Gooden Wins at Mid-Ohio
Lexington, OH – Wyatt Gooden took the win at Mid-Ohio, forcing his way by Robert La Rocca on a early-race restart. Championship leader La Rocca looked untouchable, on pole by a huge margin on top of Saturday’s runaway win, but failed to finish, getting wrapped up in a controversial incident with Tim Paul. Gooden went on to win his second race of the year for Quantum Racing Services, ahead of the RFR chassis pair of Kyle Connery and Niki Coello both recovering from bad luck during Saturday’s race.
Coming to the restart, Gooden, sitting second, bumped into La Rocca, and looked to force his way by going into turn one. Gooden took his second win of the year, and remains the only driver to win a race besides La Rocca, biting into La Rocca’s Championship lead by a bit, but it may be too late with just four races remaining, considering La Rocca’s eight wins in 10 races.
“It feels good to take our second win of the year,” said Gooden, who swept the F1600 races at Mid-Ohio in 2011. “This track has been good to me; it was a clean pass on Robert.”
Meanwhile, the RFR duo of Connery and Coello rounded out the podium.
“After a rough season so far, this was a good comeback drive,” said Connery, who spun out in Saturday’s race and suffered a heavy race crash at Lime Rock in May.
Coello slipped to third on the last lap, but gains back ground on La Rocca in the points, who failed to finish, becoming the story of the day.
“We could have won the title today, there was no reason to crash me out of the race,” said La Rocca, after the race. “Gooden bumped me on the restart which was uncalled for and then I was just pushed off the track.”
Tim Paul, meanwhile, had a separate version of the incident.
“Basically, Wyatt got next to Robert and he blocked, I got underneath and he came back to block me and we collected one another in the keyhole,” explained Paul, driving the No. 06 for SMR/GTP Motorsports.
The race featured a lengthy full course caution for a massive opening lap incident involving the Citation of John LaRue, who finished second in race one on Saturday.
Chris Livengood followed in fourth in a solid outing for John Walko Racing, with Tim Minor, for Ski Motorsports, rounding out the top five in his Citation chassis.
Completing the top ten were Cesar LaPoint, in his impressive debut weekend for HP-Tech, along with Tom Fatur, Polestar’s Bill Jordan, Rob Allaer and WISKO’s Paul Alspach.
John Brumder won the WISKO Best Start award, improving from 33rd to 28th on a chaotic opening lap at Mid-Ohio.
Veteran Dave Weitzenhof advanced 15 spots to finish 13th, winning the CellMark Hard Charger Paper Hard Charger award.
The 14-round F2000 Championship Series season continues at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, August 24-26, with rounds 11 and 12, along with F1600 and the new Atlantic Championship Series.
Race Results
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 6 Wyatt Gooden 15 31:31.973 - - 64.447 1:25.453 2 91 Kyle Connery 15 31:34.902 +2.929 +2.929 64.347 1:25.790 3 81 Niki Coello 15 31:35.752 +3.779 +0.850 64.319 1:26.057 4 37 Chris Livengood 15 31:36.343 +4.370 +0.591 64.298 1:25.592 5 88 Tim Minor/M 15 31:36.697 +4.724 +0.354 64.286 1:25.771 6 33 Cesar LaPoint 15 31:42.181 +10.208 +5.484 64.101 1:26.774 7 70 Tom Fatur/M 15 31:43.116 +11.143 +0.935 64.070 1:26.353 8 42 Bill Jordan/M 15 31:44.001 +12.028 +0.885 64.040 1:26.396 9 02 Rob Allaer 15 31:48.776 +16.803 +4.775 63.880 1:27.666 10 39 Paul Alspach 15 31:48.886 +16.913 +0.110 63.876 1:27.624 11 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 15 31:52.094 +20.121 +3.208 63.769 1:28.005 12 52 Dean Baker/M 15 31:52.301 +20.328 +0.207 63.762 1:28.052 13 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 15 31:52.362 +20.389 +0.061 63.760 1:27.337 14 90 Robert Wright/M 15 31:52.845 +20.872 +0.483 63.744 1:28.445 15 18 Zach Craigo 15 31:54.105 +22.132 +1.260 63.702 1:28.097 16 15 Aaron Pettipas 15 31:54.527 +22.554 +0.422 63.688 1:27.880 17 73 Vaughn Horvath 15 31:57.006 +25.033 +2.479 63.605 1:28.379 18 51 Dan Denison/M 15 31:57.970 +25.997 +0.964 63.573 1:28.305 19 66 Kevin Kopp 15 31:58.227 +26.254 +0.257 63.565 1:27.500 20 27 Craig Clawson/M 15 31:59.328 +27.355 +1.101 63.528 1:28.170 21 9 Jose Montiel 15 31:59.800 +27.827 +0.472 63.513 1:28.658 22 35 Eric Presbrey 15 32:00.128 +28.155 +0.328 63.502 1:28.694 23 19 John Brumder/M 15 32:00.435 +28.462 +0.307 63.492 1:28.575 24 61 Tom Drake/M 15 32:06.965 +34.992 +6.530 63.277 1:29.716 25 46 Doug Rocco 15 32:09.481 +37.508 +2.516 63.194 1:30.543 26 4 Dennis McCarthy/M 15 32:14.841 +42.868 +5.360 63.019 1:30.146 27 13 Barry Gilbert/M 15 32:20.535 +48.562 +5.694 62.834 1:31.114 DNF 10 Robert LaRocca 6 14:54.896 9 Laps 9 Laps 54.501 1:27.400 DNF 06 Tim Paul 6 14:55.315 +0.419 +0.419 54.476 1:27.938 DNF 94 Al Guibord, Sr./M 5 12:34.912 10 Laps 1 Lap 53.839 1:39.170 DNF 59 Shaun Miller 3 13:51.813 12 Laps 2 Laps 29.317 1:36.493 DNF 17 John LaRue/M 1 2:02.552 14 Laps 2 Laps 66.329 1:58.343 DNF 23 Joey Selmants 0 16.045 15 Laps 1 Lap - -.---