Race report: Seven F1000s at High Plains in Colorado

Fun race weekend, and great end to my F1000's racing season!

Seven F1000s answered the call last weekend, which I think is one of the highest F1000 turnouts for an SCCA Majors race in quite some time. Sean, Shane, Andrew, Kaitlin, Kirk, CJ, Arax, Dave, and myself were all at High Plains Raceway in Colorado for the "Last Chance" race put on by the Colorado Region of the SCCA.

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[The false grid for quali Saturday morning. Photo by Sean. Click to enlarge.]

I had a great Saturday, setting a new PR in quali and winning the Saturday race. Unfortunately, only six F1000s (of nine FAs overall, the others being John [in a Swift 008] and Flinn [in a borrowed PFM]) took the green for the Saturday race: Shane broke a brand new (and name brand) -12AN fitting from his oil scavenge pump almost immediately after he set his own new PR a couple hours earlier. It was a minor miracle that Shane was present at all, as he and Dave had accomplished a swap from a K7/K8 GSXR to a 2020(?) ZX-10R in his Stohr in just six weeks.

We lost another car during the race when Arax's engine threw a rod in turn 5. That led directly to additional drama when Kaitlin shunted Andrew after getting surprised by the suddenly-severely-off-pace Arax.

Meanwhile, my Phoenix was running great thanks to the tireless efforts of Sean, with the engine he built from the ashes of several others being reliable and strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joqcQoYJjEQ
[My new-PR quali lap]

Dave, Shane, Andrew, and Kaitlin spent Saturday night wrenching and repairing, including a couple of trips back to Denver for parts. Shane had lost most, but not all, of his oil -- Andrew had screamed at him over the radio that he was dumping oil, and Shane was able to shut it down pretty fast -- so he was optimistic that the engine might be OK. The contact between Kaitlin and Andrew left the former with front wing damage and the latter with rear wing damage, so they were also busy.

Sunday dawned, and it looked for a moment like Shane would be back in the game -- until his brief test during second quali revealed a horrendous rod knock. Two F1000s now out for the weekend.

The Sunday afternoon race briefly threatened to be wet, but the rain held off, and I started on pole. I was having fun racing with the talented young Trevor Russell out of class (he has an FC) until a broken throttle cable ended my race a few laps early. Kirk also experienced heartache during the race, as his engine expired due to a presumptive spun bearing. Only three F1000s of the original seven took the checker at the end of the Sunday race, and only one (CJ) survived the weekend without significant issues. Oof. That said...

Overall, I was happy with the weekend! It was a relief to have the car working so well (throttle cable aside) after all of the challenges with it earlier in the season. Already looking forward to next year!

Jeff