Championship Year for HP-Tech Motorsport
Ft. Lauderdale, FL – For HP-Tech Motorsport, its second year in the F2000 Championship Series proved to be a record-shattering effort, with lead driver Robert La Rocca driving to the title with 11 wins in 14 races. While the competition was fierce at all seven tracks, HP-Tech consistently delivered a top No. 10 machine for the Venezuelan.
The season ended with a sweep, their fourth of the year, with La Rocca taking two wins at Watkins Glen in a large 38-car F2000 field.
“I couldn’t be happier with this season. I had a great car all year and can’t thank the team enough,” said La Rocca after the race. The team had already clinched the title well before the last weekend of the season.
As for the numbers on the year: 11 wins in 14 races, two third places (one with a flat tire) and a single DNF.
“We were so in the thick of things the dominance did not become apparent until we clinched the title,” said Jorge Herrera, team manager. “Now, we are onto next year and looking for drivers to run at the front of the F2000 field.”
But that wasn’t all; the Florida-based squad juggled its three-car F2000 program, adding another entry in the middle of the year, in addition to a competitive Ferrari Challenge effort, where HP-Tech is the reigning Champion.
The F2000 season started in Virginia with La Rocca in a Van Diemen and rookie teammate Jose Montiel in the RFR chassis, showcasing the engineering depth of the team, able to run two separate packages at the same time. La Rocca swept that event with two victories.
A month later, in front of the Formula Drift fans at Road Atlanta, another pair of wins would come. Two more wins were looking good at Lime Rock before a backmarker ruined the second race of the weekend, giving La Rocca five wins in six races.
That would expand to another two wins with a sweep of New Jersey, after a tornado tore apart the paddock and HP-Tech’s awning overnight.
Midway through the year, a second Van Diemen was added for Cesar Lapoint, a fast rookie from Venezuela, who immediately finished in the top ten at the tricky Mid-Ohio circuit in a race that La Rocca won.
A day later, the only DNF of the year would happen with La Rocca and Tim Paul colliding while battling for second spot.
Another win followed at Summit Point, in West Virginia. A day later, in the pouring rain, a third-place drive clinched the Championship prior to La Rocca’s sweep at the end of the season at Watkins Glen.
While La Rocca stole the show with a massive trophy collection, the team guided Jose Montiel during his rookie year, coming out of a single winter season of Skip Barber, and showing progress along the way.
Meanwhile, Lapoint proved fast out of the box, with a handful of top tens at the end of the 2012 season.
Thus, the team adds the F2000 Championship to its resume, which includes the 2010 and 2011 Ferrari Challenge titles. Team manager Herrera noted they were moving forward, already looking for and testing drivers for the 2013 F2000 Championship, in addition to preparing an armada of Ferrari Challenge cars for support of the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.