Beasley Around Grant for Watkins Glen Victory
Watkins Glen, NY – Sam Beasley made his move early in the Sunday F2000 Championship Series race at Watkins Glen International, passing David Grant for the lead on the third of 14 laps and taking his second win of the season for Legacy Autosport. Grant would finish second after starting from pole, while Eric Filgueiras completed the podium in the fourth race of the season.
Beasley noted his second win at Watkins Glen following a F2000 victory in a different car last October. The No. 4 Legacy Autosport Mygale started from second, taking the lead early and managing a late race restart.
“First is always better than second,” said Beasley, referring to his second place finish on Saturday. “I can’t thank the team enough for giving me a good car today. I knew we had to have a good restart.”
After starting on pole, Polestar’s Grant improved one position from his Saturday finishing effort, taking the No. 29 home in second position and never falling more than a second off Beasley for the duration of the race.
“I couldn’t do it, Sam was faster today,” said Grant, who nipped Beasley in qualifying for pole by .015 seconds at the last possible moment. “My car has been getting as the session goes on, picking up speed.”
Filgueiras mimicked his Road Atlanta performance; significantly moving up in the second race of the weekend and scoring his second third place result in four race starts. Filgueiras fell to fourth but was able to get around Saturday winner Steve Bamford with two laps to go.
“Steve didn’t make it easy but he drove me really clean, it was an awesome race,” said Filgueiras. “I have never been to Watkins Glen before and we are a smaller team, this is like a win for us.”
Austin McCusker finished fourth for the second straight day in the No. 6 Dotworks Racing RFR, also getting around Bamford in the closing laps of the event. Bamford, meanwhile, started sixth and made his way to third before the full-course caution; slipping back to complete the top five by the time the checkered flag flew.
Tim Paul followed in sixth position in the SMR/GTP Van Diemen, ahead of Trent Walko, who improved three positions after starting seventh. Al Guibord was eighth with Quinlan Lall and Dean Baker completing the top ten. Guibord and Baker completed the Masters Class podium.
Sam Chastain retired after two laps with a mechanical issue. John McCusker also failed to finish after going off on the fifth lap of the race. Charles Finelli was another DNF after a crash late in the race despite moving up 12 positions. Steve Jenks and Robert Wright did not make the start with reported mechanical problems.
Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com under the results tab.
The F2000 Championship Series continues with rounds five and six, scheduled for June 5-7, at VIR.