Audette Dominates for VIR Win
Alton, VA – Remy Audette led flag-to-flag, from pole, to win the second F2000 Series race of the weekend at VIRginia International Raceway over rookie Kyle Connery and Tim Minor. Audette set fast lap en-route to victory, as he lowered the track record during qualifying and then ran away from a stout field during the race, to win by nine seconds.
“It can’t get any better than this, what an awesome day,” said Audette, who has been the class of the field throughout the weekend. On Saturday, Audette charged through the field as the white and green flags fell, as rain poured down, to finish fourth.
“At the start I just looked forward and not back. It is a good way to start the year, with a win and a fourth, the car was just absolutely on.”
Kyle Connery finished second to cap off a rollercoaster of a race weekend.
Connery won pole on Saturday but missed the race after a massive crash late in the qualifying session. Along with his crew, Connery worked through Saturday and most of Sunday to put the #91 back together and drove to an impressive second place finish behind Audette.
“This was my first pro race, and after yesterday, it is just a bittersweet story all around,” added Connery. “The car looks horrid but it did what it needed to do.”
Tim Minor rounded off the podium, taking the Masters Class win ahead of Alegra Motorsports rookie Angel Benetiz.
“We could have fought for third but I made a small mistake and went off,” Benetiz explained. “We had a great started and were able to move up. For the first weekend with Alegra, this is a great result, we are still learning how to work together.”
Teammate Gustavo Rizzo finished 12th in a solid Series debut for the Brazilian.
Completing the top five was HP-Tech rookie and Saturday’s second place finisher, Robert La Rocca, in the new RFR chassis. La Rocca missed out on a fourth place result by inches in a side-by-side finish with Benetiz.
“The track changed a lot since this morning so the car wasn’t working so well,” La Rocca stated. “I was leading for fourth coming out of the last turn and he just got a run on us.”
Steele Guiliana and Rob Nicholas weren’t far behind in sixth and seventh.
Guiliana, who started back in 12th for Primus Racing, added: “We just got a great start and the outside line worked well in the opening series of corners. We had the pace to run with the leaders but I was just too far back after we had moved up a couple positions.”
Saturday’s winner Nathan Morcom was involved in a first lap incident, and was forced to move through the pack in an all-green-flag-race. Morcom miraculously recovered to race his way to eighth in the Primus Racing Van Diemen.
Tim Paul notched his best ever F2000 Championship Series result, finishing ninth for SMR/GTP Motorsports.
Chris Livengood, meanwhile, the outside polesitter, made contact on lap one and fell to the rear of the field. The American worked his way up through the pack to complete the top ten.
Livengood put in an impressive drive for the first race at VIR, going from last to finish third.
CellMark Paper Hard Charger honors are split between Mark Defer, Steele Guiliana and Dan Denison, who all improved six positions from their race starting position.
Audette leaves Virginia with the F2000 points lead over Morcom, La Rocca, Livengood and Guiliana.
The F2000 Championship Series 14-race, seven-event 2011 season continues at Road Atlanta with a doubleheader, May 6-7.
Race Results
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Best Tm 1 21 Remy Audette 14 27:05.805 - - 1:55.074 2 91 Kyle Connery 14 27:15.145 +9.340 +9.340 1:55.751 3 88 Tim Minor/M 14 27:21.501 +15.696 +6.356 1:55.807 4 26 Angel Benitez 14 27:28.392 +22.587 +6.891 1:55.816 5 10 Robert La Rocca 14 27:28.430 +22.625 +0.038 1:56.106 6 13 Steele Guiliana 14 27:33.991 +28.186 +5.561 1:56.654 7 89 Rob Nicholas/M 14 27:37.545 +31.740 +3.554 1:57.084 8 2 Nathan Morcom 14 27:37.931 +32.126 +0.386 1:56.577 9 06 Tim Paul 14 27:42.498 +36.693 +4.567 1:56.944 10 37 Chris Livengood 14 27:44.497 +38.692 +1.999 1:55.214 11 4 Jonathan Scarallo 14 27:47.996 +42.191 +3.499 1:57.638 12 23 Gustavo Rizzo 14 27:48.027 +42.222 +0.031 1:57.474 13 70 Tom Fatur/M 14 27:50.827 +45.022 +2.800 1:57.129 14 8 Mark Defer/M 14 27:55.314 +49.509 +4.487 1:57.660 15 27 Craig Clawson/M 14 27:55.422 +49.617 +0.108 1:57.856 16 7 Brent Gilkes/M 14 28:16.382 +1:10.577 +20.960 1:57.331 17 25 Jeff McCusker/M 14 28:16.576 +1:10.771 +0.194 1:59.224 18 51 Dan Denison/M 14 28:16.889 +1:11.084 +0.313 1:59.111 19 42 Bill Jordan/M 14 28:17.656 +1:11.851 +0.767 1:57.320 20 90 Robert Wright/M 14 28:19.509 +1:13.704 +1.853 1:58.467 21 29 Ardie Greenamyer/M 14 28:24.248 +1:18.443 +4.739 1:57.773 22 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 28:24.407 +1:18.602 +0.159 1:59.636 23 72 Francis Kennette 13 27:34.274 1 Lap 1 Lap 2:03.706 24 60 Mark Felsen 13 27:55.420 +21.146 +21.146 2:06.045 25 3 Joe Colasacco 4 8:25.716 10 Laps 9 Laps 2:02.245 26 22 Giancarlo Potolicchio 3 6:24.981 11 Laps 1 Lap 2:01.832 27 96 Brian Tomasi 1 2:18.265 13 Laps 2 Laps 2:14.718