A hard-earned second place in Round 11 of the F2000 Championship Series has effectively jumped Daniel Erickson two steps up the points ladder.
The young Australian’s 45-point haul, including three bonus points for pole position, elevated him from sixth to fifth in the American ‘development’ openwheel championship.
But that becomes fourth after each driver’s two lowest-scoring rounds have been deducted, as required under championship rules.
On aggregate, Erickson has 280 points, just five points behind fourth-placed Keith McCrone.
However, without their lowest two scores Erickson’s total is unaffected (he skipped four rounds in May-June) while McCrone’s tally drops to 264.
Importantly, Erickson finished today’s race six positions ahead of Phil Lombardi, who currently lies third in the championship with 311 points.
That becomes 290 points after the American veteran’s two lowest results are deducted, putting him well within the Aussie’s reach with three rounds remaining.
He leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 79 points from American Chris Livengood.
The day started on a high for Erickson, who claimed his fourth pole position and second qualifying lap record from the seven rounds he has contested.
As at the previous three USA racetracks he has visited this year, it was his first appearance on the daunting 6.5km Wisconsin venue.
He dominated the half-hour session, first slipstreaming another car on one of Road America’s long straights to set the early benchmark, but later setting the pole time alone.
“To get pole anywhere is great, but to do it at Road America first time out is really special,” Erickson said.
“Everyone told me it’s an awesome track, and they were right! It took me a little while to come to grips with it in practice yesterday, but today everything fell into place.
“All credit to Jon Baytos of Primus Racing for his invaluable guidance, Wendell and Slade Miller of Quantum Racing for preparing the car to the job, and the Australian.”
The race was a different affair, though. Erickson retained the front position from the rolling start, but it wasn’t long before he realised that his car had lost some of its perfect balance.
For the first two laps he staved off Carbone, who had overtaken second-fastest qualifier Jonathon Scarallo at the start, but on lap three Carbone swept into the lead, bringing Scarallo with him.
After a brief battle, Erickson repassed Scarallo and consolidated in second place, but unlike his tremendous 14th-to-second charge in the previous round at Lime Rock Park, this time he couldn’t catch Carbone.
After 12 laps and almost half an hour’s racing, Erickson crossed the finish line 3.7 seconds behind the number 23 Van Diemen.
He was nearly nine seconds ahead of Steven McAleer from Scotland, who took third after Scarallo lost fourth gear.
Erickson was pleased with his bag of points and pointscore improvement, but disappointed not to make the top step of the podium.
“I had a good start, and managed to get a small gap on Victor, but for some reason my car’s balance was less than ideal for the entire race.
“After Victor went by I knew that couldn’t catch him on pace, so I drove as hard as I could to hold onto second until the end of the race.
“I’ve no idea what caused the handling to go off, but the crew is checking everything – I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it.
“It’s disappointing not to win after starting from pole, but sometimes these things happen.
“You just have to focus on doing as well as possible in the next race.”
Erickson remained confident of another good showing in Sunday’s second championship round, and further progress up the points table.
“With whatever it was that caused the handling problem fixed, I’m sure that we can be competitive again tomorrow,” he said.
“There are still three rounds to go in the championship, so I’m concentrating on achieving my goals of finishing at least third overall and top rookie.”
Tomorrow’s Road America schedule is a repeat of today’s 30-minute morning qualifying session and 13-lap/30-minute race in the afternoon.
