both rounds, resetting the track record. He was caught off guard by his first rolling start in round one and missed winning the race by two-tenths of a second. That wasn’t the case at VIR today, as he controlled the race pace until an unfortunate engine problem brought him home in tenth.

“The car was absolutely perfect, the guys did a great job but I’m absolutely devastated,” commented Erickson. “I had a 2.5 second gap and then I heard an unfortunate noise from the motor and my lead was gone.”

Rookie Billy McLaughlin, who had a hard crash during Thursday testing, finished a solid 15th for K-Hill, behind Dave Weitzenhof, Tom Fatur, Mark Defer and Bob Wright.

22-year old Chris Keller, who wasn’t officially driving on Sunday until about 8pm on Saturday night, finished 19th after the crew of the #83 prepped the chassis late into the night. A last second setup was dialed in after qualifying.

A lap one incident took out Phil Lombardi and Tim Minor, who both were expected to be quick at VIR. Chris Gumprecht lost his gearbox early in the race and Chris Livengood, driving the only Pinto-powered entry in the field, was running solidly in the top 15 before an off-course excursion in turn one put him back in the pack.

Craig Clawson, who has started every F2000 Championship Series race to date, earned the CellMark Paper Hard Charger by improving 10 positions from start to finish.

The 2010 F2000 season continues at Road Atlanta May 6-8.

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