Podlesni Leads from Pole to Take Victory in Round Two

(L to R) Ira Fierberg (3rd) Robert Podlesni (1st) and Scott Rarick (2nd)

Sunday dawned cool and cloudy and the rain held off until after the race and was brief at best enabling Robert Podlesni to claim victory in round two of the Sierra Tire Pacific F2000 Championship presented by Hankook Tires at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana as part of VARA’s Route 66 Classic Formula Festival. Podlesni in the #84 Terminal Velocity Processing/Alpinestars/DFR Van Diemen, again started from the pole which he used to advantage to take the lead at the start. He led every lap as well as recording the race’s fastest lap on route to victory.

Just as was the case in Saturday’s event, Scott Rarick #34 PR1 Motorsports Van Diemen was Podlesni’s chief pursuer as the two gradually pulled away from the rest of the field to finish nearly 24 second ahead of third place. Rarick trailed Podlesni to the flag by merely 1.912 seconds. Though Rarick pressed him on several occasions Robert was able to respond and maintain enough of a gap to hold Scott at bay.

Rarick started alongside Podlesni on the front row of the grid and his second place finish earned him the Expert Class win, his second in two events.

Robert Podlesni

Behind the leading duo another battle was raging for the final podium position between Ira Fierberg who started third and Bob Negron having moved up from his fifth starting position. This duel was by far the best battle of the race as the cars ran nose to tail for the entire race and third position was in doubt until the checkered flag. Ira in the #27 Barry I Goldstein, CPA/Sparco/DFR Van Diemen held third for the first three laps until Negron in the #5 FengshuiMeBaby.com Van Diemen worked his way past. Bob’s advantage was slender and Fierberg sat back waiting for the right opportunity to regain the third position which finally presented itself three laps from the end and Ira was through and took the final podium spot, his first in the series.

Though he missed the podium, Negron did take the Master’s Class honors for the second day in a row. Negron’s fourth place came at the expense of Saturday’s surprise winner David Cheng who started fourth in the #26 Speedware Motorsports/Zerlag Communications/PR1 Van Diemen ahead of Bob and in his haste to try to regain his position ran a little wide in the turn 16-18 complex and collected one of the many cones used to define the circuit perimeter in his right front suspension, jamming his steering arm and causing a heavy impact with the wall taking off both right side corners of the car and ending David’s race then and there.

Running in a lonely fifth place for the first half of the race was Peter Hastrup in his #5 Western Building Materials/Nuttal, Brown & Coutts/DFR Van Diemen until what was thought to be a throttle sensor went bad causing a loss of power ruined his race. Peter struggle around losing place after place until finally finishing in tenth place one lap down.

Bill Kincaid #46 Van Diemen was the first to take advantage of Hastrup’s misfortune to claim fifth place on lap seven and held it to the finish equaling his finish in round one on Saturday. It was a solid performance for Bill an independent running without the benefit of a large budget or team.

Les Phillips in his #89 Swiss Implants Mygale starting twelfth due to another throttle sensor problem in qualifying picked off driver after driver to finish in sixth place at the finish and with it earn the Hard Charger award.

Miles Maroney, in his second car race after an early exit in Saturday’s race was determined to improve on his previous result. Miles, driving the #22 Maroney Company/PR1 Van Diemen after qualifying seventh, spun on the opening lap, dropped to the tail of the field and spent the remainder of the race playing catch up. His charge up through the field demonstrated his skill in these cars despite his limited experience and moved his way back up to seventh place at the flag.

Peter Thomas in the #7 Refrigeration Control Co./Hytech Exhaust/Church Automotive Testing/DFR Van Diemen, who had “Great fun" in the rain on Saturday finished eighth ahead of Michael Murphy, #18 Mygale and non-starter on Saturday in ninth.

Peter West was credited with eleventh though having stopped one lap short of half distance.

It was a highly competitive start to series which moves to Willow Springs for rounds 3 and 4 on April 10 and 11 at the VARA High Desert Challenge.

Results: