Top 10 double keeps Nathan in Rookie of the Year contest
 race - Morcom [Valet 2488; cropped].jpg)
All hell broke loose at the start of Race 1, with Nathan (#2) an unwitting participant! See the full photo sequence in the Gallery. Photo by Dennis Valet.
Nathan Morcom remains in contention for the F2000 Championship Series Rookie of the Year title with two seventh placings from a wild day’s racing at Lime Rock Park. The Sydney teenager kept his cool despite problems on and off the 2.4km (1.5-mile) Connecticut racetrack in the 11th and 12th rounds of the American ‘development’ openwheeler series.
He had to endure severe handling problems throughout first race after his Rondo Van Diemen’s front wing and a rear tyre were damaged in a first corner pile-up. In the second race, he flew through the field from a back row start until a loose front wing halted his progress.
Despite those tribulations, Nathan retained sixth place in the overall pointscore and third in the rookie standings. The outright series win is out of reach but not the newcomer title, although it’s a big ask with the leader, American Kyle Connery, 63 and points ahead.
To beat Connery, Nathan needs to score the lion’s share of the 110 points available from the two remaining F2000 Championship Series rounds at Watkins Glen next month. But with his rival’s campaign rumoured to be over after a heavy crash in qualifying at Lime Rock Park, Nathan is by no means out of the Rookie of the Year contest.
PRACTICE & QUALIFYING
Lime Rock Park, in Connecticut’s picturesque Lakeville, is an intriguing stop on the F2000 Championship Series schedule. Not because it’s a Friday-Saturday race meeting – the locals don’t like noisy racing cars spoiling their Sabbath serenity – but because practice and qualifying are on the first day, with both races on the second day. (Normally there’s a qualifying session and then a race on each day.)
LRP doesn’t have a test day on the day before the race meeting either, adding to the challenge facing first-timers and those with car problems in practice. Nathan ticked both boxes this year.
His Rondo Van Diemen was down on power from the outset, but the problem wasn’t identified until the qualifying session for the first race.
“We weren’t looking at lap times too closely in the first practice session because I was on old tyres while I learnt the track,” Nathan said. “In the second session I was less than seven-tenths off the fastest lap, so it looked like we were heading in the right direction with the car’s set-up. But in the Race 1 qualifying session the engine felt soft. I couldn’t get within a second of pole.”
Things went from bad to worse when the #2 Van Diemen wouldn’t fire for the second qualifying session later in the day. A push-start got Nathan mobile, but he pulled into the pits after one spluttering lap.
The battery was found to be way down on voltage, so a fresh one was fitted – but that didn’t fix the problem. Time ran out before anything more could be done, giving Nathan the prospect of starting from the back of the field in Race 2.
His only good news was a one starting position promotion, to eighth, in Race 1, courtesy of Kyle Connery being penalised two positions (to ninth) for his crash, which caused the first qualifying session to be red-flagged. (Connery was out of the race meeting in any case. His Van Diemen was too badly damaged to be repaired for Race 1, and he was already disqualified from starting Race 2 after a prior conviction at the previous round at Mosport.)
ROUND 11
A 15-minute warm-up was slated for Saturday morning, but fewer than half the field chose to put more laps on their allocated half-dozen Hoosier tyres. Nathan was an encouraging third fastest, half a second off pacesetter Robert La Rocca’s fastest lap.
The rolling start only stayed orderly until the braking area of the first corner (creatively named Big Bend), when all hell broke loose. At the front, La Rocca cannoned into the back of Canadian pole sitter Remy Audette, smashing the front of his RFR and putting him out on the spot.
Nathan was among the victims caught in the inevitable concertina effect.
“First I was hit from behind, then from one side and then the other. I was like a pinball!” he said.
The front wing was mangled on one side, and the steering was out of whack, but amazingly the car was still driveable – so Nathan pressed on regardless! He soldiered on even after another part of the front wing parted company, damaging a rear wing support on its way.
Battling chronic understeer, he was circulating the undulating and curvaceous circuit more than a couple of seconds off the pace. He just escaped being lapped by race winner – and F2000 Champion-apparent – Audette.
Only Tim Minor, who scorched through from the back to third place after pitting during the Safety Car clean-up, was able to overtake the crippled Van Diemen during the demo derby.
Finishing seventh was a gutsy effort under the circumstances.
RESULTS – 28 laps (67.2km/42 miles)
1. Remy Audette (CAN) Van Diemen 30min. 17.378sec.
2. Tim Minor (USA) Van Diemen 30min. 31.663sec.
3. Angel Benitez* (VEN) Van Diemen 30min. 34.863sec.
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7. Nathan Morcom* (AUS) Van Diemen 31min. 08.616sec.
* rookie
ROUND 12
More fireworks were in store for Nathan in Round 12 later in the day. With a spare nosecone fitted, the Rondo Van Diemen looked better, even if the electrical problem was still unresolved.
From his back row starting position, Nathan advanced hand-over-first up the order in the opening laps: 17th on lap one; 16th on lap 2; 13th on lap three; 12th on lap four; 11th on lap five; 10th on lap six; and ninth on lap seven.
Then the replacement front wing’s retaining screws started to work loose, causing the aerofoil to flap around. The result: instant understeer.
From that point, Nathan’s progress slowed. He had to give back one place to Charles Finelli on lap 16, but regained it seven laps later after Finelli ran wide. On the same lap he demoted Blake Teeter, driving the new Radon, and then clung doggedly to seventh place, albeit a lap down on winner Chris Livengood.
Afterwards the young Aussie summarised his race thus: “I was doing okay at first, but when the front wing came loose the car was a real handful. It was really disappointing, because until then I was looking at finishing in the top five.”
RESULTS - 30 laps (72km/45 miles)
1. Chris Livengood (USA) Van Diemen 25min. 36.588sec.
2. Remy Audette (CAN) Van Diemen 25min. 42.198sec.
3. Tim Paul (USA) Van Diemen 26min. 09.222sec.
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7. Nathan Morcom* (AUS) Van Diemen 29 laps
* rookie
 race - Morcom, Livengood [Valet 3063; 1000x450].jpg)
With a loose front wing and a badly blistered rear tyre, Nathan was powerless to stop Race 2 winner Chris Livengood from lapping the Rondo Van Diemen.
Photo by Dennis Valet.
POINTSCORE AFTER 12 OF 14 ROUNDS
1. Remy Audette 517
2. Chris Livengood 373
3. Tim Minor 338
4. Kyle Connery* 309
5. Robert La Rocca* 279
6. Nathan Morcom* 242 (contested 10 rounds only)
* rookie
Lime Rock Park (2.4km/1.5 miles) - Lakeville, Connecticut
MORE INFORMATION
F2000 Championship Series website
