Tim Minor Leads Thursday Testing at Summit Point
Summit Point, WV – 2008 F2000 Masters Class champion Tim Minor turned a lap of 1:12.174, almost a full half second under the current F2000 track record, to lead Thursday testing in advance of this weekend’s F2000 event at Summit Point. The two hour session saw teams gain valuable track time as many drivers have never been to Summit Point before. Tim Minor, who won the 1991 MARS Championship at Summit Point, refers to the place as his home track.
“We were trying a bunch of different things and only really ran like 15 laps,” Minor said. “I was trying to get the car drivable in segments and not long runs as we play with the setup a bit more, the car feels good for tomorrow, I’ve got 1,000s of laps around this place and feel pretty confident. “
Remy Audette battled through hitting a small bird on the track to post the second fastest time at 1:12.285, “It was my first time ever on the track,” said Audette. “The track itself is very fun and it should be a good weekend but you never know with the tight field, especially at the front of the pack.”
Championship points leader Chris Miller was third fastest in his JDC MotorSports Van Diemen. While fellow Americans Benjamin Searcy and Matthew Inge rounded out the top five.
Inge commented : “It’s a fun track to drive on, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be a fun track to race on. There is really only one passing opportunity going into turn one, and if you’re on the inside it is really bumpy.”
Alegra Motorsports drivers Victor Carbone and Fabio Orsolon both ran almost the entire two hours, Alegra had to refuel both Van Diemens multiple times."It is a very challenging track," said Carbone. "I was battling a huge understeer the entire time but when we put new tires on tomorrow, it should be gone."
Colin Alexander brought out the black flag when he spun his #12 Group A car and could not get refired. "We were making all sorts of changes and still have a ways to go, we would go out with totally different sway bar settings to see if things worked and I ended up just looping it and couldn't get it started."
\Keith McCrone ended up sixth fastest, and had an eventful session that saw a groundhog take out his front wing.
Practice gets underway tomorrow morning at 10:30. Follow live updates on F2000ChampionshipSeries.com
Testing Results:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 88 Tim Minor/M 1:12.174 99.759 24 - - 2 21 Remy Audette 1:12.285 99.606 35 +0.111 +0.111 3 85 Chris Miller 1:12.560 99.228 47 +0.386 +0.275 4 10 Benjamin Searcy 1:12.880 98.793 42 +0.706 +0.320 5 02 Matthew Inge 1:12.992 98.641 23 +0.818 +0.112 6 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:13.269 98.268 30 +1.095 +0.277 7 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:13.277 98.257 32 +1.103 +0.008 8 97 Chris Gumprecht 1:13.545 97.899 30 +1.371 +0.268 9 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:13.671 97.732 35 +1.497 +0.126 10 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:13.682 97.717 15 +1.508 +0.011 11 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:13.715 97.673 44 +1.541 +0.033 12 96 Alejandro Munoz 1:13.926 97.395 42 +1.752 +0.211 13 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:14.176 97.066 36 +2.002 +0.250 14 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:14.450 96.709 21 +2.276 +0.274 15 12 Colin Alexander 1:14.485 96.664 17 +2.311 +0.035 16 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:14.535 96.599 27 +2.361 +0.050 17 47 Scott Gesford 1:14.719 96.361 27 +2.545 +0.184 18 94 Blake Teeter 1:14.896 96.133 24 +2.722 +0.177 19 90 Robert Wright/M 1:14.972 96.036 12 +2.798 +0.076 20 23 Victor Carbone 1:15.048 95.939 30 +2.874 +0.076 21 51 Dan Denison/M 1:15.081 95.896 24 +2.907 +0.033 22 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M -.--- - 0 - - 23 33 Len Amato -.--- - 0 - - 24 89 Rob Nicholas/M -.--- - 0 - -