Mid-Ohio Friday Notebook

First Weekend for Horan

Chris Horan is a driver making his debut in the F2000 Championship Series at Mid-Ohio, with a Metrik fielded by R-Sport.

“My expectations for this weekend are to get better every session. It will be my first weekend in the F2000 Series and I am going to let the weekend come to me. I want to become more comfortable in the car every session this weekend, and gain some experience against the competitive and experienced grid,” said Horan.

“The biggest challenge for this weekend will be getting used to the car. Mid Ohio is a familiar place to me, and we have a positive outlook on the weekend,” he continued.

Horan raced in June at Mid-Ohio in a Formula F car, and had strong results in a Formula F SCCA program in 2015.

LaRue Humble on Mid-Ohio Expectations

The F2000 paddock is expecting a John LaRue-paced weekend at Mid-Ohio, as LaRue has home field advantage and a very fast No. 17 race car. He finished second twice at VIR in June and has run exceptionally well at Mid-Ohio in prior seasons.

“We had a few issues with the car at VIR despite it running quite well, hopefully those are resolved,” said LaRue. “I really don’t set ‘expectations’ as racing is fickle, but if things go well we should have a good shot at being on the podium. To win we will need flawless runs and some good luck.”

He continued: “To further cloud things I am driving one of Bill Kephart’s Vestal FF cars in F1600. Again, this is more focused on getting a set up for these cars than an ultimate finishing position in the race so we should be busy.”

Top Five Target for Reid

R-Sport driver Bob Reid has set a solid goal for the weekend: a top five finish.

“With the full very high quality field at Mid-Ohio we are hoping to qualify in the top ten and finish top five,” said Reid. “We were able to qualify seventh at Watkins Glen with a good field and would like to duplicate that.”

Reid noted his R-Sport team has changed its shock package year-over-year, and he hopes for an improvement in pace at Mid-Ohio.

“The biggest challenge is that Mid-Ohio changes significantly during the day as the temperature rises,” he added.

Reid finished 15th and tenth, respectively, at Mid-Ohio in 2015, but has charged up the grid this season as he continues to adapt to R-Sports Metrik chassis package, highlighted by double fourth place finishes at VIR in June.