Dixon Takes Pole as the Brutal Weather Briefly Lets Up

Braselton, GA

April 19, 2019

The unpredictable weather continued to dictate the weekend, but in spite of this the F2000 competitors chose to qualify during Friday’s last session. Of course, with the morning sessions having been cancelled, all bets were off as to would be the leading antagonists of the group.

As the cars rolled onto the track the skies opened, but it was not with rain, rather it was the first true signs of sun all day. Unfortunately, a black cloud hung over Dave Weitzenhof’s head and he rolled to an nondescript stop between 10a and 10b. This brought out a black flag all causing further delays and frustration for drivers we can only assume to be feeling rather pent-up at this point.

The green flag flew again with twenty minutes left to qualify and as that flag flew further encouragement came as even more sun shone down on a quickly drying racing surface. The first two cars to complete their installation laps were Misha Goikhberg and Brandon Dixon, they were first and second respectively in the previous days practice times. With the quickly improving conditions times fell at a ferocious rate. Dixon was the early pace setter but it by mid-session David Durrett had advanced to third and Steve Jenks to second. The gap to Dixon was closing as the field became more comfortable on a track that was still drying.

Meanwhile, Goikhberg returned to the racing surface after a brief stint in the pits and apparently he found the layover to be productive as he lowered his time drastically leapfrogging both Durett and Jenks to find himself now holding the second fastest qualifying time. Visible four wheel drifts were notable from all drivers in the 10a-10b section and curb usage seemed dodgy as the ample rain showers had left them slick unrepeatable.  

With less than ten minutes left, Jenks again returned to the second position, a large lockup of his inside front into 10a was a sure sign of his effort. He was rewarded and saw his gap to Dixon shrink to around 8 tenths of a second. At this point, Dixon had returned to pits. Megan Gilkes, perhaps a bit too cautious early in the session was now closing in quickly improving nearly every lap as the session was beginning to wane. It was notable that Weitzenhof managed to find the fire again in his interim Van Diemen and return to the track to make another effort.

With two minutes remaining Dixon had just left the pits for another attempt, meanwhile Goikhberg had now closed the gap to under five tenths of a second. Jenks too continued to improve now sitting just six tenths of a second behind. The checkered flag flew before Dixon could start another flying lap, and despite an improvement from Goikhberg, P1 for race one was confirmed for Dixon. Just .020s remained between the two Citation drivers.

Steve Jenks held onto third as David Durrett and Megan Gilkes filled out the top five.