Audette Victorious at the Glen

“The start was good but we did drop back a bit,” said Audette following the race. “We passed a few cars and then I traded the lead back and forth with Kyle. I’m very happy to be able to win at the Glen, we’ll see what we have tomorrow too.”

Audette adds to his championship points lead and takes the lead of the SOS Children's Villages Watkins Glen Cup.

Connery, meanwhile, on the initial start from the second row, cut across the track making contact with Masters Class veteran Tim Minor, chopping Minor’s wing off and ending his day. Those two have a bit of a history as Connery passed Minor for the win at Road Atlanta with two corners to go just a few weeks ago.

Connery’s weekend has been dramatic as the car had been at the top of the time sheets before a hard crash in practice sent the rookie to the hospital for checks most of Friday. The team got the #91 back together and Connery was cleared to drive, nearly putting the car on pole during the morning’s qualifying session. Connery gets bonus points for setting the fastest race lap.

“This is another bitter-sweet weekend,” commented Connery, who also bounced back from a huge qualifying crash at VIR. “I was leading so it was a bit disappointing to see the caution since we had a sizable lead. After that the tires just weren’t there and Remy was able to get by. I have to apologize to Tim, at the start I had touched Remy’s gearbox, checked up and then moved out and that’s when we made contact.”

Minor was not pleased following the race and had a different view of the incident: “He didn’t even look. He just cut across the track before the flag stand.”

Coello survived the race to finish third in his RFR chassis, holding off Paul who was on the RFR’s gearbox. “Near the end I was watching the mirrors and saw the laptimes, we were going faster and faster, but Tim was still coming,” explained Coello.

Tim Paul scored his best ever F2000 finish to date, driving from 12th to fourth in the SMR/GTP Motorsports #06 Van Diemen.

Chris Livengood, who broke the track record in qualifying, got shuffled back on a dramatic start and rebounded to run third before a mechanical issue on the last lap left him limping home in fifth.

The race start also saw Robert La Rocca make contact with the wall on turn one, following the exciting start that saw the field race two and three wide for most of the first lap. La Rocca jumped into the lead on the start but it didn’t last for the rookie.

La Rocca explained that his foot got caught in the brake pedal, and the rear-end came around, leaving his RFR well off the race track and damaged.

Enzo Potolicchio won the Masters Class, finishing sixth and then hopping into a Daytona Prototype. Jonathan Scarallo was seventh for Primus Racing followed by Dwight Rider, Ardie Greenamyer and rookie Ethan Ringel.

For Polestar, bringing in veteran Tonis Kasemets as a driver coach for the weekend is already paying dividends. The team’s three car effort is picking up speed. While Bill Jordan finished 17th and Dan Dension finished 20th, teammate Mark Defer was moving through the field before a mechanical issue ended his race.

Kasemets actually got in Bill Jordan’s car on Friday and ran the fastest lap a F2000 car has ever seen around Watkins Glen at 1:51.2.

Alegra Motorsports has a rough day at Watkins Glen. Angel Benitez ended up in a gravel trap and Fabio Orsolon retired with radiator damage in the new Alegra RFR chassis. Gustavo Rizzo finished 11th in the #23 Van Diemen.

Primus Racing driver Nathan Morcom missed the race after losing an engine in qualifying.

Ardie Greenamyer wins the CellMark Paper Hard Charger, advancing 13 positions to finish ninth, in a weekend that has included a motor teardown for the team to find a copper washer.

Action from Watkins Glen International follows tomorrow, Sunday, with a 9:00 a.m. qualifying session and 11:30 a.m. race. All times are eastern. Fans can follow live on F2000Series.com or on Twitter @F2000.

 Full Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 21 Remy Audette 14 29:41.015 - - 95.366 1:52.195 108.133 2 91 Kyle Connery 14 29:42.769 +1.754 +1.754 95.272 1:52.137 108.189 3 81 Niki Coello 14 29:56.993 +15.978 +14.224 94.518 1:53.556 106.837 4 06 Tim Paul 14 29:57.313 +16.298 +0.320 94.501 1:53.138 107.232 5 37 Chris Livengood 14 30:00.436 +19.421 +3.123 94.337 1:52.219 108.110 6 22 Enzo Potolicchio/M 14 30:00.594 +19.579 +0.158 94.329 1:53.484 106.905 7 13 Jonathan Scarallo 14 30:01.928 +20.913 +1.334 94.259 1:53.730 106.674 8 60 Dwight Rider/M 14 30:13.526 +32.511 +11.598 93.656 1:53.804 106.604 9 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 14 30:17.737 +36.722 +4.211 93.439 1:53.983 106.437 10 1 Ethan Ringel 14 30:17.978 +36.963 +0.241 93.427 1:53.508 106.882 11 23 Gustavo Rizzo 14 30:18.527 +37.512 +0.549 93.399 1:53.321 107.059 12 27 Craig Clawson/M 14 30:20.379 +39.364 +1.852 93.304 1:54.451 106.002 13 83 Charles Finelli/M 14 30:24.454 +43.439 +4.075 93.095 1:55.085 105.418 14 90 Robert Wright/M 14 30:25.139 +44.124 +0.685 93.060 1:54.163 106.269 15 7 Brent Gilkes/M 14 30:28.053 +47.038 +2.914 92.912 1:55.094 105.409 16 17 John LaRue 14 30:29.291 +48.276 +1.238 92.849 1:55.807 104.761 17 42 Bill Jordan/M 14 30:29.472 +48.457 +0.181 92.840 1:55.667 104.887 18 14 Fred Bross 14 30:29.916 +48.901 +0.444 92.817 1:55.133 105.374 19 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 30:32.981 +51.966 +3.065 92.662 1:55.727 104.833 20 51 Dan Denison/M 14 30:33.837 +52.822 +0.856 92.619 1:55.918 104.660 21 47 Chris Monteleone 14 30:57.876 +1:16.861 +24.039 91.421 1:57.833 102.959 22 31 Brendan Puderbach 14 31:04.029 +1:23.014 +6.153 91.119 1:58.285 102.566 23 61 Tom Drake 14 31:21.015 +1:40.000 +16.986 90.296 1:58.085 102.740 24 9 Zach Craigo 13 26:35.732 1 Lap 1 Lap 98.836 1:54.362 106.084 25 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 13 30:21.345 +3:45.613 +3:45.613 86.593 1:54.288 106.153 26 26 Angel Benitez 8 18:39.853 6 Laps 5 Laps 86.669 1:54.206 106.229 27 70 Tom Fatur/M 7 23:13.609 7 Laps 1 Lap 60.938 1:55.740 104.821 DNF 24 Fabio Orsolon 6 14:53.776 8 Laps 1 Lap 81.443 1:55.805 104.762 DNF 8 Mark Defer/M 3 9:00.067 11 Laps 3 Laps 67.392 2:06.913 95.593 DNF 10 Robert La Rocca 0 4.394 14 Laps 3 Laps - -.--- - DNF 88 Tim Minor/M 0 4.711 +0.317 +0.317 - -.--- - DNS 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 2 Nathan Morcom 0 -.--- - - - -.--- -