Grant, Minor & Kotyk Are Formula Winners
WAMPUM, Pa. – Keith Grant, Tim Minor and Jonathan Kotyk picked up victories Atlantic Championship, F2000 Championship and F1600 Championship competition on Saturday at the Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex.
Grant earned his second Atlantic Championship victory of the year. He set a new track record earlier in the day during qualifying in the No. 40 Polestar Racing Group machine, and put in a masterful pace-setting drive to win over Peter Portante and Richard Zober in an all green-flag race at the newly-paved 19-turn road course.
“It was a good day. The car felt really good in qualifying. It’s easy to drive when you have a car that handles that well, so it was just a smooth race,” Grant said.
In F2000 action, Minor returned after a nearly three-year hiatus from F2000 action to win Saturday’s race. Minor led all 17 laps of Saturday’s race and held off a determined Steve Jenks at the checkers by .454 of a second.
“It is certainly a different track than the last time I was here. My hat is off to the track, they did a fantastic job,” said Minor. “I need to thank Hoosier Tire, what a great job those guys do for the F2000 series and for racing in general. It’s been a great experience coming back, I have missed coming here, but we have to pick where we go to. On the start, it was a little tight, I knew I was going to be stuck on the outside. I was able to get a decent start. I got in the dirt a bit on the exit of turn one, there was nowhere else to be. In the end I needed to keep the second place guy at bay and save my right side tires for tomorrow morning.”
Mid-Ohio winner John McCusker completed the F2000 podium. Points leader Brandon Dixon started on pole, fell back to ninth on the opening lap and recovered to finish fourth.
The first of three F1600 Championship Series races at the Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex was won by Team USA Scholarship candidate Kotyk. Driving the No. 81 Team Pelfrey Mygale/Honda, Kotyk held off Zach Holden with two corners to go, with Holden trying an outside move for the race lead.
“It was definitely a tough last lap and came down to positioning the car right,” Kotyk said. “Missing practice yesterday for the Team USA Scholarship at Mid-Ohio meant we didn’t get as many laps in. I was thinking there would be more cars in the battle, but thankfully we were able to pull away with Zach and come home with the win.”
The K-Hill driver would go on to finish second, while points leader Matthew Cowley brought the No. 80 Team Pelfrey car home in third and Mike Scanlan won the Masters Class.
Source : speedsport.com
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