David Cheng signed with ZSports Midwest for this weekend’s USF2000 doubleheader at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. He will join fellow recruit Scott Anderson at the famed Midwest road course.
Cheng, 21, has been competing in the Pacific F2000 Championship for the past two seasons with PR1 Motorsports. Earlier this year he had the opportunity to join the USF2000 National Championship for their non-points stop at Laguna Seca. He was the quickest national class qualifier at the Laguna stop and finished on the podium in both events (in class).
Despite some bad luck, Cheng has made some really solid progress this season in the Pacific F2000 Championship and should make a fine addition to ZSport Midwest’s USF2000 squad. As of today, Cheng has one win and five podiums in eight Pacific F2000 starts this season. His previous experience includes karting, autoX, and Skip Barber Regional competition.
A loyal reader sent me this link today, so I thought I’d pass it on. Early this month USF2000 National Championship points leader Sage Karam was invited to speak at a conference in Denver for Operation Smile – a charity that specializes in working with children who have facial deformities.
Ashley Wilson – an intern for Andretti Autosport – wrote up a story on Sage’s speech. It’s a good read… (plus they used one of my photos from Iowa Speedway in the feature)… so make sure to go check it out. Read it here.
Felix Serralles
(Photo: Kelly Brouillet/Skip Barber)
After a successful outing in the F2000 Championship (two top-10 finishes), Felix Serralles has signed with Liberty Motorsports for the remaining USF2000 races on the 2010 calendar.
Serralles, a regular in Skip Barber National competition, will make his USF2000 debut with Liberty Motorsports next weekend at Road America August 21-22.
The 18-year-old Puerto Rican, who currently resides in Florida, received backing from Mazda this season after winning the 2009-10 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out. He’s finished inside the top-10 in all but one Skip Barber National race this season, logging one win, and five podiums.
At Liberty Motorsports, he will team up with Matthew Powers who has been competing on a limited budget this season, running only four races. Despite a limited amount of seat time Powers recently grabbed two top-five finishes at the Autobahn stop. With the addition of Serralles to the squad, Liberty Motorsports will have a pretty solid line-up to finish the 2010 season. Watch for big things from these two drivers.
Skip Barber National competitor Scott Anderson has signed with ZSports Midwest for the upcoming USF2000 doubleheader at Road America.
Anderson has done a nice job diversifying his skill set this year by competing in various cars. The bulk of his season has been spent in the Skip Barber National Championship, but he has also logged time in a SCCA Spec Racer Ford and a Legends car. It has been an up-and-down season for the Colorado native. In April, he recorded his career best finish of 3rd in a Skip Barber National car at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
This type of post is fun because I can hit on a “few” items that stood out over the weekend. Plus it’s not overly banal – like most of the race reports you can find spread across the Interwebs. The bad thing about this type of post is that a lot of good things get left out. It’s tough to limit, especially when so many drivers had a really good weekend.
Without further ado, here is my USF2000 and Star Mazda recap from the Autobahn County Club in Joliet, Illinois.
What Was Good…
USF2000 Race Winners: Tonis Kasemets (no, that’s not a typo) and Sage Karam.
Matthew Powers really impressed me in his return to the championship – perhaps my favorite part was the car control he displayed on cold tires Saturday while going over “the Autobahn jump,” I lost count on how many times the car wiggled, but it was fun to watch.
Martin Scuncio is really beginning to develop as a driver. I had him pegged as a driver to watch earlier this year and he was exactly that this weekend. He had some bad luck on Saturday, but I’ll hit on that incident later.
As always, it was great to see VisitFlorida.com and HDNet supporting the feeder series and providing TV coverage – even if they cut away from the action a few times (again, I promise, I’m not complaining – just offering constructive criticism). It was great to have both doubleheaders on TV.
Star Mazda race winners: Mikael Grenier and Conor Daly.
Daly put in an astonishing drive Saturday going from 23rd on the grid to finish 3rd. He won Sunday’s race. His Juncos Racing teammate Tatiana Calderon continues to impress. She’s getting better every weekend.
Mikael Grenier drove a very solid race Saturday, hitting all his marks en route to a 3.667-second victory. It was his first career win in Star Mazda and, if I’m not mistaken, his first major open-wheel victory outside of karting.
Caio Lara has really done a nice job developing his racecraft over the last few years. He finished second on Saturday and put together a nice drive on Sunday to finish ninth after being given a drive-thru penalty for jumping the start.
