O’Ward Wins Fourth Straight, Herta Victorious for the Ninth Time in Round 14

Las Vegas, NV. (October 6, 2013) – Round 14 of the Pacific Formula F1600/F2000 Championship Series was Sunday morning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway saw Patricio O’Ward claim his fourth consecutive victory pacing the F2000 group and Colton Herta win his ninth race and with it clinch the F1600 series title. The series is racing with the Vintage Auto Racing Association during the Datsun-Porsche Shootout Event.

The 8:40am race was held under sunny skies and with no breeze began heating up quickly as the pace car set off leading the field to the green flag, the grid being set by the finishing order of round 13.

The F1600 group was lead to the green by Colton Herta in his #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 and Joey Bickers, #34, PR1 Motorsports Mygale/Honda.

This pair was followed by Alex Keyes, #32 and Andrew Evans, #19, both in Spectrum/Hondas for Lynx Racing, newcomer Tazio Ottis in the #17, HPD, Piper Honda for Cameron Racing and Les Phillips, returning to the #89 Swiss Motorsports, Porterfield Brakes, Mygale SJ04/Honda.

Saturday’s winner Patricio O’Ward led the F2000 field driving his #6 POW Motorsports, Pequeneces, DFR Van Diemen. O’Ward was followed by 2012 Series Champion Bobby Kelley driving the #2, DFR Van Diemen, Ira Fierberg in his #27, Pinnacle Performance, Sparco USA, DFR, Van Diemen, Bob Negron, #9,Terri Negron Web Design, fengshuimebaby.com, Van Diemen Peter Hastrup, #62, Western Building Materials, DFR Van Diemen, Peter West, #99, Frank Monise Motors, Zombo.com, Kodenko Jeans, T.J. Martell Foundation, DFR Van Diemen and Tom Hope, #18, H&M Racing, Dart, Carbir.

O’Ward took seized the lead as the green flag waved and immediately began to draw away from the field. Kelley claimed second and was followed by Negron who managed to edge ahead of Fierberg, this pair fighting for the championship, West, Hope and Hastrup.

On lap two Hope passed West for fifth place as the field began to string out. The race settled down as the field strung out and the order was to remain to the end with O’Ward taking the victory by 14.881 seconds ahead of Kelley in second place.

For the second race, Kelley finished in second place this time hampered by a stripped bolt on the front wing mounting pylon causing the wing to become dislodged with a handful of laps remaining and still managed a strong second place finish.

Third place went to Bob Negron, who having beat Fierberg into turn one, was able to outdistance his rival for the championship and closing the points gap to one with this afternoons race to decide the title. Negron also claimed the Master Class win.

Fierberg drove steadily to a fourth place finish, seemingly not able to stay with Negron but also under no threat from behind and perhaps able to conserve his tires for the final showdown.

Fifth place went to Peter West, having one of his best seasons. West was followed to the flag by his Dave Freitas Racing teammate Peter Hastrup in sixth and rounding out the field in seventh was Tom Hope, whose long run of mechanical issues continued as he stopped in the pits just as the white flag came out to begin the final lap. He did manage to claim the expert class win which was of little consolation.

Colton Herta again made an excellent start seizing the lead of the F1600 group and went on to win, leading every lap. Joey Bickers held second place until the right hand turn at the end of the back straight when the car under-steered off course dropping him back to fourth place behind the two Spectrum/Hondas of Alex Keyes and Andrew Evans and ahead of Phillips and Ottis.

Herta led virtually unchallenged to the finish being able to maintain the gap to the second placed Keyes. Herta claimed the fastest race lap and the series title with one race remaining.

Alex Keyes, who has been consistently improving throughout the course of the season, never put a wheel wrong to take second place, his highest finish of the season. Keyes pace this weekend has been much improved as he tries to close the gap between himself and the leading Mygales.

Bickers moved up to third on lap four after chasing down Evans and began his pursuit of Keyes in second. He was never able to catch Keyes, almost fell back into the clutches of Evans and went on to finish third.

Andrew Evans had much better pace today and drove well to finish fourth followed by Les Phillips and Tazio Ottis finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

The series now has the final race on Sunday at 12:50pm with the Overall and Master Class Championship still to be decided.

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 Toyo tires.

F1600 Qualifying (round 14): 1. Colton Herta (Mygale/Honda); 2. Alex Keyes, (Spectrum/Honda); 3. Joey Bickers (Mygale/Honda); 4. Andrew Evans (Spectrum/Honda); 5. Les Phillips (Mygale SJ04/Honda); 6. Tazio Ottis (Piper/Honda).
F1600 Round 14 (15 laps): 1. Herta; 2. Keyes, +9.269s; 3. Bickers, +19.128s; 4. Evans, +20.480; 5. Phillips, +1 lap; 6. Ottis, +1 lap.

F2000 Qualifying (round 14): 1. Patricio O’Ward (Van Diemen; 2. Bobby Kelley (Van Diemen); 3. Ira Fierberg (Van Diemen); 4. Bob Negron (Van Diemen); 5. Peter Hastrup (Van Diemen); 6. Peter West (Van Diemen); 7. Tom Hope (Carbir).
F2000 Round 14 (16 laps): 1. O’Ward; 2. Kelley, +14.881s; 3. Negron, +23.469s; 4. Fierberg, +28.441s; 5. West, +57.268s; 6. Hastrup, +1m01.001s; 7. Hope, +1 lap.

Fastest race lap: F1600 Herta, 1m32.022s. F2000 O’Ward, 1m24.646s.
Expert class winner (over 35): F1600 Phillips, F2000 Hope.
Master class winner (over 50): F2000 Negron.

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.