Gabby Chaves Sets New Track Record And Takes Double Victory At Road Atlanta

12/06/2007

A superb race weekend for Gabby during the Southern Regional Series opener at Road Atlanta. After topping the charts in the two official practices on Friday, Gabby was determined and confident to take the pole and win both races for this weekend, and that’s how it was. He not only took pole and won both races but he also set a new track record. The Eastern Series championship runner-up Gabby Chaves set a new record for a treaded Skip Barber Formula 2000, turning a 1:35.438 in Saturday qualifying. Race One This was the championship group with an interesting cast: Gabby Chaves (Eastern Series runner-up), Dion von Moltke (fifth in the Midwest Series), and perennially quick Jeff Relic, David Libby, John Potter, Hamilton Smith, Luca Orlandi, Harsha Sen, Chris Oliver, Kasey Kuhlman and Don Van. FBMW vet Lindsey Adams was here, too, plus the two scholarship winners from the Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship/Team Ultra 94 run-off, Gianmarco Raimondo and Michael Vincec. Chaves from pole quickly galloped off in to the distance while behind him was an exciting scrum involving Vincec, Relic, Adams, Libby and Potter. But screaming up from the back was von Moltke, who had put it in the fence in qualifying after setting second-fastest time. By lap three he was already in the P2/P3 mix and on the next two laps he popped on Adams for third then Vincec for second. By this time Chaves was 10 seconds up the road taking a solid victory for race one. Race Two Chaves again led flag to flag, albeit this time only 6 seconds up on P2 at the checker. This race was a dandy between von Moltke and Vincec, who swapped spots virtually every lap. With three to go it was in the hands of Vincec, but von Moltke's last-lap move got him the P2. Running fourth the whole race was Libby, but Relic was within a couple car lengths at the checker.

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