2001 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

The 2001 US F2000 National Championship is an open-wheel series for Formula 2000 race cars. The series receives generous support from the Ford Motor Company, Avon Tires, Sunoco Racing Fuels and Racing Electronics.

The championship consists of thirteen races, which are contested on road courses and ovals. The season begins in March on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway. A month later, the teams return to the track for a doubleheader on the 1.4-mile oval as a support event for the Indy Racing Northern Lights Series. Next on the calendar is a road course doubleheader at Watkins Glen International. Then the series travels to Indianapolis Raceway Park for another oval event. Rounds seven and eight are conducted at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, followed by the season’s fourth doubleheader at Road America. The series makes its second visit to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course a month later. The final weekend, conducted at Sebring International Raceway, consists of rounds twelve and thirteen.

The cars competing in the series are single-seat, rear-engine, open-wheel vehicles constructed with a tube frame chassis. Manufacturers producing series chassis include Carbir, Mygale, Tatuus, Vector and the most common choice, Van Diemen. These 1,190-lbs formula cars are powered by a 2.0-liter Ford NEA engine fitted with a single Weber DGV carburetor. At 6,200-rpm, the motors produce approximately 150-horsepower. The suspensions are independent – both front and rear. Shock absorbers and sway bars are adjustable. The cars compete on a spec tire from Avon and use a spec fuel provided by Sunoco.

There are three championships:

National Championship – This category is for newer cars. Competitors score points on the road courses and ovals to secure the National Championship. There is also the Road to Indy Oval Crown for the driver who performs the best in the oval events.
Oval Crown Championship – This division allows drivers to enter as oval-only participants if their future career goals do not include road courses.
American Continental Championship – This category is for cars built from 1990 to 1999. This class was introduced to provide an economical means for drivers and teams to enter the series. Drivers in this division score points on the road courses.

Titles are also on the line for Chassis Manufacturers, Engine Builders and Prep Shops.

In early June, the 2001 US F2000 National Championship made their first of two visits to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. This was a doubleheader weekend where divers would collect points in rounds seven and eight.

Tonis Kasemets put the No. 6 MK Industries Van Diemen RF01 on the pole for rounds seven and eight at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. At his previous events, Kasemets was fast in qualifying but not delivering the same results in the race. That would change at Mid-Ohio when he led Saturday’s contest flag-to-flag for his first series win. The next day, Kasemets was slowed by a suspension issue and finished fifteenth.

American Continental Championship competitor Billy Hagar drove the No. 4 Van Diemen RF98. Hagar, who had already collected class victories at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Watkins Glen International, led the points chase. In the first race of the weekend, he started and finished first in class. On Sunday, Hagar was the fastest qualifier but lost a position to Scott Rubenzer and finished second in his category.

Collecting the most points at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was Doug Bell. Bell qualified fourth fastest for round seven but moved the No. 3 Cape Motorsports prepared Van Diemen RF01 into second on the race’s first restart. He chased down the leader, Tonis Kasemets, and finished second by a margin of 0.326-seconds. Bell qualified second the next day but was in the lead before the end of lap-1 and earned the victory.

In his first US F2000 event, Travis Irving finished on the podium piloting the No. 85 Van Diemen RF01 prepared by Primus Racing West. Irving was the third-fastest qualifier. He passed Jason LaPoint at the start but lost a spot to Doug Bell before the checkered flag. He started fourth on Sunday, but his race ended on lap-23 when there was contact between him and the No. 69 Van Diemen RF01 of Billy Asaro.

After three rounds of the American Continental Championship, Scott Rubenzer had one victory to Billy Hagar’s two but was within striking distance of the points leader. The driver of the No. 11 Storage Battery Systems sponsored Carbir DS-3 qualified third in class for Saturday’s contest and despite contact, he finished third. With repairs made for the following day, Rubenzer grabbed the win after a terrible start.

Jason LaPoint was another driver whose excellent qualifying results weren’t reflected in his race results. After six rounds, LaPoint had four top-five qualifying results, one of which was a pole, but he also had three finishes outside the top-ten, two of which were DNFs. He started second in race one at Mid-Ohio but dropped down the order and finished fifth. On Sunday, LaPoint was gridded third and claimed the runner-up spot.

The 2001 US F2000 series attracted some interesting participants, one of which was Vanina Ickx. She is the daughter of former Formula 1 driver and six-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx. Before crossing the Atlantic, she competed in production-based series in Europe. This season Ickx drove the No. 7 Cami Group Van Diemen RF01. At the Mid-Ohio rounds, she earned ninth and eighteenth place finishes.

Another driver of note was the 2000 USAC National Midget Series champion, Kasey Kahne. Kahne was racing the No. 13 Van Diemen RF01 with backing from the Ford Motor Company. Round seven and eight of the 2001 US F2000 National Championship at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course would be his introduction to the series. During the weekend, Kahne collected nineteenth and tenth place finishes.

