Bickers, Hope Take Initial Series Victories in Round Three at Buttonwillow

Buttonwillow, Calif. (May 18, 2013) – Round three of the Pacific Formula F2000/F1600
Championship, holding its first triple event weekend saw Joey Bickers and Tom Hope claim their first victories in the Formula F1600 and Formula F2000 groups respectively at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow California May. This weekend the series is running with CalClub as they celebrate 50 years of Formula Vees.

The sole qualifying session began at 11:05 am under clear and sunny skies as the drivers took to the 2.920 mile circuit and it was not long before the times started plummeting. In the Formula F1600 group, Joey Bickers having switched from the Piper/Honda he drove in rounds one and two to the round two race winning #34, Mygale/Honda, for PR1 Motorsports, took only four laps to set his pole winning time of 1m49.460s, edging his new teammate Colton Herta, #98, PR1 Motorsports w/BHA
Curb-Agajanian entry sponsored by DVSshoeCompany, CurbRecords, Mygale N.America, OMP, BellHelmets, PenskeShocks, Mygale/Honda by just over two tenths of a second with Herta clocking in at 1m49.741s. Next up were the Lynx Racing duo of Alex Keyes, #32 and Andrew Evans, #19 in a pair of 2014 Spectrum/Hondas. This pair will be followed by four time Spec Racer Ford National Champion Mike Miserendino who has taken over the #89, Mygale SJ04/Honda, driven by Les Phillips in the opening weekend of the series, and Alex Kirby taking over #17, Piper/Honda vacated by
Bickers.

The Formula F2000 was led by Tom Hope lapped at 1m44.482s in his #18, H&M Racing, Dart, Carbir to take the pole by .17 of a second over Bob Negron #9, Terri Negron Web Design, fengshuimebaby.com, Van Diemen with Ira Fierberg, making his first appearance this season in his #27, Pinnacle Performance, Sparco USA, DFR, Van Diemen another .14 of a second back as all three drivers lapped under 1m45s. These three were followed by Les Phillips, back in his #2, Swiss Implants, Porterfield Brakes, Van Diemen, to defend his Master Class (drivers 51+), Peter West in his newly liveried #99, Frank Monise Motors, Zombo.com, Kodenko Jeans, T.J. Martell Foundation Van
Diemen and Jim Stewart, #38, True Ventures, Van Diemen.

Mid eighty degree temperatures greeted the field as they came to the green flag for the 2:40pm start and Joey Bickers took advantage of his pole position to take the lead of the Formula F1600 group as they set off on the first of the sixteen laps. Bickers was closely followed by Herta, Evans, Keyes, Miserendino and Kirby still getting acquainted with the Piper.

On lap two Miserendino had a spin at the Mazda hairpin and dropped to the rear of the field.

Bickers and Herta circulated nose to tail with both drivers careful to not abuse their tires, mindful that there were still two more races to be run on them, with Bickers just fast enough to hold Herta at bay and Herta unable to mount any kind of challenge as the two Mygales eased away from the field.

Bickers maintained his advantage over Herta for the entire race distance and took the checkered flag a mere .303s ahead. Bickers’ win was his first in the series and makes three different winners in three races. Though finishing in second position Herta was able to post the fastest race lap for the group.

The battle for third was almost as fraught as Evans and Keyes were never more than a second apart and Keyes never was able to get any closer as the race wore on and the pair of new Spectrum chassis’ finished third and fourth.

A lonely fifth place went to Kirby finally getting comfortable in the Piper and was followed to the Flag by Miserendino completing his first outing in the Mygale. In addition to his spin Miserendino’s late addition to the field meant he was unable to complete all of the modifications necessary to get him comfortable in the car and did a creditable job just the same.

The Formula F2000 group was led at the start by Tom Hope, his Carbir running flawlessly, Ira Fierberg who exhibited none of the rust associated with time spent out of the cockpit as he began his pursuit of Hope, who seemed to have everything going his way this weekend. Peter West held third and was followed by Phillips, Negron, who took a while to get going, and Stewart.

West was passed for third by Phillips on lap 4 and lost another place a lap later as Negron managed to get by as well. This lasted until lap 5, when Negron and Phillips got together at the Mazda hairpin, an incident that spun Phillips and caused Negron to get airborne, landing hard and damaging the right side suspension ending his race on the spot while Phillips ended up high centered on the curbing and was pushed to safety and his race was also over. This elevated West back to the third position he initially held and was able to maintain his third step on the podium to the finish.

Hope continued to lead as Fierberg continued to close in and apply some pressure, when on lap eleven Fierberg came by in the lead having passed Hope and it was now Hope’s turn in pursuit.

Fierberg began to pull a slight advantage but then Hope closed back in and after two laps in the lead Fierberg was passed and trailed Hope to the flag finishing 1.348s in arrears. Like Bickers, Hope’s victory was his first in the series and for the first time since Scott Rarick in his Piper, a chassis other than a Van Diemen had taken victory in the series. His victory also meant that Hope was the Expert Class (drivers 35-49) win while Fierberg’s second place meant that he was the Master Class winner and managed the fastest race lap.

Jim Stewart came home in fourth place to round out the finishers.

Because of the triple event format qualifying for round 4 has been determined by combining Saturday’s qualifying time added to the drivers fastest race laps and divided by 2 to give a one lap average speed. Based on this format Bickers had just enough advantage over Herta to claim the pole for Sunday’s first race while Fierberg managed to overcome Hopes advantage and will start from the pole Sunday morning.
Round 4 is scheduled to take the flag at 9:00 am Sunday morning with round 5 to follow at 1:30 in the afternoon.

The single-seat, open-wheel F2000 cars are powered by 2-liter Ford Zetec engines and run on Hankook tires supplied by Sierra Tire. The F1600 cars will be powered by either the 1500cc Honda Fit engine or the 1600cc Ford ‘Kent’ engine and will run on Hoosier tires.

F1600 Qualifying: 1. Joey Bickers (Mygale/Honda), 1m49.460s; 2. Colton Herta (Mygale/Honda), 1m49.471s; 3. 3. Alex Keyes, (Spectrum/Honda), 1m51.318; 4. Andrew Evans (Spectrum/Honda), 1m51.775s; 5. Mike Miserendino (Mygale SJ04/Honda), 1m52.871s; 6. Alex Kirby (Piper/Honda), 1m53.357s.

F1600 Round 1 (16 laps): 1. Bickers; 2. Herta +.303s; 3. Evans, +1 lap; 4. Keyes, +1 lap; 5. Kirby, +1 lap; 6. Miserendino, +1 lap.

F2000 Qualifying: 1. Tom Hope (06 Carbir), 1m44.82s; 2. Bob Negron (Van Diemen), 1m44.652s; 3. Ira Fierberg (Van Diemen), 1m44.792s; 4. Les Phillips (Van Diemen), 1m45.539s; 5. Peter West (Van Diemen), 1m46.455s; 6. Jim Stewart (Van Diemen), 1m48.971s.

F2000 Round 1 (16 laps): 1. Hope; 2. Fierberg, +1.348s; 3. West, +53.328s; 4. Stewart, +1m4.078s; 5. Phillips, +11 laps; 6. Negron, +11 laps.

Fastest race lap: F1600 Herta, 1m50.822s. F2000 Fierberg, 1m45.433s.
Expert class winner (over 35): F2000 Hope.
Master class winner (over 50): F2000 Fierberg.

The series can be followed at facebook.com/pacificformulafracing and twitter.com/PacificF2000.

For more details go to www.pacificf2000.com or contact Les Phillips at 661-764-5333, or by email, lesrace@aol.com.