Newey by a Nose at VIR
Alton, VA – Brandon Newey continued his F1600 Formula F Championship Series comeback with a nail-biting victory at VIR in round five for Chastain Motorsports. Newey led flag-to-flag, but it was another race coming down to the last lap as he broke away from the field with Ayla Agren of Team Pelfrey glued to his gearbox. Agren waited to the last second, pulling out coming to the checkered flags, only to be denied to her first F1600 victory by .042 seconds as the two Mygale/Hondas battled to the finish.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Newey, who has since moved up the racing ladder since his 2012 season in F1600. “A big thanks to Chastain for a great car, Ayla was so fast today and I couldn’t break away. I thought she had a run there at the end, it was close.”
Agren, from Norway, marked her best F1600 finish ever, bettering a number of previous third places.
“It’s definitely good to be back on the podium another step up from Road Atlanta,” said Agren. “The goal was to win with that move at the end, but I’ll take second. As the race developed, I wasn’t sure whether I would try a move on the back straight or front stretch. ”
Finishing some seven seconds adrift of the leaders and inheriting the Championship lead was Garth Rickards, who survived a huge six-car battle for third spot that had last lap first-turn contact involving a number of other competitors.
“It turned out to be a good results and I wasn’t doing by best driving at the start of the weekend, I am looking forward to tomorrow,” said Rickards, driving for Pelfrey. ”The leaders were quick with the draft and we couldn’t keep up.”
Rickards teammate Augie Lerch finished in fourth, while Steve Bamford stayed out of the last lap drama for a top five. Nikita Lastochkin followed in sixth, recovering after being pushed off the track in the early stages of the race.
Art Foster was seventh in his No. 21 Spectrum/Honda; while Jim Goughary lost the points lead after being punted on the last lap running for third and settled for eighth.
“It was a racing incident, but these things keep happening,” said Goughary. “Tomorrow we have to qualify better.”
For Saturday’s race Goughary, in the No. 7 Van Diemen/Honda, started in 10th.
Andrew Hobbs finished ninth in his third start of the year for WISKO Racing. Sam Chastain was tenth at the end of the race after re-joining following the last-lap incident in turn one.
Brandon Angel failed to finish and Franklin Futrelle never found pace, coming home 16th. Jack Mitchell Jr. was poised for a podium and ended the race on the back of a flatbed with a bent right-rear suspension following the last-lap issue.
The weekend continues with round two from VIR and the sixth race of the 2014, 14-race season on Sunday. A 9:00am qualifying is followed by a 1pm race.
Race Results:
PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 29 Brandon Newey 12 1:57.424 Mygale Honda - 2 81 Ayla Agren 12 1:57.422 Mygale Honda +0.042 3 83 Garth Rickards 12 1:57.644 Mygale Honda +7.458 4 82 Augie Lerch 12 1:58.256 Mygale Honda +7.557 5 07 Steve Bamford/M 12 1:57.850 Mygale Sj11 Honda +7.683 6 80 NIkita Lastochkin 12 1:58.159 Mygale Sj Honda +15.428 7 21 Arthur Foster/M 12 1:57.806 Spectrum 014 Honda +15.503 8 7 James Goughary/M 12 1:58.174 Van Diemen Honda +19.095 9 13 Andrew Hobbs 12 1:58.393 Mygale Sj Honda +19.472 10 27 T. Sam Chastain 12 1:57.727 Mygale Sj13 Honda +22.340 11 46 Douglas Voss/M 12 1:59.601 Spectrum 012B Honda +29.613 12 31 Scott Rubenzer/M 12 2:00.419 Spectrm Honda +46.557 13 24 Will Harvey 12 1:59.575 Mygale Sj Honda +49.180 14 06 Austin McCusker 12 2:00.545 Van Deiman Honda +1:05.889 15 2 Mike Scanlan/M 12 2:01.596 Spectrum Honda +1:06.850 16 97 Franklin Futrelle 12 1:59.644 Spectrum 014 Honda +1:23.425 17 75 Don Baggett/M 12 2:03.568 Swift DB6 Ford +1:24.472 18 93 Jack Mitchell, Jr. 11 1:57.785 Spectrum Honda 1 Lap DNF 9 Brandon Angel 2 2:00.148 Spectrum Honda 10 Laps