Portante, Bamford and Grant Win at Mid-Ohio
Lexington, OH – Peter Portante, Steve Bamford and David Grant won in F1600, F2000 and Atlantic, respectively, on Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
F1600
Peter Portante won round 10 of the F1600 Formula F Championship Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after a race-long battle for the lead among six cars. It was Portante’s second win of 2016 for K-Hill Motorsports as teammate Neil Verhagen finished second and Team Pelfrey’s Calvin Ming completed the podium.
“It was an absolute pleasure, the car was great,” Portante said. “The car was amazing, it made me win a race. It was a mega race. Everyone up front was doing well. We have had a cold streak since the opener, we have done well when we finish.”
Portante also won the season opener for K-Hill at Road Atlanta, while teammate Verhagen closes on the points lead with a second-place finish and handful of laps led.
“Well first I need to thank K-Hill Motorsports and Honda for the great package,”
Verhagen said.”The last couple of laps were exciting, fluctuating between passing for the lead and going back to fourth. We had to concentrate on making as many spots as we could.”
The start of the race saw Verhagen take the lead from the second row of the grid and grow his margin to a full second after three laps, before Kaylen Frederick moved through the top five and into second, closing on Verhagen’s gearbox on lap five.
The lead group would contract with a group of six cars on lap seven, with Verhagen leading Frederick, points leader Phillippe Denes, Portante, Calvin Ming and Masters Class driver Steve Bamford.
The Team Pelfrey drivers made their moves on lap eight, with Frederick taking the lead ahead of teammate Denes. Frederick would lead a lap before Denes moved to the front of the field.
With two laps to go, it was Verhagen in the lead over Portante and the trio of Pelfrey teammates, while Portante took the lead on the same lap and held it through the last circuit of Mid-Ohio, with Verhagen and Ming right behind him.
“It was a good race, it was a battle between six people,” said Ming. “In the end I managed to get third which was a good result. It was good racing and we tried to make whatever passes we could.”
Pelfrey teammates Denes and Frederick finished fourth and fifth, while Bamford won the Masters Class with a sixth place finish at the tail-end of the lead group, setting the fastest lap of the race, putting him on pole for Sunday morning’s F1600 race.
Hans Ada finished seventh for K-Hill after a nice battle with F1600 newcomer Cliff Johnson, who finished second in the Masters Class on his debut weekend.
“I’m glad to be here, it’s a wonderful series,” said Johnson. “It was pretty tough. It was fun, trying to keep up with the kids, they taught me a lot.”
In addition, debuting this weekend, Andy Melvin and Jeffrey Bartz completed the top ten in the all-green-flag 19-lap race.
F1600 action continues on Sunday with morning and afternoon races, rounds 11 and 12 of the season.
F2000
Steve Bamford took home first place in round seven of the F2000 season at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, the first of two F2000 Championship Series races scheduled for the Formula Race Promotions weekend. John LaRue finished second and Brandon Dixon completed the podium in third.
With the green flag out at Mid-Ohio, Bamford led the opening lap over Robert Allaer, in the No. 52 LTD Motorsports entry, LaRue and Steve Jenks after the green flag waved at Mid-Ohio, where the field starts on the long back stretch.
It didn’t take long for Allaer to make his move, taking the lead on lap three and holding it for a few laps while fending off the No. 07.
Bamford eventually found a way past Allaer and took fellow Citation driver LaRue with him to the eventual checkered flag.
LaRue put in a solid showing with his third straight second-place finish in three starts driving the No. 17 LaRue Motorsports entry.
Mid-way through the race Brandon Dixon passed Steve Jenks for fourth, and then got around Allaer for third in the later stages of the race.
It was a solid drive for Dixon, bouncing back from oil pressure issues that hampered his pace at VIR in June.
“It was a pretty hard and relatively exciting race,” said Dixon. “I got passed by Steve (Jenks) right at the start and had to fight my way back up. I really had to work to get by Rob. It was a hard fight.
After an exciting charge to the lead from the outside of the front row, Allaer finished fourth, and ran the third fastest lap of the race in the No. 52. The Florida-based driver also led Friday practice.
Jenks was another racer that saw a rebound drive to match his best result of the season, with a fifth place run at Mid-Ohio.
John McCusker was sixth in the No. 01 Dotworks Racing Van Diemen, while Dave Weitzenhof’s No. 67 Weitzenhof Racing Citation finished seventh. Mechanical gremlins limited Austin McCusker’s pace, with the returning F2000 driver finishing eighth in his first start of 2016. Tim Paul and Robert Wright completed the top ten.
The race ran to its full length of 21 laps with full green flag conditions, Bamford also had the pace to beat, picking up two bonus points for fastest lap.
The F2000 weekend from Mid-Ohio continues on Sunday with morning qualifying and an afternoon race.
Atlantic
It didn’t take long for David Grant to return to the top step of the podium, as the Atlantic Championship Series driver took home the win at Mid-Ohio in just his third start of 2016, driving the No. 29 Swift 016/Mazda for Polestar Racing Group.
“The Atlantic car is starting to come back to me,” said Grant, who returns to Atlantic competition after three seasons in the F2000 Championship Series, including a victory at Road Atlanta. Grant is the 2012 Atlantic title winner. “The car was great today, I need to thank Jim and Pam and the entire Polestar team and my kids that are here this weekend, it has been a fun time so far.”
Grant roared into the race lead in round seven of the season from the back stretch green-flag from his pole position and took a dominating flag-to-flag victory at the challenging Mid-Ohio race track ahead of Keith Grant, in the No. 40 Polestar Swift 016/Mazda.
“We started with a sticker on the left front after puncturing a tire, we also had a different wing on so it handled differently than we wanted to,” said Grant. “But it started coming together in the end.”
Points leader Ryan Norman, in the No. 48 K-Hill Motorsports Swift 016/Mazda, finished third and could not extend his win streak to five in a row. He moved up from third to second on a charging start, but fell back with four laps to go when a mechanical issue popped up.
“We got a great start and moved up to second and held it the entire way,” said Norman. “With about four laps to go I got stuck in fifth gear and had to let Keith by and nursed it home.”
Norman could not extend his streak after winning four races in a row, but did improve during the race with a charge on the opening lap from third to second before the issue.
Richard Zober finished fourth in the No. 66 for Comprent Motorsports, unable to match his podium performance from Road Atlanta. Lewis Cooper Jr. rounded out the top five for Polestar Racing Group ahead of Comprent driver Chris Ash.
In Atlantic Challenge, Bruce Hamilton had the early lead for K-Hill, but an unscheduled visit to the pits handed the lead to Comprent’s Bob Corliss. As the race went on, Hamilton set fast lap after fast lap, and missed catching Corliss to the checkered flag for the Challenge win by .189 seconds.
The Atlantic Championship Series drivers and teams also compete on Sunday at Mid-Ohio with a morning qualifying session and mid-afternoon race.
Full results are available on www.F1600Series.com, www.F2000Series.com, and www.AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com.
Photos:
1. Peter Portante
2. Steve Bamford
3. David Grant
On the Web:
F1600: www.F1600Series.com | Facebook | Twitter
F2000: www.F2000Series.com | Facebook | Twitter
Atlantic: www.AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com | Facebook | Twitter
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/MathisenMedia