Portante Sets Record, Dixon Clinches Title
Millville, NJ - Peter Portante raced into Formula Race Promotions (FRP) history with a F2000 Championship Series win for K-Hill Motorsports in round 13 of the 2017 season at New Jersey Motorsports Park. With the win, Portante becomes the first driver ever to win in F1600, F2000 and Atlantic competition. Brandon Dixon, meanwhile, clinched the 2017 F2000 Championship with a fourth place finish behind Michael d'Orlando in second and John McCusker in third place.
Not only does Portante become the first to win in all three disciplines, he has done it with the same team in Kris Kaiser's K-Hill Motorsports. On this particular weekend, with Portante sealing the 2017 Atlantic Championship title, a late decision was made for him to drive the No. 95 car for K-Hill Motorsports in the F2000 Series, which is sanctioned by USAC Racing.
"To come away with my first F2000 win, I'm super excited about it," said Portante, immediately following the race, that went flag-to-flag without a caution period, much like the F1600 race earlier in the day. "The guys do the hard work and they are the reason it happens."
d'Orlando impressed in his F2000 debut, driving Team Pelfrey's No. 80 to a solid second place finish. Earlier in the day, he set the fastest overall time in morning free practice.
Coming home third, John McCusker's hopes to steal the title away from Dixon did not pan out for the DotWorks Racing driver.
Dixon's fourth place run was enough to seal him the Championship, with three wins in 13 starts, and one more opportunity left on Sunday afternoon.
"It's really exciting, it's been a great year," said Dixon, of his Championship win. "I want to thank the guys that come and help me do this, I owe them a lot. Tomorrow we are going to wake up and have a race without the Championship on the line."
Dixon's fourth place finish earned him the Masters win ahead of Steve Jenks and Peter Gonzalez.
In the Atlantic Championship Series, round 13 of the season was won by Comprent Motorsports driver Richard Zober, in the No. 66 Swift 016/Mazda. Zober won ahead of Bruce Hamilton and Ted Zorbas at New Jersey Motorsports Park on the Thunderbolt Course.
"It was a lot of fun out there. Bruce kept pushing me, I was looking in my mirrors," said Zober. "I need to thank the Series, it has been outstanding. Bruce had a lot of momentum on the last lap and I had to lift coming out of the last corner, it was close."
Hamilton kept Zober in his sights every lap in the K-Hill entry.
"I had a lot more fun being the chaser than he did watching his mirrors," said Hamilton. "We really enjoyed it, it was a great race and a lot of fun for both of us."
Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com and www.AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com.
Next up, F2000 and Atlantic close out their 2017 seasons with round 14, scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Thunderbolt.