F2000 Prepares for Watkins Glen Showdown
Salem, NH – A big entry list, a mid-May weekend at Watkins Glen, and a tight Championship battle are three things to talk about as the F2000 Championship Series heads to upstate New York this weekend (May 16-18) for rounds three and four of the 2014 season. 2013 defending Champion Tim Minor leads his 18-year-old teammate Skylar Robinson by a single point, with both coming off wins at Road Atlanta.
Minor has considerable experience at Watkins Glen, with a win and second place in 2013 during a summer F2000 event, but Robinson was impressively quick in his Series debut and his No. 6 Citation chassis should be at home on the natural road course.
While both drivers are teammates, they couldn’t be more different. Minor, a Masters Class expert, is hoping to lock down a repeat Championship in a class he has run at the front in for years, while Robinson looks to set the world on fire this 14-race season and quickly move up the racing ladder.
A pair of fast new Spectrum chassis are getting quicker, with both Thomas McGregor, for Exclusive Autosport, and David Grant, for Polestar, running in the top five at Road Atlanta. McGregor scored a podium in the Sunday race as both teams look to continue development work on the new F2000 car.
Chris Livengood, makes his 2014 debut this weekend in the No. 73 Work Racing RFR. Livengood was the Championship runner-up in 2011, and currently holds the track qualifying record at 1:51.801, which he set in 2011, driving a Van Diemen.
The race lap record stands at 1:52.137, set by Kyle Connery the same year. With a mid-May date, temperatures could be cool and those times may drop as three years of car development will show on the stop watch.
John McCusker is coming off his best career finish at Road Atlanta with a top five, and hopes to carry that momentum to the Finger Lakes region of New York, in his third year for Dotworks Racing.
Kevin Kopp, Tim Paul and Jim Libecco all ran near the front in the season opening rounds, with Paul coming home with a pair of top ten finishes and Kopp with a third place and DNF result. Kopp led laps in Saturday’s Road Atlanta season opener while all three men are still looking for their inaugural victories.
Jason Rabe scored a top ten at Road Atlanta and a positive New Jersey Motorsport Park test paired with an expert class win in Pro Mazda at Indianapolis have him confident this weekend in the No. 14 K-Hill entry.
And more drivers are making their 2014 debuts this weekend, including Hilton Tallman, Doug Stout, Alain Matrat, Joey Selmants, Steven Dweck, former Masters Class Champion Tom Fatur and Donald Betterly.
F2000 joins a big weekend at Watkins Glen alongside Formula Race Promotions-operated F1600 and Atlantic Championship Series, with a paddock north of 75 entries.
The weekend gets going with a pair of practice sessions this Friday, May 16, with Saturday and Sunday both featuring a qualifying session and a race.