Malibu, Calif. – This weekend, April 29th, 30th and May 1st, the Pacific Formula F2000 Championship rounds five and six will be held at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. This event will be run on the 2.920 mile road course and will again be run with Cal Club as part of the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour.
This season the Pacific Formula F2000 Championship Series presented by Primus Racing Parts is included in the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200k Scholarship Shootout in 2016. The shootout will be expanded to include the champions of junior open-wheel and karting series both nationally and internationally. The winner of the knockout style shootout will be provided with a $200k Scholarship to enter the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda in 2017 – the first rung in the Mazda Road to Indy ladder sanctioned by INDYCAR.
The Mazda Road to Indy is the only driver development program of its type in the world offering a clear, scholarship-funded path to the Verizon IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500.
The Pacific F2000/F1600 series has a rich history and includes among its alumni drivers J.R. Hildebrand, 2011 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the year and Dane Cameron, Tudor Series Prototype and GTD winning driver along with Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires driver and recent race winner Patricio O’Ward and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda drivers Nikita Lastochkin and Yufeng Luo. Luo was also the 2015 SCCA Runoffs winner in the event held at Daytona International Raceway.
This weekend the series entry includes 2015 Series Champion Tom Hope, returning to defend his title, Scott Huffaker, 2015 F1600 Champion, 2015 Rookie of the Year Connor Funk, returning to make a run at the championship. Others include longtime series veterans Peter West, former series champion Bob Negron, Harin de Silva, James Hakewill and Nick Kodenko along with newcomers Robert Armington, Sterling Ellsworth, John Fabijanic and Tim de Silva.
Thus far there have been three different race winners in the four events held and this weekend promises to be equally competitive with most drivers being familiar with this particular course configuration having been used frequently in past events.
Activities begin with Friday morning practice at 9:00 am followed by another session at 1:50 pm in the afternoon with a Saturday morning qualifying session followed by an afternoon race, and is repeated again on Sunday with morning qualifying and an afternoon race.
Weather is forecast to mostly sunny all weekend with temperatures on Friday in the low to mid eighties, slightly cooler on Saturday in the low eighties and then climbing into the high eighties on Sunday.
The series can be followed at https://www.facebook.com/pacificf2000racing and https://www.twitter.com/PacificF2000.
For more details go to http://www.pacificf2000.com .