La Rocca Breaks Win Record with Watkins Glen Drive
Watkins Glen, NY – After starting from pole and briefly losing the lead, Robert La Rocca got around Wyatt Gooden and fended off Gooden on a restart, with the two cars making contact coming to the green and white flags. La Rocca would go onto take his 10th win of the 2012 F2000 Championship season, breaking the existing win record with a bit of drama. La Rocca had already locked up the Championship prior to the race, adding even more points for the pole, and yet another win. Niki Coello finished second while Gooden hung on for third with a damaged car on the last lap.
For La Rocca, the pole, fastest lap and victory were business as usual for the HP-Tech driver from Venezuela.
“It was a good race and the HP-Tech guys gave me another fast and consistent car,” said La Rocca, driving the No. 10 Van Diemen. “As for the win record, it is huge, and we can still improve the car for tomorrow”
Coello, off a win in the pouring rain at Summit Point, mustered a second place effort in the RFR chassis, also making contact while trying to steal the lead on the last lap.
“I saw those two (Robert La Rocca and Wyatt Gooden) coming to the restart,” said Coello, hinting he knew to prepare for some fireworks. “I had a head of steam later in the lap and La Rocca blocked me, and I kept my foot in it, making contact with him, but I got on the brakes like a nice guy going into the corner and couldn’t get back to him.”
The late race restart was a caused by a yellow flag for Steve Bamford, who went off in the closing stages of the 14-lap event, driving the same car Remy Audette won the 2011 F2000 Championship in.
Gooden solidified his second place spot in the points standings with another strong podium drive, hanging on for third. Gooden’s car was damaged, with his front wing nearly ripping off following contact with La Rocca, and his shock cover flying off into his rear wing.
“Not sure what happened on that restart,” Gooden said. “It’s the same thing that’s been happening. Robert drove down to the inside and I tried to dart out at the last second and misjudged it.”
Kyle Connery came home in fourth in the No. 91 RFR, adding that the team was still fighting for straight line speed and he was hoping for rain for Sunday’s season finale race.
In his first start of the season, Rob Nicholas won the Masters Class with his fifth place drive in the freshly-painted No. 89 entry for K-FAST.
“That was a nice, clean race,” said Nicholas. “I’m not sure we have anything for La Rocca but a podium is feasible tomorrow, especially since we are fighting a bit of understeer and can make adjustments.”
Zach Craigo followed in sixth position while David Grant, the 2012 Atlantic Championship Series winner, was seventh in his debut F2000 race for Polestar Racing Group.
Dean Baker, Kevin Kopp, without a third gear, and Sergio Pasian completed the top ten.
Matthew Inge, who finished second in the 2009 F2000 standings, was 11th.
Winning the WISKO Best Start Award were Vaughn Horvath and Jim Hanrahan, both improving five positions on the opening lap.
Newcomer Sergio Pasian took Cell Mark Paper Hard Charger Honors, improving the most positions during the race.
The F2000 Championship Series season concludes on Sunday with a 9:40 local time qualifying round followed by a 2:10 race start, live updates are available on www.f2000series.com.
Race Results
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 10 Robert LaRocca 14 30:00.556 - - 94.331 1:52.697 107.651 2 81 Niki Coello 14 30:01.282 +0.726 +0.726 94.293 1:53.410 106.975 3 6 Wyatt Gooden 14 30:03.563 +3.007 +2.281 94.174 1:52.837 107.518 4 91 Kyle Connery 14 30:03.644 +3.088 +0.081 94.169 1:53.699 106.703 5 89 Rob Nicholas/M 14 30:04.173 +3.617 +0.529 94.142 1:53.916 106.500 6 18 Zach Craigo 14 30:04.318 +3.762 +0.145 94.134 1:53.553 106.840 7 8 David Grant 14 30:05.282 +4.726 +0.964 94.084 1:54.445 106.007 8 52 Dean Baker/M 14 30:05.495 +4.939 +0.213 94.073 1:54.828 105.654 9 66 Kevin Kopp 14 30:05.758 +5.202 +0.263 94.059 1:54.913 105.576 10 64 Sergio Pasian 14 30:07.191 +6.635 +1.433 93.985 1:54.944 105.547 11 20 Matthew Inge 14 30:07.826 +7.270 +0.635 93.952 1:54.671 105.798 12 70 Tom Fatur/M 14 30:08.374 +7.818 +0.548 93.923 1:55.218 105.296 13 90 Robert Wright/M 14 30:09.836 +9.280 +1.462 93.847 1:54.776 105.702 14 06 Tim Paul 14 30:10.675 +10.119 +0.839 93.804 1:55.505 105.034 15 19 John Brumder/M 14 30:10.740 +10.184 +0.065 93.800 1:55.603 104.945 16 39 Danyel Torres 14 30:11.743 +11.187 +1.003 93.748 1:55.825 104.744 17 42 Bill Jordan/M 14 30:12.071 +11.515 +0.328 93.731 1:55.560 104.984 18 0 Keith McCrone/M 14 30:12.555 +11.999 +0.484 93.706 1:55.731 104.829 19 51 Dan Denison/M 14 30:13.309 +12.753 +0.754 93.667 1:55.638 104.914 20 83 Charles Finelli 14 30:13.608 +13.052 +0.299 93.652 1:56.204 104.403 21 77 Chris Camadella/M 14 30:14.006 +13.450 +0.398 93.631 1:56.970 103.719 22 27 Craig Clawson/M 14 30:14.421 +13.865 +0.415 93.610 1:56.669 103.986 23 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 30:15.192 +14.636 +0.771 93.570 1:56.818 103.854 24 22 Gustavo Rizzo 14 30:16.040 +15.484 +0.848 93.527 1:56.709 103.951 25 46 Doug Rocco/M 14 30:16.682 +16.126 +0.642 93.494 1:57.486 103.263 26 73 Vaughn Horvath 14 30:17.000 +16.444 +0.318 93.477 1:57.637 103.131 27 25 Jeff McCusker/M 14 30:17.952 +17.396 +0.952 93.428 1:57.804 102.985 28 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 14 30:19.400 +18.844 +1.448 93.354 1:57.438 103.306 29 9 Jose Montiel 14 30:19.757 +19.201 +0.357 93.336 1:59.008 101.943 30 48 Will Haney 14 30:20.851 +20.295 +1.094 93.279 1:59.029 101.925 31 61 Tom Drake/M 14 30:21.656 +21.100 +0.805 93.238 2:00.115 101.003 32 37 Chris Livengood 14 31:22.230 +1:21.674 +1:00.574 90.238 1:54.665 105.804 33 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 13 30:22.148 1 Lap 1 Lap 86.555 1:58.721 102.189 34 57 Scott Baroody 10 20:20.643 4 Laps 3 Laps 99.390 1:59.611 101.429 35 71 Steve Bamford 10 24:51.456 +4:30.813 +4:30.813 81.343 1:56.596 104.052 DNF 3 Matt Machiko 5 10:03.667 9 Laps 5 Laps 100.486 1:58.245 102.601 DNS 33 Cesar Lapoint 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 35 Eric Presbrey 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 0 -.--- - - - -.--- - DNS 47 Chris Monteleone 0 -.--- - - - -.--- -