Carbone Holds Off Erickson to Win at VIR
Alton, VA – Victor Carbone led every lap at VIR on his way to taking his first career F2000 Series victory over Australian rookie Daniel Erickson by two-tenths of a second. Carbone, driving for Alegra Motorsports in his second F2000 season, timed his start beautifully from the outside of the front row, taking advantage of pole sitter Erickson, who had never done a rolling start before. Erickson would fall back to third, only to reel the Brazilian in from 1.8 seconds away as the two ran nose-to-tail for the closing laps in a thrilling start to the 2010 F2000 Season.
“My start was perfect, as soon as the green flag waved I was gone,” commented Carbone, who also gives Alegra their first F2000 win. “At the end, Erickson was super fast and was all over me but I was able to just barely hold him off. The car was amazing and it shows the great job the team did over the offseason.”
Erickson tried a last-lap pass attempt on Carbone only to have the door shut, but walks away from his first race ever with a second place effort, in a modest 33-car field. Additionally, in qualifying he set a new track record and earned bonus points for pole as the run for the 2010 national championship begins this weekend.
“I misread the start,” said Erickson, driving the #02 for Primus Racing. “I’ve never done a rolling start before and dropped back to third, by the time I got around (Tim) Kautz and into second, it took some work to catch Victor (Carbone). The car was good and quick all around.”
At the drop of the green, F2000 newcomer Tim Kautz went from sixth to second, and held station in third before two spins left him finishing well down the order.
Completing the podium was Carbone’s Alegra teammate Fabio Orsolon, also from Brazil. Cole Morgan finished fourth and set the fastest race lap.
“The outside line at the start got shuffled, I got pushed back to sixth and was boxed in with nowhere to go,” Morgan, the 2007 F2000 Champion, said. “I knew we had the fastest car out there, and the fast lap shows it.”
Remy Audette rounded out the top five, and was running solidly in third before a quick off-course excursion cost him precious time.
Jonathan Scarallo, driving his second F2000 year and now with the R-Sport team finished sixth. Scarallo said: “It was a fun race, on the start we got shuffled back to tenth and I was able to pick a bunch of guys off and nearly got Remy (Audette) on the last lap. R-Sport gave me a great car and hopefully tomorrow we can qualify a bit better. “
Finish seventh and winning the Masters Class was Phil Lombardi, in the #3 GTP Motorsports Van Diemen. “I am disappointed here today, we’ve been working hard on the car and it is numb to all the changes we’re making,” Lombardi commented.
Chris Gumprecht followed in eighth position, with rookie Chris Livengood in the Pinto-powered Van Diemen in ninth ahead of 2008 Masters Class Champion Tim Minor.
Dave Weitzenhof, seven-time SCCA National Champion, finished 11th in the only Citation chassis on the 33-car grid. Jesse Yorio followed in 12th, in the newest hardware and the only Piper in the field. Bobby Caldwell, Al Guibord Jr, and Tim Kautz made up 13th-15th.
The field ran an extra pace lap in “missing man” formation in remembrance of Joe Stimola, who was also the chief engineer for Alegra’s F2000 program. The Alegra team dedicated their win to Stimola.
Keith McCrone was the CellMark Paper Hard Charger of the day, going from 30th to 17th in the 14-lap caution free feature event of the afternoon at VIR.
The action continues tomorrow with a mid-day qualifying session followed by an afternoon 30-minute or 14-lap race. Fans and competitors can follow live updates, news and photos on www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com or on Twitter @F2000.
Provisional Race Results:
Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm 1 23 Victor Carbone 14 27:14.900 - - 100.806 1:55.461 2 02 Daniel Erickson 14 27:15.113 +0.213 +0.213 100.793 1:55.533 3 26 Fabio Orsolon 14 27:19.338 +4.438 +4.225 100.533 1:55.685 4 1 Cole Morgan 14 27:19.557 +4.657 +0.219 100.520 1:55.053 5 21 Remy Audette 14 27:23.395 +8.495 +3.838 100.285 1:55.344 6 22 Jonathon Scarallo 14 27:24.188 +9.288 +0.793 100.237 1:55.408 7 3 Phil Lombardi/M 14 27:30.994 +16.094 +6.806 99.824 1:56.301 8 97 Chris Gumprecht 14 27:40.041 +25.141 +9.047 99.279 1:56.444 9 37 Chris Livengood 14 27:42.391 +27.491 +2.350 99.139 1:57.493 10 88 Tim Minor/M 14 27:42.827 +27.927 +0.436 99.113 1:56.002 11 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 14 27:44.538 +29.638 +1.711 99.011 1:56.808 12 11 Jesse Yorio 14 27:45.524 +30.624 +0.986 98.953 1:57.325 13 80 Bobby Caldwell 14 27:48.025 +33.125 +2.501 98.804 1:57.466 14 95 Al Giubord, Jr. 14 27:50.055 +35.155 +2.030 98.684 1:57.167 15 36 Tim Kautz/M 14 27:54.455 +39.555 +4.400 98.425 1:55.618 16 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 14 27:57.190 +42.290 +2.735 98.264 1:57.456 17 5 Keith McCrone/M 14 27:59.447 +44.547 +2.257 98.132 1:56.230 18 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 14 28:00.258 +45.358 +0.811 98.085 1:57.264 19 8 Mark Defer/M 14 28:03.414 +48.514 +3.156 97.901 1:58.051 20 27 Craig Clawson/M 14 28:04.130 +49.230 +0.716 97.859 1:58.484 21 90 Robert Wright/M 14 28:04.566 +49.666 +0.436 97.834 1:57.931 22 06 Tim Paul 14 28:11.570 +56.670 +7.004 97.429 1:58.227 23 57 Billy McLaughlin 14 28:14.511 +59.611 +2.941 97.260 1:56.727 24 42 Bill Jordan/M 14 28:42.419 +1:27.519 +27.908 95.684 2:00.039 25 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 14 29:18.326 +2:03.426 +35.907 93.730 2:01.034 26 03 Tim Walsh 12 24:56.056 2 Laps 2 Laps 94.424 1:59.208 27 7 Brent Gilkes/M 11 21:51.699 3 Laps 1 Lap 98.721 1:57.405 28 33 Len Amato/M 11 22:37.874 +46.175 +46.175 95.364 2:00.783 29 70 Tom Fatur/M 10 19:45.842 4 Laps 1 Lap 99.271 1:56.659 30 69 Paul Farmer/M 9 18:37.896 5 Laps 1 Lap 94.774 2:00.599 DNF 83 Charles Finelli/M 5 10:29.058 9 Laps 4 Laps 93.568 2:01.131 DNF 25 Jeff McCusker/M 2 4:16.009 12 Laps 3 Laps 91.966 2:00.877 DNS 89 Rob Nicholas/M 0 -.--- - - - -.---