Minor and Livengood Pace Mosport Practice
Bowmanville, ONT – Coming off a win at Mid-Ohio, Chris Livengood, along with Masters Class veteran Tim Minor paced two long practice sessions on a very hot day at Mosport. Minor edged Livengood early in the morning for fastest time before Livengood went a few hundredths slower on a very hot race track in the afternoon ahead Championship leader Remy Audette, Robert La Rocca, Minor and Alegra Motorsports teammates Gustavo Rizzo and Angel Benitez.
Livengood’s fast afternoon time checked in at 1:22.337, while Minor posted a fast time of 1:22.302 in the morning session.
“The car feels good,” said Minor, driving the #88 Ski Motorsports Van Diemen. “There is more speed and in the first session we were mainly on old tires before scrubbing in some slicks. The balance is good and we are just making some minor changes.”
Audette, who had an uncharacteristic weekend off the podium at Mid-Ohio, did not set an official time in the morning session due to a transponder problem, but showed speed in the afternoon posting the second fastest time. Audette won at Mosport in the rain in 2010.
HP-Tech Motorsports, representing the only RFR cars in the field in Canada, made drastic setup changes between sessions, vaulting Robert La Rocca to third quick. La Rocca is looking for his first F2000 win of the year after multiple podiums and is joined this weekend by fellow Venezuelan rookie and teammate Giancarlo Potolicchio.
Following a rough weekend at Mid-Ohio, Alegra Motorsports bounced back nicely putting Gustavo Rizzo in the top five, with teammate Angel Benitez sixth quick in the afternoon session. The teammates were separated by four hundredths of a second.
As the season starts its end swing, with two races at Mosport followed by doubleheaders at Lime Rock Park and Watkins Glen International, Kyle Connery, who sits second in points, must start to finish consistently ahead of points leader Audette.
On his first visit to Mosport, Kyle Connery ended up 12th on the time sheets on his Mid-Ohio race tires.
Connery, who is coming off his third win of 2011, added: “In the first session we had the left front rotor locking up, but I have much more respect for this track after actually turning some laps. Hopefully we can spice things up racing on Remy’s home turf.”
The word of the day in the paddock seemed to be ride height, as most teams spent the few hours between the practice sessions on a scorching hot day in Ontario changing front heights.
As for the new Radon chassis debut, Matt McDonough got a handful of laps in during the morning session, and also hopped in the car for half of the afternoon before surrendering driving duties to Blake Teeter. Teeter will take over for the rest of the weekend. The car turned a fast lap of 1:25.674 in the hands of McDonough, the 2006 F2000 Champion.
Tim Paul, in the new look #06 Van Diemen for SMR/GTP Motorsports, was 15th on the time sheets on his first day ever on the Canadian road course. The new paint scheme has earned him the nickname of “Taco Tim” for the time being.
Another big concern as the weekend gets going is the five other series racing at Mosport, including the American Le Mans Series, and various rubber compounds being put down on the track.
The weekend continues with Friday, July 22, featuring a 8:00 a.m. qualifying session with a race following 12:55 p.m. Saturday July 23 sees the F2000 grid qualifying at 9:45 a.m. and conclude their weekend with a 6:05 p.m. scheduled race start. Follow live on www.F2000Series.com and on Twitter @F2000.
Practice 2 Times:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 37 Chris Livengood 1:22.337 107.514 3 - - 2 21 Remy Audette 1:22.734 106.998 18 +0.397 +0.397 3 10 Robert La Rocca 1:22.767 106.956 17 +0.430 +0.033 4 88 Tim Minor/M 1:22.798 106.916 10 +0.461 +0.031 5 23 Gustavo Rizzo 1:23.624 105.860 20 +1.287 +0.826 6 26 Angel Benitez 1:23.663 105.810 18 +1.326 +0.039 7 51 Dan Denison/M 1:23.963 105.432 20 +1.626 +0.300 8 9 Zach Craigo 1:24.225 105.104 11 +1.888 +0.262 9 60 Dwight Rider/M 1:24.416 104.866 22 +2.079 +0.191 10 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:24.450 104.824 5 +2.113 +0.034 11 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:24.474 104.794 14 +2.137 +0.024 12 91 Kyle Connery 1:25.237 103.856 2 +2.900 +0.763 13 90 Robert Wright/M 1:25.414 103.641 10 +3.077 +0.177 14 77 McDonough/Teeter 1:25.674 103.327 7 +3.337 +0.260 15 06 Tim Paul 1:26.156 102.749 11 +3.819 +0.482 16 22 Giancarlo Potolicchio 1:26.237 102.652 21 +3.900 +0.081 17 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:26.403 102.455 22 +4.066 +0.166 18 14 Fred Bross 1:27.168 101.556 13 +4.831 +0.765 19 61 Tom Drake 1:27.726 100.910 21 +5.389 +0.558 20 71 Francis Kennette 1:31.968 96.255 5 +9.631 +4.242