Weekend Sweep for Bamford
Wampum, PA - Steve Bamford marked his second straight flag-to-flag victory in the second F2000 race of the weekend and round 10 of the F2000 Championship Series season at Pittsburgh. Starting from pole, Bamford took the early lead and survived a mid-race restart to take the win ahead of Trent Walko, who repeated his Saturday performance in the Mazda-powered No. 82. Steve Jenks completed the podium in a career-best result.
"I was counting the laps down as we went by," said Bamford, who drives for Rice Race Prep. "Once the caution came out I tried to build a gap again but Trent was coming hard. I need to thank my team with the car and helping me to get where I'm at. I also need to thank everyone at Formula Race Promotions for putting on these events."
Walko, after finishing second on Saturday, started and finished second in Sunday's race for Team Pelfrey to close out his first F2000 weekend of 2016 at his home track in Pittsburgh.
"It is my first time getting two (podiums) in one weekend, so it's a good feeling for sure. A big credit to Steve after his incident in F1600 to come out and drive like this. I need to thank my Dad and Team Pelfrey for this opportunity," said Walko, who added he is working on also racing at New Jersey at the end of the month in the next F2000 event.
Jenks went from last to fourth on Saturday and improved one spot, starting fourth and finishing third in the No. 68 for Tumenas Motorsports, and nearly got around Walko during the restart.
"This is our first time on the big podium. It was a fun race, we went side-by-side with John McCusker a few times, it was great racing out there," said Jenks.
John McCusker checked in for fourth place, a nice improvement on his Saturday result in the Dotworks Racing entry.
Brandon Dixon started third, fell back early and rebounded with a fifth place finish in round 10 of the 2016 14-race season.
"That wasn't the preferred approach," said Dixon. "On lap two I got a bit of a run out of turn one on Trent and I think we just barely touched."
A last lap move gave Dan Denison sixth place in the No. 51 Polestar Racing Van Diemen, matching his Saturday drive.
Davy D'Addario also put in a rebound drive, after failing to finish on Saturday, he brought the No. 37 entry home in a solid seventh place ahead of R-Sport's Tom Fatur and Connor Gawry, in ninth, while Peter Gonzalez completed the top ten.