Chastain Motorsports VIR Weekend Report
Alton, VA – If there was ever going to be a character-building weekend for a race team, it may have happened for Chastain Motorsports during F1600 and F2000 Championship Series competition at VIRginia International Raceway, running from June 5 to 7.
Hoping to return to the race winning form the team saw at Road Atlanta to begin the F1600 season - the first race of the weekend was rough after a Friday that saw Andy Lewis have an incident in his Formula F entry.
Lewis did manage to bounce back an eighth place effort in the No. 28 Mygale/Honda and led the his two teammates, with Parker Chase in 13th and Will Harvey not finishing and missing the rest of the weekend following mechanical issues.
That eighth would be Lewis' best result of the weekend, with a 14th place finish in race two and a DNF in a series-wide messy race three.
“VIR was a pretty frustrating weekend for us. After a wreck on Friday, qualifying didn't go our way at all, and we had some unfortunate luck in races two and three that ended our weekend. But that's racing. Despite less than ideal results, I still learned a lot than I can use for Mid Ohio and the rest of the season,” said Lewis.
Chase, meanwhile, finished two laps down in race two, but was able to improve to 11th by Sunday afternoon's final race of the triple-header weekend.
Sam Chastain made an appearance in the top three to close out Friday F2000 practice in the team's No. 30 Van Diemen/Zetec on the F2000 side of Chastain Motorsports.
Getting more acclimated to moving up to a wings and downforce category, Chastain made his presence further known during Saturday morning qualifying, missing a front-row starting spot by less than a tenth of a second.
A 14-lap race including a few incidents among the lead group, however, demoted Chastain to a seventh place finishing shot, despite the No. 30 setting lap times that should have made him part of the podium battle.
Sunday's race followed with a third place starting position, a shot at the lead on competitive opening laps - but eventually a DNF leaving Chastain wondering what could have been.
“With little testing and practice thus far I'm still learning all nuances of the bigger faster F2000 and trying to take what I've learned from F1600 and put it all together to show some good results,” said Chastain. “Overall it was a better showing this weekend of what we're capable of we just need to grab all the pieces of our puzzle and put it together. With a test scheduled for the No. 30 before Mid-Ohio I know we will show up better prepared and ready to battle for race wins.”
Next up, Chastain Motorsports heads to Mid-Ohio, July 2-5, part of the Formula Race Promotions weekend, and will field entries across both F1600 and F2000.