Radon, Orsolon Lead Thursday Practice
Watkins Glen, NY – As rain cut short what was looking like a fast-paced practice session at Watkins Glen International, it was Fabio Orsolon on top turning in his first laps of the year in the No. 77 Radon Sport entry for GTP Motorsports. The Brazilian, who just got married in his home country but lives in Miami, was quickest ahead of Championship leader Tim Minor and Kyle Connery, who is coming off a win at Lime Rock Park.
“This car is very well set up already,” said Orsolon, as he was reviewing his car with Max Papis under the GTP Motorsports tent. “It has been responsive to the changes we have made so far and we have made a lot of progress. There is still speed left in the car and we will continue to work on the set up for tomorrow.”
Orsolon joked his honeymoon is on hold for the moment as his racing year is in full swing.
More than 35 cars logged laps between a morning and afternoon practice session at the Glen.
Orsolon has plenty of laps around Watkins Glen, running F2000 races at the track in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Minor has loads of experience here as well, and Connery won both races to close the 2011 season in the same No. 91 Van Diemen he turned laps in today.
Polestar's David Grant was fourth quick and Zach Craigo completed the top five for his Colorado-based Front Range Motorsports team. Orsolon's time was 1:53.462, still some tenths off the pace of a quick weekend that set lap records in 2011.
Tim Paul was sixth fastest after missing the last two races, while newcomer Santino Ferrucci, just 15-years-old, was seventh on the time sheets with HP-Tech Motorsport teammate Roberto Lorena in eighth.
Tom Fatur and local Craig Clawson rounded out the top ten ahead of a quick Metrik chassis for Keith McCrone and the R-Sport team in 11th.
Elsewhere on the time sheets, Brendan Puderbach and Charles Finelli logged laps for the first time this year for Fat Boy Racing as Finelli spent the winter in a training program and is noticeably more fit.
Kevin Kopp turned in just a handful of laps as his WISKO team battled through some mechanical issues on the No. 22 entry.
In an earlier practice session, Orsolon was quickest as well, ahead of Minor, Grant, McCrone and Paul, but weather was a factor there too, as hot and humid temperatures restrained car performance.
The humidity had mostly disappeared for the afternoon session but after some twenty minutes of green flag running the rain came and most competitors called it a day.
The weekend continues with early practice, 10:30 qualifying and the first race of the event at 5:30 local time at Watkins Glen on Friday. Saturday continues with race no. 100 in the history of the Championship at 11:55 local time. Results, timing, audio and more are available on www.f2000series.com.
Practice 2 Results
PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 77 Fabio Orsolon 5 1:53.462 Radon Ford Zetec - 2 88 Tim Minor/M 5 1:53.726 Citation Zetec +0.264 3 91 Kyle Connery 4 1:54.691 Van Diemen Zetec +1.229 4 29 David Grant 6 1:55.232 Van Diemen Zetec +1.770 5 18 Zach Craigo 4 1:55.804 Van Diemen Zetec +2.342 6 06 Tim Paul 5 1:55.817 Van Diemen Zetec +2.355 7 10 Santino Ferrucci 6 1:55.911 Van Diemen Zetec +2.449 8 9 Roberto Lorena 5 1:56.460 Van Diemen Zetec +2.998 9 70 Tom Fatur/M 4 1:56.736 Van Diemen Zetec +3.274 10 27 Craig Clawson/M 4 1:57.034 Van Diemen Zetec +3.572 11 0 Keith McCrone/M 6 1:57.215 Metrik Zetec +3.753 12 99 Federico Mosconi 6 1:57.401 Van Diemen Zetec +3.939 13 45 Chuck Moran 6 1:57.849 Van Diemen Pinto +4.387 14 00 Tim Dunn/M 7 1:58.087 Metrik Zetec +4.625 15 19 Russell Lindeman 6 1:58.539 Van Diemen Zetec +5.077 16 35 Eric Presbrey/M 4 1:58.597 Van Diemen Zetec +5.135 17 7 Brent Gilkes/M 6 1:58.606 Van Diemen Zetec +5.144 18 69 Paul Farmer/M 5 1:58.757 Mygale Zetec +5.295 19 52 Dean Baker/M 7 1:58.772 Van Diemen Zetec +5.310 20 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 5 1:58.781 Radon Zetec +5.319 21 98 Jim Libecco 5 1:58.917 Van Diemen Zetec +5.455 22 68 Steve Jenks 6 1:58.982 VDRF02 Zetec +5.520 23 23 Sergio Pasian 6 1:59.466 Van Diemen Zetec +6.004 24 90 Robert Wright/M 3 1:59.476 Radon Zetec +6.014 25 71 Steve Bamford/M 6 1:59.647 Van Diemen Zetec +6.185 26 83 Charles Finelli/M 5 1:59.757 Van Diemen Zetec +6.295 27 16 Chris Camadella/M 5 2:01.078 RadonZetec +7.616 28 57 Scott Baroody 5 2:01.164 Mygale Zetec +7.702 29 61 Tom Drake 5 2:01.837 Van Diemen Pinto +8.375 30 47 Chris Monteleone 4 2:02.344 Van Diemen Pinto +8.882 31 31 Brendan Puderbach 6 2:03.261 RFR Zetec +9.799 32 15 Aaron Pettipas 6 2:03.674 Van Diemen Zetec +10.212 33 17 Kem Lall/M 4 2:07.412 Van Diemen Zetec +13.950 34 26 Alain Matrat 5 2:08.782 Van Diemen Zetec +15.320 35 97 Chris Gumprecht 4 2:11.209 RFR Zetec +17.747 36 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 0 -.--- Citation Zetec - 37 42 Bill Jordan/M 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec - 38 22 Kevin Kopp 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec - 39 01 John McCusker 0 -.--- RFR Zetec -