Connery Storms to Victory in Race 100
Watkins Glen, NY – Marking a historic day for the F2000 Championship Series, Kyle Connery stormed to his second win of the 2013 season in round eight of 14, and the 100th race in Championship history. Connery, driving the No. 91 Van Diemen for CC Autosport/James Lee Racing, started on a wet race track, and protected the lead to stay in the front for all of 14 laps to win over points leader Tim Minor and Fabio Orsolon, who started 34th.
While the track was wet to start, it quickly dried as the sun came out and the pace quickened during the race as Connery was able to carve his way through lapped traffic.
“This win came at the perfect time,” said Connery. “It felt so great to be out front and win here. We got lucky with lapped traffic and hats off to the CC Autosport team. We were going to start on slicks but we looked at the rest of the paddock and decided to go with the rains.”
While some teams gambled with slick tires, rain Hoosiers were the choice for success on a wet race track for the opening laps.
Minor keeps his huge Championship lead with another well-managed race, on rain tires, to finish second in the No. 88 Ski Motorsports Citation.
“I got hit twice at the start of the race,” said Minor, “and decided I needed to bring this thing home. It was a matter of managing lapped traffic today.”
And Orsolon notched a major accomplishment, driving from 34th on the grid after gearbox problems on Friday to an amazing third place in the Radon chassis for GTP Motorsports. The team had a late night as they were forced to change gearboxes, with a new unit on loan from Momentum Motorsports.
“I need to thank the Radon and GTP team for a great car,” said Orsolon, who had the fastest pace for most of the race. “After being fast on Thursday we have something to show for it.”
Ferrucci was fourth for HP-Tech, making it a third and fourth on his debut in F2000. David Grant completed the top five for Polestar Racing Group in the No. 29 Van Diemen.
Tim Paul came home in sixth dragging a front wing, while Roberto Lorena was seventh for HP-Tech ahead of another hard charger in Federico Mosconi, who started last in the No. 99 WISKO Racing Van Diemen.
Steve Bamford and Tom Fatur completed the top ten, both in Van Diemen chassis.
Steve Jenks followed ahead of Kevin Kopp, in another WISKO car, who started 17th and improved five positions. Jim Libecco, Paul Farmer and Dean Baker rounded out positions 13 through 15. In front of a big crowd for the events, including Grand-Am, at Watkins Glen International.
The race ran all wire-to-wire without caution laps and a party followed for the 100th event in Series history.
The F2000 Championship Series season continues with rounds nine and 10 of 14, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 26-28.
Race Results
PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 91 Kyle Connery 14 2:01.654 Van Diemen Zetec - 2 88 Tim Minor/M 14 2:00.483 Citation Zetec +2.481 3 77 Fabio Orsolon 14 2:00.611 Radon Zetec +20.887 4 10 Santino Ferrucci 14 2:02.425 Van Diemen Zetec +23.243 5 29 David Grant 14 2:03.398 Van Diemen Zetec +46.056 6 06 Tim Paul 14 2:03.578 Van Diemen Zetec +48.767 7 9 Roberto Lorena 14 2:02.245 Van Diemen Zetec +52.825 8 99 Federico Mosconi 14 2:03.744 Van Diemen Zetec +1:21.347 9 71 Steve Bamford/M 14 2:05.048 Van Diemen Zetec +1:24.927 10 70 Tom Fatur/M 14 2:07.308 Van Diemen Zetec +1:30.204 11 68 Steve Jenks/M 14 2:04.880 VDRF02 Zetec +1:30.618 12 22 Kevin Kopp 14 2:05.451 Van Diemen Zetec +1:39.194 13 98 Jim Libecco 14 2:04.403 Van Diemen Zetec +1:45.834 14 69 Paul Farmer/M 14 2:03.843 Radon Zetec +1:50.721 15 52 Dean Baker/M 14 2:04.584 Van Diemen Zetec +1:51.395 16 7 Brent Gilkes/M 14 2:06.221 Van Diemen Zetec +2:00.346 17 39 Shane Morris 13 2:03.475 Van Diemen Zetec 1 Lap 18 0 Keith McCrone/M 13 2:05.481 Metrik Zetec +3.583 19 90 Robert Wright/M 13 2:09.089 Radon Zetec +4.908 20 01 John McCusker 13 2:09.849 RFR Zetec +5.364 21 27 Craig Clawson/M 13 2:06.478 Van Diemen Zetec +7.778 22 15 Aaron Pettipas 13 2:08.604 Van Diemen Zetec +9.408 23 23 Sergio Pasian 13 2:05.486 Van Diemen Zetec +11.784 24 00 Tim Dunn/M 13 2:07.830 Metrik Zetec +13.647 25 57 Scott Baroody 13 2:07.741 Van Diemen Zetec +47.169 26 61 Tom Drake/M 13 2:07.334 Van Diemen Pinto +47.851 27 1 Kem Lall/M 13 2:07.442 Van Diemen Zetec +1:15.064 28 26 Alain Matra/M 12 2:16.043 Van Diemen Zetec 2 Laps 29 16 Chris Camadella/M 12 2:07.776 Radon Zetec +16.485 30 47 Chris Monteleone 8 2:08.850 Van Diemen Pinto 6 Laps 31 19 Russell Lindeman/M 7 2:15.184 Van Diemen Zetec 7 Laps DNF 35 Eric Presbrey/M 2 2:20.869 Van Diemen Zetec 12 Laps DNF 83 Charles Finelli/M 2 3:14.589 Van Diemen Zetec +2:17.479 DNF 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 1 2:51.211 Radon Zetec 13 Laps DNS 18 Zach Craigo 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec - DNS 97 Chris Gumprecht 0 -.--- RFR Zetec - DNS 31 Brendan Puderbach 0 -.--- RFR Zetec - DNS 45 Chuck Moran/M 0 -.--- Van Diemen Pinto -