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| March 08, 2010 News |
| Dromo 1: Horvath Captures GP2 Winter Series Title |
The final round of the 2009-10 GP2 Winter Series at Dromo 1 in California got underway last week, with 12 year-old Annika Horvath holding a commanding lead in the championship standings. She just needed a decent night to hold off Caylee Burgan, Steve Spring and Mike Spray. But, with mid-season rule changes last month that included a random A Main inversion, anything could happen.
Qualifying started the night with the top-five in points going out in the first session on a cold new track. Immediately Spring went to the top of the charts, with Spray and Ken Won right behind keeping him on his toes. Burgan ended the session fourth, a few tenths off, and the big surprise was Horvath struggling to come to terms with the new track layout, as she ended up fifth out of the first five. The rest of the field followed in the next few sessions and scattered the top-five throughout the field. Spring ended up being the best of the championship contenders, qualifying in third place. On the other end of the spectrum, Horvath ended up 15th in the 21-kart field, a massive change from her typical outstanding speed.
The field split into three Heats races, setting the grid for the A, B, and C Mains. Each heat had seven drivers, with the top-three transferring to the A Main, the next two to the B, and the remainder to the C. Two drivers would then transfer from the C to the B, and the winner of the B would get to move up to the big show and run the A.
Heat One had points leader Horvath and second place Burgan starting nose-to-tail in fourth and fifth, with both needing to move up to transfer to the A. The race began and immediately polesitter David Santos streaked away from the field, with Won holding a solid second place behind him. Meanwhile Ruben Archilla, Burgan and Horvath battled it out for the final transfer spot. Burgan finally made the move going into turn one and Horvath attempted to follow, but the hole closed up and Horvath had to spin to avoid contact. As a result Horvath lost a ton of time and came home in seventh. This meant she would have to race her way through the C main. Santos held on to win, followed by Won and Burgan who all transferred to the A main.
Heat Two followed with Spring on pole, followed by Jason Blue and Lawson Chew, and that is just how they finished. Spring capitalizing on Horvath's misfortunes, put himself within miracle range of the overall championship if Horvath couldn't make it out of the C main.
Heat Three rounded out the grids for the Mains, with 'Area One' on pole and Mike Spray and John Carrol right behind. 'Area One' and Spray took off from the start and made it once again a battle for third for the transfer spot. Steve Jasinski was throwing every trick in the book at Carrol to try and get that final spot in the A main, a few times getting a run on Carrol. But he was unable to get the position, and Carrol held on to transfer behind Spray and 'Area One'.
The C Main was were the season could be made or broken for Horvath, all she had to do was finish second or better in the C to assure herself a championship regardless of what Burgan or Spring could do. But, she had to start fourth and had an uphill battle in front of her. The race began with John Shepherd in P1, and he had noticed the trend of pole sitters running away to win and looked to do the same. Meanwhile Horvath was showing nice composure by doing nothing desperate or aggressive and took what was given to her. She ran a smart clean race and was able to fly under the radar and come home second behind Shepherd. This was all she needed, as she locked up the second-ever GP2 championship title. Behind her was Nicholas Chahine, Steve Davis, Kevin Hoffrichter and Alan Lindo.
Next up was the nights penultimate race, the B Main. This is usually the most aggressive race of each event, as every drivers knows that a win is all that matters and will put them into every drivers goal, the A Main. Archilla started up front, with Ray Avitia and Jasinski right behind. Archilla made a quick start and started to gap the field, as Avitia and Jasinski battled to try to get a shot at chasing down the leader. Eventually Jasinski was able to make the pass and try to chase down Archilla. Jasinski began to rapidly close the gap by as much as four tenths a lap, but ran out of time, as Archilla held on to transfer to the A main. Jasinski finished a solid second, with Avitia in third. 'Missileman', Shepherd and Horvath followed, then it was last months winner Ferdi Ang who had one of the most exciting drivers of the night. Ang started mid pack, but was involved in an incident in turn one which left him half a lap down. He was able to make up the gap and claw his way up to sixth, before being involved in yet another incident. Again he fell a few seconds behind, and once again he caught the back of the pack before running out of time.
Finally it was time for the A main. Every driver was on pins and needles waiting to see the result of the random draw inversion, much to every fan in attendance's pleasure, it was revealed that it would be a full field inversion. This meant Carrol would start on pole, followed by Chew and Burgan. The nights fastest drivers, Spring and Santos would start shotgun on the field. The green flew and immediately Burgan was able to get into second, followed by Won in third. Carrol showed renewed energy and rocketed away from the field. Spring meanwhile was rocketing through the field with Spray following him through every twist and turn. With just a few minutes left, Spring passed Won for third and looked to make quick work of Burgan to try and chase down Carrol. Spring made the move on Burgan into turn one. Burgan tried to fight back, but ran out of space and made contact with the inside barrier costing her three spots. Carrol was not to be denied however, taking the checkered flag for his first Dromo 1 event win. Spring came home in second, which secured him third in points. Won was third, followed by 'Area One', Spray, while Burgan took sixth, which was just barely enough to hold on to second in points, only two markers ahead of Spring. Santos, Blue, Archilla and Chew rounded out the field.
But the night belonged to Horvath, she did everything she needed to hold on to the title she had worked all season to get, becoming the youngest-ever Dromo 1 series champion and the first female to take home top honors. In fact, Horvath and Burgan became the first and only women to stand on podium in a Dromo 1 series or even an official event. Spring who racked up by far the most points in the season's final third races finished third, and he surely wishes there were a few more rounds to this championship season. All three racers will move up to the Dromo 1 Grand Prix season this year to take on the established favorites. When asked about this Horvath simply responded, "Bring it on," a lofty goal when going up against Diego Morales, Jon Kimbrell, Jay Schreiber, Patrick Britain and Mike Kai. Starting on March 30th we will see if she along with Burgan and Spring have what it takes.
Dromo 1 – Orange, Calif.
GP2 Winter Series - Round Eight Results
| Pos. | Driver| 1. | John Carrol | | 2. | Steve Spring | | 3. | Ken Won | | 4. | Area One | | 5. | Mike Spray | | 6. | Caylee Burgan | | 7. | David Santos | | 8. | Jason Blue | | 9. | Ruben Archilla | | 10. | Lawson Chew | | 11. | Steve Jasinski | | 12. | Ray Avitia | | 13. | Missleman | | 14. | John Shepherd | | 15. | Annika Horvath | | 16. | Ferdie Ang | | 17. | Doug Eckhoff | | 18. | Nicholas Chahine | | 19. | Steve Davis | | 20. | Kevin Hoffrichter | | 21. | Allan Lindo | |
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