Lexington, Ohio – Leading USF2000 squad Afterburner Autosport is primed for an exciting weekend of competition at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (August 1-3), and the crew and Brazilian driving duo are coming off a strong Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda event on the streets of Toronto just two weeks ago. Victor Franzoni and Gustavo Myasava both stepped up their game for the Canadian stop on the circuit, and now enter this tripleheader weekend looking to make massive gains in the championship standings. The recent addition of noted engineer Stefan Dwornik has been a positive move for Afterburner and they intend to use the signing to provide their drivers with race-winning cars for this stop at the famed Ohio road course.
Franzoni has been one of the series frontrunners all year long after debuting with a big win in the season opener in St. Petersburg back in March. He has since posted four additional podium finishes in 2014. This consistency has placed him fifth in the overall standings, just one point behind fourth and 51 points from the leader and within striking distance of the championship thanks to the three races on tap for this weekend. Franzoni’s performances in Toronto, in which both races were run on Sunday after rain halted all on-track action on Sunday, were particularly impressive. He was aggressive in the rain en route to a seventh-place result after starting 10th and in the second race, he attacked on the dry circuit and advanced to fourth. Victor was on the throttle for the entire 21-lap race, turning the fastest lap of the event.
“I'm very confident for Mid-Ohio, as I did a lot of fitness work and simulator training,” offered Franzoni. “The team is doing a great job in the shop and in the paddock to make a fast car and I think will work! It will be a difficult weekend because we'll have three races to run, but I believe that it will be a very good weekend as well.”
Myasava has arrived at Mid-Ohio with renewed confidence after his best outing of the year, which saw the young Brazilian post incredibly competitive laps that ended with a top-10 in Race #2 in Toronto. In the process, he won the Replay XD Move of the Race award for a great pass on Canadian Daniel Burkett. Gustavo has shown continued improvement throughout the year, having been challenged by the diverse venues that make up the USF2000 schedule.
“Well, I hope this weekend will be much better than some of the others, more like Toronto, where I worked with out new engineer Stefan (Dwornik) and the results were pretty good,” Myasava added. “We learned a lot about our car during the test here at Mid-Ohio in June, so I expect that we can improve greatly for this coming weekend.”
About Afterburner Autosport:
Afterburner Autosport was formed in 2010 with the sole purpose of leading the way in Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda competition. Under the guidance of F2000 racer and engineer Tim Walsh and two-time SCCA Formula Continental National Champion Brian Tomasi, the team has over 20 years of experience in open-wheel competition. The Minnesota-based squad, having captured two podium finishes in its inaugural pro racing season in 2011, has continually developed and grown since it joined the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. In 2013, Afterburner Autosport scored its inaugural series wins with rookie Alex Baron. The highly regarded team returns to the first rung of the Mazda Road to Indy program in 2014 with a talented multi-car effort, and has already won this year with Victor Franzoni in St. Petersburg.