Written by Monty Mathisen F2000 Championship Series 24 July 2011 Remy Audette passed Chris Livengood on a restart and held on for his fourth win of 2011, starting from fourth and avoiding a massive opening lap incident at the front of the field that produced a lengthy caution period. Livengood started from pole and finished second ahead of Dwight Rider for Front Range Motorsports, Angel Benitez for Alegra Motorsports, and Dave Weitzenhof, in the Citation chassis. “We tried to be smart at the start,” said Canadian Audette. “I went to the outside and saw cars hitting one another. Then on the restart, coming out of turn ten, Chris spun his tires and I was able to get a run on him. From there I never looked back.” For Audette, it was his fourth win of the season and tenth straight top-seven finish in ten races in 2011, and his second win at Mosport in the F2000 Championship Series, much to the delight of the huge Canadian crowd on hand. With Kyle Connery failing to finish, Audette opens a huge gap in the points over Livengood, who moves into second ahead of Connery. Without drops, Audette leads the standings by 104 points over Livengood, also setting fast lap during the race for two more points. Livengood notches another second place at Mosport, matching Friday’s result, and adds bonus points for pole. “I came around on the restart, got on the gas and the car just understeered,” explained Livengood, who won at Mid-Ohio earlier in July. “I have a hard time keeping pick-up off the tires, it just understeered and Remy drove by. Mosport spoiled what should have been two wins this weekend.” Dwight Rider rounded off the podium, taking the Masters Class win with a third place effort in the 30-minute time-window race for Colorado-based Front Range Motorsports. “Going into turn one on the start I was on the inside and there was just enough room to squeeze through, everyone seemed to be getting tangled,” Rider said. “On the restart I pushed as hard as I could but we didn’t have anything for Remy or Chris.”
An opening lap turn one incident triggered a multi-car crash also involving Kyle Connery, Robert La Rocca, Zach Craigo, Tim Minor, Brent Gilkes and Dan Denison and produced an extremely lengthy caution period. Up until the incident, Craigo was having a banner weekend for Front Range Motorsports, with his best qualifying and race results in F2000 to date. Connery, meanwhile, had cut sizably into Audette’s Championship lead margin with a win on Friday at the 10-turn road course. Tim Paul, Craig Clawson, Bill Jordan, Fred Bross and Robert Wright completed the top ten. CellMark Paper Hard Charger honors went to Dave Weitzenhof, who improved 10 positions during round 10 of the F2000 season at Mosport. Tom Drake missed the start following an engine issue during qualifying. Matt McDonough continued development work with the Radon chassis, starting from the rear of the pack after qualifying sixth. The F2000 Championship Series continue with rounds 11 and 12 of 14 at Lime Rock Park, September 16-17 with the NASCAR Modifieds.
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Written by Monty Mathisen F2000 23 July 2011 Chris Livengood missed out on a race win to Kyle Connery on Friday at Mosport but bounced back for the Saturday morning F2000 qualifying session to take the Afterburner Pole over Connery by three hundredths of a second with a lap of 1:21.000 around the 10-turn road course.
Livengood took the lead during Friday’s first F2000 race from Remy Audette on lap two before Connery tracked him down in the closing stages to grab his fourth win of the year. Livengood, driving for Work Racing/John Walko Racing, won his second career F2000 Championship Series race at Mid-Ohio in early July and hopes to continue the momentum at Mosport. American rookie Connery will line up on the outside of the front row, with a fast lap of 1:21.037 in the #91 CC Autosport and James Lee Racing entry. Connery bagged yet another win at Mosport during Friday’s race, passing Audette for second and then Livengood for the lead. Connery has just five races left to run down Audette from a sizable gap in the Championship. Robert La Rocca finished fourth on Friday and hopes to find the podium as the weekend concludes in Ontario, as the RFR chassis for HP-Tech Motorsport qualified third. Championship leader Audette had to settle for fourth in his #21 Audette Racing Van Diemen after leading on Friday from pole on his home turf in Canada. Tim Minor will line up fifth, the position he finished in during Friday’s race in the #88 Ski Motorsports entry. Matt McDonough qualified the new Radon chassis in sixth place, but will start from the rear of the field, using the race for more testing miles. Zach Craigo continued the momentum from his best finish ever on Friday – sixth – to qualify seventh for Front Range Motorsports with teammate Dwight Rider in eighth, Dan Denison in ninth for Polestar Racing Group and