Daniel capped off a great 'wings and slicks' debut season with a clear-cut win at Mid-Ohio. Photo by Janice Eakin.

Daniel Erickson took another step towards achieving his Formula 1 ambition by winning the 14th and final round of the F2000 Championship Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course today.

Daniel was never headed after he took the lead at the first corner from pole position holder and 2010 champion Victor Carbone. Twenty laps of the 3.9km (2.4-mile) circuit later, the young Sydney driver crossed the finish line just over one second clear of 2007 champion Cole Morgan, with Carbone nearly two seconds further back in third place.

It was Daniel's third race win in the championship, in which he also scored four second places, four pole positions, two qualifying lap records and two fastest race laps. His victory confirmed him as the 2010 Rookie of the Year, his third such award in four racing seasons across two categories in state, national and international competition.

And it secured his pointscore 'podium' with third position overall, an extraordinary achievement considering he:

The Australian Motor Sport Foundation International Rising Star qualified his Primus Racing Van Diemen in second position with a best lap of 1min. 24.680sec., 0.226sec. off Carbone's pole time, around the 3.9km Lexington, Ohio racetrack. This was despite a brake bias problem that couldn't be rectified in the pitlane.

Two clean-up stoppages late in the half-hour session denied him the opportunity to try to improve his time.

With next fastest qualifier Fabio Orsolon and fourth position starter Morgan several tenths slower, the race looked to be a shootout between Daniel and Carbone - but it didn't turn out that way.

Daniel outjumped the new champion at the rolling start, which at Mid-Ohio was staged along the kinked back straight instead of the shorter pit straight, and led into the first corner. He drew out a lead of more than a second while Carbone defended his position from Morgan, who eventually overtook the Brazilian after a mid-race pace car period.

Morgan then closed to within less than a second of Daniel, but the gritty Australian withstood the pressure and restored his lead to more than a second again. The gap between the frontrunners  fluctuated marginally during the closing laps, but Daniel was always in command and took the chequered flag by 1.034 seconds.

He revealed after the race that he had to cope with a handling problem during the latter stages.

"The car started to develop mid-corner understeer in the slow corners," he said. "From then on I just tried not to make any mistakes, which I didn't.

"To pull a gap on the competition and come away with a win is what racing drivers dream about! This has been a great way to end the series, especially after our troubles on Saturday. It proved that you must never stop trying, no matter how bad things look."

Daniel's weekend had a faltering beginning when his car struck mechanical problems in Saturday's penultimate round of the F2000 Championship Series.

After being on the pace in Friday's two practice sessions, he could only post the fifth fastest lap in qualifying on Saturday morning. An incorrect throttle setting and a damaged air filter were robbing his engine of crucial power on the high-speed 3.9km (2.4 mile) circuit.

A malfunctioning pits-to-car radio exacerbated the situation.

Despite those handicaps, his best qualifying lap was only 0.239sec. off Carbone's pole position time.

The down-on-power engine's debilitating effect showed in the difference between Daniel's best practice and qualifying times. His best Friday lap, on a 'green' racetrack that overnight rain had washed clean of accumulated rubber, was only half a second slower than his fastest lap on Saturday, when the surface had significantly more grip.

By contrast, many drivers qualified a full second and more faster than their best practice times.

"The radio wasn't working properly, so when my first attempt at a quick lap was only in the 25s I came straight into the pits to fix some understeer," he said. "We made an adjustment and I improved my time by 0.6sec., which was better but still well off the pace I'd been hoping for.

"After qualifying, Eric Oseth from Quicksilver Race Engines found that the throttle wasn't opening fully. We were down by about two to three kilowatts, which would have made quite a difference at Mid Ohio with such a long back straight.

"We also found that the air filter was ripped, so that probably cost a bit of time too."

With those two problems solved in time for the afternoon's race, Daniel was looking forward to mixing it with the leaders in the race - but things went from bad to worse.

The car had been riding too high in qualifying, so it was lowered to what the team thought would be spot-on. But it turned out to be too low, allowing the chassis to scrape the track under heavy braking. Even so, in the early laps Daniel overtook pole sitter Carbone, who later admitted that he was driving conservatively to guarantee his championship win with one race remaining (which he did).

But on lap five the Australian's #95 Van Diemen skated wide at the 180-degree Keyhole corner, dropping him back to 15th place by the time he rejoined the race. Unlike his brilliant Round 10 recovery drive from 14th starting position to a second place finish at Lime Rock Park, he could only regain six positions - two of them courtesy of other drivers spinning off - in his crippled car before the chequered flag.

His fastest lap of 1min. 25.200sec. was a whopping 0.868sec. off race winner Chris Livengood's best time, indicating the severity of the ride height problem.

Daniel was extremely disappointed at how the race had panned out, but equally determined to bounce back in Sunday's championship finale.

"I made an okay start, but straight away there was a problem with the car bottoming out badly under brakes. It almost got away from me several times, but I managed to get past Victor - although I think he wasn't taking any risks to make sure he won the championship.

"Then the car bottomed out really badly at the Keyhole, and I couldn't hold it. After I got going again I just tried to score as many points as possible, because I knew that Phil Lombardi (Daniel's closest threat to third place in the championship) was ahead of me on the track, so he was probably ahead of me in the pointscore too."

After the race meeting, Daniel thanked everyone involved with his first American racing campaign, particularly Primus Racing owners Jon and Brad Baytos.

"I'd like to thank the crews from various teams who worked on the race cars, most of all Jon and Brad who put this deal together in a very short time," he said. "They've been with me every step of the way, and I can't guess how many small and not-so-small problems they've solved during the championship.

"Without their help there's no way that I would have won Rookie of the Year or finished third in the championship after missing those four rounds.

"I'd also like to thank the Australian Motor Sport Foundation, which came on board for Road America and Mid Ohio, as well as Shaun Garrity and all the Team Erickson members who have bought tickets in our fundraisers.

"Last but not least, thanks to my mum and dad for their encouragement and support, and my uncle Bill for his tireless fundraising work."