Herta Repeats Morning Victory, Hope Cruises in Round Five

Buttonwillow, Calif. (May 19, 2013) – The third and final race of the weekend produced another victory for Colton Herta, his second of the day, in Formula F1600, and Tom Hope repeated his Saturday win in Formula F2000 in the Pacific Formula F1600/F2000 Championship Sunday afternoon at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. This weekend the series is running with CalClub as they celebrate 50 years of Formula Vees.

Grid positions for the afternoon race are to be the result of taking the aggregate of Saturdays round three qualifying and Sundays round four fastest race lap and determining an average one lap time.

The Formula F1600 group was led by Joey Bickers, #34, PR1 Motorsports Mygale/Honda claiming his third pole of the weekend. Colton Herta, #98, PR1 Motorsports w/BHA Curb-Agajanian entry sponsored by DVSshoeCompany, CurbRecords, Mygale N.America, OMP, BellHelmets, PenskeShocks, Mygale/Honda was second to be followed by Lynx Racing with teammates Alex Keyes, #32 and Andrew Evans, #19 in their Spectrum/Hondas, Mike Miserendino, #89, Mygale SJ04/Honda and Alex Kirby, #17, Piper/Honda.

In the Formula F2000 group, Tom Hope, as he did on Saturday, grabbed the pole in his #18, H&M Racing, Dart, Carbir. Bob Negron, #9,Terri Negron Web Design, fengshuimebaby.com, Van Diemen was second fastest with Peter West, #99, Frank Monise Motors, Zombo.com, Kodenko Jeans, T.J. Martell Foundation Van Diemen in third, Ira Fierberg #27, Pinnacle Performance, Sparco USA, DFR, Van Diemen in fourth and Jim Stewart, #38, True Ventures, Van Diemen in fifth. Les Phillips, #2, Swiss Implants, Porterfield Brakes, Van Diemen was unable to get the damage from the morning race
repaired in time to make the grid and was a non-starter.

Temperatures stayed in the low to mid eighties at the 1:35 pm start time as the pace car set off. Joey Bickers jumped into the lead in the Formula F1600 group ahead of Herta as this pair set off on the first of the sixteen laps that would make up this race. Behind them followed Keyes, Evans, Miserendino and Kirby.

The Mazda hairpin claimed two more victims with Evans and Kirby making contact and retiring on the opening lap reducing the field to four cars.

Unaware of what was going on behind them Bickers and Herta began a classic duel that contained no less than seven lead changes. The pair often mere inches apart set a blistering pace on the same tires they had used all weekend to demonstrate how two teammates and rivals with mutual respect, maturity and skill can circulate lap after lap at the edge of adhesion, pass and re-pass each other without contact for the duration of the 16 lap race and bring the cars home in the same condition as they left the grid. The race was an exciting exhibition with first Bickers leading with Herta on his
gearbox, then Herta was by to lead his share of the laps as this pattern repeated itself throughout.

The race ultimately came down to the last corner on the last lap as with tortured tires Herta and Bickers came into the Sunset corner for the last time braking on the limit and side by side, Herta on the inside, Bickers on the outside, Bickers tried to hold Herta tight in the corner to slow Herta’s exit speed to allow him a run at him to the finish. Bickers’ tires finally had had enough and he slid wide on exit with wheels at the very edge of the track and maybe a little beyond, lost just enough momentum to allow Herta to take the victory by 0.272 of a second. Bickers did manage to take the fastest lap honors as some consolation. The cooling down lap display of sportsmanship and mutual admiration
as the drivers saluted each other with waves and fist pumps was a reminder that in the end this is sport.

Behind the battle for the lead, Mike Miserendino, a former four time Spec Racer Ford National Champion, was coming to grips with the Mygale he sat in for the first time less than a week ago, began closing on Alex Keyes who was having a solid drive. On lap 6 Miserendino made his move and took over third place. Miserendino eased his way ahead of Keyes and took his first podium of the series with his third place finish. Keyes had another solid performance to finish fourth.

When the green flag fell for the Formula F2000 group, it was Tom Hope seizing the lead he would never relinquish. Behind Hope were DFR teammates Peter West in second, Ira Fierberg in third, and Jim Stewart in fourth with Bob Negron having retired before the completion of the first lap.

Hope drew away and the battle was for the runner-up position that West held until lap 4 when Fierberg got by. The positions remained static until the final lap when Fierberg received a puncture and with a deflating tire was bumped off of the second step of the podium by West who completed his best ever weekend in the series. West’s second place finish earned him the Master Class victory.

Hope finished 25.527 second ahead of second place and had a straightforward race to the finish. Hope doubled up by also claiming the Expert Class trophy.

Fierberg was third, the final step of podium and was followed by Stewart in fourth who again completed all of the race laps without incident

The next event of the series takes place in three weeks at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California on the weekend of June 8th and 9th.

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), 1m49.853s; 2. Colton Herta (Mygale/Honda),
1m49.959s; 3. 3. Alex Keyes, (Spectrum/Honda), 1m51.619; 4. Andrew Evans (Spectrum/Honda),
1m51.655s; 5. Mike Miserendino (Mygale SJ04/Honda), 1m52.748s; 6. Alex Kirby (Piper/Honda),
1m53.094s.

F1600 Round 5 (16 laps): 1. Herta; 2. Bickers +0.272s; 3. Miserendino, +1 lap; 4. Keyes, +1 lap; 5.
Evans, +16 laps; 6. Kirby, +16 laps.

F2000 Qualifying: 1. Tom Hope (06 Carbir), 1m44.835s; 2. Bob Negron (Van Diemen), 1m45.006s;
3. Peter West (Van Diemen), 1m47.151s; 4. Ira Fierberg (Van Diemen), 1m47.914s; 5. Les Phillips
(Van Diemen), 1m48.338s; 6. Jim Stewart (Van Diemen), 1m49.271s.

F2000 Round 5 (16 laps): 1. Hope; 2. West, +25.527s; 3. Fierberg, +34.157s; 4. Stewart,
+1m20.746s; 5. Negron, +16 laps.

Fastest race lap: F1600 Bickers, 1m51.170s. F2000 Hope, 1m46.314s.
Expert class winner (over 35): F2000 Hope.
Master class winner (over 50): F2000 West.

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.