Minor Sweeps VIR Weekend

April 15, 2013
Tim Minor won his second race in two days. (photo: Valet)

Alton, VA – Tim Minor briefly lost his race lead on a messy restart but took it back one lap later and pulled out a gap in the No. 88 Citation to take his second win in two days and sweep the F2000 season opener at VIR for Ski Motorsports. Roberto Lorena finished second for HP-Tech Motorsport in the No. 9 Van Diemen, bouncing back from a technical infraction that disqualified his second place in Saturday’s race. WISKO’s Federico Mosconi rounded out the podium in his first F2000 weekend ahead of teammate Kevin Kopp.

Minor started from first place, his second pole and second win of the weekend as his Citation chassis package continued to show its dominance throughout the season opening event in Virginia.

“This is hard to believe,” commented the Masters Class drive in victory circle. “Compared to how last year started with how this weekend went. I saw them coming on the restart, but I knew I had the best car.”

Minor is referencing the race’s only restart, where Kyle Connery got under him into turn one before sliding off, and then Lorena went through, leading one lap at VIR.

The Citation driver notched his third overall F2000 victory with his drive on Sunday, also taking yet another Masters Class victory.

Lorena showed Saturday’s performance was no fluke, driving to second with an updated car – and leading one lap following a restart.

“This shows the car was really fast,” said Lorena, clearly happy to back up his result from Saturday’s race before the technical infraction.

For Mosconi, the Italian enjoyed his first podium in his second-ever F2000 start for WISKO in the No. 99 Van Diemen, noting that he was able to capitalize on the mess at the start of the race.

A first turn, first lap incident involved Dean Baker, Robert Wright, Peter Gonzalez, Shane Morris, David Grant and Zach Craigo – who was unable to capitalize on his best qualifying effort ever from third on the grid.

Craigo said he was bit from behind and the cleanup from the accident was extensive, forcing the race to go to its timed, 30 minute window.

Finishing fourth and matching his 2012 debut performance was Kopp, who inherited the position after Connery was penalized for passing under a local yellow.

Tim Paul followed in fifth for Screaming Monkey Racing in the No. 06 Van Diemen.

Connery was scored in sixth, briefly leading before sliding off, falling to eighth, and charging back through the field to finish fourth before a two-position penalty for passing under a local yellow flag in the No. 91 Van Diemen.

Then it was Brent Gilkes, David Grant, Dave Weitzenhof and Keith McCrone, in the Metrik chassis, rounding out the top ten.

Gilkes was able to rebound from a DNF on Saturday, failing to finish when his battery died on the pace lap from a fifth place starting position.

The season continues with rounds three and four, of 14 at Road Atlanta, May 9-11.

Race Results:

PosNo.NameLapsTotal TmDiffGapAvg. SpeedBest Tm 1 88 Tim Minor/M 13 31:27.101 - - 81.096 1:55.604 2 9 Roberto Lorena 13 31:34.258 +7.157 +7.157 80.789 1:56.584 3 99 Federico Mosconi 13 31:36.658 +9.557 +2.400 80.687 1:57.144 4 22 Kevin Kopp 13 31:37.967 +10.866 +0.718 80.632 1:57.192 5 06 Tim Paul 13 31:38.677 +11.576 +0.710 80.601 1:57.247 6 91 Kyle Connery 13 31:37.249 +10.148 +0.591 80.662 1:55.908 7 7 Brent Gilkes/M 13 31:44.619 +17.518 +5.942 80.350 1:57.791 8 29 David Grant 13 31:47.626 +20.525 +3.007 80.223 1:56.859 9 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 13 31:50.331 +23.230 +2.705 80.110 1:58.433 10 0 Keith McCrone/M 13 31:54.242 +27.141 +3.911 79.946 1:59.071 11 15 Aaron Pettipas 13 31:55.171 +28.070 +0.929 79.907 1:58.682 12 35 Eric Presbrey/M 13 31:55.959 +28.858 +0.788 79.874 1:58.474 13 71 Steve Bamford/M 13 32:03.208 +36.107 +7.249 79.573 1:59.187 14 70 Tom Fatur/M 13 32:14.526 +47.425 +11.318 79.108 1:58.829 15 1 Kem Lall/M 13 32:32.220 +1:05.119 +17.694 78.391 2:03.072 16 73 Vaughn Horvath 13 32:34.771 +1:07.670 +2.551 78.288 2:03.943 17 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 13 32:47.211 +1:20.110 +12.440 77.793 2:04.785 18 19 Russell Lindeman 13 32:53.995 +1:26.894 +6.784 77.526 2:01.246 19 52 Dean Baker/M 12 31:53.656 1 Lap 1 Lap 73.819 1:57.573 20 00 Tim Dunn/M 10 26:07.519 3 Laps 2 Laps 75.100 2:00.899 21 01 John McCusker 8 22:02.256 5 Laps 2 Laps 71.224 2:02.165 22 23 Sergio Pasian 7 20:17.965 6 Laps 1 Lap 67.657 2:03.498 DNF 98 Jim Libecco 3 7:42.047 10 Laps 4 Laps 76.434 2:05.998 DNF 18 Zach Craigo 0 5.480 13 Laps 3 Laps - -.--- DNF 39 Shane Morris 0 5.837 +0.357 +0.357 - -.--- DNF 90 Robert Wright/M 0 6.225 +0.745 +0.388 - -.--- DNF 17 Peter Gonzalez/M 0 6.636 +1.156 +0.411 - -.--- DNS 47 Chris Monteleone 0 -.--- - - - -.---

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