FONTANA, Calif. – The Pacific F2000 Championship Presented by Primus Racing Parts concluded its season recently with a pair of races at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California. Three drivers retained a mathematical chance of clinching the crown and an invitation to the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200k Scholarship Shootout, which offers an opportunity to progress into the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – the first step on the Mazda Road to Indy open-wheel development ladder – in 2018.

Defending champion Tim de Silva took the bull by the horns and romped to a pair of victories in his Dave Freitas Racing Van Diemen, but the decision to skip two races earlier in the summer cost him dearly as two second-place finishes by Canadian Mitch Egner was enough to put the title beyond the reach of his rivals.

After a background in karts and sprint cars, Egner, 25, from Victoria, B.C., drove impressively in only his second season of road racing to secure the championship in his self-run Van Diemen. He shadowed de Silva to the finish line in a thrilling opening race before taking a distant second in the finale due to some braking difficulties. Egner claimed the championship by an eventual 24-point margin over former series champion Tom Hope, who ended the season just one point clear of de Silva.

Fellow Canadian Gavin Aitken also impressed, bouncing back from a devastating crash in the previous round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to record a career-high fourth-place finish in Race One, then improving once again in the series finale to secure his first-ever podium finish. Fellow rookie Paul Marino finished fourth in Race Two.

Series veterans Peter West and Harindra de Silva, father of Tim, shared the Masters Class spoils with a best finish of fifth in each of the races.