Beasley First at VIR
Alton, VA – Sam Beasley converted a pole position into a flag-to-flag victory in the F2000 Championship Series Saturday race at VIR for his third win of the season. Austin McCusker scored his best finish of the season with a second place, while Eric Filgueiras bounced back from a crash in Friday practice to complete the podium.
“It’s a lot better than how the car was earlier this weekend, the pace has been phenomenal,” said Beasley. “I need to thank the crew and Legacy Autosport.”
Beasley managed one nail-biting late race restart when Steve Bamford pulled alongside him and nearly got ahead of Beasley’s No. 4 on the opening set of corners.
“I knew I had to have a clean restart and the car was good enough to do the rest,” Beasley added.
McCusker scored his best finish to date in the No. 6 Dotworks Racing RFR entry.
“The whole race went well despite struggling in the beginning,” said McCusker. “It’s not a win yet, we’re still looking for a win.”
An up-and-down weekend saw Filgueiras’ No. 22 sustain considerable damage with a crash on Friday, with the Spencer Racing crew working hard to get the car ready for qualifying.
Come race time, Filgueiras moved through the field to finish third, hanging on with a bent suspension and cracked left front wheel after contact with Bamford with two laps to go.
“It’s been a very interesting weekend, I got to give it up to my crew guys to get the car ready,” said Filgueiras.
Barely missing the podium, Trent Walko was aiming for third in the No. 91 Exclusive Autosport Spectrum, while David Grant completed the top five after running second early.
Quinlan Lall drove from 13th to sixth in the Momentum Motorsports Van Diemen, finishing ahead of Sam Chastain, who looked to take the lead on the start with an aggressive move on Beasley going toward turn one.
Nick Palacio was eighth in his No. 25 Van Diemen, while Steve Jenks won the Masters Class with a ninth place finish. Charles Finelli was second in Masters and tenth overall.
The race saw a single caution period for a car fire involving John McCusker’s Dotworks Racing RFR. Bamford also failed to finish due to the incident with Filgueiras, with heavy damage to the right rear corner of the Rice Race Prep No. 07 Citation.
Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com under the results tab.
F2000 action continues from Virginia with the second race of the weekend of the weekend scheduled for late Sunday afternoon with a grid set by late-morning qualifying.