Pacifc F2000 Round 10 Laguna Seca
Pacific F2000 Round 10 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca September 3, 2017
[SIZE=3]Malibu, Ca 9/6/17 For Immediate Release
[/SIZE][SIZE=3]After two days of sweltering, humid conditions, there was a bit of relief on Sunday with temperatures of only about 100 degrees fahrenheit and a bit of a breeze. After the Saturday afternoon qualiying session the grid was set for Round 10. Once again, Mitch Egner would be on pole with a time of 1:28.728 that would put him 1.6 secs. ahead of second place Scott Vreeland. The second row would consist of rookie Jason Reichert in third and the steadily improving Paul Marino in fourth. On row three, Tom Hope would start fifth after struggling with an intermittent misfire in qualifying. Sixth place Paul Rodler's car would fail to fire on the grid, ending his day. The inside of the fourth row was occupied by Jeffrey Pietz after repairs were made following his crash on Saturday with Gavin Aitken (who sadly did not have the resources to get his car fixed in time). Outside on the fourth row was Peter West, who was determined not to repeat his mistake from Saturday. The fifth row contained William Jordanov in the first of the Pinto engined National Class cars and Lyn Greenhill. Further back were Troy Tinsley and Paul Macfarlane in the other two National class cars. Not starting would be Nick Kodenko as he had blown a motor in practice on Friday, and Gavin Aitken, who had suffered unrepairable damage in a crash during Saturday's race.
With valuable points on offer ahead of the season finale, the entire field seemed to be focused on making up positions at the start of this race. As the field got the green flag, two groups of cars went three wide through the turn two Andretti hairpin. After exiting the corner, the beneficiaries of the start proved to be Egner, who was pulling away in the lead, and Tom Hope, who went from fifth to second, as well as Peter West, who pulled himself up from seventh to fifth. Scott Vreeland was the big loser at the start, as he got stuck on the outside of turn two and went from second to seventh. As the caution free race continued, Egner pulled away from Tom Hope by a second a lap. Vreeland went on a charge, getting by Peter West for fifth place. As Vreeland caught Reichert he became acutely aware that this youngster learns from his experience. For five laps Vreeland and Reichert battled for fourth spot. As Reichert stayed left in turn two, Vreeland tried the outside which gave him the inside line into turn three. Reichert duplicated the feat Vreeland had peformed on Saturday by completing the pass around the outside in turn three. Reichert was forced to defend his position as Vreeland made multiple attempts to overtake the rookie. Several times the two went side by side through the eleventh and final corner. Finally, Vreeland was able to make the pass in turn two on lap nine and set off in pursuit of third place Paul Marino. Marino would show that he is not the only rookie learning in this series. Improving his fast lap by over a second from the day prior would be too much for Vreeland to overcome. Marino went on to score his first Pacific F2000 podium behind his teammate, second place Tom Hope. Behind Vreeland in fourth, rookie Jason Reichert was fifth, followed by his Dave Freitas Racing teammate Peter West in sixth. Seventh place William Jordanov was the winner of the National class. Eighth overall, and second in the National class was Troy Tinsley, who was the hard charger of the race making up quite a few positions. Ninth place Lyn Greenhill was trailed by Paul MacFarlane in tenth, who rounded ot the National class podium. Jeffrey Pietz was credited with eleventh after having a motor expire six laps from the checker.
This event was the last for the Pacific F2000 National Class Championship. Troy Tinsley came away with the Championship, followed by Paul MacFarlane in second, William Jordanov in third and Kim Wilcox in forth. Congratulations to Troy on winning the Championship, and thanks to all the National class drivers who raced with us this year.
Mitch Egner scored two pole positions, two race wins and two fastest laps to earn maximum points on the weekend. He is now four points behind Championship leader Tom Hope. Tim deSilva and Bob Negron are still contenders for the overall, and there are several other intense points battles, some seperated by as little as one point. The season finale October 28-29 at Auto Club Speedway should be a fantastic race weekend!
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.
Round 10 Qualifying:
1) Mitch Egner 1:28.728, 2) Scott Vreeland 1:30.401, 3) Jason Reichert 1:31.005, 4) Paul Marino 1:31.291, 5) Tom Hope 1:32.205, 6) Paul Rodler 1:32.929. 7) Jeffrey Pietz 1:34.187, 8) Peter West 1:34.889, 9) William Jordanov 1:35.313, 10) Lyn Greenhill 1:35.521, 11) Troy Tinsley no time 12) Paul MacFarlane no time 13) Nick Kodenko no time, 14) Gavin Aitken no time
Round 10 Results:
1) Mitch Egner 2) Tom Hope -17.69 3) Paul Marino -24.169 4) Scott Vreeland -27.734 5) Jason Reichert -35.149 6) Peter West -78.388 7) William Jordanov -1 lap 8) Troy Tinsley -1 lap 9) Lyn Greenhill -1 lap 10) Paul MacFarlane -1 lap 11) Jeffrey Pietz -6 laps 12) Paul Rodler DNS 13) Nick Kodenko DNS 14) Gavin Aitken DNS
To get more information and view current point standings please visit www.pacificf2000.com
[/SIZE]
