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Miller Wins Action Packed Race by a Tenth at VIR
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Chris Miller got around Remy Audette during round two of the 2009 F2000 Series and went on to take the checkers by just a tenth of a second over Matthew Inge in a highly competitive race at VIR. At the drop of the green it was all Canadian Remy Audette as he was able to get by Matthew Inge for second and then drafted past Chris Miller on the back straight and took the lead.
Audette pulled a gap to more than three seconds while Miller and Inge had to work their way around Tim Minor who had drafted his way into second on the opening lap. Then Audette was balked by lapped traffic going into turn 13 halfway through the race and Miller pounced, getting by him on the entrance to the front straight. A few corners later Audette made a mistake and went off the track at Oak Tree, allowing Matthew Inge to move into second.
Inge wasted no time in catching Miller, posting the fastest lap of the race at 1:55.440. The American duo pulled away from Remy Audette at a pace of almost a second a lap. Inge caught Miller and pulled alongside him multiple times in the closing laps but couldn’t get past allowing Miller to take the win by just .126 seconds.
“The start was not as planned,” said Miller in victory circle. “I got drafted by a couple guys at the start but I was able to get around Minor and then Audette. Remy (Audette) had to check up due to a lapped car ad I took advantage. Inge and I had a great race at the end.”
Matthew Inge commented, “Wow. It was a hard fought race. I fell to fourth at the start but I kept working. The car just got better and better. Audette went off at Oak Tree and I got around him. Chris Miller and I had a great race, I got alongside him a few times but he had the line into the corner and I couldn’t get by.”
Audette, who took the lead early and lowered the track record in yesterday’s qualifying session had to settle for third place. “The start was very good. I passed Matt (Inge) on the front straight and then I got past Chris (Miller) at the end of the back straight,” explained Audette. “There were two lapped cars a few laps later. I got past one and the second looked like he was giving me room and all of a sudden he slammed the door on me. I jumped a curb and Chris got by me. I then made a mistake at Oak Tree and Matt got past.”
2008 Masters class champion Tim Minor came home in fourth overall and was the first of the Masters class entrants, running second for a few laps at the start of the race. “I could have taken the lead at one point,” said Minor. “I dropped back to third and then the car developed a huge high speed understeer and I lost a lot of time. Remy (Audette) went off at Oak Tree and I almost hit him. I did all I could to avoid running into him. It was a good race and I’m happy with fourth.”
Jesse Yorio rounded out the top five in his Piper chassis. He was followed by Guibord Jr., Lombardi, Szykulski, Alexander and Johnston.
A bottleneck at the drop of the green caused a minor incident for the 28-car field on the front straight in the middle of the field putting Bobby Caldwell a few laps down with a broken wing. “I didn’t see anything and then there was just a shock cover in my face. I hit one of the Alegra cars,” commented Caldwell.
Caldwell had contact with the Alegra Motorsports car of Victor Carbone, who was forced to pull off the track in the first corner. His teammate Fabio Orsolon worked his way up to fifth before a broken axle ended his race.
Group A Racing finished their first F2000 race with Colin Alexander coming home in ninth with teammate Jonathan Scarallo placing 16th. “I’m still getting used to my new gearbox,” said Alexander, who didn’t even start yesterday’s race when a broken gearbox left him stranded on the grid. “Driving wise everything went real well. We were pulling multiple car lengths on people in the esses. I had a great race and an overall blast dicing with Caitlin for ninth.”
Caitlin Johnston came home tenth in her Z-Sports Van Diemen after finishing 12th in yesterday’s race.”It was great, I ran my fastest lap of the weekend during the race,” said Johnston. “The start was nuts, I was caught right behind the incident. There were cars careening everywhere that I had to dodge.”
Johnston’s Z-Sports teammate, Benjamin Searcy, who won yesterday’s wet-dry race by fifteen seconds over Audette, suffered gearbox problems that caused a spin that stranding him off the track.
USF1’s Ken Anderson was on hand to congratulate the top three finishers on the podium during the victory celebration.
The F2000 Championship Series resumes on May 23-25 at Lime Rock Park.
2009 F2000 Season Preview
Monday, April 06, 2009
New York, NY - The long winter break for the drivers and teams of the F2000 Championship Series comes to a close this Thursday as the series opens its fourth season at the 17-turn Virginia International Raceway. A full field of 30 cars is expected to take the green for rounds one and two of the 12-round 2009 season, giving the F2000 Series the largest field in American open wheel racing.
The F2000 Series remains firmly positioned on the continent's open wheel ladder system offering the best professional entry level program for both seasoned and up-and-coming competitors. With 2008 F2000 Champion Anders Krohn moving to Star Mazda, the championship is up for grabs.
