Saturday & Sunday July 5th and 6th
Infineon Raceway
Sonoma, CA
This past weekend, rounds 7 & 8 took place of the Pacific F2000 Championship at the infamous Infineon Raceway. Going in to the weekend, series leader Jeff Westphal had a narrow 1 point margin, but was dominant all weekend and extended his lead to 19.
Saturday qualifying was a narrow split between hometown favorite Westphal and Robert Podlesni, with Westphal on pole by a close .163 margin, and the remainder of the top 5 within a second. Once the green flag fell later that afternoon, it was Westphal who led flag to flag establishing a 4.3 second margin at the end of the 18 laps. “It was a great day for us, qualifying went relatively smoothly, and we were successful through the end of the day. I look forward to keeping this momentum rolling through tomorrow!” elated Westphal.
Sunday morning the cars were on the track at 8:30 am, establishing an order for the race later that day at 1 pm. Again, it was Westphal who made his presence felt with a 1.33.4, two tenths faster than his competition and his best lap in Saturday’s race. At the start the field was tight all the way to turn 3 before finally assimilating into a single file line, and Westphal managed to pull a near 3 second lead in 7 laps until a full course caution came out and bunched up the field. On the restart, after a Pace Car interference it was Podlesni who got the jump, and found a way by Westphal in turn 4. But not loosing focus, Westphal re-challenged for the lead one lap later in turn 11 and made it stick. “It was extremely close after the restart, we were running so close you couldn’t let your guard down anywhere, which made it tough to establish any sort of lead” said Westphal. After 10laps of a close fought battle, it was Westphal who remained dominant and came out .695 seconds ahead of Podlesni, finishing off the sweep of the weekend with both Poles, fast laps and race wins. “It was a great weekend, I am extremely happy with the result!” exclaimed Westphal.
