Carbone Dominates at Road Atlanta

“At the start, (Rob) Nicholas was already there and there was nothing I could do,” said Carbone, who took pole and won at Road Atlanta in the first event of the weekend as well. Today, not only did he win and start from pole, he sweeps the maximum number of points possible by setting the fastest race tap too.

“I got by him (Rob Nicholas) a couple laps later and then just nailed it. This season has been awesome so far. I can’t say enough good things about the team, we had a perfect weekend and I hope the momentum continues into Mosport,” added Carbone.

Jonathan Scarallo capitalized on an incident between Fabio Orsolon and Rob Nicholas to finish second in his R-Sport Van Diemen. It was his best F2000 finish to date.

“If today was a usual race we would have had a DNF,” commented Scarallo, who had two mechanical failures on Thursday during testing. “But at the start, the Red Sea happened and the field seemed to part for me going into turn one. I was in the battle for second late in the race with Rob Nicholas and Fabio (Orsolon) and I knew they were going to crash so I hung back waiting for them to hit each other and they did.”

While Carbone checked out on the field, Rob Nicholas, who finished fourth yesterday, held onto second place as Carbone’s teammate, Fabio Orsolon mounted a charge. With a few laps to go the two made contact. Nicholas ended up in a gravel trap with a bent suspension while Orsolon retired to the pits with a missing front wing.

Phil Lombardi took the Masters Class win, finishing third to complete the podium. “I’ll take third and the Masters Class win,” Lombardi said. “I was trying to get by Jonathan (Scarallo) but the car picked up a bit of a vibration. GTP Motorsports prepped a heck of a car this weekend, I can’t wait for Mosport.”

At the start of the race, a slight incident in turn one sent Cole Morgan spinning off the track from his sixth-place starting position. Morgan recovered but pulled off a few laps later with a reported mechanical issue. Continuing the turn one drama at the start, Tim Kautz started from fourth and made contact with the wall in his Liberty Motorsports Van Diemen, recovering to finish ninth.

“In turn one it was wheel to wheel and I went into the wall on the outside,” explained Kautz. “The front wing was tweaked and the alignment was off so I just drove the car as hard as I could.”

Tim Minor finished fourth ahead of Keith McCrone, in the other R-Sport entry.

Gerald Kraut was sixth for JDC with Chris Livengood not far behind in the Pinto-powered Van Diemen. Mark Defer, Tim Kautz and Ardie Greenamyer rounded out the top ten.

Two drivers will have to split the CellMark Paper Hard Charger, with both Blake Teeter and Dan Denison improving 13 places.

Also notable was Tim Paul who recovered from a huge crash in the first race of the weekend to finish 17th after starting from the back of the grid.

Matthew Inge had a challenging day to end up a distant 19th. Inge and Brian Belardi tangled early in the race to send Inge to the pits for a quick check-up while Belardi never recovered.

The 18-lap race was run in its full distance without any caution periods.

The F2000 Championship Series next heads to Mosport, June 11-13 for rounds five and six of the 2010 Championship. Fans can keep up to date with the latest news at www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com or on Twitter @F2000.

Race Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 23 Victor Carbone 18 25:57.009 - - 105.710 1:25.641 2 22 Jonathon Scarallo 18 26:04.561 +7.552 +7.552 105.200 1:25.884 3 3 Phil Lombardi/M 18 26:07.768 +10.759 +3.207 104.985 1:26.110 4 88 Tim Minor/M 18 26:11.605 +14.596 +3.837 104.729 1:26.186 5 5 Keith McCrone/M 18 26:25.590 +28.581 +13.985 103.805 1:27.143 6 55 Gerald Kraut/M 18 26:32.219 +35.210 +6.629 103.373 1:26.993 7 37 Chris Livengood 18 26:33.395 +36.386 +1.176 103.296 1:26.470 8 8 Mark Defer/M 18 26:41.591 +44.582 +8.196 102.768 1:27.832 9 36 Tim Kautz/M 18 26:45.691 +48.682 +4.100 102.505 1:26.227 10 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 18 26:49.459 +52.450 +3.768 102.265 1:28.151 11 51 Dan Denison/M 18 26:49.766 +52.757 +0.307 102.246 1:27.407 12 70 Tom Fatur/M 18 26:51.536 +54.527 +1.770 102.134 1:28.064 13 14 Blake Teeter 18 26:58.235 +1:01.226 +6.699 101.711 1:27.767 14 27 Craig Clawson/M 18 27:05.068 +1:08.059 +6.833 101.283 1:28.097 15 69 Paul Farmer/M 18 27:08.797 +1:11.788 +3.729 101.051 1:28.765 16 90 Robert Wright/M 18 27:09.201 +1:12.192 +0.404 101.026 1:28.477 17 06 Tim Paul 18 27:17.796 +1:20.787 +8.595 100.496 1:28.561 18 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 18 27:23.039 +1:26.030 +5.243 100.175 1:28.026 19 20 Matthew Inge 18 27:27.946 +1:30.937 +4.907 99.877 1:27.044 20 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 15 22:46.612 3 Laps 3 Laps 100.365 1:28.905 21 10 Mikhail Goikhberg 15 26:50.944 +4:04.332 +4:04.332 85.143 1:26.756 22 26 Fabio Orsolon 14 21:13.267 4 Laps 1 Lap 100.541 1:26.102 23 42 Bill Jordan/M 14 22:00.384 +47.117 +47.117 96.954 1:28.291 24 89 Rob Nicholas/M 13 18:48.963 5 Laps 1 Lap 105.293 1:26.071 25 41 Brian Belardi 13 19:37.615 +48.652 +48.652 100.943 1:26.392 26 80 Bobby Caldwell 11 16:36.360 7 Laps 2 Laps 100.951 1:27.577 27 1 Cole Morgan 9 13:22.155 9 Laps 2 Laps 102.594 1:26.125 28 97 Chris Gumprecht 6 11:53.928 12 Laps 3 Laps 76.848 1:28.031 DNS 7 Brent Gilkes/M 0 -.--- - - - -.---