Laguna Seca Round 7 results
Monterey, California (June 3, 2017) - The Pacific F2000 Series circus rolled into Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with one of the biggest fields in the past 10 years. Not only did they bring a full complement of Zetec powered Van Diemens but also a nice assortment of National Class Pinto powered vehicles. With weather perfect as it usually is this time of year, the three day event looked to be a great one, and it did not disappoint.
Qualifying for Saturday’s race took place Friday afternoon, with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees and with a slight breeze out of the south. Tim de Silva threw down fast lap first in his DFR prepared RF-01 #61 Van Diemen. With wins in the last four events here and the track record under his belt, most knew he would be tough to contend with. The surprise of qualifying had to be Canadian Mitch Egner in the #14 Nick Belling prepared VD. With zero laps at Laguna before Friday's morning practice, Mitch put a lap up quick enough to come within .3 of de Silva at sessions end, a monumental achievement. Rounding out the top 3 was 2015 series champion Tom Hope in his 2003 H&M Racing Dart Van Diemen, only .6 off pole. 2013 series champion Bob Negron and the number #51 of Scott Vreeland in the Redhorse Constructors/Porter Racing RF-01 rounded out the top 5.
The green flag dropped at 11:50 am and with that Tim de Silva was gone. His first few laps were blistering and he built a sizable lead in the first half of the race. Behind him many battles were taking place. Egner, while defending early from the attacks of Hope, slowly pulled away and got into the groove, putting down some very respectable times, getting within .2 of Tim's fast lap. Tom Hope's car was working well, and he too pulled away from the field behind him. At some point, realizing that a top 2 was unlikely, he went into conservation mode, saving his Pirelli tires for the race coming up Sunday. Bob Negron and Scott Vreeland were battling it out at this point, with Negron ending up securing the 4th spot.
Behind the top 5, Paul Rodler of San Rafael in the #68 Van Diemen, Peter West in his DFR RF-03 and and another DFR car driven by Las Vegas’ Jason Reichert, the #32 RPMx Sponsored Van Diemen, were all going at it. In tow were Harin de Silva (our leader’s father) Gavin Aitken of Canada, Jefferey Pietz who was making his 2017 series debut, along with a gaggle of other Zetecs and Pinto Powered cars.
With the race winding down and a few laps left, something bizarre took place. The leader, de Silva started slowing. At the same time the 99 car of West also looked off the pace. What happened was the stuff of nightmares. The DFR team had been informed before the start of the race by race officials that the event was going to be 25 min flag to flag. That turned out to not be the case. Running the numbers, the team decided to get “fancy” and pull fuel out for the race. Once the 25 min. mark came and went the team knew that they were in trouble. With a race that ended up lasting over 31 minutes the last few laps were “pulling hair out” nail biting for the Whittier based team. While de Silva made it across the line on fumes for the win, followed by Egner and Hope, sadly the 99 of Peter West ran out just short of the line, costing him 6th place.
Troy Tinsley crossed the line in 11th overall to take the win in the National class. Tinsley was closely trailed by 2nd place National driver William Jordanov. Paul MacFarlane rounded out the National class podium.
Tim de Silva - #61 DFR Van Diemen “The car the guys gave me today was on rails, maybe even better than the car from last year we set the record with, but the track was slightly off. Maybe they can use the prize money to get me more fuel for tomorrow, lol. Thank you to my parents for letting me come out here and do this, without them I’d be under the tent waxing Dave’s cars watching the Races”
This season the Pacific F2000 Championship series is included in the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200,000.00 Scholarship Shootout. The winner of the knockout style shootout will be provided with a $200,000.00 Mazda Scholarship to enter the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda in 2018 - the first rung in the Mazda Road to Indy ladder sanctioned by INDYCAR. The Mazda Road to Indy is the only driver development program of it's type in the world offering a clear, scholarship-funded path to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500. The Pacific F2000 series has a rich history and includes among it's alumni drivers J.R. Hildebrand, 2011 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and current driver of the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Indy car, and Dane Cameron, Weathertech series Prototype and GTD Champion, Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires 2016 runner-up Patricio O'Ward, current Pro Mazda driver Nikita Lastochkin and Yufeng Luo, who also won the SCCA Championship in FC in 2016 and is currently driving in the Pirelli World Challenge.
Pacific F2000 round 7 qualifying: 1) Timothy deSilva 1:27.712, 2) Mitch Egner 1:28.090, 3) Tom Hope 1:28.361, 4) Bob Negron 1:29.245, 5) Scott Vreeland 1:29.639, 6) Paul Rodler NP 1:30.677, 7) Jason Reichert 1:30.859 8) Peter West 1:31.091,
9) Gavin Aitken 1:31.274, 10) Harindra deSilva 1:32.644, 11) Jeffrey Pietz 1:34.693, 12) Paul Marino 1:34.911, 13) Troy Tinsley N 1:35.372 14) William Jordanov N 1:35.461, 15) Lyn Greenhill NP 1:36.221, 16) Sterling Ellsworth NP 1:37.311, 17) Paul MacFarlane N 1:40.084, 18) Ken Rozeboom NP no time
Pacific F2000 round 7 results: 1) Timothy deSilva, 2) Mitch Egner -5.772, 3) Tom Hope -21.302 4) Bob Negron -31.415, 5) Scott Vreeland -39.856, 6) Jason Reichert -1:15.271, 7) Paul Rodler NP -1:18.080 8) Harindra deSilva 1:24.611, 9) Gavin Aitken -1:37.005, 10) Jeffrey Pietz -1 lap, 11) Troy Tinsley -1 lap 12) William Jordanov -1 lap, 13) Paul Marino -1lap, 14) Ken Rozeboom NP -1 lap, 15) Lyn Greenhill -1 lap, 16) Peter West -2 laps, 17) Sterling Ellsworth NP -2 laps 18) Paul MacFarlane -2 laps
All cars Van Diemen Chassis, cars with N designation National class use Pinto motors, all others Zetec. Cars with NP designation earned no points. All Zetec entries on Pirelli DM compound radial tires.
