Salem, NH – For the first time since 2007, the defending F2000 Championship Series title winner will be back to defend his crown as Tim Minor looks to double up and seize the 2014 title in the for Ski Motorsports. Add in a host of newcomers to the Series in addition to exciting new cars and the large F2000 field looks set for an ultra-competitive ninth season, comprised of 14-races over seven weekends.
The first of those events happens this coming weekend at Road Atlanta, with two races scheduled at the same place where Tim Minor swept two victories in 2013 en route to a dominating season.
Minor’s package from 2013: a combination of sheer driving talent, a unique chassis and engineer Eric Langbein, is set to be under heavy pressure in 2014. Enter Skylar Robinson, the teenager from just down the road in Georgia, who is a second-generation racer, and is also in a brand new Citation car with Langbein’s engineering skill-set behind it.
Robinson comes into Road Atlanta looking to repeat the success his father enjoyed as a professional sports car and IndyCar driver in the 1980s and 1990s. The young talent is fresh off a 2013 season in Europe with wins in the British Formula Ford National Championship and a Team USA Scholarship nod.
Every season brings the emergence of a new, major team to F2000, and 2014 is no different with Canadian squad Exclusive Autosport entering the Championship as a factory team for the Spectrum chassis with 22-year-old Thomas McGregor behind the wheel. The Spectrum took F1600 titles in 2012 and 2013, and will be one of two in the field, the second in the hands of Polestar Racing Group and driver David Grant, who finished third in the 2013 title run.
Teaming up with Grant at Polestar, will be Sam Beasley, who was quick in 2011 in the F1600 Series, and like Polestar, is from Northeast Ohio.
Beyond that, the fast end of the field sees the full-time return of Tim Paul in the No. 06 CellMark Paper entry for Screaming Monkey Racing. Kevin Kopp returns as well, this time moving to Kopp Motorsports in a privateer effort. Both young men have been on the podium, but are still looking for their first visit to the top step.
K-Hill returns for the first time since 2011, with Jason Rabe leading a two-car Road Atlanta effort along-side full-season entrant Connor Kearby.
Steve Bamford will be back again – campaigning both F1600 and F2000 for his second straight double-duty full season, and will be up against an expanded Momentum Motorsports effort.
With a new shop, Momentum brings a bigger program to Road Atlanta, with aspiring teenager Quinlan Lall in the Radon chassis joined by father Kem Lall in a Van Diemen.
Raceworks expands for 2014 as well, adding a F2000 program alongside a competitive F1600 team as the squad enters a Van Diemen for veteran Beau Borders.
The weekend gets underway with a full Formula Race Promotions test day on Thursday, April 10, featuring F1600 and the new Atlantic Championship Series before all three Championship Series see two practice sessions on Friday followed by qualifying sessions and races on both Saturday and Sunday. Keep track of F2000 action on the web at www.f2000series.com.
F2000 Championship SeriesTim Minor