Beasley Leads F2000 Friday Practice at Mid-Ohio
Lexington, OH – Sam Beasley’s morning practice time of 1:23.808 was the fast mark set over two Friday practice sessions at Mid-Ohio for the F2000 Championship Series weekend. Beasley nipped local Mid-Ohio expert John LaRue by a close .080 seconds on the morning time sheets, while Watkins Glen winner Steve Bamford topped the afternoon charts on a slightly slower track.
Beasley, in the No. 4 Legacy Autosport Mygale, is enjoying him home race weekend, coming off a dominating weekend in Virginia in early June, where he took his third and fourth wins of the season with a weekend sweep at VIR.
LaRue, driving the No. 17 Citation, has wins at Mid-Ohio in F2000 competition in 2013 and 2014. Not a full-season entrant, LaRue has nothing to lose, and holds both the current qualifying and race track records at the track.
Third on the morning time sheets, and third fastest overall on the day, was Sam Chastain, who continues to propel his way forward in the Chastain Motorsports Van Diemen. Chastain ran well at Mid-Ohio in 2014 in the F1600 Series, and raced two weekends and four more races at the track in 2013 in his rookie F1600 campaign.
Steve Bamford's afternoon fast lap of 1:24.554 was fourth on the day, and just under three tenths ahead of LaRue on the afternoon time sheets.
Bamford also had the fourth quickest time in the morning, ahead of Austin and John McCusker, with John moving over to a Van Diemen for the weekend.
Kevin Kopp was seventh in his 2015 F2000 debut, ahead of Trent Walko and 2014 SCCA National Champion Robert Allaer, who won the Formula Continental race at the Runoffs last season. Steve Jenks was tenth on the morning time sheets.
It was a quiet Series debut for Brandon Dixon, who is in a newly-built No. 5 Citation chassis at Mid-Ohio, and managed the 13th quick lap in the morning.
An afternoon session led by Bamford wasn't without incident, with two stoppages effecting momentum and pace. Behind Bamford it was LaRue, Chastain, Allaer, Beasley, Walko, A. McCusker, J. McCusker, Kopp and Quinlan Lall with the pace somewhat behind the earlier session.
Following a Thursday night testing incident, David Grant’s Spectrum was beyond repair. The weekend withdrawal will hurt Grant in his fight for the Championship as the Road Atlanta race one winner will now concentrate on his F1600 drive at Mid-Ohio. Quinlan Lall was also involved in the incident, but his No. 1 car was ready for a shakedown for practice two, where he was tenth quick.
Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com under the results tab.
The weekend continues with morning qualifying sessions and afternoon races, rounds seven and eight of the 2015 season, Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets are available at the Mid-Ohio gate this weekend for $10 per person.