Pacific F2000: Barrett Set to Continue Win Streak at Miller

Los Osos,Calif.(July 10, 2007)
- Patrick Barrett comes off a successful weekend in Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2007 Pacific F2000 Championship presented by Hankook Tires at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in May where he took poles and wins each day and extended his series championship lead. Rounds 7 and 8 of the 12 race season will be held in conjunction with the NASCAR Grand National West Series this coming weekend, July 12-14 on the fast 3.3 mile outer road course at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah just south of Salt Lake City. After sewing up the Pacific F2000 Spring Cup with win number four in Round 6 at Buttonwillow, Barrett hopes to extend his consecutive win streak to four races in Round 7.

This will be Pacific F2000's first visit to the new motorsports complex. The F2000 drivers will practice on Thursday and qualify and race on both Friday and Saturday. NASCAR will race on what should be a cooler Saturday evening. Temperatures have hovered around the 100 F mark for the past two weeks as the area has endured record heat. "The heat will make things interesting throughout the weekend," said Barrett. "The tires, keeping the water temperature and yourself cool, it won't be an easy two races. I do feel that the testing the team and I completed earlier in the month will give us a good head start over the rest of the competitors."

Patrick Barrett
(Photo by Patrick Barrett Racing - John Barrett)

In addition to finishing his junior year of high school, Barrett filled in the two month gap between Pacific F2000 weekends by testing his Van Diemen in preparation for the July rounds, and he took advantage of an opportunity to run two races in the MX-5 Cup series. Patrick decided to test the waters of sports car racing with championship leading Team MER in the very competitive SCCA Pro Racing SIRIUS Satellite Radio Mazda MX-5 Cup. Despite not having tested in the car prior to the Laguna Seca Grand-Am or Portland Champ Car weekends he was quick and ran up front in both events. Mechanical problems affected the outcome in both instances but all in all he felt it was a positive experience. "The Mazda MX-5 Cup was a great experience for me," commented Barrett. "I learned a lot, made new friends and more importantly kept myself busy during the Pacific F2000 summer break. Now I'm directing my focus back on winning the F2000 championship."

Barrett, the 17 year old from Los Osos, California drives the #3 Jim Russell Racing Schools and Alpinestars sponsored Van Diemen Ford Zetec for PR1 Motorsports owners Bobby and Lisa Oergel.

Be sure to visit Patrick Barrett's web site at www.PatrickBarrettRacing.com for all of his latest news and information, http://www.PatrickBarrettracing.com/