Bickers Notches Second Series Victory, Fierberg’s Fontana Win Streak Reaches Six in Round Eight

Fontana, Calif. (June 9, 2013) – Joey Bickers outdueled Colton Herta to take his second series victory in the Formula F1600 group and Ira Fierberg made it an even half dozen consecutive victories at Auto Club Speedway in the Formula F2000 group in the third and final race of the weekend for the Pacific Formula F1600/F2000 Championship Series, run on the 2.880 mile infield road course at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday in Fontana, California.

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

Colton Herta, in the #98, PR1 Motorsports w/BHA Curb-Agajanian entry sponsored by DVS shoe Company, Curb Records, Mygale N. America, OMP, Bell Helmets, Penske Shocks, Mygale/Honda was yet again on pole, as he has continued to produce the fastest times of the group, ahead of PR1 Motorsports teammate Joey Bickers, #34, PR1 Motorsports Mygale/Honda. The second row of the grid was all Lynx Racing with teammates Alex Keyes, #32 and Andrew Evans, #19 side by side in their Spectrum/Hondas. They will be followed by Dave Zurlinden, #31, Fast Forward, Pro Pack Systems, Piper/Honda, Alex Kirby, #81, Fast Forward Components, Piper DF5/Honda, Mike Miserendino, #89, Mygale SJ04/Honda newcomer Roy Steele, #17 Piper/Honda.

Ira Fierberg took his third straight pole, leading the Formula F2000 group in his #27, Pinnacle Performance, Sparco USA, DFR, Van Diemen. Starting on the front row with Fierberg in the #18, H&M Racing, Dart, Carbir was Tom Hope. Les Phillips, #2, Swiss Implants, Porterfield Brakes, Van Diemen leads the second row alongside Bob Negron, #9,Terri Negron Web Design, fengshuimebaby.com, Van Diemen and followed by Peter West, #99, Frank Monise Motors, Zombo.com, Kodenko Jeans, T.J. Martell Foundation Van Diemen, and Harindra DeSilva, #6, DFR Van Diemen. Jim Stewart was unable to take the start in his #38, True Ventures, Van Diemen as he was unable to complete repairs in time.

The early morning overcast had burned off leaving partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures as the 10:55am start time approached. When the green flag waved it was Ira Fierberg, who asserted himself to lead the Formula F2000 group as they turned off the banking on the first of the fourteen scheduled laps. Fierberg was followed by Tom Hope, Bob Negron, Peter West, Les Phillips and Harindra DeSilva.

Lap two saw Phillips pit and drop to the rear of the field while the order remained unchanged until lap four when Negron passed Hope as the pair chased Fierberg and then on lap five DeSilva moved past West into fourth place. From that point on Fierberg managed to lead with enough of a gap to protect against any challenge and held his lead to the end to claim a remarkable sixth consecutive victory. Fierberg claimed another Master Class win and the fastest race lap.

Now in second, Negron fought tenaciously to try to catch the leader, pushing so hard as to lock-up during braking for turn 12 on a couple of occasions, and did manage to bring the gap down but not enough to challenge and took a hard earned second place finish.

Hope finished in third with a very rough sounding engine due to injector troubles but collected enough points to continue to lead the championship and still take the Expert Class honors. DeSilva came home in fourth place and was followed by West and Phillips.

The Formula F1600 group took the green flag and it was Joey Bickers in the lead as they completed their first lap. Bickers was followed closely by Keyes, Herta and Evans with Steele, Kirby, Zurlinden and Miserendino following.

Order was restored on lap two when Herta moved into second position ahead of Evans, Keyes, Steele, Zurlinden and Kirby with Miserendino having retired. The race developed into two two-car battles between teammates of the PR1 Motorsports and Lynx Racing teams with Bickers leading Herta and Evans ahead of Keyes both battles equally close and equally compelling as the pairs of teammates swapped positions several times as these two car duos pushed them comfortable ahead of the remaining runners. Zurlinden retired on lap six and Steele, in only his third race in the series drove inspired to hold off Kirby the pair running in fifth and sixth.

Bickers lead all but three laps as he withstood the attacks by Herta and hold on to win by just 0.026s. Herta claimed the fastest lap and with the bonus points allowed Bickers to gain only one point in the championship chase. It was a satisfying win for Bickers as he had been so close in each of his losses. Bickers now trails Herta by 31 points and needs to maximize his efforts to close the gap.

The Lynx Racing pair of Alex Keyes and Andrew Evans showed that they had the tools to battle at the sharp end of the grid, as they had all weekend as they fought for the final step on the podium. This time it was Evans who prevailed to take third with a strong drive. The pair admit there is work to be done to catch the PR1 duo but are making advances with each race.

Fifth place went to having passed Steele on the twelfth lap and Steele in sixth, with a strong effort which also earned him the Expert Class win and Kirby in sixth.

The series is now off for a seven week mid-season break and returns to action July 27th and 28th at Buttonwillow Raceway Park and returns to its double race format for rounds nine and ten.

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. Colton Herta (Mygale/Honda), 1m44.303s; 2. Joey Bickers (Mygale/Honda), 1m44.688s; 3. Alex Keyes, (Spectrum/Honda), 1m45.667; 4. Andrew Evans (Spectrum/Honda), 1m45.883s; 5. Dave Zurlinden (Piper/Honda), 1m46.705s; 6. Alex Kirby (Piper/Honda), 1m46.997s; 7. Mike Miserendino (Mygale SJ04/Honda), 1m47.252s; 8. Roy Steele (Piper/Honda), 1m48.323s.

F1600 Round 8 (14 laps): 1. Bickers; 2. Herta +0.026s; 3. Evans, +28.408s; 4. Keyes, +29.898s; 5. Kirby, +1 lap; 6. Steele, +1 lap, 7. Zurlinden, +9 laps; 8. Miserendino, +13 laps.

F2000 Qualifying: 1. Ira Fierberg (Van Diemen), 1m40.491s; 2. Tom Hope (Carbir), 1m40.743s; 3. Les Phillips (Van Diemen), 1m41.038s;; 4. Bob Negron (Van Diemen), 1m41.351s; 4. Peter West (Van Diemen), 1m41.652s; 6. Harindra DeSilva (Van Diemen), 1m42.441s; 7. Jim Stewart (Van Diemen), 1m46.219s.

F2000 Round 8 (14 laps): 1. Fierberg; 2. Negron, +0.516s; 3. Hope, +16.313s; 4. DeSilva, +23.587s; 5. West, +38.430s; 6. Phillips, +2 laps; 7. Stewart, +14 laps.

Fastest race lap: F1600 Herta, 1m45.478s. F2000 Fierberg, 1m41.617s.
Expert class winner (over 35): F1600 Steele, 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.