Grant Takes First F2000 Win

April 12, 2015
David Grant

Braselton, GA – David Grant scored his first F2000 Championship Series victory in the season opener at Road Atlanta in the No. 29 Polestar Racing Group Spectrum. Steve Bamford manufactured a last lap move to get by Austin McCusker for second, while Sam Beasley led most of the race but failed to finish with a mechanical issue.

“It was a great race and the car just got better,” said Grant of his inaugural F2000 victory in his third year in the Series and his second racing the Spectrum chassis. “It’s great to win one of these finally.”

Steve Bamford reeled in Austin McCusker from a gigantic distance on the last lap with a lapped car coming into play. Bamford made it double second places and double Masters Class victories within hours, repeating his F1600 result from earlier in the afternoon.

“We are starting to get there with the new car,” said Bamford of his Citation chassis. “I’m just getting myself there. I feel bad for Austin with the lapped car slowing him down.”

Austin McCusker finished on the tail of Bamford to complete the podium in his Dotworks Racing RFR, with John LaRue in fourth.

LaRue, did however, set the fastest lap of the all-green-flag event but cut the race close in his No. 17 entry, running out of fuel on the cool down lap. John McCusker rounded out the top five.

Beasley dominated the majority of the race, starting from pole and building a near seven-second lead in his new silver No. 4 Mygale F2000 chassis. With three laps to go, however, he slowed, pitting with two laps to go and giving up a potential fourth F2000 victory in an encouraging start for a new car and new team in Legacy Autosport.

In his F2000 debut, Sam Chastain finished sixth while Eric Filgueiras was seventh after running as high as second for most of the race. A reported dragging diffuser on his No. 22 put a damper on his race pace.

In his first race start in the Spectrum F2000 car, Trent Walko raced through the field, starting last and finishing eighth for Exclusive Autosport and scoring valuable points for CellMark Paper’s season long Hard Charger Award. The 18-year-old only met his new team on Thursday, quickly getting acclimated to a new environment with a new car after running the RFR chassis in a handful of races last season.

Spencer Brockman moved up nicely for K-Hill Motorsports, going from 13th on the grid to finish ninth. Dave Weitzenhof completed the top ten and round out the Masters Class podium behind Bamford and LaRue.

Friday's fast driver and Palm Beach winner Quinlan Lall failed to finish the race after running as high as sixth. Other retirements included Bob Reid, Jim Hallman, Chris Gumprecht, Robert Wright and Mauro Fauza.

The F2000 Championship Series weekend continues on Sunday with morning qualifying and round two of the 2015 season in the afternoon. Follow the action on www.F2000Series.com.

Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com.

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