Audette Triumphs at Lime Rock
Lakeville, CT – Remy Audette again narrowly avoided first turn melee and won his fifth race of the 2011 F2000 Championship Series season to jump out to an enormous points lead over Chris Livengood in round 11 of 14. Tim Minor followed in second, putting in the comeback drive of the year, and coming from dead last on the restart. Alegra Motorsports’ Angel Benitez notched his best result of 2011, completing the podium. Craig Clawson and Thomas Schwietz followed.
Audette can mathematically clinch the Championship with a strong performance in the second and final Lime Rock race later in the day.
In an almost repeat performance of the last F2000 race at Mosport that saw a major first turn incident take out most of the contenders, Remy Audette, driving the No. 21 Audette Racing Van Diemen, emerged relatively unscathed, leading every lap from pole uncontested.
Notable contenders taken out in turn one included both John Walko Racing/Work Racing’s Chris Livengood and HP-Tech’s Robert La Rocca, among others. Both of those cars will be ready to go for the second race.
Neither driver was available for printable comments following the incident.
Audette remains perfect on the weekend, pacing both practices and winning pole for both F2000 races, and turning fastest lap in the 28-lap race, cut down from 30 laps due to a caution period.
“I got a good start, Tim (Minor) was behind me at the green, bumped me a little but it wasn’t a big deal. Robert (La Rocca) also made contact with my tire in turn one,” said Audette. “The team told me to run a fast lap at the end to maximize points so we took fast lap back. It was a cruising race.”
Minor, who ended up off-track in turn one, pitted for a check during the caution. The Ski Motorsports crew declared the No. 88 okay to go – and off he went to drive through the field to second place.
“I saw (Robert) La Rocca up on the back of Remy’s car and I got turned around,” commented Minor. “I came in to make sure the car was good to go and we were dead last on that restart. Last to second, I’m ecstatic.” Minor also notches the Masters Class win for round 11.
Angel Benitez came through with his best result of 2011 in the sole Alegra entry, finishing third and running second for most of the late stages of the race.
Benitez commented: “The start was dangerous. I got a bit shuffled back but was able to work up to second but (Tim) Minor was able to get by. Tim just drove an awesome race.”
Craig Clawson also notched his best result of the year with a drive to fourth place ahead of Thomas Schwietz and Charles Finelli. Finelli, driving for John Walko Racing/Fat Boy Racing, will start fifth in the second race of the weekend.
Nathan Morcom followed in seventh with a dragging front wing in his No. 02 Primus Racing Van Diemen, with Chris Monteleone, Brendan Puderbach – also for John Walko Racing/Fat Boy Racing, and Fred Bross completing the top ten.
CellMark Paper Hard Charger honors went to Monteleone, driving from 19th to eighth.
Local favorite Tim Paul ran strong early before a spin tossed him down the order in his SMR/GTP Motorsports.
Kyle Connery withdrew from the weekend following a qualifying crash.
Round 12 of the 2011 season, the second and last race at Lime Rock, follows at 4:00 p.m., stay tuned to F2000Series.com for updates.
Race Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 21 Remy Audette 28 30:17.378 - - 84.861 51.044 2 88 Tim Minor/M 28 30:31.663 +14.285 +14.285 84.199 51.120 3 26 Angel Benitez 28 30:34.863 +17.485 +3.200 84.052 51.634 4 27 Craig Clawson/M 28 30:43.668 +26.290 +8.805 83.651 52.488 5 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 28 30:47.391 +30.013 +3.723 83.482 52.354 6 83 Charles Finelli/M 28 30:49.227 +31.849 +1.836 83.399 51.812 7 2 Nathan Morcom 28 31:08.616 +51.238 +19.389 82.534 53.734 8 47 Chris Monteleone 27 30:28.466 1 Lap 1 Lap 81.334 53.756 9 31 Brendan Puderbach 27 30:31.684 +3.218 +3.218 81.191 53.762 10 14 Fred Bross/M 27 30:37.831 +9.365 +6.147 80.919 54.276 11 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 27 30:56.572 +28.106 +18.741 80.102 55.019 12 06 Tim Paul 26 30:31.594 2 Laps 1 Lap 78.188 51.750 13 35 Eric Presbrey 25 30:25.901 3 Laps 1 Lap 75.415 54.551 14 15 Aaron Pettipas 23 27:01.002 5 Laps 2 Laps 78.152 55.120 15 97 Chris Gumprecht 11 15:53.784 17 Laps 12 Laps 63.524 55.061 16 77 Blake Teeter 1 1:24.409 27 Laps 10 Laps 65.253 1:18.279 17 70 Peter Gonzalez/M 1 1:36.808 +12.399 +12.399 56.896 1:30.560 18 90 Robert Wright/M 1 2:18.238 +53.829 +41.430 39.844 2:12.386 19 10 Robert La Rocca 0 5.103 28 Laps 1 Lap - -.--- 20 37 Chris Livengood 0 5.486 +0.383 +0.383 - -.--- 21 89 Jim Hanrahan/M 0 6.293 +1.190 +0.807 - -.--- 22 22 Giancarlo Potolicchio/M 0 7.032 +1.929 +0.739 - -.--- 23 91 Kyle Connery 0 -.--- - - - -.--- 24 61 Tom Drake/M 0 -.--- - - - -.---