F2000 Competition Heats up for Mid-Ohio
Salem, NH – Coming off an odds-defying charge through the field in June at VIR, Sam Beasley controls the F2000 Championship Series points race at the mid-point of the season on four victories. The Ohio native now returns to his home track this weekend at Mid-Ohio for rounds seven and eight of the season, where he hopes to extend his points lead over David Grant and Steve Bamford.
Beasley has had quite the season so far, starting at Road Atlanta where he picked up a first place finish in race two, at Watkins Glen he stepped on the podium twice with a second place run in race two, improving on Sunday to take the win.
At VIR though, a Saturday win gave way to a mechanical problem on the grid Sunday, with Beasley forced to start from pit road. The No. 4 Mygale/Zetec driver carved his way through the field, passing Masters Class points ace Steve Bamford with two laps to go for the lead.
Among the entrants at Mid-Ohio is local expert John LaRue, who has won at Mid-Ohio the last two seasons and will be at the front of the field in his No. 17 Citation.
Brandon Dixon will be making his F2000 Championship debut at Mid-Ohio, driving a Citation chassis for the weekend.
Behind Beasley in the points is Polestar driver Grant, who pilots the yellow and black No. 29 car. Grant has four podiums over six races, one of which being his first and only F2000 victory which came at Road Atlanta. Mid-Ohio, however, is one of Grant’s stronger tracks.
Bamford will be running off his successful end to the VIR weekend as the series goes into the Mid-Ohio weekend. At VIR Bamford had some trouble in race one but came through in race two and pulled out a second place finish in his No. 07 Citation/Zetec. Bamford is not only third in the point standings overall but is first in the Masters Class division. Bamford also picked up his first career win in the F2000 series at Watkins Glen and is coming off a F1600 victory at VIR.
Fourth place in the points is Austin McCusker. A. McCusker is the younger brother of John McCusker, making up the Dotworks Racing team. The two brothers have been going back and fourth this season in their unmistakable all black RFR/Zetec racing machines. For this weekend, however, John will be moving to a Van Diemen on loan from K-Hill Motorsports after a fire at VIR left his RFR out of commission.
Completing the top five in the point standings is Eric Filgueiras, who has proven himself nothing short of a force to be reckoned with while on the track. Combining three podiums for the season with consistent top five finishes, the No. 22 driver is looking for his first win at Mid-Ohio this coming weekend.
Bamford isn’t alone in the Masters Class, as behind him in the standings is racing veteran Dave Weitzenhof in second overall. Steve Jenks leads the fight for third position in the Masters Class.
The fourth weekend of the F2000 Series will run July 2-5 starting with Thursday evening testing. Practice will be held Friday followed by qualifying as well as race one of the weekend on Saturday, and then qualifying and race two on Sunday.