Pacific F2000 Series Rounds 3 & 4
The entry is once again headed by Dave Freitas Racing and PR1 Motorsports with each team boasting four entries. Heading DFR in his fifteenth season is Ira Fierberg in the #27 Barry I Goldstein, CPA/Sparco Van Diemen. Ira is heads to Willow Springs coming off his first podium finish and his vastly improved performance sees him as a serious challenger for not only the Expert Class (drivers 35-50) Championship but the top step of the podium. Alongside Fierberg is Peter Hastrup in the #5 Western Building Materials/Nuttall, Brown & Cloutts Van Diemen. Hastrup is the defending Masters (drivers 51 and over) Champion and continues his long association with DFR. Peter West is behind the wheel of the #99 Terminal Velocity Processing Van Diemen as he pursues the Masters Class title in his second season back with DFR after a stint as the series Chief Steward. The fourth entry is the #7 Refrigeration Control Co., Hytech Exhaust, Church Automotive Testing Van Diemen of Scotsman Peter Thomas. Thomas committed to a full season this year is benefitting from the support of DFR and competes in the Expert Class.
PR1 Motorsports comes into the weekend with Series point leader Scott Rarick back for his second season with PR1 and coming off of a third and second place finish in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. Driving the #34 Van Diemen Rarick is looking to continue his strong performance this weekend. Joining Rarick is last year’s Rookie of the Year and surprise winner in round 1 David Cheng in the #26 Speedware Motorsports/Zerlag Communications Van Diemen. David of Sammamish, Washington took advantage of the wet conditions to take the lead from the outset in round 1 and ran a close second when mechanical problems sidelined the leader and was never headed as he took his first series victory. Teenager Miles Maroney after an impressive first outing in the series at Fontana, he ran as high as fourth in the rain on Saturday, has announced that he will compete the full season and challenge for rookie of the year honors drives a third PR1 Motorsports entry, the #22 Maroney Company Van Diemen. The fourth PR1 entry is the #77 JF Excavating Van Diemen of Conner Ford. Both Maroney and Ford will benefit from the expert tutelage of PR1 Motorsports and Bobby Oergel.
Bob Negron a former Star Mazda competitor enters the weekend second in points and leading the Masters Class. Bob driving the #9 FengshuiMeBaby.com Van Diemen had an excellent second place finish in challenging conditions in round 1 and backed it up with a fourth place finish in round 2 and is a strong contender for Masters Honors and looks to move up one step on the podium by challenging for race wins.
Bill Kincaid in his #46 Van Diemen who is fourth in the championship with a couple of fifth place finishes in the opening rounds makes his first appearance at Willow Springs since his fifteenth place finish in 2007 and is sure to improve on that.
Rounding out the entry is series promoter Les Phillips, sixth in points, is his #89 Swiss Implants Mygale one of only two in the field. The other Mygale is being piloted by Michael Murphy who finished ninth in round 2 after being unable to start in round 1.
Notably absent from the entry is two-time and defending series champion Robert Podlesni in the #84 terminal Velocity Processing/Alpinestars/DFR Van Diemen.
Cool weather with temperatures in the sixties and only 10% chance of rain is predicted for the weekend. The challenge as always at Willow Springs with its three long fast right hand turns is preserving the tires and because of this an additional two tires are available to the competitors for the weekend.
Lacking a prior Willow Springs victor in the field, the weekend promises to be exciting and to provide one if not two first time winners at this track.