Durrett Drives to First F2000 Win
Wampum, PA – Davis Durrett scored his first career F2000 Championship Series win on Sunday at Pittsburgh International Race Complex during the Keystone Speedfest. The Indy Motorsport Group driver stormed into the lead from the outside front row on the start, leading all 15 green flag laps en route to the win in round 10 of the season. Points leader and Saturday winner Steve Jenks finished second. R-Sport’s Tim Paul came home third in a hard-fought race-long battle with Trent Walko, who was fourth.
“The car was perfect. I didn’t have any issues and the car was perfect the entire race,” said Durrett, who took off and pulled a gap immediately after taking the lead in turn one following the drop of the green flag on Sunday morning. “It was about being consistent throughout the race.”
Durrett, from Indiana, bettered his best finish of the season with the win, having a trio of third places to his name through nine rounds, including a podium result in round nine at Pittsburgh on Saturday.
A solid second place run for Tumenas Motorsports’ Jenks makes him the man to beat for the F2000 title with just four races to go in the 14-race season.
“Congratulations to Davis and all the IMG guys – we started our year testing with them and it was a well-deserved win. He made a nice move on the start, and I was being a bit careful because of points. I figured I would catch back up to him but he just left me,” Jenks said. “The car was great, and it was a lot of fun out there. We were hooked up, and ran our fastest time of the weekend on tires with multiple heat cycles on them.”
Jenks’ main championship rival, Brandon Dixon, did not start either race at Pittsburgh following a high-speed crash during Saturday morning qualifying. While Dixon was okay, his car was beyond repair following a brake failure.
Tim Paul backed up his second place run on Saturday with a third place result, improving from his fourth place grid position to complete the podium.
“I was trying to run consistently, I knew Trent (Walko) was there. I was trying not to make any mistakes that would give him an opportunity to get by. It was a hard fight from start to finish,” Paul said.
Paul spent the race fending off a strong challenge from Arms Up Motorsport driver Trent Walko, a local Pittsburgh native, with Walko finishing fourth ahead of his teammate James Roe .
For Roe, his fifth place finish for Arms Up helped salvage the weekend after contact ended his Saturday race on lap five.
Completing the top 10 were Reece Everard in sixth followed by Al Guibord, Peter Gonzalez, Simon Sikes and Rob Allaer.
With the Keystone Speedfest in the books from Pittsburgh International Race Complex, there are two weekends left in the 2018 F2000 Championship Series with rounds 11 and 12 at Summit Point, August 24-26; and the season finale from Thunderbolt at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Sept. 14-16, with rounds 13 and 14.