Kopp Leads Shortened Friday at Watkins Glen
Watkins Glen, NY – Heavy rain and a significant local power outage left F2000 Championship Series runners with a sole wet 30-minute practice session at Watkins Glen International on Friday. Heading into rounds three and four of the season, the weather is expected to be clear for the weekend as Kevin Kopp paced a lightly attended mid-day practice session.
The Kopp Motorsports driver is coming off a career best finish at Road Atlanta with laps led, taking home second place honors in the No. 66 Van Diemen. Behind Kopp on the time sheets was the new Spectrum of Thomas McGregor, who finished third at Road Atlanta for Exclusive Autosport. Dean Baker and John McCusker followed in third and fourth positions, respectively.
Most teams and drivers did not run laps on Friday, electing to wait for dry weather in qualifying on Saturday morning. Series Champion and defending race winner Tim Minor noted that there would be no benefit to wet running, at a track he has laps on and for a weekend that is expected to clear up.
Of those that did run was Chris Livengood in his 2014 debut. The qualifying track record holder is I the same RFR that he drove through the field to finish four in at Summit Point last year. The car, in addition, has been heavily updated with new development parts over the offseason. Livengood unfortunately went off to end the session.
While drivers lost one session due to the weather and a power outage, the track and F2000 officials elected to use the time for street car track orientation, allowing drivers to get a feel for the course, behind the track pace car.
Later today teams and drivers will be treated to the 2014 Meet and Greet, hosted by Polestar, a gathering for the paddock community with light food and drinks.
The weekend rolls on with qualifying and race sessions on both Saturday and Sunday, follow on www.F2000Series.com for the latest.