Ashley Freiberg made an impressive return to Star Mazda competition on Saturday finishing fifth.
What Wasn’t So Good…
J.R. Smart’s crash on Saturday. He lost consciousness during the race, but all reports indicate he is doing well now. Get well soon J.R.
The USF2000 start on Saturday. Personally, I had no problem with Tonis’ move at the start, but a few people did, and several drivers failed to make it through Turn One. Here is an onboard shot, courtesy of Zach Veach.
Conor Daly’s wing infraction. Not sure who is to blame on this one but it’s unfortunate to see a guy with so much talent receiving so many penalties. Fortunately, for the rest of us, the race was incredible thanks to his epic drive through the field.
Saturday’s contact between Tatiana Calderon and Anders Krohn. Krohn was running inside the top-four throughout the race and Tatiana had made a strong drive from 12th-to-5th before contact put Krohn back to seventh. After the race Calderon was penalized for avoidable contact and demoted to 7th. The contact ruined an impressive outing by both drivers.
Martin Scuncio’s engine failure in Saturday’s USF2000 race. WOW! Hopefully someone will post the footage shortly. “The engine just stopped,” said Scuncio, who was understandably disheartened after the race. “I don’t know what happened, I’m just so disappointed.” At the time of the failure, Scuncio was having a superb battle inside the top-five.
Take a ride with Zach Veach in his Andretti Autosport USF2000 race car at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Watch closely at the 00:40 second mark as Veach puts full opposite lock into the car, while battling for rear grip.
Make sure to check out HDNet, starting at 12:30 p.m. EST today and tomorrow, for coverage of the USF2000 National Championship and Star Mazda Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
The USF2000 National Championship is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:05 p.m. EST today for Race 1. Tomorrow’s race is also scheduled for a 2:05 p.m. EST start.
The Star Mazda Championship competitors will take the green today at 3:00 p.m. EST. Sunday’s race will be run at the same time: 3:00 p.m. EST.
If you don’t have HDNet at home, click here to check and see if any of your local establishments carry the channel.
In case you missed it, here is my report from Saturday’s USF2000 qualifying session at Iowa Speedway. I used a few of the photos from the session in my original report (linked above) but I have plenty more to share.
I’ve put together a slide show featuring all my photos from the session. Enjoy.
Here are the photos I took last Friday during the USF2000 National Championship test sessions at Iowa Speedway. I didn’t bother to sort the photos, so I apologize if a few look like duplicates (they aren’t). Make sure to view the slideshow. After you click “view slideshow” you can click the image again during the show to get a better quality slide. Hopefully the load time won’t discourage you. Enjoy.
I will try to post the rest of my photos from Iowa Speedway throughout the week.
USF2000 National Championship Podium
(photo: Ryan – Junior Open Wheel Talent)
Sage Karam lapped everyone but second-place finisher Raphael Abbate in today’s 50-lap USF2000 National Championship race at Iowa Speedway. Karam, who started from pole, set the fastest lap of the race (23.881).
“The car was just hooked up,” said Karam after the race. ”The Andretti Autosport boys really put together a masterpiece. It didn’t develop any understeer or oversteer, it was just like driving on rails.”
Raphael Abbate finished second – his best career finish in USF2000 competition – and set the second quickest lap of the race. He and Karam were the only two drivers to break into the 23-second range.
Mikhail Goikhberg put in an impressive drive to finish third. Early in the race Goikhberg got together with Martin Scuncio and the contact resulted in a spin. The incident dropped him deep into the field. From that point he managed to put down some solid laps in the low-24 second range. He drove to a third place result.
“After the spin I checked my mirrors and noticed my tire wasn’t really complete,” said Goikhberg. “The tire had wires hanging from it and I thought my race was done. Luckily I was able to continue and the tire lasted through the event. I knew I was way behind so I didn’t worry about what position I was in until I had about 10-laps to go.”
Martin Scuncio ran a good race, finishing fourth. The result marked his third top-five finish in four races. Zach Veach rounded out the top-five after contact with Patrick McKenna in the early stages of the race. Veach was forced to pit in need of a new front wing, while McKenna was able to continue – temporarily. The contact cut McKenna’s tire and led to a slow leak. In the closing laps, McKenna slowed dramatically while running second and ultimately retired. He still managed to finish sixth.
Complete Results after the jump and a few more photos after the jump.
A special thank you to everyone who has donated. I plan to use my 2010 donations as a travel fund to provide more live coverage. Every little bit helps.
