Gooden Leads F2000 Qualifying

August 25, 2012
Gooden took his second pole of 2012. (photo: Valet)

Summit Point, WV – Wyatt Gooden led three straight practice sessions and then vaulted to the F2000 Championship Series pole at Summit Point Motorsports Park, shattering the track record to take pole by a tenth with a lap of 1:10.4 over Championship leader Robert La Rocca.

Gooden, driving the No. 6 for Quantum Racing Services, takes his second pole of the year, coming off momentum from a Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course win at the end of July, also his second of 2012.

“The car was great and I continue to learn more about this car every race,” said Gooden, a rookie, who also ran just eight laps in qualifying, as opposed to La Rocca’s 14. That lap count might be key come Sunday, when the tires start to fade.

“It feels like the car is very consistent, it’s the most consistent car so far this year," added the Quantum driver.

HP-Tech’s Robert La Rocca could easily win the Championship on Saturday with a solid drive, and looks to be poised for that, qualifying a strong second.

“This morning was about learning the track,” said the Venezuelan. “The car is getting better but we were struggling with the set up a bit all day. But, we are getting there and it should be a good race, this is a fun track.”

Kevin Kopp, on his home track for the WISKO F2000 team, qualified third.

“The WISKO No. 66 felt really strong,” explained Kopp. “Rolling off behind Gooden was helpful, running behind him gave me someone to run down. This is the best qualifying result of the year so far and I’m hoping for a strong race tomorrow.”

Kyle Connery was fourth in the RFR No 91, fighting back from gearbox problems in practice, while Tim Minor, another Summit Point local, was fifth quick in his No. 88 Citation.

“We made lots of changes all day,” added Minor. “It finally felt like I was driving the car today, as opposed to it driving me. It is at the point where we are making slight changes and fine-tuning the car.”

Cesar Lapoint was sixth in another HP-Tech Van Diemen, with Zach Craigo, Chris Livengood, Niki Coello and Tim Paul rounding out the top ten.

At Mid-Ohio, Paul and La Rocca came together – ending both their races in an incident where each driver blamed the other. Paul, is now sporting an artistic rendering of a saw blade on his left wing end-plate, the same one that made contact with the No. 10 car just a few weeks ago.

Danyel Torres, making his first F2000 start for WISKO, qualified 11th as Brazilian Gustavo Rizzo followed in 12th for Group-A Racing.

F2000 team R-Sport debuted a new chassis at Summit Point, the Metrik. The new car was developed by the team, and has more than 800 miles of testing on it, and will be driven this weekend at Summit Point Motorsports Park by Keith McCrone, former F2000 pole sitter.

The chassis, which is not for sale, but available to rent from the team, was developed in-house by the R-Sport team and Paul Rieffle.

McCrone ended up 19th in qualifying, staying out of trouble, and also ran strong in the morning practice sessions.

Additionally, a local TV crew was on site to promote the F2000 weekend, interviewing various drivers to air on an area NBC affiliate's evening news program.

The weekend continues with 8:10am warmup on both Saturday and Sunday, along with races at 5:00pm each day (all times are eastern). Live updates and audio are available on www.f2000series.com.

Qualifying Results

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 6 Wyatt Gooden 1:10.440 102.215 5 - - 2 10 Robert LaRocca 1:10.541 102.068 10 +0.101 +0.101 3 66 Kevin Kopp 1:11.103 101.262 6 +0.663 +0.562 4 91 Kyle Connery 1:11.216 101.101 12 +0.776 +0.113 5 88 Tim Minor/M 1:11.459 100.757 8 +1.019 +0.243 6 33 Cesar LaPoint 1:11.477 100.732 12 +1.037 +0.018 7 18 Zach Craigo 1:11.523 100.667 14 +1.083 +0.046 8 37 Chris Livengood 1:11.602 100.556 9 +1.162 +0.079 9 81 Niki Coello 1:11.623 100.526 19 +1.183 +0.021 10 06 Tim Paul 1:12.005 99.993 7 +1.565 +0.382 11 39 Danyel Torres 1:12.139 99.807 5 +1.699 +0.134 12 22 Gustavo Rizzo 1:12.300 99.585 6 +1.860 +0.161 13 5 Nick Palacio 1:12.555 99.235 10 +2.115 +0.255 14 19 John Brumder/M 1:12.811 98.886 19 +2.371 +0.256 15 9 Jose Montiel 1:12.922 98.736 12 +2.482 +0.111 16 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:13.179 98.389 17 +2.739 +0.257 17 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:13.191 98.373 10 +2.751 +0.012 18 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:13.258 98.283 11 +2.818 +0.067 19 0 Keith McCrone/M 1:13.475 97.993 6 +3.035 +0.217 20 90 Robert Wright/M 1:13.629 97.788 10 +3.189 +0.154 21 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:13.893 97.438 11 +3.453 +0.264 22 51 Dan Denison/M 1:14.042 97.242 19 +3.602 +0.149 23 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:15.065 95.917 3 +4.625 +1.023 24 4 Dennis McCarthy/M -.--- - 0 - - 25 46 Doug Rocco -.--- - 0 - - 26 59 Shaun Miller -.--- - 0 - - 27 83 Charles Finelli/M -.--- - 0 - - 28 61 Tom Drake/M -.--- - 0 - -

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