Cooper Tires Winterfest update #8 – Pro Mazda Race notes and results
Jack Aitken made a late trip to the USA in 2014 to contest the final two races of the Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire season at Sonoma Raceway. He showed his speed in those two outings, earning 9th and 4th place finishes while driving for Team Pelfrey. Aitken is signed to driver a full season of Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup this season, but came over to America again to knock the rust off before starting his European campaign.
Seven rows of two came to the green flag for the first of six Cooper Tires Winterfest races. Everybody made it through Turn 1, but Jose Gutierrez did encounter a problem and was forced to pit for repairs and rejoined in near the tail end of the lead lap. Jack Aitken, Weiron Tan and Will Owen were the top three at the end of the first lap.
JDC Motorsports driver Raoul Owens was the biggest winner on the first lap, moving up to fourth from his eighth place starting spot.
2014 Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda champion Florian Latorre was also a loser on the first lap, falling to near the back of the field, but he was able to claw his way back to seventh (one spot shy of his starting position).
By the fifth lap Aitken had built up a 1.7 second lead over Tan, but foreshadowing what was to come, Tan had run the fastest lap of the race.
Tan continued to bust out quick lap after quick lap and by the tenth lap the Andretti Autosport driver had narrowed the gap to only 0.4 seconds to leader Aitken, and held a 6 second advantage over third place runner Owen.
Tan continued to dog Aitken over the next nine laps, and at one point narrowed the lead to a paltry 0.2 seconds, but in the end the English interloper was able to take the checkered flag first.
Full results below:
Rank | Car No. | Driver | Laps Completed | Quickest Lap Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 82 | Jack Aitken | 19 | 1:34.307 |
2 | 22 | Weiron Tan | 19 | 1:34.167 |
3 | 23 | Will Owen | 19 | 1:34.600 |
4 | 19 | Raoul Owens | 19 | 1:34.279 |
5 | 5 | Garett Grist | 19 | 1:35.683 |
6 | 28 | Dalton Kellett | 19 | 1:37.316 |
7 | 10 | Florian Latorre | 19 | 1:35.161 |
8 | 2 | Daniel Burkett | 19 | 1:34.893 |
9 | 6 | Timothe Buret | 19 | 1:35.234 |
10 | 54 | Michael Johnson | 19 | 1:35.140 |
11 | 14 | Alessandro Latif | 19 | 1:36.118 |
12 | 13 | Bobby Eberle | 19 | 1:38.171 |
13 | 33 | Carlos Conde | 18 | 1:39.265 |
14 | 18 | Nicolas Latifi | 18 | 1:34.239 |
15 | 7 | Jose Gutierrez | 17 | 1:34.585 |