koykka-wins-wild-summit-point-race-on-last-lap

The race featured the leaders battling very aggressively, similar to a shootout at Mid-Ohio just a few weeks ago, with the cars taking defensive lines down the front straight, touching tires, bump-drafting, and heading three wide into turn one – multiple times – on a very narrow Summit Point Motorsports Park circuit.

Following the race, there were allegations of questionable driving among the top finishers, some of who were less than happy with the results.

Koykka played it safe, not participating in most of the action and staying in fourth for the majority of the all-green-flag event – but he was there on the last lap – when Newey and Shae Davies made contact, thus inheriting the lead, more points and his third victory of 2012.

“I was in third and a backmarker came into the mix, and Brandon and Shae touched while fighting it out,” said Koykka. “The race was a huge win for us, the car was really good and the strategy was just to wait it out until a couple laps to go.”

Koykka also notched the fast lap of the race, adding two points, and scoring pole position for Sunday’s race, another three points.

Garett Grist, carrying additional sponsorship from Alpinestars in his No. 97 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb/Agajanian, finished second in the Mygale/Honda. Grist had featured strongly at the start of the race, taking the lead from the green flag and looking like he could win before losing a nose off the Mygale while battling for second.

“That was an absolutely crazy race,” noted Grist, who was recently nominated for the Team Canada Scholarship. “There was much more action than Mid-Ohio. As for the nose on the Mygale, I had pulled out to pass Koykka down the front straight, just as he pulled out on Davies and it caught the front of the car.”

Newey completed the podium a distant third after the last-lap drama. The American, driving for the Herta team, was first entering the last lap, and easily led the most laps of the leaders, being able to drive a defensive line down the front straight.

“I thought we had the win wrapped up, but we did not gap the other cars enough, and then a competitor took me out,” said Newey, also recently named a finalist for the Team USA Scholarship. “I was in turn six, coming out of five, I had the inside line and Shae hit me from behind and spun me out.”

Davies, driving for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing in another Spectrum/Honda, who finished 13th after the incident, shared his version of events: “I was lining up to make a pass and Brandon knew that. He didn’t give me room and pushed me into the grass and we touched. It was not an intentional hit.”

Staying out of the drama to complete the top five were Steve Oseth, in a Citation/Honda, and Robert Lorena, driving the No. 17 Van Diemen/Honda for Quantum Racing Services.

Following in positions six through ten were Jeremy Grenier, Art Foster, Joe Parsons, John McCusker and Mike Scanlan. Foster was the first of the Ford-powered cars in the field.

Joe Parsons won the F1600 CellMark Paper Hard Charger award for the 20-lap race.

Weekend five of the six-weekend, 12-race 2012 F1600 Formula F Championship Series season continues on Sunday with race two, at 11:00am local time – with an early morning 7:30am warmup scheduled. Follow live updates and audio on www.f1600series.com.

Race Results

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 10 Matias Koykka 20 25:04.531 - - 95.711 1:13.659 97.748 2 97 Garett Grist 20 25:06.776 +2.245 +2.245 95.568 1:14.195 97.042 3 98 Brandon Newey 20 25:18.479 +13.948 +11.703 94.832 1:14.030 97.258 4 72 Steve Oseth 20 25:22.747 +18.216 +4.268 94.566 1:14.600 96.515 5 17 Roberto Lorena 20 25:29.070 +24.539 +6.323 94.175 1:15.475 95.396 6 12 Jeremy Grenier 20 25:33.496 +28.965 +4.426 93.903 1:14.995 96.006 7 21 Art Foster 20 25:41.456 +36.925 +7.960 93.418 1:15.952 94.797 8 42 Joe Parsons 20 25:41.852 +37.321 +0.396 93.394 1:15.905 94.855 9 01 John McCusker 20 25:48.273 +43.742 +6.421 93.007 1:16.230 94.451 10 2 Mike Scanlan 20 25:52.058 +47.527 +3.785 92.780 1:16.548 94.059 11 55 Ray Phillips 20 26:19.167 +1:14.636 +27.109 91.187 1:17.585 92.801 12 7 Haruaki Tanaka 20 26:20.008 +1:15.477 +0.841 91.139 1:16.812 93.735 13 9 Shae Davies 19 23:48.368 1 Lap 1 Lap 95.774 1:13.886 97.447 14 99 Sean Maisey 19 25:06.182 +1:17.814 +1:17.814 90.826 1:16.699 93.873 15 43 Bill Maisey 19 26:02.535 +2:14.167 +56.353 87.550 1:20.597 89.333 16 50 John Nesbitt 18 26:16.597 2 Laps 1 Lap 82.202 1:20.742 89.173 17 44 Ed Callo 11 15:06.575 9 Laps 7 Laps 87.362 1:20.681 89.240 DNS 36 Steve Roux 0 -.--- - - - -.--- -