Mosport Weekend Notebook
CellMark Hard Charger
Zach Craigo, in his first F2000 race in some two years, took home CellMark Paper Hard Charger honors on Saturday at Mosport by advancing nine positions en route to a 13th place finish in his Liberty Motorsports entry. On Sunday, Peter Gonzalez won the CellMark award by improving five positions and finishing tenth in his GTP Motorsports Van Diemen.
The race to the cumulative $1,000 CellMark Paper Hard Charger award is heating up. Keith McCrone leads with 29 points, but Blake Teeter has stayed out of trouble all year and has 27 points. Behind those two lurks Ardie Greenamyer with 25 points, Peter Gonzalez with 24 and Mark Defer with 23 points.
Caitlin Johnston
The class of 2009 F2000 drivers obviously produced champion Chris Miller, who is running a solid Star Mazda rookie season. However, Caitlin Johnston has put herself among the top of the 2009 F2000 graduate list by grabbing a part time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series ride for two events. The Ontario-native finished a respectable 19th at Mosport in the high-profile series and is looking forward to Toronto, July 16-18, in the #01 Pizza Pizza Dodge.
Races are broadcast tape-delayed on TSN. The 550-hp stock cars run both ovals and road courses all over Canada, including Montreal and Edmonton.
Oh, and she is leading the Ontario Formula Ford Series point standings.
Fire Drill Time
The skies opening on a false grid featuring mostly dry tires produced what a press release described as “controlled chaos” for those working, or extreme entertainment for those watching.
In minutes some 20+ cars were able to change from slick Hoosiers to full wets, and hats off – yet again – to the F2000 paddock for coming to one another’s aid on the false grid. Not sure if there is another pro series out there where teams would be helping each other bolt on rain tires with seconds to go.
Notably, Clawson Motorsports looked incredibly smart by rolling the dice and showing up to the false grid with Hoosier wets on the #27 Van Diemen.
Battle for the National Championship
The points race is starting to shape up as the season enters the second half of 2010 at Watkins Glen International. Victor Carbone leads Cole Morgan by 78 points, and then it’s another 37 back to Phil Lonbardi, who should be a force at both the Glen and Lime Rock.
Remy Audette and Tim Minor complete the top five, Audette only a point behind Lombardi with Minor looking at Audette from 11 points back. After that McCrone, Orsolon, Scarallo, Livengood and Caldwell round out the top ten.
Wing of the Month Club
The card-carrying members to the wing of the month club didn’t have any new tricks to show off at Mosport, except for some cool new t-shirts. However, they may have an entire new chassis to race next month at either Watkins Glen or Lime Rock. Stay tuned.
Get Up Early Crowd
If there were an award for the first team to get to the track each morning, it would go to Alegra Motorsports. They are consistently the first to arrive in the paddock, and are currently leading the points. Coincidence?
F2000 Influence in Canadian Touring Car
The Canadian Touring Cars put on a good show at Mosport, but most wouldn’t know there is a huge F2000 influence in that series. The frontrunners all run on ANZE struts and shocks. ANZE Suspension/Engineering boss Angelo Zarra also happens to be the chief engineer on ADSA/Wright’s trio of F2000 cars.
Contest!
16, 13, 11…are totally just some numbers. So is 30+. If you email contest@f2000championshipseries.com and are right with your explanation, the first five people will get a limited edition hero card autographed by their current favorite F2000 Championship Series driver! Rules apply!