Lime Rock: Cole Morgan Wins Wild Race One
Lakeville, CT – Cole Morgan got around Stevan McAleer on a restart and held off a late-charging Daniel Erickson on a green-white-checkered finish to take his second win of the year and gain back huge championship ground in race one at Lime Rock. Morgan capitalized from a fifth-place starting position to take the win for K-Hill Motorsports and new sponsor, Ranger Up military and patriotic apparel. McAleer finished second as Daniel Erickson went off on the last lap, also vaulting Phil Lombardi to third from his seventh place starting position.
“We had a good start, I went to the left and held on,” said Morgan. “I got McAleer on the restart and then I knew Erickson was coming on the next one so as the track went green again I just took the inside line.”
Morgan grabs 47 points back on Victor Carbone, who failed to finish due to contact in his Alegra Motorsports Van Diemen.
An epic start saw Fabio Orsolon get bumped off the track as McAleer made it four wide from his fourth place starting position to take the lead from pole-sitter Erickson, who set fast lap of the race, going into turn one.
The race marked the best finish ever for McAleer’s Race House team, which moves over from the sprint car ranks, and the best finish for the rookie in his third start to date.
“On the start I had the motor way up in the revs and went to the outside,” McAleer explained. “I wanted to see how late everyone was going to brake and was able to get into the lead. On the restart I got caught out paying attention to the pace car and didn’t want to do anything stupid since Cole had a good run on me.”
Phil Lombardi rounded out the podium with the Masters Class win as Keith McCrone and Tim Minor, also Masters Class drivers, followed in fourth and fifth. McCrone posted a solid comeback following a massive qualifying crash that saw air-time yesterday.
Felix Serralles finished sixth in his first F2000 start ever, continuing to showcase his talent in the GTP Motorsports Van Diemen. “This feels great,” said the rookie. “I was trying to be cautious on the start and on the restarts and ended up falling back to 14th, so I just worked my way up.”
Jonathan Scarallo followed in seventh with Jeff McCusker, Tom Fatur and John Dole in positions eight through 10. Bobby Caldwell stayed out the fray to finish 11th with Daniel Erickson, winner of both Watkins Glen races, recovering from a last-lap off course excursion for 12th.
Erickson, the quick Australian rookie driving for Primus Racing/Quantum Mechanics, shared his version of the F2000 race: “At the start we ran a lower first gear which caught us out, going into turn one I was in a sandwich that was four wide and backed out.
“Unfortunately Fabio (Orsolon) was on the outside and turned in on me. We touched and after that we fell back to fifth and the car was great so I was able to work by way back up to second. Then on the final restart and I tried a wider line going into turn one trying to catch Cole and lost it. I went for the glory and it didn’t work out.”
Morgan’s win has huge championship implications as points leader Victor Carbone failed to finish due to a on track incident with Chris Livengood. Carbone’s championship leads gets sliced from 83 to 34.
“On the restart we were going into turn one and Chris Livengood just ran straight into me,” Carbone said.
Livengood added: “I didn’t know we were three wide and I hit Victor. It was my fault. I’m very disappointed because the car had the speed for a top five finish.”
Local driver Chris Gumprecht won the CellMark Hard Charger award with his 14th place finish. Gumprecht started 27th and improved 13 positions. It was a solid effort for Gumprecht as the fourth-year F2000 driver is bouncing back from a qualifying incident yesterday.
The F2000 action continues later today with the second and final race of the weekend, at approximately 5:15pm local time.
Race One Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 1 Cole Morgan 25 30:33.647 - - 75.096 51.719 2 14 Steven McAleer 25 30:34.387 +0.740 +0.740 75.066 51.572 3 3 Phil Lombardi/M 25 30:34.709 +1.062 +0.322 75.053 51.558 4 5 Keith McCrone/M 25 30:35.456 +1.809 +0.747 75.022 51.885 5 88 Tim Minor/M 25 30:35.932 +2.285 +0.476 75.003 51.980 6 17 Felix Serralles 25 30:36.377 +2.730 +0.445 74.985 52.195 7 22 Jonathon Scarallo 25 30:36.732 +3.085 +0.355 74.970 51.363 8 25 Jeff McCusker/M 25 30:37.589 +3.942 +0.857 74.935 52.283 9 70 Tom Fatur/M 25 30:38.518 +4.871 +0.929 74.897 52.304 10 08 John Dole/M 25 30:38.595 +4.948 +0.077 74.894 52.289 11 80 Bobby Caldwell 25 30:39.303 +5.656 +0.708 74.865 52.973 12 2 Daniel Erickson 25 30:39.365 +5.718 +0.062 74.863 51.356 13 27 Craig Clawson/M 25 30:41.281 +7.634 +1.916 74.785 52.792 14 97 Chris Gumprecht 25 30:42.788 +9.141 +1.507 74.724 53.123 15 69 Paul Farmer/M 25 30:43.638 +9.991 +0.850 74.689 53.206 16 7 Brent Gilkes/M 25 30:43.886 +10.239 +0.248 74.679 52.849 17 12 Bob Reid/M 25 30:44.331 +10.684 +0.445 74.661 53.916 18 90 Robert Wright/M 25 30:44.897 +11.250 +0.566 74.638 53.209 19 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 25 30:45.588 +11.941 +0.691 74.610 54.484 20 61 Tom Drake 25 30:45.881 +12.234 +0.293 74.599 54.633 21 89 Jim Hanrahan 25 30:46.179 +12.532 +0.298 74.586 54.130 22 51 Dan Denison/M 25 30:46.928 +13.281 +0.749 74.556 54.351 23 95 Peter Gonzalez/M 24 30:43.982 1 Lap 1 Lap 71.688 53.537 24 06 Tim Paul 14 16:13.223 11 Laps 10 Laps 79.234 52.731 25 11 Jesse Yorio 14 17:03.821 +50.598 +50.598 75.318 53.817 26 37 Chris Livengood 13 20:02.825 12 Laps 1 Lap 59.530 52.781 DNF 23 Victor Carbone 9 11:41.967 16 Laps 4 Laps 70.619 53.148 DNF 83 Charles Finelli/M 3 8:33.219 22 Laps 6 Laps 32.197 55.588 DNF 26 Fabio Orsolon 0 6.403 25 Laps 3 Laps - -.---