Series co-owner Robert Wright commented, "I am looking forward to the season. I think the schedule is good and what it should be this year given the economy. We have three great high-profile weekends and three low profile ones with really good on-track schedules, all at great road racing tracks. We continue to try to improve the series by listening the the teams and drivers, and operating in a careful, realistic manner- never promising something we can't deliver. I'm excited that the series has started to attract some new talent- I think there are 10 rookies in the field- and I'd be hard pressed at this time to predict a series champion. A number of the rookies all know each other from the karting ranks and that should make the racing very interesting."
American Chris Miller, who finished fourth in last year's points standings, is a favorite for race wins and the 2009 title as he returns for another year with the Minnesota based JDC Motorsports. JDC adds a second car alongside Miller for Mexican rookie Alejandro Munoz.
2006 series champion GTP Motorsports will field Masters Class drivers Tom Fatur, Chirs Camadella, and Peter Gonzalez alongside Phil Lombardi.
Canadian Remy Audette returns with Audette Racing. Audette finished an impressive ninth in the 2008 championship having missed six of the 14 races and is expected to be a title contender.
“Last season was a learning season for us. We finished on the podium a few times but weren’t able to win a race. This year we are running the full season, aiming to win the title. We are ready to take it to the rest of the field and build upon what we learned last season,” said Audette. “We made a lot of improvements to the car over the offseason which should improve the handling.”
Alegra Motorsports will field two cars for rookie Brazilian karting stars Fabio Orsolon and Victor Carbone. Alegra joins the contingent of F2000 teams for 2009 bringing with them a huge amount of road racing experience, having won the GT class in the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona. Both Brazilians are expected to be very quick.
Seven-time SCCA national champion Dave Weitzenhof will run the only Citation in the field, having converted the car to the Zetec power plant over the offseason. F2000 veteran Jesse Yorio will represent the only Piper in the field.
Masters Class champion Tim Minor and his Ski Motorsports team return to defend their title, having finished fifth in the overall 2008 standings. Masters Class iron-man Craig Clawson will be back for his fourth season, having started every F2000 race to date. John Dole, Jeff McCusker and Brent Gilkes return for 2009, looking to unseat Tim Minor in the Masters Class.
Z-Sports Midwest is back with two fast rookies. Canadian Caitlin Johnston will run the full season after finishing a strong seventh in her first weekend with the series last season. Lining up next to her will be young American Benjamin Searcy, who graduates to the series from karting with Skip Barber experience.
Group A Racing will make their F2000 championship series debut with American rookies Jonathan Scarallo and Colin Alexander. Scarallo took the 2008 Bertil Roos F2000 series, winning eight of 16 races, finishing on the podium 15 times. Teammate Colin Alexander also moves up from the Bertil Roos series, collecting eight podiums and rookie of the year title during the 2008 season.
ASDA/Wright Racing returns for another season with three cars, Robert Wright and Al Guibord Jr will contest the 2009 championship with rookie American teammate Blake Teeter.
CG Racing will participate in its first F2000 race this weekend as Christopher Gumprecht returns with the newly formed team for his third season.
CenDiv SCCA Formula Continental standout Brian Belardi ran his first F2000 event last season at Elkhart Lake and enters the full season under the Liberty Motorsports awning. Bobby Caldwell completes the Liberty Motorsports entry, having converted to Zetec power in the offseason.
St. Clair Motorsports, who won the 2007 F2000 title with Cole Morgan, enters two cars for VIR. Jerry Szykulski who has raced everything from Formula Fords to Atlantics over the last 10 years will wheel the #30, lining up next to up-and-coming American talent Matthew Inge who returns for a second season.
The 2009 schedule features six events and 12 races, opening at VIR this coming weekend. From there the series heads to the recently renovated Lime Rock Park on Memorial Day Weekend. F2000 will share the track with Koni Challenge and Historic Grand Prix.
On the weekend of June 14th, the series will head north of the border and return to Mosport with Nascar Canadian Tire Series.
Then it's onto Watkins Glen, July 2nd to the 5th, with the IRL Indy Car Series. After that, F2000 invades Summit Point highlighting an all open-wheel weekend, July 16-19th, before closing out the season at Mid-Ohio, August 13-16th.
The action gets underway on Thursday with test sessions in the morning and official practice sessions in the afternoon. Friday and Saturday both feature a morning qualifying session and afternoon race. Fans can follow the action on the recently re-launched F2000ChampionshipSeries.com for race reports, driver blogs, feature stories, pictures, video and results
