La Rocca Back in Victory Lane

May 27, 2012
La Rocca won at Lime Rock. (photo: Valet)

Lakeville, CT – Robert La Rocca took his fifth win of 2012 at Lime Rock Park, bouncing back from an earlier incident in race one that saw him finish third with a broken front wing. Just a few hours later, La Rocca worked lapped traffic more carefully, leading every lap from pole en route to his fifth win in six races for HP-Tech Motorsport in the No. 10 Van Diemen, finishing ahead of Tim Minor, in the Citation chassis, and Chris Livengood in a RFR, both notching their first podiums of 2012.

“It feels good, it was a clean race this time and the car was consistent,” said La Rocca. “There was one lapped car that slowed me down a bit. On the restarts you always worry because that is a high percentage pass.”

For La Rocca, the Venezuelan sophomore driver also set fast lap at 50.521, significantly faster than everyone else. He also stretches what is becoming a lights out Championship performance points lead, with five wins in six races.

Minor followed in second place, the best outing so far for the Masters Class Champion and the new Citation chassis.

“It was a tough race, all of us were really running the same lap times,” commented Minor. “We made a lot of changes to the car after the first race. The Citation has been a big learning curve but it is getting there.”

Last year’s Lime Rock winner, Chris Livengood, also delivered his best result of 2012 in a new car, the No. 37 RFR, with a third place run in the afternoon race at Lime Rock.

“We are working out the quirks with the RFR,” said Livengood, driving for John Walko Racing. “We are really turning the corner and should be fighting for wins soon.”

Tom Fatur matched his morning result with another fourth place run, but this time had to surrender the Masters Class to Minor. Fatur was again quick and stayed out of trouble in the GTP Motorsports No. 70 Van Diemen.

Kevin Kopp rounded out the top five in an impressive comeback weekend for Wisko F2000 – in an event that saw the No. 66 Van Diemen get little to no track time with mechanical issues on Friday.

While La Rocca led relatively uncontested, a late race restart changed the complexion of the race when Niki Coello made contact with Wyatt Gooden, who was restarting second and had won the first race of the weekend earlier on Saturday.

Gooden spun on the front straight in the Quantum Racing Services Van Diemen, somehow not hitting anything, in front of the entire field. Both cars retired with damage.

Tim Paul delivered his sixth straight top ten, finishing sixth in his home race for SMR and GTP Motorsports, with Charles Finelli, Robert Wright, Craig Clawson and Dean Maker completing the top ten, all in their best performances of the season.

Dennis McCarthy missed the race after losing a motor in the first race of the weekend. Also missing the start was Kyle Connery with significant damage after a race one crash.

The F2000 Championship Series continues at New Jersey Motorsports Park, June 29 – July 1, with rounds seven and eight of the 2012 campaign.

Race Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 10 Robert LaRocca 29 30:33.161 - - 87.135 50.521 109.024 2 88 Tim Minor/M 29 30:36.508 +3.347 +3.347 86.976 51.436 107.085 3 37 Chris Livengood 29 30:37.873 +4.712 +1.365 86.911 51.142 107.700 4 70 Tom Fatur/M 29 30:38.160 +4.999 +0.287 86.898 51.355 107.253 5 66 Kevin Kopp 29 30:40.102 +6.941 +1.942 86.806 51.364 107.235 6 06 Tim Paul 29 30:40.490 +7.329 +0.388 86.788 51.523 106.904 7 83 Charles Finelli/M 29 30:51.041 +17.880 +10.551 86.293 52.586 104.743 8 90 Robert Wright/M 29 30:51.611 +18.450 +0.570 86.266 52.657 104.601 9 27 Craig Clawson/M 29 30:52.020 +18.859 +0.409 86.247 52.768 104.381 10 52 Dean Baker/M 29 30:52.349 +19.188 +0.329 86.232 52.832 104.255 11 19 John Brumder/M 29 30:52.676 +19.515 +0.327 86.217 52.493 104.928 12 15 Aaron Pettipas 29 30:57.775 +24.614 +5.099 85.980 52.405 105.104 13 25 Jeff McCusker/M 29 30:59.719 +26.558 +1.944 85.890 53.403 103.140 14 31 Brendan Puderbach 29 30:59.787 +26.626 +0.068 85.887 52.912 104.097 15 46 Doug Rocco 29 31:01.471 +28.310 +1.684 85.810 53.546 102.865 16 47 Chris Monteleone 29 31:03.392 +30.231 +1.921 85.721 53.399 103.148 17 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 28 31:06.250 1 Lap 1 Lap 82.638 55.039 100.074 18 61 Tom Drake/M 28 31:06.495 +0.245 +0.245 82.628 55.573 99.113 19 6 Wyatt Gooden 24 26:49.732 5 Laps 4 Laps 82.120 50.941 108.125 20 81 Niki Coello 23 25:24.109 6 Laps 1 Lap 83.120 51.306 107.356 21 35 Eric Presbrey 16 16:51.348 13 Laps 7 Laps 87.139 52.568 104.779 22 9 Jose Montiel 15 15:24.493 14 Laps 1 Lap 89.368 52.998 103.928 23 13 Jonathan Scarallo 15 15:49.341 +24.848 +24.848 87.029 53.124 103.682 24 59 Shaun Miller 4 4:14.537 25 Laps 11 Laps 86.557 53.777 102.423 25 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 2 1:56.076 27 Laps 2 Laps 94.903 54.319 101.401 DNS 02 Fred Bross/M 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 8 Dennis McCarthy 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 91 Kyle Connery 0 -.--- - - - -.--- -

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