Tim Minor Paces VIR Practice

 Minor said his Citation is featuring a new rear suspension and an updated aero package. Furthermore, recent testing has made him more comfortable with the car, working with Citation engineering wizard Eric Langbein.

“The biggest change is we went testing,” said Minor. “I like the car, and to say the least, I wasn’t the happiest last year.”

Minor, of course, is one of the few returning front-runners in a similar package to 2012. His fast lap came in at 1:54.3 in the morning.

Coming in second place on the morning time sheets was Roberto Lorena, the sole entrant for defending Series Champions HP-Tech. Lorena’s car won both races at VIR in 2012.

“We are happy with that,” said Lorena in his first professional F2000 event after a winter testing program. “We made some setup changes for the afternoon and were able to test some things for qualifying tomorrow.”

The afternoon time sheets were similar, with Minor and Lorena followed by Zach Craigo and Kyle Connery – who bounced back from brake issues and should be a contender for race wins at VIR, where he sat on pole in the No. 91 Van Diemen in 2011.

“It was a good day – we sorted out some issues with the car, and didn’t get a good clean run until late afternoon,” said Connery. “The splits on the data are promising. There were a couple brake issues yesterday that we got resolved.”

Steve Bamford, doing double duty in F1600 and F2000, rounded out the top five. He was followed by Brent Gilkes, Sergio Pasian, Dean Baker, Tim Paul and Peter Gonzalez – the first of the Radons.

2012 Atlantic Series winner David Grant was 11th quick, driving perhaps the best looking car in the field with an innovative blue/white wrap job for Polestar Racing Group.

John McCusker followed Grant on the time sheets, making the jump from F1600 in the RFR chassis after winter testing at Savannah.

WISKO F2000 rookie Federico Mosconi followed, along with Keith McCrone in R-Sports Metrik chassis and Russel Lindeman.

Kevin Kopp was listed in 17th with ECU glitches, after a hot race track in the afternoon session left times considerably off.

Saturday follows with F2000 qualifying and race one of the 2013 season, Qualifying rolls at 10:00 am local time followed by race one at 3:30 pm, with live timing and scoring available along with live audio on www.f2000series.com

Practice 2 Results

PosNo.NameBest TmBest SpdIn LapDiffGap 1 88 Tim Minor/M 1:54.959 102.402 6 - - 2 9 Roberto Lorena 1:55.627 101.810 9 +0.668 +0.668 3 18 Zach Craigo 1:55.846 101.618 4 +0.887 +0.219 4 91 Kyle Connery 1:56.924 100.681 5 +1.965 +1.078 5 71 Steve Bamford/M 1:57.486 100.199 10 +2.527 +0.562 6 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:57.622 100.083 11 +2.663 +0.136 7 23 Sergio Pasian 1:57.625 100.081 11 +2.666 +0.003 8 52 Dean Baker/M 1:57.891 99.855 5 +2.932 +0.266 9 06 Tim Paul 1:58.283 99.524 5 +3.324 +0.392 10 17 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:58.387 99.437 11 +3.428 +0.104 11 29 David Grant 1:58.524 99.322 4 +3.565 +0.137 12 01 John McCusker 1:58.908 99.001 5 +3.949 +0.384 13 99 Federico Mosconi 1:59.085 98.854 4 +4.126 +0.177 14 0 Keith McCrone/M 1:59.297 98.678 9 +4.338 +0.212 15 19 Russell Lindeman 1:59.558 98.463 5 +4.599 +0.261 16 35 Eric Presbrey/M 1:59.628 98.405 10 +4.669 +0.070 17 22 Kevin Kopp 1:59.691 98.353 5 +4.732 +0.063 18 98 Jim Libecco 2:00.444 97.738 4 +5.485 +0.753 19 70 Tom Fatur/M 2:00.602 97.610 8 +5.643 +0.158 20 39 Shane Morris 2:00.760 97.483 2 +5.801 +0.158 21 00 Tim Dunn/M 2:01.209 97.122 3 +6.250 +0.449 22 47 Chris Monteleone 2:01.237 97.099 4 +6.278 +0.028 23 15 Aaron Pettipas 2:01.321 97.032 3 +6.362 +0.084 24 90 Robert Wright/M 2:02.165 96.361 3 +7.206 +0.844 25 1 Kem Lall/M 2:02.453 96.135 8 +7.494 +0.288 26 73 Vaughn Horvath 2:08.175 91.843 2 +13.216 +5.722 27 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 2:08.737 91.442 3 +13.778 +0.562 28 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M -.--- - 0 - -