Portante, McCusker and Norman Win at VIR on Saturday

By admin September 29, 2016 F1600 Formula F Championship Series, Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, Virginia International Raceway

Alton, VA – Peter Portante, John McCusker and Ryan Norman won in F1600, F2000 and Atlantic, respectively, on Saturday morning at VIRginia International Raceway. In addition, Neil Verhagen won the F1600 Formula F Championship Series title with a strong second place finish.

F1600

Another close F1600 Formula F Championship Series race at VIRginia International Raceway saw Peter Portante claim the victory by inches in penultimate round of the 2016 season. Neil Verhagen clinched the 2016 title with a second place finish. Portante fought off K-Hill Motorsports teammate Verhagen and Phillippe Denes, of Team Pelfrey, in a three-car fight to the checkered flag coming off turn 17 at VIR.

“It was obviously a good race,” said Portante, who drives the No. 24 K-Hill Motorsports Mygale/Honda. “Everything was good, the car was good per usual. I’m super happy with the result. If we can’t cross the line three-wide it’s not really an F1600 race.”

Points leader Verhagen took home second place points after a Friday win at VIR, claiming him the 2016 F1600 title with one race to spare at VIR.

“It has been a phenomenal year, I need to thank the K-Hill boys for that. We just wrapped the Championship up,” said Verhagen. “It’s a great feeling.”

Phillippe Denes was the first of three Team Pelfrey cars, and finished third for the second straight race in the No. 81 in the Saturday morning round at VIR.

“It was the same last laps we always have with really great racing. It was a matter of coming down to the line and I didn’t have it that time,” said Denes.

Ming, meanwhile, made it two fourth place finishes in two days in the No. 82 Team Pelfrey Mygale/Honda, while K-Hill driver Hans Ada improved one spot from Friday to Saturday, from sixth to fifth.

Of note, a full course caution came out on lap five for Friday’s Masters Class winner Joe Colasacco, who needed to be retrieved after going off in turn 17.

Team Pelfrey’s Kaylen Frederick led on the restart from the caution, but went off in turn one, taking him out of the lead group.

Frederick will look to bounce back in the final round of the season on Sunday morning, hoping to take the race win after a second place run on Friday.

Bob Perona won the Masters Class with a sixth place effort, ahead of Mike Scanlan and Greg Rice.

The story now turns to the fight for second in the Championship standings, with Portante leading Denes and Ming. Portante has 705 points compared to 694 for Denes and 672 for Ming with 55 points up for grabs.

The 2016 F1600 season concludes on Sunday morning from VIR.

F2000

John McCusker prevailed for his first F2000 Championship Series victory in the No. 01 Dotworks Racing Van Diemen in an action-packed Saturday morning race at VIR. McCusker led early, fell back to second and then came through to take the checkered flag first ahead of Nick Palacio and Bob Reid.

For the top three, it was a day of career-best finishes in round 13 of the F2000 season.

“It was a great race, we fell off a bit in the middle but it worked out in favor toward the end,” said McCusker, who trailed Kaylen Frederick on the white flag lap before emerging first to take the checkered flag.

Another strong run from McCusker on Sunday will give him second place in the Championship standings.

Frederick started last after running in the F1600 race directly before the F2000 race. Frederick had stormed through the field, taking the lead from McCusker mid-way through the race in the No. 81 Team Pelfrey entry, but couldn’t pull off the win.

It was also a strong day for Nick Palacio with a second place finish.

“It’s my second race of the year and first podium,” said Palacio. “It’s been a good, smooth weekend so far. Everything’s going well. We get to do it again tomorrow, I’m hoping for a better start tomorrow. I let a few people get between me and John and I couldn’t make up the ground.”

Driving for R-Sport, Reid led the first two laps over a tight pack of dicing F2000 cars in the No. 12 Metrik. Reid’s two laps in the lead were his first in F2000 competition, as he held off a swarm of cars battling among themselves directly behind him.

“It was a little chaotic on the last lap. There were cars off and I was trying to pass Dave (Weitzenhof),” said Reid, who betters his best-ever result of fourth with a third-place run at VIR. “He’s a tough guy to get by and I managed to get a run on him through the esses and I was able to pull the pass off and get third. We keep making progress on this car, it’s fun working with the R-Sport group.”

Dave Weitzenhof followed in fourth after running as high as third, and was followed by Chris Gumprecht, in fifth, and Jenna Grillo, from K-Hill Motorsports, in sixth.

Tom Fatur also featured among the mid pack of battling cars for most of the race, as did Peter Gonzalez, with both drivers failing to finish.

Qualifying for the final F2000 race of 2016 takes place on Saturday afternoon, followed by round 14, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Atlantic

Ryan Norman moved one step toward closing out his 2016 Atlantic Championship Series title-winning campaign with a weekend sweep, winning on Saturday morning at VIR in the No. 48 K-Hill Motorsports Swift 016/Mazda. Norman took the top step of the podium in round 13 of the season, winning ahead of the Polestar Racing Group duo of Keith and David Grant.

“It’s been awesome, I got a great start and got past both Grants before turn three,” said Norman, who took the lead from David Grant from his third place starting on lap one and never looked back. “From there we did consistent laps and got through lapped traffic smoothly.”

Norman clinched the 2016 Atlantic title at New Jersey Motorsports Park in August, and also dominated the SCCA National Championship Runoffs in September.

Keith Grant took home second place honors for Polestar in the No. 40 Swift 016/Mazda.
“The car handled well all race,” said Grant. “I blew the start, I was in the wrong gear and Ryan got by. The car ran great the race and I need to thank Polestar.”

David Grant started from pole from Polestar and ran second for the duration of the race before falling to third on the last lap with a late-race mechanical gremlin.

“First of all, Ryan got a great start and gapped me,” said Grant. “Keith and I were maintaining the whole time and picking up speed. The last lap I lost a gear, and my shifter went out in turn one and I was toast.”

Atlantic Challenge saw Bob Corliss win ahead of Bruce Hamilton.

“It was a good race, I had a good strategy keeping the inside line in turn one at the start,” said Corliss, who drives the No. 17 Swift 014/Toyota from Comprent Motorsports.”It’s been like this all season, we have raced close and clean. It worked to my favor today.”

Corliss leads Hamilton by just 19 points in the Atlantic Challenge with one race remaining.

Richard Zober finished fourth in the Atlantic Championship for Comprent, followed by K-Hill’s Dudley Fleck and Polestar’s Lewis Cooper Jr.

The Atlantic drivers conclude their 2016 season from Sunday morning at VIR, with race two scheduled for 8:30 a.m.

Full results are available on www.F1600Series.com, www.F2000Series.com and www. AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com . The 2016 Formula Race Promotions season continues with its final rounds, Sunday morning from VIR.

Photos:
1. Peter Portante
2. John McCusker
3. Ryan Norman

About Formula Race Promotions:
Formula Race Promotions (FRP) operates the F1600, F2000 and Atlantic Championship Series. Starting with F2000 in 2006, FRP added F1600 in 2011 and Atlantic in 2012. The Series’ philosophy is to offer a vertical integration between club and professional racing, while offering some of the best race tracks and significant amounts of track time in single-class running. The 2016 schedule is composed of two winter events and seven-points paying weekends. FRP is privately owned and sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing.

Sources: Monty Mathisen/Formula Race Promotions