FINISH	START	CLASS	DRIVER	ENTRANT	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	1	F2A	Tonis Kasemets	MK Ind/Flexovit/TMITAC.com/Van Diemen	25	-
2	4	F2A	Doug Bell	Cape Motorsports/Van Diemen	25	-
3	3	F2A	Travis Irving	Great Central Transport/Van Diemen	25	-
4	5	F2A	Billy Asaro	www.keymotorsport.com/Van Diemen	25	-
5	2	F2A	Jason LaPoint	Infinity/RegencyAviat/TrackMag/Van Diemen	25	-
6	6	F2A	Tommy Constantine	Ouzo12/Van Diemen	25	-
7	8	F2A	Piero Rodarte	Telmex/Sico/Van Diemen	25	-
8	19	F2A	Paul Dana	Forsythe/CAPCO/Klein Tls/Mate/Van Diemen	25	-
9	15	F2A	Peter Gray	Cape Motorsports/Van Diemen	25	-
10	17	F2A	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	Provimi/Mi-Jack/Van Diemen	25	-
11	10	F2A	Memo Rojas	TelMex/Van Diemen	25	-
12	11	F2A	Arnold Brinkmann	APG/Fruit Soda Ecuador/Van Diemen	25	-
13	16	F2A	Sean McIntosh	Kimnac Carstar/PPG/Van Diemen	25	-
14	21	F2A	Matt Green	InfinityMtrspt/RegencyAviation/Van Diemen	25	-
15	13	F2A	J.W. Urlin	Budget Rent A Car/Van Diemen	25	-
16	23	ACC	Billy Hagar	Hagar Restaurant Service/Van Diemen	25	-
17	18	F2A	Jeff Harrison	Moto1net/MotsprtRanch/AmerInst/Van Diemen	25	-
18	22	F2A	Vanina Ickx	Cami Group/JDC Motor Sports/Van Diemen	25	-
19	20	F2A	Kasey Kahne	Ford Racing/Van Diemen	25	-
20	26	ACC	Russell Lindemann	Bamsley Tire of Boulder/Van Diemen	25	-
21	9	F2A	Tom Dyer	CycleShack/Menards/CowboyChar./Van Diemen	25	-
22	25	ACC	Scott Rubenzer	StorageBatSys/TrojanBatCo./Carbir	25	-
23	12	F2A	Alexander Figge	ZeroWait/Lightspeed Motorsport/Van Diemen	22	Did Not Finish
24	29	F2A	Richard Zober	Zober Industries Inc./Van Diemen	15	Did Not Finish
25	24	ACC	Dustin Hodges	www.dustinhodges.com/Van Diemen	11	Did Not Finish
26	14	F2A	Mike Potekhen	P.D.R./Twin Seasons.com/Van Diemen	1	Did Not Finish
27	27	F2A	Carl Russo	P.D.R./Van Diemen	1	Did Not Finish
28	7	F2A	Bryan Sellers	HLCapital/3 Dimensional Serv./Van Diemen	0	Did Not Finish
-	28	ACC	Aaron Ellis	Ellis Motorsports/Riley&Scott/Van Diemen	-	Did Not Start

FINISH	START	CLASS	DRIVER	ENTRANT	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	2	F2A	Doug Bell	Cape Motorsports/Van Diemen	25	-
2	3	F2A	Jason LaPoint	Infinity/RegencyAviat/TrackMag/Van Diemen	25	-
3	6	F2A	Peter Gray	Cape Motorsports/Van Diemen	25	-
4	9	F2A	Arnold Brinkmann	APG/Fruit Soda Ecuador/Van Diemen	25	-
5	10	F2A	Memo Rojas	TelMex/Van Diemen	25	-
6	7	F2A	Tom Dyer	CycleShack/Menards/CowboyChar./Van Diemen	25	-
7	11	F2A	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	Provimi/Mi-Jack/Van Diemen	25	-
8	19	F2A	J.W. Urlin	Budget Rent A Car/Van Diemen	25	-
9	21	F2A	Vanina Ickx	Cami Group/JDC Motor Sports/Van Diemen	25	-
10	16	F2A	Kasey Kahne	Ford Racing/Van Diemen	25	-
11	15	F2A	Tommy Constantine	Ouzo12/Van Diemen	25	-
12	22	ACC	Scott Rubenzer	StorageBatSys/TrojanBatCo./Carbir	25	-
13	23	ACC	Russell Lindemann	Bamsley Tire of Boulder/Van Diemen	25	-
14	25	F2A	Carl Russo	P.D.R./Van Diemen	25	-
15	1	F2A	Tonis Kasemets	MK Ind/Flexovit/TMITAC.com/Van Diemen	25	-
16	20	ACC	Billy Hagar	Hagar Restaurant Service/Van Diemen	25	-
17	26	ACC	Aaron Ellis	Ellis Motorsports/Riley&Scott/Van Diemen	25	-
18	27	F2A	Richard Zober	Zober Industries Inc./Van Diemen	24	-
19	4	F2A	Travis Irving	Great Central Transport/Van Diemen	23	Contact
20	5	F2A	Billy Asaro	www.keymotorsport.com/Van Diemen	23	Contact
21	13	F2A	Sean McIntosh	Kimnac Carstar/PPG/Van Diemen	23	Contact
22	28	F2A	Bryan Sellers	HLCapital/3 Dimensional Serv./Van Diemen	23	Contact
23	8	F2A	Piero Rodarte	Telmex/Sico/Van Diemen	21	Electrical
24	17	F2A	Paul Dana	Forsythe/CAPCO/Klein Tls/Mate/Van Diemen	19	Did Not Finish
25	12	F2A	Mike Potekhen	P.D.R./Twin Seasons.com/Van Diemen	14	Did Not Finish
26	24	F2A	Jeff Harrison	Moto1net/MotsprtRanch/AmerInst/Van Diemen	10	Did Not Finish
27	14	F2A	Alexander Figge	ZeroWait/Lightspeed Motorsport/Van Diemen	1	Did Not Finish
-	18	ACC	Dustin Hodges	www.dustinhodges.com/Van Diemen	-	Did Not Start

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