Pacific Formula F1600 Round 3
Merrill Surprise Victor at Buttonwillow in Round Three
Buttonwillow, Calif. (April 26, 2014) – Round three of the Pacific Formula F1600/F2000 Championship was held Saturday at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on the 3.020 mile, 25A road course in Buttonwillow and was won by Thomas Merrill after a three position penalty was handed to race winner Nikita Lastochkin for passing under yellow.
The run groups, set by the sanctioning club, has split the F1600 from the F2000 cars this season and finds them running as FF’s in a group with FE’s, FV’s and F500.
Since rounds 1 and 2 at Fontana, three drivers have returned to the F1600 group for this event. Thomas Merrill will see his first action in the series since 2007 when he drove an F2000 Van Diemen for PR1 Motorsports finishing second to teammate Patrick Barrett in the championship. Thomas will be driving the #51, Fast Forward, Piper Race Cars, NOCO2, Speedbourne,NoBozoRacing, Hoosier Tire, Thomas Merrill Motorsports, Piper/Honda. Merrill won one of the most recent Majors races at Thunderhill Raceway Park prior to re-joining the series.
Ed Erlandson after challenging for the 2012 championship with a Swift/Ford, returns with Honda power in his #8, Artwork by Eli, Porter Racing, Swift DB6/Honda. Joining Erlandson will be James Stewart back in the F1600 group with the #89, True Ventures, Mygale/Honda, Dave Zurlinden in the #131 Pro Pack systems, Fast Forward Piper/Honda and Alex Kirby in the #15 LA Prep Inc. Piper/Honda and Chuck Horn in the #54 Isys engineering, Porter Racing Swift DB6/Honda.
PR1 Motorsports is fielding a single entry for Nikita Lastochkin, the #2 Russkaya Mekhanika, PR1 Motorsports Mygale/Honda. Lastochkin won round two of the series at Fontana.
The F1600 group was the last qualifying group on track for their 25 minute qualifying session that began at 11:30pm under clearing skies and warming temperatures. When the session began it was Lastochkin who set a pole time of 1m53.205s, nearly a second ahead of Merrill in the Piper and almost two seconds ahead of Kirby, who set his fastest time on his first timed lap. Horn was next followed by Zurlinden and Erlandson with Stewart rounding out the field.
Lastochkin lead away at the start with Merrill glued to his gearbox followed by Kirby, Horn, Erlandson and Stewart. Mechanical issues meant Zurlinden was unable to take the start.
Lastochkin and Merrill continued their duel at the front as the remaining runners fell further behind Merrill continuing to hound Lastochkin, trying to press him into a mistake. Lastochkin did not oblige Merrill and drove flawlessly to the end building a lead of over eleven seconds by the end.
Thomas Merrill’s return drive, also mistake free, was rewarded with a second place finish.
The battle for third place was finally decided in favor of Alex Kirby who spun and was passed by Horn on lap 4. Kirby kept pressing on and was able to get back by Horn on the eighth lap when Horn had a spin of his own to claim the final step on the podium.
Chuck Horn finished the race in fourth place which was enough to claim the Expert Class Victory. Horn was followed by Ed Erlandson in fifth and James Stewart in sixth.
After the race the stewards convened and decided to demote both Lastochkin and Kirby three places for passes made under yellow flag conditions. This resulted in the final order being Merrill, Horn, Erlandson, Lastochkin, Kirby and Stewart.
F1600 Qualifying: 1. Nikita Lastochkin, (Mygale/Honda-A), 1m53.205s; 2. Thomas Merrill, (Piper/Honda-H), 1m54.179s; 3. Alex Kirby, (Piper/Honda-A), 1m55.128s; 4. Chuck Horn, (Swift DB6/Honda), 1m55.886s; 5. Dave Zurlinden (Piper/Honda), 1m57.087s; 6. Ed Erlandson, (Swift DB6/Honda-A), 1m57.499s; 7. James Stewart, (Mygale/Honda-A), 1m58.932s. Tires: A-Avon, GGoodyear, H-Hoosier.
F1600 Round 3 (15 laps): 1. Merrill, +11.629s; 2. Horn, +1m07.692s; 3. Erlandson, +1m23.666s; 4. Lastochkin, +0; 5. Kirby, +26.380s; 6. Stewart, +1m46.131s; 7. Zurlinden, DNS.
Fastest race lap: Lastochkin, 1m53.399s.
Expert class winner (over 35): Horn.
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.
