July 2, 2011: Mid-Ohio F2000 report

Nathan battles to score top 10 double at Mid-Ohio

The tight Mid-Ohio timetable turned minor mechanical problems into major dramas for Nathan. Photo by Dennis Valet.

Mid-Ohio was another ‘couldabeen’ race meeting in Nathan Morcom’s F2000 Championship series campaign. Minor mechanical problems, combined with an ultra-tight timetable for the seventh and eighth rounds of the American development openwheel series, put the young Sydney driver on the back foot from day one.

He lost precious track time after a broken throttle linkage sidelined his Rondo Van Diemen for two of the four practice sessions. More niggling problems during qualifying prevented him from qualifying higher than eighth for either round at the 3.9km Lexington racetrack. Eighth and six placings in the two races were the best that Nathan could manage in a car that was a full second off the pace.

Despite a frustrating weekend, he retained his sixth overall and third rookie positions in the series with six of the 14 rounds remaining.

ROUND 7

Three engine failures in the two previous F2000 Championship Series rounds at Watkins Glen had Nathan hoping for a trouble-free weekend at Mid-Ohio – but that hope was dashed early in the proceedings. The throttle linkage broke on his Rondo Van Diemen before he’d warmed up his tyres in the second of Thursday’s three practice sessions.

That would have been a nuisance at a conventional race meeting, but this wasn’t a conventional race meeting. The F2000 and F1600/Formula F Championship Series were piggybacked on car club track days, with the practice and qualifying sessions and races run nose-to-tail from mid-afternoon until early-evening. Such a tight schedule barely allowed time for car set-up adjustments, let alone repairs.

(The original timetable had two qualifying sessions and a race on Friday and Saturday, but the first qualifying session was changed to a practice session after the Friday drivers’ briefing. With only six slicks at their disposal from the first qualifying session onwards, the competitors were adamant that a second qualifying session on the abrasive Mid-Ohio would be a waste of time.)

Nathan’s throttle linkage couldn’t be fixed in time for Thursday's third practice session, and although he was on track for Friday's practice session he was effectively way behind the opposition. Adding further pressure was a decision to make just one qualifying run – most drivers made two – to conserve the tyres on MId-Ohio's abrasive surface. Under the circumstances, his one flying lap, just 0.8 seconds off pole and good enough for eighth starting position in the 28-car field, was a remarkable achievement.

The rolling start, down Mid-Ohio’s long back straight, was the usual messy affair. Nathan lost a handful of places in the first few corners after backing off to avoid a collision with his Primus Racing team-mate, Jonathan Scarallo. He regained one place on lap two when Tim Minor spun out of the lead pack, then clawed his way past Gustavo Rizzo and Ethan Ringel back to eighth place. But Minor was on a charge after his off-track excursion, setting the fastest race lap as he closed on a struggling Nathan in the ill-handling no.2 Van Diemen. The pair swapped places on lap 10 after a brief tussle.

Nathan battled on, though, taking eighth place back again after Kyle Connery dropped out of the lead bunch. He battled with John La Rue to the end, crossing the line a fraction of a second ahead. The race was won by Chris Livengood, with Brian Tomasi second and Robert La Rocca third.

Nathan was disappointed to finish at the blunt end of the top 10, with a fastest lap almost a full second off the pace. “My car wasn’t right from the start – it was snapping into oversteer on every corner,” he said. “It wasn’t easy to get back the places I lost at the start with the car handling the way it was. When Tim Minor came up behind me, his car was so much faster that I couldn’t hold him off for more than a few laps.”

ROUND 8

Drivers had to use their race weekend tyres if they wanted to take part in Saturday’s practice session, which posed a strategy dilemma: go out and work on car set-up; or stay in and save the tyres for qualifying and the race. Nathan gave the practice session a miss, hoping that overnight set-up changes would make the Rondo Van Diemen competitive when it counted.

But as soon as qualifying began, another a mechanical gremlin intervened – this time a too-low idle setting that made the engine die off-throttle. A pit stop remedied the problem, but again he lost valuable track time. He did well to qualify eighth, but the 0.940sec. gap from pole needed no explanation.

Another rolling start shemozzle put him at loggerheads with John La Rue through the opening corners. The pair banged wheels, bending the Rondo Van Diemen’s steering and damaging the rear suspension. Nathan acclimatised to the out-of-kilter steering, but the loose back end made the car a real handful.

“The only way I could get any corner exit speed was to back it in and drift through on the throttle,” he said. “Driving like that doesn’t do the tyres any good on a smooth circuit – it was even worse here!”

Despite his car’s handling and steering handicaps, Nathan overtook Jonathan Scarallo and Joe Colasacco to be sixth. He maintained his position after a safety car period, then drove defensively for the final two laps to hold off championship leader Remy Audette, who was recovering from a midfield start. The race was won by Kyle Connery, with Tim Minor second and Brian Tomasi third.

Afterwards, Nathan lamented yet another disrupted F2000 Championship Series weekend. “You can get away with small problems during a normal race meeting, but time was so tight here that the small problems I had turned into big problems. I’m still confident of being a frontrunner in this series if I can just get a clear run.

“There are still three race meetings to go – maybe it‘ll all come together next time.”

Despite damaged steering and suspension, Nathan defends his sixth position from Jonathan Scarallo and championship leader Remy Audette.
Photo by Dennis Valet.