Junior Open Wheel Talent

The first race of the 2009 F2000 Championship is officially in the books. The 26% of you that voted "other" in the poll to predict today's winner were correct as ZSports Midwest rookie Benjamin Searcy stole the show at a wet VIR, winning his first F2000 Championship race.

The 19-year-old driver signed with ZSports Midwest late last month. At the time of the announcement, I wrote:

This is a decent signing for the Minnesota-based team. With some additional seat-time Searcy should do quite well this season. I fully expect to see him getting faster every weekend.

Today's result is great for ZSports Midwest and Benjamin Searcy.... he proved that he is a championship contender right out of the box and if he does indeed get quicker every weekend, the competition may be in trouble. Great run by the rookie, especially in the wet conditions.

Dave Weitzenhof and Tom Fatur, both of the Masters Class, are the hard chargers of the day as they improved 17 positions each. Weitzenhof stormed the field to finish 10th after starting 27th, improving 17 positions. A very nice run by the 7-time National Champion. Tom Fatur had a tremendous run that ended just short of the podium as he finished 4th after starting 21st.

Alejandro Munoz was the hard charger for the Championship class, improving 10 positions. The Mexican driver started the day in 25th and crossed the stripe in 15th place. A solid run for the series rookie.

Full Results Race 1

(photo: Janice Eakin/http://www.f2000championship.com)