Another VIR Pole for ‘The Rock’

“The HP-Tech car was good and there was no traffic for us during that session,” said the Venezuelan, after he barely nipped pole on Saturday with just one clean lap, with 34 cars circulating the 17-turn road course during qualifying.

Orsolon continued to pick up speed with the Radon chassis, qualifying second, bettering his third place grid spot on Saturday. Orsolon finished second in Saturday’s race and is still looking for his maiden F2000 victory, as is the Radon chassis.

After a disappointing Saturday that ended with an overheating Van Diemen, F1600 graduate Gooden hopes to bounce back for Quantum Racing Services.

Gooden and La Rocca came together on the opening lap of Saturday’s 14-lap race, leaving Gooden in 21st with La Rocca cruising to his first victory. Gooden picked apart the field, driving up to 14th in just three laps, but grass and dirt from his off-course excursion caused his Zetec motor to overheat, ending his day.

“We need to keep today clean and stand on the podium,” said Gooden, “that would be a good way to end my first F2000 weekend.”

Coello was fourth, first of the RFRs, and explained that his No. 81 team will be making more setup changes for the race to attempt to close the gap to the leaders.

In fifth was Tim Minor, in the new Citation chassis and first of the Masters Class drivers.

Tim Paul put in a solid session for SMR/GTP Motorsports in his Van Diemen, qualifying sixth ahead of Kyle Connery, John LaRue, Zach Craigo and Kevin Kopp.

Other notables include VIR winner Nathan Morcom, who was Saturday’s Hard Charger, in 19th, and Chris Livengood, back in 22nd for John Walko Racing, both in RFR chassis.

The weekend ends with the second and final F2000 race, scheduled at 3:00pm local time. Live updates and audio are available on www.F2000Series.com

Qualifying Results:

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 10 Robert LaRocca 1:55.826 101.635 10 - - 2 77 Fabio Orsolon 1:56.095 101.400 5 +0.269 +0.269 3 6 Wyatt Gooden 1:56.163 101.340 7 +0.337 +0.068 4 81 Niki Coello 1:56.980 100.633 11 +1.154 +0.817 5 88 Tim Minor/M 1:57.042 100.579 5 +1.216 +0.062 6 06 Tim Paul 1:57.093 100.535 5 +1.267 +0.051 7 91 Kyle Connery 1:57.120 100.512 6 +1.294 +0.027 8 17 John LaRue/M 1:57.364 100.303 9 +1.538 +0.244 9 18 Zach Craigo 1:57.365 100.302 9 +1.539 +0.001 10 66 Kevin Kopp 1:57.516 100.174 6 +1.690 +0.151 11 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:57.589 100.111 4 +1.763 +0.073 12 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:57.820 99.915 7 +1.994 +0.231 13 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:57.971 99.787 8 +2.145 +0.151 14 8 Mark Defer/M 1:58.507 99.336 10 +2.681 +0.536 15 5 Nick Palacio 1:58.585 99.271 8 +2.759 +0.078 16 73 Vaughn Horvath 1:58.613 99.247 9 +2.787 +0.028 17 14 Jose Gerardo 1:58.830 99.066 7 +3.004 +0.217 18 9 Jose Montiel 1:59.014 98.913 8 +3.188 +0.184 19 11 Nathan Morcom 1:59.196 98.762 4 +3.370 +0.182 20 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:59.252 98.715 4 +3.426 +0.056 21 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:59.302 98.674 11 +3.476 +0.050 22 37 Chris Livengood 1:59.703 98.343 4 +3.877 +0.401 23 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:59.762 98.295 9 +3.936 +0.059 24 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:59.880 98.198 10 +4.054 +0.118 25 52 Dean Baker/M 1:59.939 98.150 3 +4.113 +0.059 26 59 Shaun Miller 1:59.959 98.134 7 +4.133 +0.020 27 51 Dan Denison/M 1:59.997 98.102 10 +4.171 +0.038 28 2 Rob Allaer 2:00.168 97.963 8 +4.342 +0.171 29 90 Robert Wright/M 2:00.226 97.916 11 +4.400 +0.058 30 19 John Brumder 2:00.286 97.867 10 +4.460 +0.060 31 31 Brendan Puderbach 2:00.535 97.665 5 +4.709 +0.249 32 25 Jeff McCusker/M 2:00.613 97.601 9 +4.787 +0.078 33 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 2:00.901 97.369 4 +5.075 +0.288 34 15 Aaron Pettipas 2:01.064 97.238 4 +5.238 +0.163