Andersen Racing’s Ricardo Vassmer set an automatic track record in earning the pole this morning for this afternoon’s Hankook Tires F2000 Championship Series race at Burke Lakefront Airport.
The series’ first visit here is a doubleheader, as are all the 2007 Hankook Tires F2000 races. The starting line-up for Sunday’s race will be determined by each driver’s fastest lap in today’s race.
Driving the No. 2 car advertising PDVSA, Citgo, Zoom and Meridiano TV, Vassmer took an immediate liking to the 2.106-mile road course. His first pole in this series was done in 1:16.449. The second-fastest qualifier, Max Hyatt, was 0.085 of a second slower than Vassmer, who is from Caracas, Venezuela and Coral Springs, Fla.
The other four Andersen Racing drivers entered in the series did quite well too. Noah Bystrom of Chanhassen, Minn. (APEX Universal Joints and Cooper Power Tools) qualified fourth; Terrick Mansur of Aruba was fifth; Juliana Gonzalez of Mexico City (No. 77) placed eighth and Scott Willard of Weston, Conn. (BroadReach Partners No. 14) will start 14th in today’s 39-car race at 5 p. m. EDT.
Vassmer and Mansur were first and second in the provisional qualifying round on Friday.
Going into this weekend Mansur was second in the overall point standings; Bystrom was fourth; Vassmer, who didn’t compete in the first two races, was sixth, and Gonzalez was ninth.
After this weekend’s races the next F2000 Championship Series doubleheader is July 14-15 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Andersen Racing is committed to offering a program that gives up-and-coming drivers the best training available to reach open-wheel racing’s major leagues. It fields multiple cars in the F2000 Championship, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear and the Indy Pro Series. This weekend it has two Indy Pro Series cars driven by Andrew Prendeville and Joey Scarallo that are racing under the RLR/Andersen Racing banner at Iowa Speedway. It also has three Star Mazda cars driven by Jonathan Goring, Jonny Baker and Phil Saville racing in the Star Mazda series here at Cleveland, in addition to the five F2000 cars.
| 
|