VIR Sweep for La Rocca and HP-Tech
Alton, VA – Robert La Rocca made it a clean sweep at VIR with his second victory of the weekend, along with two poles and two fastest laps for his HP-Tech Motorsports team. La Rocca held off an early challenge from the Radon of Fabio Orsolon, and then another challenge later in the race from Tim Minor’s Citation before separating from the pack, winning over Niki Coello’s RFR and Wyatt Gooden in a Van Diemen.
La Rocca started from the SOS Children’s Villages pole and bagged two F2000 wins in two days at VIR.
“That was an awesome race,” said La Rocca. “The car was fast, but more importantly, very consistent.”
La Rocca also delivered the first wins and poles for the HP-Tech team, in their second F2000 season.
“We spent the winter trying to build good cars with both chassis and it looks like we did that,” said Jorge Herrera, team manager. “It was a last minute decision to put Robert in the Van Diemen.”
The team’s other driver, Jose Montiel, finished 16th in his F2000 debut, picking up speed all weekend in the team’s RFR.
Standing next to La Rocca on the podium for the second day in a row was Niki Coello, but improving from third to second. Coello bounced back from a near all-nighter with his team on Friday to pull an engine.
Wyatt Gooden completed the podium for Quantum Racing Services, in his debut F2000 weekend. Following contact fighting for the lead in Saturday’s race with La Rocca, Gooden was happy to bounce back.
“In my second race and on the podium, this is higher than my expectations,” Gooden, who won four F1600 races in 2011, commented. “We are learning more and more and it’s great to race with these guys.”
Rookie Kevin Kopp finished fourth in his debut F2000 weekend ahead of a charging Tim Paul.
Zach Craigo was sixth with Dave Weitzenhof in seventh, clinching the Masters Class for the second straight day. Fabio Orsolon, Brent Gilkes and Tom Fatur rounded out the top 10.
Orsolon was challenging for the lead in the Radon early in the race but only managed an eighth place effort after battling with La Rocca. Orsolon finished second on Saturday to La Rocca and was less than happy with the Venezuelan post-race.
A full course caution bunched the field, handing second place to Tim Minor, who also made a run at La Rocca but couldn’t get by. Minor went off while battling with La Rocca and finished 23rd.
“I was having shifter problems and couldn’t get into first gear while behind La Rocca,” said Minor, the 2011 Masters Class champion. “The car was absolutely hooked up though, we spent the entire weekend to get to this point and I’m pretty excited to go to Road Atlanta with the Citation chassis.”
Chris Livengood has problems and finished 30th, while front-runner Kyle Connery had a fire on his No. 91, finishing 31st. Nathan Morcom was listed in 32nd following contact with another car under yellow flag conditions.
Jeff McCusker won the CellMark Paper Hard Charger, improving 13 positions in the No. 25 Dotworks RFR.
With one weekend and two rounds down at VIR, the season continues with 12 more races and six weekends, starting with Road Atlanta, May 10-12.
Race Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 10 Robert LaRocca 12 30:54.235 - - 76.185 1:57.223 100.424 2 81 Niki Coello 12 30:57.196 +2.961 +2.961 76.063 1:57.735 99.987 3 6 Wyatt Gooden 12 30:57.810 +3.575 +0.614 76.038 1:57.876 99.868 4 66 Kevin Kopp 12 30:58.181 +3.946 +0.371 76.023 1:57.754 99.971 5 06 Tim Paul 12 30:59.254 +5.019 +1.073 75.979 1:58.357 99.462 6 18 Zach Craigo 12 30:59.610 +5.375 +0.356 75.964 1:57.898 99.849 7 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 12 30:59.856 +5.621 +0.246 75.954 1:57.473 100.210 8 77 Fabio Orsolon 12 31:01.081 +6.846 +1.225 75.904 1:57.251 100.400 9 70 Tom Fatur/M 12 31:02.178 +7.943 +1.097 75.860 1:58.248 99.553 10 7 Brent Gilkes/M 12 31:04.990 +10.755 +2.812 75.745 1:58.609 99.250 11 5 Nick Palacio 12 31:05.192 +10.957 +0.202 75.737 1:58.767 99.118 12 83 Charles Finelli/M 12 31:08.998 +14.763 +3.806 75.583 1:59.374 98.614 13 8 Mark Defer/M 12 31:09.714 +15.479 +0.716 75.554 2:00.119 98.003 14 42 Bill Jordan/M 12 31:10.067 +15.832 +0.353 75.540 2:00.005 98.096 15 52 Dean Baker/M 12 31:10.283 +16.048 +0.216 75.531 1:59.977 98.119 16 9 Jose Montiel 12 31:11.060 +16.825 +0.777 75.499 1:59.604 98.425 17 27 Craig Clawson/M 12 31:11.124 +16.889 +0.064 75.497 1:58.925 98.987 18 59 Shaun Miller 12 31:13.028 +18.793 +1.904 75.420 1:59.647 98.389 19 25 Jeff McCusker/M 12 31:20.038 +25.803 +7.010 75.139 2:00.737 97.501 20 19 John Brumder 12 31:20.630 +26.395 +0.592 75.115 2:00.664 97.560 21 2 Rob Allaer 12 31:20.912 +26.677 +0.282 75.104 2:00.672 97.554 22 51 Dan Denison/M 12 31:21.661 +27.426 +0.749 75.074 1:59.997 98.102 23 88 Tim Minor/M 12 31:21.877 +27.642 +0.216 75.065 1:58.526 99.320 24 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 12 31:22.360 +28.125 +0.483 75.046 1:59.175 98.779 25 15 Aaron Pettipas 12 31:22.982 +28.747 +0.622 75.021 2:01.170 97.153 26 14 Jose Gerardo 12 31:23.258 +29.023 +0.276 75.010 2:01.451 96.928 27 31 Brendan Puderbach 12 31:37.856 +43.621 +14.598 74.433 2:05.873 93.523 28 73 Vaughn Horvath 12 32:15.490 +1:21.255 +37.634 72.986 2:08.690 91.476 29 17 John LaRue/M 10 29:25.809 2 Laps 2 Laps 66.666 1:59.231 98.733 30 37 Chris Livengood 7 19:05.827 5 Laps 3 Laps 71.917 2:00.511 97.684 DNF 91 Kyle Connery 3 7:05.322 9 Laps 4 Laps 83.034 2:01.957 96.526 DNF 11 Nathan Morcom 2 5:05.131 10 Laps 1 Lap 77.160 2:06.101 93.354 DNF 90 Robert Wright/M 2 5:10.069 +4.938 +4.938 75.931 2:07.471 92.350 DNS 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 0 -.--- - - - -.--- -