Laguna Seca Round 8 results and updated points
Monterey, California (June 4, 2017) – Round 8 of the Pacific F2000 Championship started with a bang, and not just Tim ‘TLP’ de Silva going for his 5th win of the season. Starting from pole, de Silva had everything going his way at his home race as he tried to back up his efforts from yesterday’s win. In a spectacular show of talent, Mitch Egner stared second both days in his first attempt at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit, but this was not the surprise of the day.
A fairly uneventful start led to lap 2, and the biggest crash of the season. Gavin Aitken attempted a late braking pass on Paul Rodler for P8, who had already been overtaken by Peter West. West was on the charge due to a poor start from qualifying headaches. Aitken, who realized the pass was too late in the braking zone, attempted to avoid contact, but ended up catching the left rear wheel of Peter West at the first apex of the Turn 2. West launched over Aitken, landing upside down on the roll bar, sliding into the gravel. As the 99 car of West came to a stop, a gasoline fire started that saw Aitken and another competitor, Jack Barringer stop on track to help Peter West. Thankfully, West emerged from the wreck with minor injuries and will be able to complete the Pacific F2000 Championship. For his efforts, Aitken earned the ‘Competitor of the Day” award by SCCA officials. An emotional West explained, “I’m grateful to my competitors who put themselves in harm’s way to help and the safety crews who were able to extract me. We were fast this weekend which makes the pill that much harder to swallow, but I’m grateful to be standing here ready to race again.”
After an 8 minute red flag, the field formed behind the safety car to complete the remaining race distance. The restart saw Paul McFarlane stall, but rejoin the race before the restart. Tim de Silva yet again drove away from Egner albeit not quite as quickly as the prior day (maybe pulling out fuel does make a difference). Hope was able to find speed early after the restart, but didn’t have anything for Tim or Egner later in the race. Hope explained “The Dart crew made some changes for the today’s race that gave us speed early on but we did not work well on the hot track, particularly on turn in” Hope continued, “We know where we have to be and the level of competition, particularly here at Laguna, is extremely high. To say we are doing our homework would be an understatement.” Hope was able to hold off a late race charge by Scott Vreeland who drove an extremely solid race, just missing out on the final step of the podium and one spot ahead of the prior day. Another solid race by Bob Negron saw him right behind Vreeland and Hope at the finish. Based on Negron’s late race speed, look for Negron to be strong at the next event.
Las Vegas rookie Jason Reichert was impressive all weekend with clean consistent races. Reichert lamented, “I’m happy with my improvement but gutted I missed my goal of 5th place this weekend” the rookie continued, “The summer is a great opportunity to apply what I’ve learned and come back in the top 5 for the last 4 races. We will be in contention (for a podium) at the September event.” The confident rookie held off a fantastic drive by Harin de Silva who couldn’t find a way past despite showing terrific gains from the day before.
William Jordanov crossed the line 1st in the National class, breaking Troy Tinsley's three race winning streak. Tinsley followed in 2nd, and Paul MacFarlane again claimed 3rd.
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 8 qualifying: 1)Timothy deSilva 1:27.625, 2) Mitch Egner 1:28.936, 3) Tom Hope 1:29.334, 4) Scott Vreeland 1:29.761, 5) Bob Negron 1:29.920, 6) Paul Rodler NP 1:30.081, 7) Gavin Aitken 1:30.491, 8) Jason Reichert 1:30.688, 9) Peter West 1:31.134, 10) Harindra deSilva 1:32.374, 11) Jeffrey Pietz 1:34.082, 12) William Jordanov N 1:34.222, 13) Paul Marino 1:34.232, 14) Ken Rozeboom NP 1:34.522, 15) Troy Tinsley N 1:34.933, 16) Lyn Greenhill NP 1:35.347, 17) Sterling Ellsworth NP 1:36.316, 18) Paul MacFarlane N 1:40.285
Pacific F2000 round 8 results: 1) Timothy deSilva, 2) Mitch Egner -10.813, 3) Tom Hope -17.155, 4) Scott Vreeland -18.251, 5) Bob Negron -18.942, 6) Jason Reichert -48.402, 7) Harindra deSilva -49456, 8) Jeffrey Pietz -1:01.676, 9) Ken Rozeboom NP -1:02.214, 10) William Jordanov N -1:06.293, 11) Troy Tinsley N -1:21.099, 12) Paul Marino -1:21.868, 13) Sterling Ellsworth NP 1 lap, 14) Lyn Greenhill NP -1lap, 15) Paul MacFarlane N -1 lap, 16) Paul Rodler NP -2 laps, 17) Peter West -14laps, 18) Gavin Aitken -14 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.
Pacific F2000 points after 8 rounds: 1) Tim deSilva 182, 2) Tom Hope 182, 3) Bob Negron 165, 4) Mitch Egner 157, 5) Jason Reichert 106, 6) Harin deSilva 105, 7) Peter West 90, 8) Gavin Aitken 74, 9) Scott Vreeland 62, 10) Nick Kodenko 61, 11) Scott Huffaker 47, 12) Robert Armington 44, 13) Bill Kincaid 37, 14) Les Phillips 31, 15) Bruna Tomaselli 28, 16) Jeffrey Pietz 25, 17) Sterling Ellsworth 24, 18) Paul Marino 23, 19) Ira Fierberg 13 20) Justice Lepe 1
National Class Points: 1) Troy Tinsley 127, 2) Paul MacFarlane 91, 3) William Jordanov 59, 4) Kim Willcox 25