Brent Gilkes rounding out the top ten. Gustavo Rizzo missed the session and will miss the last race of the weekend at Mosport following a crash during Friday’s race. The weekend at Mosport concludes with a 6:05 p.m. scheduled race start. Follow live on www.F2000series.com and on Twitter @F2000. Written by Monty Mathisen - F2000 22 July 2011 American rookie Kyle Connery took his second straight win and fourth of 2011, vaulting from fourth in the race after starting second to pass Tim Minor, Remy Audette and then Chris Livengood for the lead in the first of two F2000 Championship Series races at Mosport. “I didn’t get a great start and we were behind Tim (Minor) for a while,” said Connery. “I got past him and then the caution came out so we had a chance to get by Remy; once I saw him I was just thinking championship.” Connery, driving for CC Autosport and James Lee Racing, continued: “We had to finish ahead of him (Remy Audette) today. And then when I saw Chris (Livengood), I tried to set a pace and was able to put a move on him entering turn eight for the lead. Today was good for the points.” Connery claws back ten points on Audette in the Championship, now down by only 53 points. Livengood set the fastest race lap and finished second ahead of Canadian Audette. “Those two other guys, Remy and Kyle, what an absolutely fantastic race,” said Livengood, who passed Audette for the lead on lap two and gapped the Canadian in a highly entertaining F2000 race at the 10-turn Canadian road course on a warm day in Ontario. “I battled as hard as I could but didn’t come out on the top step like we wanted,” added the Mid-Ohio winner, driving for Work Racing/John Walko Racing. Audette, meanwhile, did lose a few points but came home with another consistent podium finish, and his ninth straight top-seven finish this season.
“I did my job for the Championship,” Audette commented. “We ran a good race; we have to finish well for the points. Tomorrow is another day so we will prepare the car accordingly and I will prepare myself.” Robert La Rocca was fourth in the RFR chassis for HP-Tech Motorsport. The Florida-based squad also takes home the CellMark Paper Hard Charger Award, with teammate and fellow Venezuelan rookie Giancarlo Potolicchio advancing seven positions during the race. Tim Minor won another Masters Class trophy by finishing fifth overall. “I got a good start but the car went away rather quickly with some massive oversteer,” Minor explained. Zach Craigo notched his best result of the year for Front Range Motorsports, finishing sixth ahead of Brent Gilkes, Tim Paul, Angel Benitez and Dan Denison, who completed the top ten for Polestar Racing Group. Matt McDonough started at the back of the field in the new Radon chassis for development and testing reasons, after qualifying a strong sixth, and was classified 18th at the end of the race, which ended early due to a crash involving Gustavo Rizzo in turn four. Saturday July 23 sees the F2000 grid qualifying at 9:45 a.m. and conclude the weekend with a 6:05 p.m. scheduled race start TRAFFORD, PA (September 3, 2007) - The second leg of the trip to Canada for John Walko Racing brought the team to Mosport for the tenth leg of the Star Mazda Championship Series, the Mosport Grand Prix. For Walko, it was a trip he looks forward to each year. "I love Mosport, it is one of those tracks that when we go there I want to drive. The fans are great, they love our racing, know our history - it is a fantastic event. It's an amazing track as well; they just don't build them like this anymore." The team was coming off of an exhausting weekend at Trois Rivieres the previous week where everything that could possibly happen, did happen. While the weather created plenty of work, changing set-ups back and forth from wet to dry, both Charles Anti and Russell Walker did their part to keep the crews happy. "Charles was somewhat conservative this weekend after Trois Rivieres, writing a car off and dealing with those consequences, and it probably paid off for him. He kept his nose clean and consistently gained speed regardless of conditions." "On the other hand, Russell started out quick, leading the first session from his very first lap out. He was on top of it the whole way through and showed great speed in the wet." Each step along the way provided a new obstacle in terms of weather from rain to drying conditions in the middle of a practice session to dry conditions for the start of qualifying to every possible weather condition in the race, the teams had to constantly adjust to conditions. "It was wet and dry all weekend, rarely was it ever one consistent weather session so it was challenging in that respect. It usually seemed to be changing throughout a session too compounding issues. We never saw a dry track until qualifying actually." The race proved to be the biggest weather hurdle. Despite starting out dry, conditions changed drastically shortly