Carbone and Alegra Victorious at Road Atlanta
Braselton, GA – Victor Carbone notched his second win of the 2010 F2000 season over Alegra Motorsports teammate Fabio Orsolon and opened a bigger margin in the championship lead. Carbone started from pole and controlled the race pace, surviving a charge from Rob Nicholas with two laps to go that saw Nicholas go off in turn one, allowing Orsolon to sneak through to make it a one-two for Brazil and Alegra Motorsports. 2007 F2000 Champion Cole Morgan, driving for K-Hill/Greisiger Motorsports was third and continues to hold second in the national championship.
“We got a great start and I was able to hold onto the lead,” commented Carbone. “From there I just concentrated on what was in front of me. The team has just done an amazing job.”
Orsolon commented: “It was a great race, I could keep up with the leaders but I couldn’t attack. Then with two laps to go (Rob) Nicholas went off the track and I got by to make it a one-two finish, the bosses should be pretty happy about this.”
Rob Nicholas recovered for fourth position and set the fastest race lap. Nicholas spent the entire race holding station in second, and started to close in the late stages of the 18-lap event.
“I had him beat,” Nicholas said. “I needed to get under him going into turn one and I got so close it took all the downforce off the car. I lost both ends. We won the Masters Class but we’re here for the overall win, we do feel good for tomorrow though.”
Tim Minor rounded out the top five after starting ninth. Phil Lombardi, Chris Gumprecht, Brian Belardi, Matthew Inge and Ardie Greenamyer, logging his best finish to date, followed in positions sixth through tenth.
Matthew Inge, who finished second in last year’s title fight, won the CellMark Paper Hard Charger by improving his position 19 places.
Inge said: “That was one of the most fun races I’ve had, we got a bunch of guys on the start and then the full-course caution helped me out. It was just a lot of fun trying to get to the front.”
The race saw one full-course caution to retrieve a stalled Mikhail Goikhberg in the JDC Motorsports #10. It was Mikhail’s second F2000 start to date as the young Russian also contested Mosport in 2009.
Jonathan Scarallo lost a Zetec after running solidly in the top ten, and Tim Paul suffered heavy damage to the #06 when his left-rear suspension failed on the down-hill prior to the front straight.
Tim Kautz, who showed impressive speed in his Liberty Motorsports entry in the opening round at VIR, ran most of the race in the top-five before the his gearbox lost fourth gear, sending him back in the field in a hurry.
Chris Livengood, in the only Pinto-powered F2000 entry, avoided an early lap incident to fall well back in the field before a mid-race spin sent him even further back to finish 15th.
The Road Atlanta weekend continues tomorrow, Saturday May 8 with a 9:00am practice session followed by a 11:00am qualifying session and a race start time of 1:15pm. Fans and competitors can follow live updates, news and photos on www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com or on Twitter @F2000.
Race 1 FINAL Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 23 Victor Carbone 18 29:12.868 - - 93.899 1:25.940 2 26 Fabio Orsolon 18 29:14.390 +1.522 +1.522 93.817 1:26.097 3 1 Cole Morgan 18 29:20.982 +8.114 +6.592 93.466 1:26.487 4 89 Rob Nicholas/M 18 29:21.203 +8.335 +0.221 93.454 1:25.812 5 88 Tim Minor/M 18 29:25.558 +12.690 +4.355 93.224 1:26.774 6 3 Phil Lombardi/M 18 29:28.634 +15.766 +3.076 93.062 1:26.772 7 97 Chris Gumprecht 18 29:33.820 +20.952 +5.186 92.790 1:27.349 8 41 Brian Belardi 18 29:37.009 +24.141 +3.189 92.623 1:27.344 9 20 Matthew Inge 18 29:37.303 +24.435 +0.294 92.608 1:27.007 10 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 18 29:38.095 +25.227 +0.792 92.566 1:27.167 11 5 Keith McCrone/M 18 29:42.956 +30.088 +4.861 92.314 1:27.009 12 55 Gerald Kraut/M 18 29:43.692 +30.824 +0.736 92.276 1:27.681 13 36 Tim Kautz/M 18 29:48.142 +35.274 +4.450 92.046 1:26.975 14 8 Mark Defer/M 18 29:50.517 +37.649 +2.375 91.924 1:27.953 15 37 Chris Livengood 18 29:51.772 +38.904 +1.255 91.860 1:26.563 16 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 18 29:54.274 +41.406 +2.502 91.732 1:28.246 17 80 Bobby Caldwell 18 29:54.593 +41.725 +0.319 91.716 1:27.718 18 70 Tom Fatur/M 18 30:04.779 +51.911 +10.186 91.198 1:28.198 19 42 Bill Jordan/M 18 30:07.448 +54.580 +2.669 91.063 1:28.916 20 51 Dan Denison/M 18 30:08.705 +55.837 +1.257 91.000 1:28.344 21 14 Blake Teeter 18 30:43.122 +1:30.254 +34.417 89.301 1:31.649 22 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 18 30:43.776 +1:30.908 +0.654 89.269 1:28.405 23 06 Tim Paul 17 28:44.173 1 Lap 1 Lap 90.158 1:29.502 24 27 Craig Clawson/M 12 21:00.892 6 Laps 5 Laps 87.024 1:28.506 25 22 Jonathon Scarallo 10 17:48.944 8 Laps 2 Laps 85.542 1:26.963 26 7 Brent Gilkes/M 7 13:49.950 11 Laps 3 Laps 77.123 1:29.554 27 90 Robert Wright/M 6 12:34.308 12 Laps 1 Lap 72.734 1:33.200 28 10 Mikhail Goikhberg 1 1:34.547 17 Laps 5 Laps 96.714 1:33.642 DNS 69 Paul Farmer/M 0 -.--- - - - -.---