Carbone Victorious at Road America

Carbone extends his championship points lead to 92 points over Cole Morgan, who could only manage to finish 10th for K-Hill Motorsports. Carbone adds two more bonus points for the fast lap of the race and moves into a position where he can mathematically clinch the title tomorrow.

Carbone, driving for Alegra Motorsports, couldn’t quite break into the fast times in practice and qualifying, as his Alegra crew tried different setups and aero packages.  But the team apparently found the right recipe as once 17-year old Carbone got his #23 Van Diemen into the lead, it was a lights-out performance.

“The car felt great, I had a great start and then got by Scarallo”, said Carbone, who stretched his lead to nearly four seconds over Erickson in the 12-lap race. “Daniel didn’t make it easy but I got around him when he made a mistake in turn 14. The car was just amazing and we worked up the gap and broke the draft.”

For Daniel Erickson, a new track record in qualifying put him on the pole, but the Australian rookie lost the lead to Carbone and never got it back. Erickson, driving for Primus Racing/Quantum Mechanics had to settle for second.

“It was a good clean race,” Erickson commented. “We made a change with the aero before the race which didn’t quite work out. Victor did a great job today.”

Stevan McAleer, made it his second podium in five starts as the Scottish rookie came home third for the Race House team. McAleer said: “I’m delighted with third place. I was a bit optimistic on the start but managed to get up to fourth. I got around Scarallo when he broke and then just concentrated on getting the car home in one piece. They (Chris Livengood and Mikhhail Goikhberg) gave me a run for my money the end.”

Goikhberg, driving for JDC MotorSports, crossed the line in fourth from a 10th place starting positions and got some valuable lessons on race craft in the draft.

“This series is definitely fun,” Goikhberg said. “There was lots of dicing at the start and then the entire race. I’m happy with the way I moved up since we didn’t have a radio and I managed to bend one of the steering arms on a curb.”

Livengood came home fifth with a broken front wing. The rookie said: “It would have been better if Goikhberg hadn’t hit me but the race was good and the car was really fast.”

Keith McCrone followed in sixth as the top Masters Class driver. Then it was Fabio Orsolon, Phil Lombardi, Gerald Kraut and Cole Morgan rounding out the top ten.

Morgan, the 2007 title winner, loses important championship ground as Carbone can now mathematically seal the title tomorrow in round 12, even though it would take a nearly perfect day for Carbone and a disaster for Morgan.

“The car was good and really fast for the first few laps,” explained Morgan. “I was able to move up and then the handling went, I think the right-rear camber bolts started loosening.”

For Scarallo, who set fast time in practice yesterday and sat on the outside of the front-row for today’s race, things did not go to plan. The young American got around Erickson shortly after Carbone and appeared to have his sights set on the Brazilian as he lowered the fast lap of the race, but moment’s later fourth gear went, along with any changes for a decent result at the high-speed Road America circuit.

The CellMark Paper Hard Charger award went to Vaughn Horvath who improved seven positions to come home 15th.

F2000 action from Road America continues tomorrow, Sunday August 8, with a 10:55 am qualifying session and 4:15 pm race start. All times are GMT -6.

Race One Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 23 Victor Carbone 12 28:54.221 - - 100.837 2:16.326 2 2 Daniel Erickson 12 28:57.963 +3.742 +3.742 100.620 2:16.815 3 14 Steven McAleer 12 29:06.712 +12.491 +8.749 100.116 2:17.736 4 10 Mikhail Goikhberg 12 29:07.836 +13.615 +1.124 100.051 2:16.726 5 37 Chris Livengood 12 29:11.584 +17.363 +3.748 99.837 2:16.609 6 5 Keith McCrone/M 12 29:15.100 +20.879 +3.516 99.637 2:17.818 7 26 Fabio Orsolon 12 29:15.455 +21.234 +0.355 99.617 2:18.081 8 3 Phil Lombardi/M 12 29:16.931 +22.710 +1.476 99.534 2:17.611 9 55 Gerald Kraut/M 12 29:26.232 +32.011 +9.301 99.009 2:19.139 10 1 Cole Morgan 12 29:30.106 +35.885 +3.874 98.793 2:17.758 11 4 Rich Balsley 12 29:33.252 +39.031 +3.146 98.617 2:19.026 12 95 Al Guibord, Jr. 12 29:33.420 +39.199 +0.168 98.608 2:18.661 13 90 Robert Wright/M 12 29:34.643 +40.422 +1.223 98.540 2:19.478 14 12 Bob Reid/M 12 29:44.613 +50.392 +9.970 97.990 2:19.634 15 73 Vaughn Horvath 12 29:44.802 +50.581 +0.189 97.979 2:19.497 16 41 Brian Belardi 12 29:48.629 +54.408 +3.827 97.770 2:17.838 17 27 Craig Clawson/M 12 29:49.459 +55.238 +0.830 97.724 2:20.658 18 85 Zach Craigo 12 29:51.747 +57.526 +2.288 97.599 2:21.272 19 42 Bill Jordan/M 12 30:12.974 +1:18.753 +21.227 96.457 2:22.368 20 8 Mark Defer/M 10 28:10.452 2 Laps 2 Laps 86.207 2:18.885 21 22 Jonathan Scarallo 9 22:50.130 3 Laps 1 Lap 95.725 2:16.364 22 06 Tim Paul 7 18:12.912 5 Laps 2 Laps 93.337 2:19.983 DNF 80 Bobby Caldwell 5 13:08.357 7 Laps 2 Laps 92.425 2:19.070