after the green flag fell and then back again to near dry conditions by the end. "The race went from pouring on the second lap to dry by the end. I made the call to go to wets when we did because as wet as it was everyone was tiptoeing around on slicks. It was definitely the call to make at that very moment. Had the yellow not come out a lap later, benefiting a few drivers who stayed out and were able to pit under yellow, then we would have been in great shape." Anti soldiered on for a tenth place finish in the trying conditions while teammate Walker ended the day in 20th after sliding off track with a handful of laps remaining. "Both drivers ended up out of sequence so the best we could hope for was to run at the front of that group which they did. Charles ran about third in the group and did a great job in the race. He drove really, really well, picked up some positions, went forward and kept the car under him - a nice job." "Russell made his only mistake of the weekend in the race and unfortunately stuck his car in the gravel trap off of turn five. Up to that point though he was not only among the fastest on his sequence but was one of the fastest cars on the race track." While Walko was hoping for better results in the final standings, it was an event where there were still plenty of positives to be found. "It was a really clean race with the only yellow being the one that cost us the lead lap. It was good to load two cars on the trailer in one piece at the end of the weekend. Both Charles and Russell ran really well this weekend. If you take that one yellow flag out of the mix, we may be talking about our best finish of the year as a team. After the last few weeks it will be good to get back to the shop and get everything sorted out to make a strong run at the final two races." Drivers wishing to join JWR for upcoming tests or races should contact John Walko Racing as soon as possible. Team QuotesCharles Anti
"It was a solid, clean weekend but we just never seemed to get fully on-track. The new car worked well and I was comfortable within a few laps. The changing conditions all weekend made it difficult to get in to much of a flow though. It was a strange race too, starting dry and then raining on the second lap. We actually had to make a green flag tire change pit stop which was kind of cool. The yellow came out though right after and all the cars that didn't pit when we made the call had a lap on us. From that point on it was just a matter of finishing the race near the front of the group on our lap which we did." Russell Walker "The whole race was pretty crazy. Pitting under green to change tires unfortunately cost us a lap. It was frustrating as we were really fast in the wet, making up spots, but we were a lap down so we could only move up so far. It's another one of those races, frustrating, but we'll just move on to Atlanta and look for that first win. We've been fast there in testing and it is almost like a home track for me so I'm really looking forward to being there." Steve Dreizler, Engineer for Charles Anti "It's not often we have to deal with pit stop strategy but we did this week. Looking back at where we were though, given the conditions, we made the right call. Unfortunately the yellow came out before everyone pitted and it ended up costing those of us that did a lap. From Charles' stand point, he toned it down for the conditions this race and did exactly what he needed to do. He was clean every session, went faster each session and drove well in the race. He did as much as he could have done under the circumstances with the yellow and losing a lap." Eric Langbein, Engineer for Russell Walker "Russell had a better weekend than the results showed. He was P1 in the first session, demonstrating his speed in the wet once again. In the race he was turning some of the very fastest laps of the race before his off. If there was one thing that we came away with from Mosport it was that we need to maybe adjust our intensity - Russell needs to push harder earlier in the event, which will allow us to improve the package more for the race, and leave a little more room for error in the race. He continues to be very, very fast so it just comes down to a little fine tuning now to put him on the podium." Mosport Results: 1 James Davison 2 Lorenzo Mandarino 3 Dane Cameron 10 Charles Anti 20 Russell Walker Drivers interested in joining JWR for upcoming tests are encouraged to contact the team soon. Also, drivers interested in discussing their 2008 racing programs should contact John Walko Racing at john@johnwalkoracing.com TRAFFORD, PA (September 4, 2006) – Mosport was a much anticipated venue for John Walko Racing. The team had what they felt was a strong handle of the storied Canadian circuit. However, the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto turned around the best laid plans of all teams when torrential rains fell on Saturday's race.
