Miller Takes Mid-Ohio Win and 2009 F2000 Title
Lexington, OH – Chris Miller took the F2000 Championship Series title while putting a stamp on his 2009 season by taking a dominating victory in the season finale at Mid-Ohio over Remy Audette and Tim Minor. The JDC driver lost the lead on the start to Audette only to pass the Canadian for the lead just a few laps later. After expertly controlling a restart, Miller was able to dictate the pace for the rest of the race, taking his fourth victory of the season and more importantly, the championship.
Miller started from pole and set fast lap, gaining every possible point available.
“The car was like it has been all year, perfect,” said Miller. “JDC has just done a fantastic job and to end the season with another win is just awesome. Audette got me on the start but I passed him back a few laps later. The championship and win just feel fantastic. It’s still sinking in.”
JDC team owner John Church added: “This is a big day for JDC. It’s awesome to end the year like this with an exclamation point. We ran away, set fast lap, started from pole, I couldn’t be happier.”
At the drop of the green flag Remy Audette and Chris Miller went side by side, with the Canadian eventually edging American Miller for the lead. A few laps later Miller passed Audette back going into the keyhole at Mid-Ohio and never looked back.
“It was a fun race, at the start I was side by side with Miller through madness and took the lead,” Audette, who rounds out the season third in the points, said. “A couple laps later he snuck by me. It seemed like his car had more speed on the straights but we’ll take the second. I have to thank my team for giving me a great car.”
Tim Minor rounded out the podium with Alegra teammates Victor Carbone and Fabio Orsolon rounding out the top five.
It was Carbone’s best finish in F2000 to date.
“It was a tough race, there was no room for error,” said Carbone, who drove past Benjamin Searcy on the opening lap to take the position. “I had to be perfect through the race, I just followed the guys in front of me and didn’t worry about who was behind.”
Matthew Inge followed in sixth, only able to make up one spot from his seventh place starting position. Inge ended up second in the standings.
“To be completely honest our starting position kind of cost us the race,” commented Inge. “It’s tough to pass here. I was definitely quicker than the guys in front of me but there was no way by. I think if we had some better luck we would have been closer to Miller in the points. It seemed like he had luck go his way all year. I want to thank St. Clair Motorsports for the car they gave me all year as well as my parents for all their support.”
Mark Defer, Keith McCrone, Caitlin Johnston and Benjamin Searcy followed in positions seven through ten.
Searcy won yesterday’s race and started fourth, but slowly drifted backwards as the race went on.
“The car just wasn’t right,” commented the young American immediately after the race. “It came in with about two laps to go and there was nothing I could do at that point. “
Tom Fatur claimed the Masters Class title by just a few points over Tim Minor, who clawed back some serious ground with a second place drive yesterday backed up by a podium finish today.
Fatur said: “That was a pretty bad race. We made some changes to the car that made things horrible. We added way too much downforce to the front of the car. I knew Tim (Minor) was going to be at the front so I just sort of held on, trying to get as many points as possible.”
Race Results
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap 1 85 Chris Miller 18 30:29.923 - - 2 21 Remy Audette 18 30:31.997 +2.074 +2.074 3 88 Tim Minor/M 18 30:33.254 +3.331 +1.257 4 23 Victor Carbone 18 30:33.824 +3.901 +0.570 5 26 Fabio Orsolon 18 30:34.845 +4.922 +1.021 6 02 Matthew Inge 18 30:35.209 +5.286 +0.364 7 8 Mark Defer/M 18 30:36.387 +6.464 +1.178 8 5 Keith McCrone/M 18 30:38.750 +8.827 +2.363 9 20 Caitlin Johnston 18 30:39.295 +9.372 +0.545 10 10 Benjamin Searcy 18 30:40.151 +10.228 +0.856 11 31 Jerry Szykulski/M 18 30:41.682 +11.759 +1.531 12 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 18 30:43.967 +14.044 +2.285 13 11 Jesse Yorio 18 30:45.607 +15.684 +1.640 14 22 Jonathon Scarallo 18 30:46.206 +16.283 +0.599 15 70 Tom Fatur/M 18 30:46.677 +16.754 +0.471 16 56 Ted Sahley 18 30:54.389 +24.466 +7.712 17 96 Alejandro Munoz 18 30:56.219 +26.296 +1.830 18 4 Chris Camadella/M 18 30:59.561 +29.638 +3.342 19 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 18 30:59.642 +29.719 +0.081 20 94 Blake Teeter 18 31:12.982 +43.059 +13.340 21 97 Chris Gumprecht 15 26:32.927 3 Laps 3 Laps 22 51 Dan Denison/M 12 23:17.499 6 Laps 3 Laps DNF 25 Jeff McCusker/M 7 11:30.153 11 Laps 5 Laps DNF 27 Craig Clawson/M 6 18:46.158 12 Laps 1 Lap DNF 89 Rob Nicholas/M 5 8:20.609 13 Laps 1 Lap DNF 90 Robert Wright/M 5 8:54.635 +34.026 +34.026 DNS 17 Slade Miller 0 -.--- - - DNS 95 Al Giubord, Jr. 0 -.--- - -