April 8 & 9, 2010
Daniel up with the early pacesetters in America
Daniel Erickson gets to know an unfamiliar car, racetrack and team in his F2000 debut in Virginia, USA. Photo courtesy of F2000 Championship Series (Janice Eakin).
Daniel Erickson's chances of success in his flying visit to the USA are looking promising after the testing and practice sessions for this weekend's first two rounds of the F2000 Championship Series.
The triple handicaps of an unfamiliar car, racetrack and team - not to mention jetlag from the trans-Pacific dash - couldn't stop Daniel from lapping Virginia International Raceway within a whisker of Friday's fastest practice time. In the second of two half-hour sessions, the young Sydney driver's best time of 1m 55.746s was just 0.095 seconds shy of pacesetter Cole Morgan, the 2007 F2000 champion.
The result mirrored Daniel's performance in his first drive of one of the 2-litre 'development formula' openwheel cars during Thursday's two testing sessions, when he lapped less than a tenth of a second off the pace of F2000 veteran Rob Nicholas. But with six drivers within a second of Morgan's benchmark time, Daniel is aiming to improve his Primus Racing Van Diemen racecar during tomorrow's qualifying session and 30-minute first championship round.
"The car has had a mid-to-exit corner understeer problem during the two practice days," he said. "The understeer hasn't been too bad, but it's more than I'd like.
"Being a 'wings and slicks' formula, F2000s tend to lose front end grip through corners when they're following close behind another car, so it's important to get the handling balance right. I've been working with Jon Baytos, who owns Primus Racing and has a lot of experience engineering these cars, to get rid of the understeer or at least reduce it.
"It was better today, and we've made some more changes that should be in the right direction for qualifying for the first race tomorrow. "There's also some improvement to come from me - I made a couple of small mistakes on my quickest lap."
Erickson added that the competition is likely to become closer as the weekend progresses.
"There's a variety of drivers in this series. Some of them are graduating from karts or other formula cars like I am, and then there are guys like Cole Morgan with a lot of experience in F2000 racing. This is the first race meeting of the year for everyone, and a few of the top drivers have had problems that put them down the timesheets. The lap times will probably close up as people sort themselves out.
"The good thing is that I'm feeling comfortable in the car and getting on well with the Primus Racing team. I'm confident of giving a good account of myself this weekend."
WHICH F2000 IS WHICH?
If you find the concept of two American national F2000 Championships confusing, don't worry - you're not alone! Although F2000 has been around in one form or another in various countries since the 1970s, it's now predominantly a USA category. A good history of the formula is on JuniorOpenwheelTalent.com.
Having two national championships for the same formula isn't anything out of the ordinary in the USA. It's such a big market that multiple 'development' openwheeler series can co-exist reasonably happily without cannibalising each other.
The 2010 F2000 Championship Series and USF2000 National Championship each comprise seven rounds at venues across the USA and Canada. The F2000 Championship Series runs exclusively on road courses that are fast and flowing, such as Watkins Glen, Road America (aka Elkhart Lake), Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio and Mosport Park, which are well known to road racing enthusiasts worldwide.
However, Virginia International Raceway and Lime Rock Park, Connecticut, are 'best kept secrets'. They're essentially amateur club racing circuits with little in the way of spectator infrastructure, but are every bit as challenging as the high profile tracks.
The USF2000 championship comprises road courses and ovals as well as the St Petersburg (Florida) street circuit. The cars in both championships are very similar, the main difference being that USF2000 is restricted to Van Diemen chassis whereas F2000 allows chassis from any manufacturer.
In 2010, the F2000 Championship Series is the stronger championship in terms of numbers, with 30+ entries for VIR. The field is a mix of rookies who see F2000 as a stepping-stone to the next level in their motorsport careers, and veterans who are happy to compete year after year in these fast but cost-controlled openwheel 'formula' cars.
THE TRIP 'ACROSS THE POND'
Daniel's last-minute deal with Primus Racing to contest the opening two rounds of the F2000 Championship Series meant he arrived at Virginia International Raceway only a few hours before the start of practice on Thursday. He takes up the story ...
"I flew out of Sydney on the Tuesday before the race weekend. The trip was okay, although there was a five-hour wait in San Francisco for the connecting flight to Pittsburgh.
"On Wednesday I met up with John Walko, a race team owner and mate of Jon Baytos, who runs Primus Racing. John was travelling to VIR for the F2000 races, so he drove me the 500-odd kilometres from Pittsburgh to Alton, which is the closest town to the circuit. We arrived in the early hours of Thursday, and after I'd checked into a local motel and had a short nap we drove out to the circuit.
"Before I left Australia, I already had an idea of what VIR was like from watching YouTube videos of F2000 racing there. The lap distance is 5.3km, which is quite long, and the racing surface is good. There's a long back straight, some fast sweeping corners, and enough changes in elevation to make it a challenging driver's circuit.
"The Start/Finish Line is on a straight with a kink in it, and the first corner is a hairpin which should be interesting on the first lap!" (see map, below)
The 5.3km Virginia
International Raceway is a fine road racing circuit by any standard. Map courtesy of F2000 Championship Series.
"This weekend's race meeting is organised by the Vintage Drivers Club of America, so there are lots of old sports, racing and touring cars in the paddock," Daniel continued. "Thursday was just for the F2000 cars, though, with five sessions throughout the day. Before the first session, people could drive around the track in their road cars, so Jon Baytos took me for a ride in his huge Ford pickup!"
VIR TIMETABLE
SATURDAY, APRIL 10
Round 1
Qualifying
00:00-10:25 USA EDT /00.00-00.25 Sunday, Australian EST
Race
15:30-16:00 USA EDT / 05.30-06.00 Sunday, Australian EST
SUNDAY, APRIL 12
Round 2
Qualifying
12:15-12:45 USA EDT / 02:15-02:45 Monday, Australian EST
Race
15:30-16:00 USA EDT / 05:30-06:00 Monday, Australian EST
MORE INFORMATION
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Publicity - Website Content - Publications - Event Management