Buttonwillow Raceway Park Hosts Series Rounds 11 and 12

Buttonwillow, Calif. (September 6, 2013) – The final third of the season begins this weekend, September 7 and 8, as the Pacific Formula F2000/F1600 Championship returns to Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow California for a pair of races on the 2.920 mile course. For the drivers every position, every point becomes more valuable as the season winds down, the championship nears and the pressure intensifies with just five races remaining. The pressure is not only on the driver but the teams as well as painstaking preparations take place to give the drivers the best opportunity for victory.

The series, for both F1600 and F2000 cars and has attracted some of the finest talent on the west coast competing in a fifteen races series held over six race weekends. The competitors will count their top thirteen finishes toward the championship.

The Formula F1600 group is headed by PR1 Motorsports with a pair of 2012 Mygale/Hondas for Colton Herta and Joey Bickers closely followed by Lynx Racing running two 2013 Spectrum/Hondas for Andrew Evans and Alex Keyes.

Colton Herta, the son of Bryan Herta, the race-winning IndyCar driver and Indianapolis 500 winning team owner, driving the #98 PR1 Motorsports w/BHA Curb-Agajanian entry sponsored by DVSshoeCompany, CurbRecords, Mygale N.America, OMP, BellHelmets, PenskeShocks, Mygale/Honda has won six of the ten races held and leads the championship by thirty-five points.

Joey Bickers has won the other four and most recently was named one of the six finalists for the Team USA Scholarship and looks to challenge Herta to the final lap of the series in Las Vegas.

Lynx Racing is supporting Andrew Evans and Alex Keyes in a pair of new 2013 Spectrum chassis powered by Honda engines. Both Evans and Keyes building on their successes during their karting days are showing tremendous progress this season and have benefitted from their association with Lynx Racing.

Sage Marie will be making his return to the series in his Honda Racing, HPD, Piper DF5/Honda. This will be Marie’s first appearance this season and has a long association with HPD.

Another new entry this weekend will be Mike McCarthy driving the #89, Bertram Ink, H & M Motorsports Mygale SJ04/Honda.

The F2000 field has four competitors within 40 points of each other, each hoping to claim the championship at season’s end. Led by Tom Hope, #18 H&M Racing, Dart, Carbir with a slim 15 point lead over Ira Fierberg, #27 Sparco, Pinnacle Performance, LDF, Dave Freitas Racing Van Diemen followed by Bob Negron, another point behind Fierberg, in the #9, Terri Negron Web Design, fengshuimebaby.com, Van Diemen and Peter West in a second Dave Freitas Racing entry, the #99 Frank Monise Motors, Zombo.com, Kodenko Jeans, T.J. Martell Foundation Van Diemen.

Dave Freitas Racing from Santa Fe Springs, CA. in addition to Fierberg and West is also fielding an entry for series veteran Peter Hastrup with a fourth entry for Patricio O’Ward. Hastrup will be in his familiar #5 Western Building Materials, Van Diemen, while O’Ward will be in the #6 POW Motorsports, Pequeneces, DFR Van Diemen.

Hastrup makes his first appearance this season after several years running under the DFR banner and for O’Ward this will be his series debut.

Defending Masters Class Champion Les Phillips, #2, Swiss Implants, Porterfield Brakes Van Diemen and James Stewart, #38 True Ventures, Van Diemen will round out the field. Phillips finished on the podium in the last two rounds and Stewart returns to F2000 class after a brief stint in F1600.

Qualifying for round 11 begins at 8:30am with the race to follow at 12:30am Saturday. The round 12 race is scheduled for 9:15am Sunday.

The single-seat, open-wheel F2000 cars are powered by 2-liter Ford Zetec engines and are capable of speeds in excess of 140 mph. All cars run on Hankook tires supplied by Sierra Tire. The F1600 cars will be powered by either the 1500cc Honda Fit engine or the venerable 1600cc Ford ‘Kent’ engine and will run on Hoosier tires.

Series sponsors include VP Racing fuels, Sierra Tire, Corsa Car Care, Porterfield Brakes, Wine Country Motorsports, Aerocraft Fiberglass & Design, and Buttonwillow Raceway.

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