Minor Cruises to VIR Win
Alton, VA – Tim Minor made it look easy, starting from pole and leading every lap to his first F2000 Championship Series win since 2009, taking the first race of the 2013 14-race season at VIRginia International Raceway in the No. 88 Citation. Roberto Lorena, in his F2000 debut out of the F1600 Series, finished second for HP-Tech ahead of Kyle Connery, who started tenth and made up seven spots on the opening lap.
Minor not only dropped the qualifying record earlier on Saturday, but reset the race track record for F2000 at VIR during the 14-lap all-green flag event.
“After last year, we worked hard all winter. I was tired of being a bridesmaid all the time. It was a true team effort with Ski Motorsports today,” said Minor, who pointed to major changes and testing over the winter as a driving factor in the success of his Citation chassis so far in 2013. Minor also notched the Masters Class win on the day.
The last win for a Masters Class driver came in 2009, when Tim Minor gapped the field at Summit Point. The VIR win marked the first ever victory for the Citation chassis in F2000, and also just the second-ever non-Van Diemen race win after Minor and the Ski Motorsports squad spent all of 2012 and the winter developing and working on the Citation package.
Finishing second was Lorena in his first ever F2000 start, who almost got the drop on Minor coming to the green flag.
“This is a great way to start the season, there was some great racing here and what a start of the year to be on the podium,” said the 17-year-old Brazilian, driving the No. 9 Van Diemen.
Completing the podium was Connery, a six-time F2000 winner, who passed six cars in turn one on the opening lap after starting tenth.
“We fought gremlins all weekend and this was really our first clean session,” said Connery, who predicted the No. 91 Van Diemen will be faster for Sunday’s race. “The first lap was a bit intense, but I got on the inside and protected my line.”
Kevin Kopp finished fourth for the WISKO F2000 team, ahead of Dean Baker in his best ever Series finish.
“I had a great race with Kevin, also dicing with David Grant,” said Baker. “In the end a lapped car got in the mix and Kevin was able to clear us.”
Sixth, also in his first F2000 start, was David Grant, the 2012 Atlantic Championship title winner in the No. 29 Van Diemen for Polestar Racing Group.
Zach Craigo was seventh, impressively charging through the field for Front Range Motorsports from a 23rd place starting position.
WISKO teammates Federico Mosconi and Shane Morris were eighth and ninth with Dave Weitzenhof rounding out the top ten. Tim Paul was next after starting 26th.
Suffering casualties were Jim Libecco, with mechanical issues, and Tim Dunn, who had a fuel line issue after his R-Sport crew worked all night replacing an engine in the Metrik chassis. After qualifying fifth Brent Gilkes pulled off on the pace lap with a dead battery.
The weekend continues Sunday, April 14, with qualifying at 12:05pm local time for race two of the 2013 season, followed by a 3:00pm race start. Updates, audio and timing are available on www.f2000series.com.
Race Results:
PosNo.NameLapsTotal TmDiffGapAvg. SpeedBest Tm 1 88 Tim Minor/M 14 29:43.293 - - 92.418 1:54.819 2 9 Roberto Lorena 14 29:50.480 +7.187 +7.187 92.047 1:55.159 3 91 Kyle Connery 14 29:52.857 +9.564 +2.377 91.925 1:55.046 4 22 Kevin Kopp 14 30:05.812 +22.519 +12.955 91.265 1:55.873 5 52 Dean Baker/M 14 30:07.460 +24.167 +1.648 91.182 1:56.066 6 29 David Grant 14 30:09.646 +26.353 +2.186 91.072 1:56.122 7 18 Zach Craigo 14 30:12.051 +28.758 +2.405 90.951 1:55.090 8 99 Federico Mosconi 14 30:22.768 +39.475 +10.717 90.416 1:56.951 9 39 Shane Morris 14 30:25.206 +41.913 +2.438 90.296 1:56.794 10 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 30:29.963 +46.670 +4.757 90.061 1:56.718 11 06 Tim Paul 14 30:30.052 +46.759 +0.089 90.056 1:56.618 12 23 Sergio Pasian 14 30:32.273 +48.980 +2.221 89.947 1:55.481 13 90 Robert Wright/M 14 30:33.128 +49.835 +0.855 89.905 1:57.293 14 71 Steve Bamford/M 14 30:40.115 +56.822 +6.987 89.564 1:57.253 15 19 Russell Lindeman 14 30:42.849 +59.556 +2.734 89.431 1:57.818 16 0 Keith McCrone/M 14 30:42.881 +59.588 +0.032 89.430 1:57.647 17 15 Aaron Pettipas 14 30:43.405 +1:00.112 +0.524 89.404 1:57.931 18 01 John McCusker 14 31:17.393 +1:34.100 +33.988 87.786 1:59.983 19 35 Eric Presbrey/M 14 31:32.595 +1:49.302 +15.202 87.080 1:58.875 20 73 Vaughn Horvath 13 29:50.625 1 Lap 1 Lap 85.465 2:03.122 21 1 Kem Lall/M 13 30:07.589 +16.964 +16.964 84.663 2:02.097 22 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 13 30:08.935 +18.310 +1.346 84.600 2:03.669 23 98 Jim Libecco 10 22:41.916 4 Laps 3 Laps 86.437 1:57.490 24 17 Peter Gonzalez/M 9 21:12.507 5 Laps 1 Lap 83.259 1:59.296 DNF 00 Tim Dunn/M 6 16:03.541 8 Laps 3 Laps 73.305 1:59.402 DNF 47 Chris Monteleone 5 13:01.443 9 Laps 1 Lap 75.322 2:00.745 DNF 70 Tom Fatur/M 2 6:50.241 12 Laps 3 Laps 57.391 2:00.101 DNF 7 Brent Gilkes/M 0 -.--- - - - -.---