Beasley and Chastain Out Front in NJMP Practice
Millville, NJ – Championship leader Sam Beasley comfortably led double Friday practice at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) ahead of the F2000 Championship Series twin-race weekend. Beasley’s best lap over two 30-minute practice sessions clocked in at 1:17.622. Sam Chastain ran the second fastest time on Friday at NJMP, just over three-tenths of a second behind Beasley.
Practice 1
John McCusker in the Dotworks Racing Van Diemen set the early pace in practice one before Quinlan Lall went faster, and faster again for Momentum Motorsports.
With Lall holding steady at 1:18.837 for quick lap, it was Sam Beasley that bettered Lall’s time by just two thousandths of a second 10 minutes into the session, which went for its full 30-minutes in green flag conditions.
David Grant then went second fastest behind Beasley, who had found his way into the 1:17 range. Grant swept both Atlantic races the last time Formula Race Promotions visited New Jersey in 2012.
Beasley was able to drill his lap time down to 1:17.854, to pace practice one, held in the early afternoon, ahead of Grant’s Polestar Spectrum, and Trent Walko, who ran his fastest lap in his last flyer in the session. Walko put together a strong weekend at Pittsburgh with a third place finish and is looking to continue his pace this weekend at NJMP.
Lall was fourth at the end of the session, just .087 seconds off Walko, and .044 seconds ahead of J. McCusker in fifth.
In sixth on the time sheets was Sam Chastain. In his first-ever trip to NJMP, Steve Bamford was seventh overall and first in the Masters Class.
Nick Palacio was eighth quick in the No. 25 Van Diemen, ahead of the No. 22 Spencer Racing machine of Eric Filgueiras, who is also seeing this track for the first time. Austin McCusker completed the top 10 in the second Dotworks Racing entry.
Practice 2
Practice two rolled toward the end of the day in New Jersey, with Beasley finding a bit more time to run his best lap of the day, clocking in at 1:17.622. Sam Chastain was the only other driver in the 1:17 range as he took his No. 30 Van Diemen to second on the day's time sheets with a lap of 1:17.986. Walko was third for the second session in a row, .131 seconds back on Chastain.
Despite being as high as second during the session, Bamford slipped to fourth by the checkered flags, with a lap of 1:18.372 while J. McCusker was in the top five again at 1:18.530.
Grant was on the outside of the top five in sixth position, while Palacio improved a spot to seventh on a mid-afternoon gear change. Lall followed in eighth with A. McCusker in ninth and Drew Heffring, in his F2000 Series debut, completing the top 10 for K-Hill.
Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com under the Results tab.
F2000 Championship Series action continues from southern New Jersey with qualifying scheduled for Saturday morning and round 11 of the season in the afternoon. Sunday sees a similar schedule with morning qualifying and an afternoon race.