The weekend started out well despite the team being one of the few not to test at the facility in the weeks leading up to the event. The opening day of practice saw all three cars run in the top fifteen for much of the day with Kevin Lacroix dipping in to the top five once again. John Walko, the team owner, was confident his team would be able to overcome the obstacle of not testing at Mosport previously. "Obviously we would like to test at every track before each race, as most of our competitors have been doing, but for one reason or another we have not been able to do so since earlier in the season. We are confident though that regardless of circumstances, our crews and drivers are going to have the right package to be competitive when the green flag falls on race day." Unfortunately for Walko and the rest of the crew, Friday practice proved to be unkind and would set their whole approach back a few steps. According to Walko it was a day to forget despite placing all three cars in the top twelve in morning practice. "At the end of the day on Friday we ended up with three crashed race cars, it was a rough day. All three cars went off in succession early in the final session, each bringing out a red. So not only did we have broken race cars and missed practice, each guy was docked ten minutes in the next session for bringing out a red flag. It was a long day, and a long night." Missing the final practice also forced the teams to revert to previous set-ups which were one cycle behind all of the other cars that did run a full practice. Combined with the shortened qualifying session thanks to the red flag penalties from Friday, the limited development resulted in the three cars qualifying deeper in the pack than expected. Lacroix, who qualified an uncharacteristic eighth, noted that the he was a bit off the pace of the quickest cars. "I wasn’t able to clock laps under 1:15 all weekend. We tried every possible setup in the five practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, to no avail. The #74 UniSelect was very good in the corners but was short on speed in the long straights. Mosport is a fabulous track where I would have liked to put more time in order to start on the two first rows." Charles Anti qualified tenth while Russell Walker earned the twelfth spot on the grid for the race. The race on the 2.65 mile circuit itself turned out to be an all together different affair than the drivers had to deal with all weekend as Hurricane Ernesto brought a deluge just in time for the start. Walker in fact was turning some of his first laps in competition in the rain in the Star Mazda Series. According to Walko it was a good effort for his newest racer. "It was one of Russell's first rain races, he hasn't run much in the rain at all actually, and he did a great job of staying conservative and steady and he found himself in the top ten at the end of the day as a result. A great effort for him." Walker was satisifed with his performance in the harrowing conditions. "It was a foggy, torrential downpour, about the worst conditions you could imagine. I had a little bit of experience in practice at Mid Ohio but this was my first race in these conditions. It was pretty intense! I just brought it home; that was what we wanted to achieve. I could have been more aggressive but then I could have easily been caught out like a lot of other people." After spotting the entire field a race in the Championship standings, Lacroix, who has been the aggressor all season, found himself solidly in second place at the start of the weekend. An opening lap miscue resulted in the Montreal native having to be aggressive enough to stay ahead of his Championship competitors yet conservative enough to ensure he finished the race. "I’m still happy but I was looking for a podium, if not a victory. In the rain, I knew I would get some positions back because I’ve always been comfortable in wet conditions. I started seventh and took two positions in the first corners. But to avoid a drifting car, I had to brake and did a 360 spin that set me back in ninth. We ran only six or seven laps under green out of the 21. Every time a car is off course, we go full course yellow. With more green laps, I could have stepped on the podium.” The drive of the weekend though belonged to Anti according to Walko. "Charles was the man in the race, he was unbelievable. He was pushing for the win, worked hard to get up there and went for the lead. Each time there was a restart he picked off one or two cars and went straight to the front, it was awesome." Anti's bid for his first series win as well as the first team win for JWR came up a lap short however as he made contact with the leader while attempting to take the point. "I started ninth and was up three spots on the first lap. We had a lot of one lap stints thanks to drivers going off early and I was able to pick off a car or two each lap. I was trying to work around the leader under braking in turn five and I carried just a little too much speed in and locked it up. It was too bad because I felt it was my race to win." Despite the incident, which relegated the Star Mazda Rookie to thirteenth overall, the performance was a confidence booster. "It was amazing. The only other wet conditions we had this year was a practice at Mid Ohio and I was second most of the session. So we went in to the race with a lot of confidence. I knew after the first lap we had the potential to do something special. Doing well in the wet is really a big deal. The results don't show it obviously but now I know we are among the fastest cars. This was a great confidence builder.' Overall Walko was happy with the weekend, which saw JWR move back to the top of the Team Championship standings, and looks forward to the next race at Road Atlanta where the team will take a slightly different approach in hopes of securing that first win. "It was a pretty good weekend, nearly bringing home three top tens despite the ups and downs, and we have the team points lead back. Also, we are going testing this week at Atlanta in hopes of finding that last little bit that will take us to the next level. The test at Road Atlanta is in preparation for JWR's next event as part of the American Le Mans Series at the Petit Le Mans weekend on September 27-29 at the famed circuit in Braselton, Georgia. Mosport Results: 1 Ron White 2 Gerardo Bonilla 3 Mike Potekhen 4 Kevin Lacroix 9 Russell Walker 13 Charles Anti Star Mazda Driver Championship: 1 Adrian Carrio 361 2 Kevin Lacroix 320 3 Ryan Justice 293 14 Charles Anti 193 17 Russell Walker 180 Star Mazda Team Championship: 1 John Walko Racing 192 2 World Speed 189 3 Apex Racing 154 |
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