Mehan Dominates at Thompson

August 31, 2014
Evan Mehan

Thompson, CT – Evan Mehan continued to be the class of the F1600 Formula F Championship Series field at Thompson, scoring his first win with a dominating performance in the No. 29 Chastain Motorsports Mygale/Honda. Championship leader Ayla Agren finished a close second ahead of her Pelfrey teammate and main title rival Garth Rickards in the first of two F1600 races at Thompson Speedway.

“It feels pretty good to win,” said Mehan, who started from pole. “The car was fast and super consistent, I need to thank the team and my coach, Jay Howard. The plan is to try to do it again tomorrow.”

Agren drove a smart race, carving through a few cars and catching Mehan – but sitting in second and accumulating points. With Mehan running a partial season, Agren was the first of the Championship contenders in the finishing order.

“I was thinking points,” said Agren, driving the No. 81 Team Pelfrey Mygale/Honda. “We weren’t quite close enough on speed and we will come back stronger tomorrow.”

With just three races left, including another on Sunday at Thompson, the Championship is quickly coming to a close, with each and every point seemingly more important.

Rickards had another strong performance and yet another podium, but loses five more points to Agren in the title hunt. Fast lap and pole points both went to Mehan’s entry.

Sam Chastain ran well early, moving to second and dueling with the Pelfrey cars, but eventually lost touch and came home fourth ahead of Augie Lerch, which make the top five Chastain-Pelfrey-Pelfrey-Chastain-Pelfrey, and five Mygale/Hondas.

Jim Goughary advanced three positions to come home sixth, winning the Masters Class division with the Ski Motorsports No. 7 Van Diemen/Honda.

Nikita Lastochkin was seventh in the No. 80 Team Pelfrey Mygale/Honda, ahead of Andrew Hobbs, who was fastest in Friday morning practice at the new Thompson road course. Steve Bamford and Art Foster followed in ninth and tenth, and were the second and third Masters Class drivers.

Will Harvey fended off Ryan Bjerke early in the race to finish 11th in the WISKO Racing No. 24. Bjerke marked his first F1600 start, and is just 15 years old, moving out of karting and into a Van Diemen/Honda.

After starting on the outside of the front row, Jack Mitchell Jr. failed to finish in the Exclusive Autsoport No. 93 Spectrum, going off early in the race.

Karting graduate Dexter Czuba retired with mechanical problems in his first ever F1600 start.

The weekend concludes on Sunday, August 31, from Thompson with a 2:10 p.m. qualifying session followed by a 5:40 p.m. green flag for a 24-lap race, round 12 of the 14-race 2014 season.

Race results are available on www.F1600Series.com under the Results tab.

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