Beasley Leads Polestar One-Two at Watkins Glen

Beasley returned to victory lane in the No. 44 Polestar machine for the first time after winning both races at Pittsburgh in August.

“It’s been a good second half of the year,” said Beasley. “It’s been a lot of work and adjustments and a matter of getting everything right, but Polestar makes that easy to do.”

The high-profile first lap contact happened as Beasley swooped around the outside for the lead, and Minor and Robinson came together. It left Robinson in fifth and Minor last, in 26th. Fourteen laps later Minor would finish his driving clinic, with a new track record faster than his pole lap, clocking in at 1:51.067 and slicing through the field to finish eighth.

“I got hit from behind,” said Minor immediately following the race when asked about the first turn incident.

The No. 6 of Robinson was hurt from the contact and slowly moved backwards, losing points with each position lost. The 18-year-old would limp his Citation home in 11th.

For Sunday, the Championship is going down to the wire between Minor and Robinson, although the defending 2013 Champion still has full control of his own destiny with a healthy but slim lead at 15 points.

Grant marked a solid performance in the No. 29 Spectrum, his best finish of the year in second.

“The car was hooked up today,” said Grant, “it’s good to finally have it on the podium.”

Paul, meanwhile, matched his best F2000 result ever with a third place effort.

“On the first lap I saw Minor get spun and everything closed off, I went to the outside and that was it. It was a race from there to the finish,” said Paul, who had to pick off Sergio Pasian before hunting down Grant.

Pasian and John McCusker completed the top five in an all-green-flag race with Kevin Kopp in sixth position.

Thomas McGregor ran second for the majority of the event but fell back in the last four laps with a mechanical issue in his Exclusive Autosport Spectrum, finishing seventh with Minor right behind him in eighth. Steve Bamford was ninth and Austin McCusker finished tenth in his F2000 debut.

Jason Rabe moved into the lead of the CellMark Paper Hard Charger standings with a solid drive from 23rd to 12th.

The 2014 F2000 Championship Series season concludes on Sunday with round 14 at Watkins Glen, scheduled to start at 3:30pm local time and followed by an awards celebration at 5:30pm.

Race Results:

PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 44 Sam Beasley 14 1:51.796 Van Diemen - 2 29 David Grant 14 1:52.428 Spectrum 014Z +11.920 3 06 Timothy Paul 14 1:52.378 Van Diemen +13.288 4 77 Sergio Pasian 14 1:52.734 Van Diemen Rf +16.886 5 01 John McCusker 14 1:52.601 Rfr 12 +17.306 6 66 Kevin Kopp 14 1:52.696 Van Diemen +20.728 7 93 Thomas McGregor 14 1:52.591 Spectrum 014Z +21.453 8 88 Tim Minor/M 14 1:51.067 Citation F2k +27.669 9 07 Steve Bamford/M 14 1:53.708 Van Diemen Rf08 +29.196 10 10 Austin McCusker 14 1:53.402 Rfr 12 +31.995 11 6 Skylar Robinson 14 1:53.652 Citation +32.828 12 14 Jason Rabe 14 1:53.173 Van Diemen +34.649 13 51 Dan Denison/M 14 1:53.387 Van Diemen Rf05 +36.605 14 91 Trent Walko 14 1:52.682 Rfr +40.094 15 4 Zacharie Robichon 14 1:54.404 Van Diemen Rf03 +41.715 16 98 Jim Libecco 14 1:54.461 Van Diemen Rf05 +44.229 17 64 Jim Hallman/M 14 1:53.917 Van Diemen Dp08 2 +44.477 18 47 Chris Monteleone/M 14 1:54.043 Van Diemen Pinto +45.245 19 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 1:54.871 Citation 95Sfz +58.677 20 83 Charles Finelli/M 14 1:55.250 Van Diemen Rf01 +1:00.286 21 27 Craig Clawson/M 14 1:54.859 Van Diemen Rf01 +1:00.490 22 95 Robert Wright/M 14 1:54.122 Radon Rn10 +1:01.248 23 37 Davy D'addario 14 1:56.327 Rfr +1:13.794 24 12 Bob Reid/M 14 1:56.963 Rfr +1:25.214 25 1 Quinlan Lall 10 1:55.648 Van Diemen Rf05 4 Laps 26 70 Tom Fatur/M 9 1:55.501 Van Diemen 5 Laps DNS 11 Kem Lall/M 0 -.--- Radon Rn10 -