Livengood Wins Race, Carbone Clinches 2010 Title

Livengood got the drop on Carbone when the green flag waved on the backstretch, taking the lead and controlling the pace, while setting the fastest lap of the race on the way to his first F2000 win.

“It’s a dream, the car was just awesome,” commented Livengood in victory circle. “I got a stellar start and then just hit my marks the rest of the race. It couldn’t be possible without the crew and Work Racing.”

Meanwhile, Carbone did everything he needed to clinch the Championship by driving a heads-up race, coming home in fifth. And while it wasn’t the lights-out drive from pole he wanted, Carbone took the 2010 F2000 title for Alegra Motorsports with one race left.

“It feels amazing to be champion, and it’s the result of a year of hard work from the Alegra guys,” Carbone said. “In the race, I didn’t get the start I needed and wanted to play it safe from there.”

Remy Audette finished a solid second, nearly driving Chris Livengood down at one point before Livengood pulled out to a 4.7 second gap to win.

“The team has done a great job to improve the car all weekend,” said Audette. “And after qualifying this morning I was really confident in the car and myself. I was able to get around Victor and then cut some of Livengood’s lead down but about halfway through the engine started misfiring.”

And while Cole Morgan drove from eighth to third, gaining points on Carbone, it wasn’t enough of a difference to keep him alive in the title fight. The 2007 F2000 Champion Morgan will have to settle for second in the overall points race.

Morgan added: “I got a great start and the car was good for the opening part of the race. It felt like I was catching Audette and Livengood but then it started to go off. I saw the Alegra guys coming in my mirrors and just tried to drive mistake free the rest of the way.”

Alegra Motorsports teammates Fabio Orsolon and Victor Carbone finished fourth and fifth on the banner day for the Miami-based squad in an all-green flag race.

Rob Nicholas was the fastest Masters Class driver, finishing sixth ahead of Phil Lombardi, who moved into a solid position to clinch the Masters Class title tomorrow as main rivals Tim Minor and Keith McCrone both suffered problems as Minor went off the track and McCrone suffered a flat tire on lap one after contact with Nicholas.

Dave Weitzenhof finished eighth ahead of Daniel Erickson, who recovered from an off-and-on that put him down to 13th, to finish ninth. Mark Defer rounded out the top ten at Mid-Ohio.

Tomorrow, Sunday, features a 9:00am qualifying session followed by an afternoon race to conclude the 2010 season. Live updates are available at www.f2000championshipseries.com.

Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 37 Chris Livengood 20 29:24.200 - - 92.153 1:24.332 96.390 2 21 Remy Audette 20 29:28.955 +4.755 +4.755 91.905 1:24.710 95.960 3 1 Cole Morgan 20 29:33.637 +9.437 +4.682 91.662 1:24.862 95.788 4 26 Fabio Orsolon 20 29:34.002 +9.802 +0.365 91.644 1:24.924 95.719 5 23 Victor Carbone 20 29:43.526 +19.326 +9.524 91.154 1:25.313 95.282 6 89 Rob Nicholas/M 20 29:48.612 +24.412 +5.086 90.895 1:25.321 95.273 7 3 Phil Lombardi/M 20 29:56.243 +32.043 +7.631 90.509 1:26.046 94.470 8 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 20 29:58.236 +34.036 +1.993 90.409 1:25.698 94.854 9 95 Daniel Erickson 20 29:59.483 +35.283 +1.247 90.346 1:25.200 95.408 10 8 Mark Defer/M 20 30:01.269 +37.069 +1.786 90.256 1:26.258 94.238 11 70 Tom Fatur/M 20 30:10.796 +46.596 +9.527 89.782 1:26.194 94.308 12 42 Bill Jordan/M 20 30:18.614 +54.414 +7.818 89.396 1:26.196 94.306 13 80 Bobby Caldwell 20 30:22.382 +58.182 +3.768 89.211 1:26.376 94.109 14 90 Robert Wright/M 20 30:22.953 +58.753 +0.571 89.183 1:26.845 93.601 15 25 Jeff McCusker/M 20 30:28.857 +1:04.657 +5.904 88.895 1:27.106 93.321 16 51 Dan Denison/M 20 30:33.098 +1:08.898 +4.241 88.689 1:26.738 93.717 17 27 Craig Clawson/M 20 30:37.732 +1:13.532 +4.634 88.466 1:26.531 93.941 18 46 Doug Rocco 20 30:49.098 +1:24.898 +11.366 87.922 1:27.666 92.725 19 69 Paul Farmer/M 20 30:51.120 +1:26.920 +2.022 87.826 1:28.022 92.350 20 22 Jonathan Scarallo 19 28:51.291 1 Lap 1 Lap 89.209 1:25.773 94.771 21 5 Keith McCrone/M 17 30:11.099 3 Laps 2 Laps 76.302 1:25.594 94.969 22 88 Tim Minor/M 13 20:24.208 7 Laps 4 Laps 86.321 1:26.313 94.178 DNF 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 5 8:54.259 15 Laps 8 Laps 76.075 1:28.107 92.261