Minor Runs to Victory at the Glen
Watkins Glen, NY – He may have traded the lead back and forth on the opening laps but once Tim Minor got in front, he managed the race pace to take his second win in three 2014 F2000 Championship Series races on Saturday morning at Watkins Glen. The Citation took the victory from pole, winning over Ski Motorsports teammate Skylar Robinson – who led the first lap – while Thomas McGregor followed for Exclusive Autosport in his second straight podium performance.
For Minor, it marks his second F2000 Championship victory at the Glen, following a victory in June of 2013.
“Skylar and Thomas were close on the start, they went real deep into the first turn, which is not the fastest route, so I let them through and regained my position later,” said the veteran, and defending 2013 Series Champion. Minor ran a fast race lap of 1:52.195, just a few hundredths off the Series track record. The fast race lap nets him an important two bonus points in his Championship chase.
Skylar Robinson scored his third straight podium with a second place effort, on top of a second place run and win at Road Atlanta in April.
“I have never been here and didn’t get much practice yesterday,” said Robinson. “On the opening lap I took the outside, and got past Minor, we ended up going side-by-side up the esses and swapping spots a few times. Then he got by and started to pull away, I need to work on my race craft for the next race.”
McGregor made it a second straight third-place in his No. 93 Exclusive Autosport Spectrum while an issue with Kevin Kopp’s Van Diemen, which was fastest on Friday, promoted Polestar teammates Sam Beasley and David Grant to positions fourth and fifth.
Tim Paul followed Grant’s Spectrum in sixth place, as the two battled for the final top-five spot in the closing stages of the all-green-flag 14-lap contest, with Paul logging his third-straight top ten in the No. 06 SMR/GTP Van Diemen. James Libecco was seventh coming off his career-best fourth place result at Road Atlanta in April.
John McCusker, Steve Bamford and Tom Fatur followed in positions eight through 10. Fatur, driving for GTP Motorsports, is a former F2000 Masters Class champion making his 2014 debut this weekend.
For many drivers Saturday marked the first time they had run laps at the Glen this year following torrential rain on Friday that produced a mainly irrelevant wet practice session ahead of a dry and fast race weekend.
DNFs included Donald Betterly and Sergio Pasian, while Momentum's Quinlan Lall got rear-ended on the start, finishing some 10 laps down as the team repaired extensive damage to the car in the pits, getting the No. 1 back out to get some laps logged.
Al Guibord also failed to finish following a small fire on the No. 95 ADSA/Wright entry. Doug Stout and Scott Baroody both crashed with two laps to go.
The racing weekend for F2000, F1600 and Atlantic continues tomorrow, Sunday, May 18, with another qualifying session and early afternoon race for F2000. Follow on www.f2000series.com.
Race Results:
PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 88 Tim Minor/M 14 1:52.195 Citation F2k - 2 6 Skylar Robinson 14 1:52.316 Citation +0.740 3 93 Thomas McGregor 14 1:53.145 Spectrum 014Z +16.573 4 44 Sam Beasley 14 1:53.108 Van Diemen +18.563 5 29 David Grant 14 1:53.933 Spectrum 014Z +24.690 6 06 Timothy Paul 14 1:53.281 Van Diemen +25.463 7 98 James Libecco 14 1:54.295 Van Diemen Rf05 +31.939 8 01 John McCusker 14 1:54.224 Rfr 12 +33.690 9 07 Steve Bamford/M 14 1:54.549 Van Diemen Rf08 +34.620 10 70 Tom Fatur/M 14 1:54.637 Van Diemen +37.869 11 52 Dean Baker/M 14 1:54.494 Van Diemen Rf05 +39.040 12 73 Chris Livengood 14 1:54.997 Rfr +50.225 13 37 Davy D'addario 14 1:55.457 Rfr +54.198 14 28 Joey Selmants 14 1:55.276 Van Dieman Rf00 +1:01.048 15 14 Jason Rabe 14 1:56.571 Van Diemen +1:10.065 16 97 Christopher Gumprecht 14 1:56.167 Rfr +1:17.745 17 35 Eric Presbrey/M 14 1:57.101 Van Diemen +1:18.237 18 83 Charles Finelli/M 14 1:55.034 Van Diemen RF01 +1:38.549 19 61 Tom Drake/M 14 1:58.370 Van Diemen Rf99 +1:38.860 20 90 Robert Wright/M 14 1:57.418 Radon Rn10 +1:39.829 21 76 Beau Borders 14 1:58.619 Van Diemen Rf-01 +1:53.257 22 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 14 1:59.435 Radon Rn 10 +1:53.569 23 12 Bob Reid/M 14 1:59.860 Rfr +1:55.524 24 08 Hilton Tallman/M 13 2:00.256 Mygale 01 1 Lap 25 31 Brendan Puderbach 13 1:56.983 Rfr +8.383 26 57 Steven Dweck 13 2:03.534 Van Diemen Rf01 +37.017 27 26 Alain Matrat 13 2:07.480 Van Diemen Rf99 +1:37.556 28 51 Scott Baroody 11 1:57.264 Van Diemen Rf 3 Laps 29 19 Doug Stout/M 11 1:56.002 Van Diemen Rf05 +0.276 30 66 Kevin Kopp 8 1:53.898 Van Diemen 6 Laps 31 95 Alan Guibord 7 1:56.982 Radon 7 Laps DNF 1 Quinlan Lall 4 1:58.589 Radon Rn10 10 Laps DNF 23 Sergio Pasian 1 2:07.385 Van Diemen Rf 13 Laps DNF 80 Donald Betterly 1 2:13.151 Van Diemen +7.612