kautz-wins-at-vir-from-pole
Alton, VA – Tim Kautz, standing Formula F National Champion, won Sunday’s F1600 Formula F Championship Series race at VIRginia International Raceway by a whopping seven seconds over John Robinson (Swift/Ford) and Bill Valet (Swift/Ford).
Kautz started from pole in his Piper DF3/Ford, taking the second win in Series history after finishing fourth in the first race of the inaugural Series weekend at VIR on Saturday.
“It was fun, I saw the guys battling it out behind me and just kept up a good pace,” commented Kautz post race, driving with sponsorship from Reliance Tool. “I saw Beasley in my mirrors going into one corner and then he just disappeared.”
Sam Beasley, who sat on pole for race one of the weekend and started from the front row today, was looking to be a factor before he went off in turn 17 while running a close second to Kautz. The seventeen year old recovered from the early race off-course excursion to finish tenth in his Mygale/Honda.
As the race went on, a battle emerged among the leaders.
Beasley had already gone off, while Colin Thompson went three wide with Valet and Robinson for second as Kautz stretched his lead, setting fast lap.
That exciting battle lasted most of the race before Thompson went off, and the 17-year-old aspiring rookie was unable to get his Swift/Honda going again.
Robinson, who finished second both today and on Saturday, added: “It was a good race, another podium. Thompson spun in front of us exiting Oak Tree and I had to go off to avoid him.”
Lewis Cooper and Brian Graham, both running the Ford powerplant, rounded out the top five.
The top finishing Honda-powered driver was Caitlin Johnston in sixth.
“My Honda-powered F1600 was just awesome today. It was pretty good battling it out with a couple of the guys,” Johnston commented.
“But then Colin spun and we came around the Oak Tree turn and he was literally sitting dead in the middle of the track. My first pro weekend in the F1600 Series with two top tens - we can’t complain about that.”
On Saturday, Jim Goughary took the first win in Series history in a Piper/Honda. Goughary could only manage seventh in the second race of the weekend.
Ryan Leach, for Cape Motorsports, finished eighth ahead of Sean Maisey and Sam Beasley, in positions nine and ten.
The F1600 Formula F Championship Series 10-race, five-event 2011 season continues at Watkins Glen International with a doubleheader, June 3-5.
Race Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Best Tm 1 88 Tim Kautz 10 20:24.650 - - 2:01.293 2 19 John Robinson 10 20:31.953 +7.303 +7.303 2:01.628 3 83 Bill Valet 10 20:32.636 +7.986 +0.683 2:01.827 4 0 Lewis Cooper III 10 20:34.956 +10.306 +2.320 2:02.101 5 6 Brian Graham 10 20:41.495 +16.845 +6.539 2:03.124 6 68 Caitlin Johnston 10 20:42.752 +18.102 +1.257 2:02.868 7 7 Jim Goughary 10 20:48.580 +23.930 +5.828 2:03.353 8 01 Ryan Leach 10 20:59.936 +35.286 +11.356 2:04.653 9 99 Sean Maisey 10 21:08.256 +43.606 +8.320 2:05.143 10 9 Sam Beasley 10 21:09.680 +45.030 +1.424 2:01.495 11 13 Jason Generotti 10 21:14.349 +49.699 +4.669 2:05.428 12 3 Ric Baribeault 10 21:25.456 +1:00.806 +0.018 2:05.271 13 2 Mike Scanlan 10 21:25.438 +1:00.788 +11.089 2:04.971 14 21 John Butkovitch 10 21:27.341 +1:02.691 +1.885 2:05.505 15 60 Dwight Rider 10 21:37.699 +1:13.049 +10.358 2:06.983 16 33 Len Amato 10 21:39.723 +1:15.073 +2.024 2:06.393 17 36 Steve Roux 10 21:48.093 +1:23.443 +8.370 2:08.380 18 41 Bill Maisey 10 21:50.103 +1:25.453 +2.010 2:07.801 19 11 Doug Stout 10 21:50.624 +1:25.974 +0.521 2:07.644 20 76 Jim Lee 10 21:50.948 +1:26.298 +0.324 2:06.139 21 18 Dan Pyanowski 10 21:52.343 +1:27.693 +1.395 2:06.406 22 86 Kevin Brumbaugh 10 22:04.032 +1:39.382 +11.689 2:08.383 23 07 Steve Bamford 9 21:40.784 1 Lap 1 Lap 2:09.111 24 5 Colin Thompson 8 16:23.718 2 Laps 1 Lap 2:01.310 25 53 Russ McBride 6 20:54.621 4 Laps 2 Laps 2:08.360 26 31 Brian Copperthite 3 6:40.914 7 Laps 3 Laps 2:08.088 27 23 Art Foster 0 0.807 10 Laps 3 Laps -.--- 28 72 Steve Oseth 0 -.--- - - -.--- DNS 8 Jacob Carpenter 0 -.--- - - -.---