vir-friday-f1600-practice-notebook
Beasley Goes Quick in Practice Two
Sam Beasley set fastest time in the second practice of the day, driving a Mygale/Honda for Primus Racing. Beasley, a 17-year-old aspiring driver, clocked in at 2:02.009, slightly slower than his time earlier in the day. The late afternoon session saw times slow across the board.
“I missed a shift on my fast lap, so there is more left in the car. Otherwise it was a good session and the car is quick and balanced,” said Beasley. “The only adjustments we’ve made this weekend are enlarging the radiator holes for more cooling; otherwise the setup is very good.”
Two tenths off Beasley was Jim Goughary, in the Piper/Honda, followed by Bill Valet, Brian Graham and Art Foster.
Rounding out the top ten were Lewis Cooper III, Ryan Leach, driving for Cape Motorsports in a Van Diemen/Ford, Mike Scanlan, Steve Oseth, and Caitlin Johnston, in a Van Diemen/Honda.
Livengood Subs – Fastest in P1 Over Beasley
Chris Livengood, a regular F2000 front-runner, jumped in Ric Baribeault’s Piper/Honda for the first practice session of Friday, and led the way setting a fast time of 2:01.334, just eight hundredths of a second up on 17-year-old aspiring driver Sam Beasley, in a Mygale/Honda for Primus Racing.
“We are helping Ric with his setup this weekend,” said Livengood, who drives for Work Racing with engineering support provided by John Walko Racing. “So I got in the car to help them get a better baseline.”
John Robinson was third, followed by Valet, both in Fords, while Goughary, who set fastest time during Thursday testing, was fifth fastest.
Leach was sixth quick in a Ford, followed by Foster, standing Formula F National Champion Tim Kautz, Colin Thompson and Scanlan.
Thompson’s New Swift
Colin Thompson hadn’t sat in his Swift/Honda until the Thursday test day at VIR. Thompson battled through problems on Thursday, only getting ten laps of track time. He bounced back for practice, setting the 10th fastest time of the day over two sessions (see results below).
“Things didn’t go as planned yesterday, we kept going through gears,” said Thompson. “We had a few issues to work through but got it totally figured out today and I am getting used to everything. We can improve from here and I’d love to be able to shoot for a podium finish.”
Restrictors
So who was running a restrictor? With rampant paddock speculation, questions were in the air about engine equalization. Once qualifying starts on Saturday all competitors with the Honda Fit powerplant will be required to run a 31mm restrictor in their motors.
There appears to be a break-in period with the Honda Fit motor, as competitors that debuted fresh Fit motors yesterday were already busy making gear changes as the powerplant had “loosen up” throughout the day.
Combined Session Results:
Pos No. Name Overall BestTm 1 3 Chris Livengood 2:01.334 2 9 Sam Beasley 2:01.416 3 19 John Robinson 2:02.010 4 83 Bill Valet 2:02.252 5 7 Jim Goughary 2:02.276 6 01 Ryan Leach 2:02.805 7 6 Brian Graham 2:02.875 8 23 Art Foster 2:03.110 9 88 Tim Kautz 2:03.149 10 5 Colin Thompson 2:03.169 11 2 Mike Scanlan 2:03.364 12 8 Jacob Carpenter 2:03.536 13 0 Lewis Cooper III 2:03.570 14 72 Steve Oseth 2:04.052 15 68 Caitlin Johnston 2:04.127 16 11 Doug Stout 2:05.178 17 99 Sean Maisey 2:05.665 18 33 Len Amato 2:05.812 19 21 John Butkovitch 2:05.817 20 07 Steve Bamford 2:06.490 21 13 Jason Generotti 2:07.686 22 60 Dwight Rider 2:07.788 23 76 Jim Lee 2:07.939 24 86 Kevin Brumbaugh 2:08.665 25 31 Brian Copperthite 2:08.874 26 41 Bill Maisey 2:09.945 27 53 Russ McBride 2:10.784 28 36 Steve Roux 2:11.620 29 18 Dan Pyanowski 2:12.880