Chris Miller Leads Day One at Mosport

June 12, 2009
Miller returned to the top at Mosport on Friday.

Bowmanville, ONT – On a beautiful day in Ontario, Chris Miller and JDC Motorsports led the way at Mosport in the opening rounds of practice for this weekend’s F2000 races, posting a best time of 1:22.054. Miller, who sits a solid third in the standings, won the second race of the season over Matthew Inge and is hoping to build upon two podium finishes at Lime Rock a few weeks ago.


“We took a lot of wing out of the car and trimmed it out as much as possible,” said Miller. “I’m still getting comfortable with the track again and the balance of the car is still good. The brake pedal was soft throughout the session but it’s going to be a good weekend. It’s really tight upfront so we need to find the perfect setup.”

Inge was second quick

Matthew Inge, driving for St. Clair Motorpsorts, wasn’t far behind in second, with a fast lap of 1:22.088, and held fast time for most of the session. Inge had never seen the track until this morning.

“As usual Miller and I are going back and forth,” commented Inge, who attributes much of his ability to get up to speed today to the computer simulation game, rFactor. “We made some changes in between sessions and tried something. We went faster but I feel we went the wrong way on the change. We are going to go back to the setup we had this morning and once I get my line down we’ll be in a good position.”

This morning’s fast lap holder, Ontario’s Caitlin Johnston, was third in her Pizza-Pizza/Xtreme Tire Garage Van Diemen. “I feel the track was slower this afternoon,” said Johnston, who clocked in at 1:22.344. “The car still felt good and fast and more importantly, it was consistently fast with no surprises.”

Johnston’s Z-Sports teammate, Benjamin Searcy was fourth. Searcy won the season opener at VIR in the rain and then dominated in the dry at Lime Rock to win round three.

Remy Audette, championship leader was fifth and flew under the radar for most of the day.

“We need to work on the car more,” explained Audette, who has reset lap records at both VIR and Lime Rock this year. “I don’t really know but we’re getting both understeer and oversteer so we need to put the car back on the scales and make some changes.”

Caldwell clocked in sixth quick.

Bobby Caldwell was sixth fastest. “The car was good,” said Caldwell. “There was a big push this morning but its better now. We made some changes and the new tires got rid of the on-throttle push. Now we need to trim it out some more.”

Fabio Orsolon clocked in seventh quick on old tires. Orsolon, the first of the Alegra cars, commented: “We didn’t put new tires on and are still looking for the perfect setup. I have underseer on the slower corners and oversteer on the fast ones.”

Alexander suprised himself with a lap time fast enough for 8th quick.

Colin Alexander, driving for Group A Racing, came back from overheating problems that limited his track time this morning to be eighth quick. “I’m surprised,” said Alexander.”I’m new at this track and every new track we go to becomes my favorite one. Mosport is just amazing. The car felt better in the afternoon as we changed the ride height and the sway bars. We’re going to make some more adjustments for tomorrow.”

Mikhail Goikberg, in his first F2000 event, driving for Brian Graham Racing, was ninth fastest with the first of the Masters class drivers, Jerry Szykulski, right behind him, rounding out the top ten.

Jonathan Scarallo’s session ended early when he spun in turn two and damaged the rear wing on his Van Diemen. Scarallo’s early lap was still fast enough for 11th quick.

Meanwhile, yesterday ADSA/Wright saw their rig break down on the way to Mosport. In the spirit of competition Alegra Motorsports sent their tow vehicle to pick up the ADSA/Wright trailer, which was sitting on the side of 401. Both ADSA/Wright cars successfully were on track today with Robert Wright posted the 13th fastest time in the afternoon session and Blake Teeter 23rd.


Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 85 Chris Miller 1:22.054 107.885 21 - - 2 02 Matthew Inge 1:22.088 107.840 22 +0.034 +0.034 3 20 Caitlin Johnston 1:22.344 107.505 22 +0.290 +0.256 4 10 Benjamin Searcy 1:22.712 107.027 19 +0.658 +0.368 5 21 Remy Audette 1:22.824 106.882 7 +0.770 +0.112 6 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:23.039 106.605 8 +0.985 +0.215 7 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:23.688 105.779 24 +1.634 +0.649 8 12 Colin Alexander 1:23.711 105.750 24 +1.657 +0.023 9 1 Mikhail Goikberg 1:23.734 105.720 17 +1.680 +0.023 10 30 Jerry Szykulski/M 1:24.099 105.262 24 +2.045 +0.365 11 22 Jonathan Scarallo 1:24.288 105.026 3 +2.234 +0.189 12 23 Victor Carbone 1:24.497 104.766 8 +2.443 +0.209 13 90 Robert Wright/M 1:24.546 104.705 9 +2.492 +0.049 14 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:24.614 104.621 13 +2.560 +0.068 15 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:24.661 104.563 11 +2.607 +0.047 16 5 Keith McCrone 1:24.802 104.389 14 +2.748 +0.141 17 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:24.937 104.223 17 +2.883 +0.135 18 4 Chris Camadella/M 1:25.131 103.986 12 +3.077 +0.194 19 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:25.764 103.218 4 +3.710 +0.633 20 96 Alejandro Munoz 1:25.858 103.105 21 +3.804 +0.094 21 51 Dan Denison/M 1:26.042 102.885 9 +3.988 +0.184 22 69 Paul Farmer/M 1:26.424 102.430 17 +4.370 +0.382 23 94 Blake Teeter 1:26.944 101.817 12 +4.890 +0.520

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