spectrums-lead-mid-ohio-practice
Lexington, OH – After two F1600 Formula F Championship Series practice sessions at Mid-Ohio, it was the Spectrum/Honda Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Matias Koykka and Shae Davies at the top of the time sheets in a fast morning session. In a slower afternoon session, however, it was Championship leader Brandon Newey on top for Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb/ Agajanian in the Mygale/Honda.
Koykka has two wins on the year, and finished second in the most recent round at New Jersey.
“The track here is tricky,” said Koykka, who noted it was his first time at Mid-Ohio. “It was good to get some testing in yesterday. As far as the points, we need to catch Brandon, and we closed some of that gap in New Jersey and have to keep going and stay out of trouble.”
Teammate Davies swept both races in New Jersey, flying in from Australia for the event. In a similar fashion, Davies showed up on Wednesday from Australia and goes home for a race in Brisbane on Monday.
“Mid-Ohio is a really cool track,” Davies said. “The times dropped off with the hotter weather this afternoon and we need to be sure not to make knee-jerk reactions.”
Following on the practice one timesheets were Colin Thompson, Garett Grist - Newey's teammate, and Newey, rounding out the top five.
Newey, however, rose to the top of the time sheets in the afternoon session, although times were considerably slower with higher temperatures.
After a rough New Jersey weekend that saw him salvage a podium, Newey hopes to return to victory lane, with two wins already on the year and a slim points lead over Koykka and Jeremy Grenier.
2011 Championship runner up Tim Kautz was sixth quick in the morning in his first 2012 F1600 appearance.
Kautz brings with him a heavily updated No. 88 Piper race car, this time with a new Honda powerplant and other additional changes to the chassis.
Steven Jenks followed, seventh quick, ahead of Roberto Lorena in a Van Diemen/Honda for Quantum Racing Services.
“This is my first time here and it is clearly the hardest track of the year so far,” said the Brazilian, who was on old tires for the first session of the day.
Steve Oseth and Canadian karting standout Jesse Lazare rounded out the top ten.
The afternoon session saw Newey lead Koykka, Davies, Thompson, Oseth, Grist, Kautz, Lorena, Grenier and Lazare.
Returning race winner Jim Goughary was down the order in the late session, 16th quick, as he worked through teething issues on his recently acquired Van Diemen/Honda.
Saturday follows with qualifying at 8:00 eastern time and race one of the weekend at 11:45. Sunday concludes the event with 8:00 qualifying and a 11:20 18-lap or 30-minute race. Updates and live audio for qualifying and races will be available on www.F1600Series.com
Practice Results
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff 1 10 Matias Koykka 1:26.881 93.562 7 - 2 9 Shae Davies 1:27.156 93.267 13 +0.275 3 5 Colin Thompson 1:27.301 93.112 11 +0.420 4 97 Garett Grist 1:27.336 93.075 9 +0.455 5 98 Brandon Newey 1:27.673 92.717 18 +0.792 6 88 Tim Kautz 1:28.452 91.901 8 +1.571 7 68 Steve Jenks 1:28.769 91.573 7 +1.888 8 17 Roberto Lorena 1:28.796 91.545 12 +1.915 9 72 Steve Oseth 1:28.878 91.460 12 +1.997 10 6 Jesse Lazare 1:29.177 91.154 18 +2.296 11 3 Joe Colasacco 1:29.525 90.799 11 +2.644 12 07 Steve Bamford 1:29.605 90.718 11 +2.724 13 0 Lewis Cooper III 1:29.821 90.500 16 +2.940 14 21 Art Foster 1:29.836 90.485 13 +2.955 15 12 Jeremy Grenier 1:29.837 90.484 14 +2.956 16 7 Jim Goughary 1:30.096 90.224 9 +3.215 17 11 Doug Stout 1:30.299 90.021 16 +3.418 18 2 Mike Scanlan 1:31.875 88.477 13 +4.994 19 13 Greg Rice 1:32.069 88.290 9 +5.188 20 18 Dan Pyanowski 1:33.031 87.377 16 +6.150 21 77 Mike Kolthoff 1:34.659 85.875 9 +7.778 22 86 Kevin Brumbaugh 1:34.860 85.693 8 +7.979 23 73 Ralph Zuponcic 1:38.142 82.827 8 +11.261 24 01 John McCusker -.--- - 0 - 25 8 Jacob Carpenter -.--- - 0 - 26 14 Ross Devoe -.--- - 0 - 27 99 Sean Maisey -.--- - 0 -