NA-F2000: PAC: Buttonwillow round five summary

Hyatt Leads from Flag to Flag for Victory in Round 5

Buttonwillow, CA. (April 4, 2009) - Under partly cloudy skies, seventy degree weather and a light breeze from the west, Max Hyatt took full advantage of his pole position to lead from flag to flag to claim victory in round 5 of the Pacific F2000 Series presented by Terminal Velocity Processing and Sierra Tire. Using the inside line into Sunrise, Max driving the #22/Performance Drink/PR1 Van Diemen, took the lead closely followed by Robert Podlesni, #84/Terminal Velocity Processing/Alpinestars/DFR Van Diemen who took advantage of the other front row starter Scott Rarick, for second place. Michael Simpson and Peter Hastrup, who has lamented his starts need work, also lost positions at the start having been overtaken by Ira Fierberg and Bob Negron respectively and at the end of the first lap the order was Hyatt followed by Podlesni, Rarick, Shaun Modisette, Fierberg, Simpson, Negron, Hastrup, Michael Murphy, Les Phillips and Peter West.

Simpson #48/DRF Van Diemen got back by Fierberg #27/Barry I Goldstein/CPA/Sparco/DFR Van Diemen on lap one while Phillips #89/Swiss Implant/Porterfield Brakes/Mygale also passed Murphy #18/Mygale.

The next time around Rarick #34/PR1 Van Diemen eased his way by Podlesni to retake second place and begin his pursuit of Hyatt. Rarick managed to pull out a small lead on Podlesni while at the same time only managing to close to within a second of Max who drove a strong race and managed to lead Rarick to the checkered by 3.429 seconds. Podlesni, who was suffering from flu-like symptoms, drove for all he was worth and was rewarded with the final podium spot and the races' fastest lap.

Modisette in his #26/Carson Trailers/Van Diemen slowly began to lose touch with the leading trio and ended up having a lonely race to fourth neither being able to close on those ahead nor having any challenge from behind.

The battle for fifth through eight was in doubt for the entire race as Simpson #48/DFR/Van Diemen, Fierberg, Hastrup #5/Western Building Materials/Nuttal, Brown & Coutts/Van Diemen and Negron #8/Fengshui5.com Van Diemen continually changed places with Hastrup prevailing in fifth place at the finish earning himself the Williams Race Development Hard Charger award and the Masters Class victory.

Fierberg was sixth passing Negron for that position two laps from the end.

Bob Negron was solid in his series return with a solid seventh place finish in his return to the series and was pleased not to have additional drama after a fraught practice on Friday.

Simpson who joined the series this year drove well but appeared to suffer mechanical woes and finished eighth.

Behind Simpson were Phillips in ninth, Peter West #99/Terminal Velocity Processing/DFR Van Diemen who managed to find a way past Murphy on the final lap for tenth and Murphy eleventh.

Qualifying for Sunday's race will again be at 8:00am with the green flag set to start the race at 12:30pm local time.

-credit: www.pacificf2000.com