Season Set for VIR Kickoff
Sharon, CT – For the eighth straight year, the F2000 Championship Series and its 30-car field will kick off a 14-race, seven-weekend season at the tricky 17-turn VIRginia International Raceway, April 11-14.
With Robert La Rocca, 2012 title winner, off to F3 in Europe, a big field leaves the title possibilities wide open. His team, however, HP-Tech Motorsport, will be back, with Brazilian F1600 graduate Roberto Lorena in La Rocca’s No. 9 car, which won 11 of 14 races in 2012.
After winning six races in 2011 in his Van Diemen, Kyle Connery will go back to the proven package after an unsuccessful year in a RFR in 2012. Connery is considered to be an early favorite for the 2013 title with engineer James Lee on the CC Autosport team.
WISKO Race Engineering, which entered Kevin Kopp in their debut F2000 event just one year ago, is back with a bigger effort – three cars in total.
Twenty-four-year-old Kopp is joined by young rookies Federico Mosconi and Shane Morris at WISKO – all in Van Diemens.
Tim Paul will start a new season, with a renamed Screaming Monkey Racing, and having signed a contract over the off-season to become a development driver for AJ Foyt Racing.
2012 Atlantic Championship Series title winner David Grant has opted to run a full season with Polestar, after trying out a F2000 car in the 2012 season finale at Watkins Glen. It is expected Grant will switch from his Van Diemen to a new Spectrum chassis during the year.
While the Van Diemen remains the popular car to have, as evidenced by HP-Tech and WISKO’s entries, Tim Minor will sure to be in the mix in his Citation chassis.
Minor, a race winner and multiple time Masters Champion, will debut a quicker No. 88 entry at VIR.
Zach Craigo, driving the No. 18 for Front Range Motorsports, is looking for his first podium after a pair of fourth place runs in 2012.
R-Sport will expand its Metrik chassis efforts to two cars at VIR, with Keith McCrone and Tim Dunn in the team-developed chassis offering.
John McCusker also moves up from the F1600 Series, with a RFR/Van Diemen in F2000 at VIR.
There is more: Steve Bamford is doing double duty, also racing in the F1600 Series; three Radons are on the entry list for Peter Gonzalez, Robert Wright and Jim Hanrahan; Momentum Motorsports is making its 2013 debut with Kem Lall; and Series regulars like Craig Clawson, Bill Jordan, Tom Fatur, Dave Weitzenhof and Aaron Pettipas all return for the 2013 racing season.
Fans can keep track of the VIR weekend with live timing and live audio, available on F2000series.com – as well as on Twitter @F2000. Thursday, April 11 features a full test day at the 17-turn VIR, followed by practice sessions on Friday, and qualifying and racing on both Saturday and Sunday.