NA-F2000: Series Mosport practice two notes

F2000: Chris Miller Leads Day One At Mosport

Bowmanville, ONT -- On a beautiful day in Ontario, Chris Miller and JDC Motorsports led the way at Mosport in the opening rounds of practice for this weekend's F2000 races, posting a best time of 1:22.054. Miller, who sits a solid third in the standings, won the second race of the season over Matthew Inge and is hoping to build upon two podium finishes at Lime Rock a few weeks ago.

"We took a lot of wing out of the car and trimmed it out as much as possible," said Miller. "I'm still getting comfortable with the track again and the balance of the car is still good. The brake pedal was soft throughout the session but it's going to be a good weekend. It's really tight upfront so we need to find the perfect setup."

Matthew Inge, driving for St. Clair Motorpsorts, wasn't far behind in second, with a fast lap of 1:22.088, and held fast time for most of the session. Inge had never seen the track until this morning.

"As usual Miller and I are going back and forth," commented Inge, who attributes much of his ability to get up to speed today to the computer simulation game, rFactor. "We made some changes in between sessions and tried something. We went faster but I feel we went the wrong way on the change. We are going to go back to the setup we had this morning and once I get my line down we'll be in a good position."

This morning's fast lap holder, Ontario's Caitlin Johnston, was third in her Pizza-Pizza/Xtreme Tire Garage Van Diemen. "I feel the track was slower this afternoon," said Johnston, who clocked in at 1:22.344. "The car still felt good and fast and more importantly, it was consistently fast with no surprises."

Johnston's Z-Sports teammate, Benjamin Searcy was fourth. Searcy won the season opener at VIR in the rain and then dominated in the dry at Lime Rock to win round three.

Remy Audette, championship leader was fifth and flew under the radar for most of the day.

"We need to work on the car more," explained Audette, who has reset lap records at both VIR and Lime Rock this year. "I don't really know but we're getting both understeer and oversteer so we need to put the car back on the scales and make some changes."

Bobby Caldwell was sixth fastest. "The car was good," said Caldwell. "There was a big push this morning but its better now. We made some changes and the new tires got rid of the on-throttle push. Now we need to trim it out some more."

Fabio Orsolon clocked in seventh quick on old tires. Orsolon, the first of the Alegra cars, commented: "We didn't put new tires on and are still looking for the perfect setup. I have underseer on the slower corners and oversteer on the fast ones."

Colin Alexander, driving for Group A Racing, came back from overheating problems that limited his track time this morning to be eighth quick. "I'm surprised," said Alexander."I'm new at this track and every new track we go to becomes my favorite one. Mosport is just amazing. The car felt better in the afternoon as we changed the ride height and the sway bars. We're going to make some more adjustments for tomorrow."

Mikhail Goikberg, in his first F2000 event, driving for Brian Graham Racing, was ninth fastest with the first of the Masters class drivers, Jerry Szykulski, right behind him, rounding out the top ten.

Jonathan Scarallo's session ended early when he spun in turn two and damaged the rear wing on his Van Diemen. Scarallo's early lap was still fast enough for 11th quick.

Meanwhile, yesterday ADSA/Wright saw their rig break down on the way to Mosport. In the spirit of competition Alegra Motorsports sent their tow vehicle to pick up the ADSA/Wright trailer, which was sitting on the side of 401. Both ADSA/Wright cars successfully were on track today with Robert Wright posted the 13th fastest time in the afternoon session and Blake Teeter 23rd.

-credit: www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com