Filgueiras Overcomes Adverse Weekend to Continue Podium Run
Another weekend of firsts continued for the Spencer Racing team as the 2015 F2000 Championship season stopped in Alton, Virginia for yet another weekend of motorsport clashing. Coming into the weekend 21 year old Cocoa, Florida native Eric Filgueiras ranked 5th in points, trailing the next driver by a slim single point. The Lipten Energy Solutions Spencer Racing team hoped to be improving overall position in the chase for the championship.
The event began with Thursday testing, and Friday official practice, which was the beginning of the weekend’s difficulties. While passing a slower car Filgueiras drove off-line and lost the rear end under braking. He recovered but went straight off the track onto the rain slicked grass and went straight into the wall leaving him with a damaged nose piece and left front suspension . The crew went to work immediately to get the car back into shape. Working furiously into the night and next morning, the crew got the car out on track with 15 minutes remaining in the weekend’s first qualifying session. With no alignment or other adjustments to the car, Filgueiras placed the car in a 8th starting position for race 1. Battling tooth and nail, Filgueiras would climb through the field to finish in an impressive 3rd position on Saturday!
Sunday would prove to be another trying day for the team. When the car began having trouble with a left-front hub bolt, Filgueiras was forced to park it for the remainder of the qualifying session. With only a few laps on track and a black flag penalty, Eric started the weekend’s final race in 7th position. Being assertive the first few laps, Eric fought to 2nd position and held it the majority of the race before a left-rear camber bolt backed out completely, forcing the driver to nurse the car home and ultimately finishing 4th.
“This was certainly one of our most frustrating weekends thus far” Claimed Filgueiras “But I can’t help but be so proud of our team. Even with all the adversity we were faced with we still were able to have a good points weekend. I owe it all to my crew- My father Manny and Team Owner Jim. They were the ones who made these results happen.”
All of this weekend’s success was accomplished with the constant support of Lipten Energy Solutions, Kovi Consulting, SPEEDCOM Communications, HAWK Performance, BELL Helmets, Oakley, A&B Graphics, GoPro, RaceQuip and Dark Horse Pros.
Join Spencer Racing at the next round of 2015 F2000 Competition July 3rd-5th at Mid Ohio!