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.
