La Rocca Leads Final Practice at VIR
Alton, VA – HP-Tech’s Robert La Rocca continued to dominate the time sheets at VIR, pacing final practice on Friday, with a top five that featured four different chassis. La Rocca’s No. 10 Van Diemen turned in a lap of 1:54.989 to top Wyatt Gooden’s Quantum Racing Services Van Diemen, and Fabio Orsolon’s Radon, followed by John LaRue in the Citation chassis and Chris Livengood’s John Walko Racing RFR.
“The track was crowded this morning with a good amount of traffic,” said La Rocca, who went just over a tenth faster in the second session of the day. “Black flags, though, are the thing to worry about in qualifying, and the car is getting better too.”
The major story of the weekend continues to be La Rocca, who made a shock move when he switched from the RFR chassis, with which he competed all last season, to the Van Diemen.
Second on the time sheets was F1600 standout Wyatt Gooden in the No. 6, followed by the Radon of Fabio Orsolon for GTP Motorsports.
“We made some changes and the car is faster, and the changes we are making have all been positive,” added Orsolon, who was fastest in the morning session. “I’m getting more used to the chassis but we need to continue pushing.”
John LaRue was the first of the Masters Class drivers, fourth quick, ahead of Chris Livengood, who spent the morning battling teething issues with the RFR chassis, including a blown starter.
Tim Minor followed in sixth in the afternoon, after damage to his Citation chassis following a collision with Charles Finelli in the morning session.
Six-race winner Kyle Connery was seventh.
“We are starting to find a few things (in the RFR) and are working through handling and aero,” said Connery.
Tim Paul, Tom Fatur and Peter Gonzalez, all driving for GTP, rounded out the top ten for the New Hampshire-based team, which found all four of its entries in the top ten.
Nick Palacio followed in 11th, then it was Dave Weitzenhof, with a new Zetec motor, Brent Gilkes, Thomas Schwietz and Zach Craigo.
While Craigo was down the time sheets in the afternoon session, the Colorado-native was fourth fastest in the morning for Front Range Motorsports.
Rookie Kevin Kopp was 16th quick for the WISKO F2000 team, and said following the morning session, where he was 11th, that the car bad picked up a pull.
“It was also my first time on the track near the fast guys,” said Kopp. “Yesterday we found ourselves alone on the track most of the time, so it was good to be able to compare to the fast guys through some of the corners.”
F2000 standout Niki Coello missed the final session of the day due to reported mechanical issues after running sixth fastest in the morning.
The opening weekend of the F2000 Championship Series continues with qualifying and race one tomorrow, Saturday, with a similar schedule on Sunday, April 15. Live audio, commentary, photos and more are available on www.F2000Series.com.
Practice 2 Results:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 10 Robert LaRocca 1:54.989 102.375 7 - - 2 6 Wyatt Gooden 1:55.414 101.998 7 +0.425 +0.425 3 77 Fabio Orsolon 1:55.794 101.663 3 +0.805 +0.380 4 17 John LaRue/M 1:56.426 101.111 11 +1.437 +0.632 5 37 Chris Livengood 1:56.703 100.871 6 +1.714 +0.277 6 88 Tim Minor/M 1:56.893 100.707 4 +1.904 +0.190 7 91 Kyle Connery 1:57.381 100.289 3 +2.392 +0.488 8 06 Tim Paul 1:57.513 100.176 3 +2.524 +0.132 9 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:57.805 99.928 4 +2.816 +0.292 10 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:57.819 99.916 11 +2.830 +0.014 11 5 Nick Palacio 1:57.856 99.885 6 +2.867 +0.037 12 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:57.857 99.884 8 +2.868 +0.001 13 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:57.899 99.848 6 +2.910 +0.042 14 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 1:58.127 99.655 8 +3.138 +0.228 15 18 Zach Craigo 1:58.280 99.527 9 +3.291 +0.153 16 66 Kevin Kopp 1:58.379 99.443 5 +3.390 +0.099 17 8 Mark Defer/M 1:58.689 99.184 7 +3.700 +0.310 18 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:58.761 99.123 11 +3.772 +0.072 19 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:59.054 98.880 9 +4.065 +0.293 20 15 Aaron Pettipas 1:59.321 98.658 10 +4.332 +0.267 21 19 John Brumder 1:59.370 98.618 9 +4.381 +0.049 22 9 Jose Montiel 1:59.506 98.506 6 +4.517 +0.136 23 14 Jose Gerardo 1:59.872 98.205 7 +4.883 +0.366 24 90 Robert Wright/M 1:59.877 98.201 9 +4.888 +0.005 25 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:59.928 98.159 4 +4.939 +0.051 26 52 Dean Baker/M 1:59.971 98.124 9 +4.982 +0.043 27 73 Vaughn Horvath 2:00.031 98.075 4 +5.042 +0.060 28 25 Jeff McCusker/M 2:00.177 97.956 7 +5.188 +0.146 29 51 Dan Denison/M 2:00.399 97.775 8 +5.410 +0.222 30 11 Nathan Morcom 2:00.494 97.698 4 +5.505 +0.095 31 59 Shaun Miller 2:00.611 97.603 11 +5.622 +0.117 32 2 Rob Allaer 2:01.093 97.215 8 +6.104 +0.482 33 31 Brendan Puderbach 2:01.280 97.065 4 +6.291 +0.187