Path to the F600

Hello,

I'll give some back story and then ask for advice.

I live in Cincinnati and I am about as green as it gets other than passion where I'm a veteran.

While I've visited Mid Ohio a number of times and Putnam more recently, I've only ever performed some light setup on my old Audi and attended a PCA DE event once. It was one of the best weekends I can recall. While the instructor said I had talent and ran better than most, he could have just been tooting my horn. I'd like to find out for myself in time. He let me run solo which was an incredible session.

I sold that car and have been without a track car (not wanting to drive my daily) for months. Yesterday while trying to decide between a Miata or an E30 M3 I learned about F500/F600.

The sound alone is enough to make me leap toward the F600 but I also love open wheel racing. One thing led to another and I landed on this fantastic site.

I want in! I am not an advanced mechanic so I'll be buying a finished or mostly finished car eventually. I'm sure this also means I need to eventually find a mechanic with relative proximity to Cincinnati.

I know enough to know that I am far from ready. Or at least I think I am far from ready. At this point I would enjoy just taking a F600 type car around Mid Ohio on solo events until I get some experience.

But I can't even do solo events yet having only attended one DE event and I don't know that they have DE events for single seat cars. Maybe they do, I'll have to look into this unless you guys already know.

I'm looking for advice from the people already in this world on what path I should take to at least be ready to buy one of these cars and enjoying what looks like more fun than I can describe.

I did not know about F600 a few months ago so I missed the event at Mid Ohio in July. But I've been watching them on youtube! That won't happen next year.

Should I pickup a cheap track car and go do some events so that I can get to a point where I could run a F600 non-competitively?

Any advice you can offer the new guy is tremendously appreciated. Whatever gets me ready to own and being able to run a F600 car.

Or you guys can tell me I'm off my rocker. I'm in for any feedback at this point.

Zak

Do a drivers school in a open wheel car.
Such as Skip Barber , Bertil Roos.There are others also.

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Originally Posted by Pi_guy

Do a drivers school in a open wheel car.
Such as Skip Barber , Bertil Roos.There are others also.

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Since most of my track days will be at Mid Ohio, Putnam, Nelson (eh, maybe), NCM in Bowling Green, will attending a drivers school let me skip to solo events at these places where I'll spend most of my time? Or am I going to have to go through the DE classes to get to solo events in which case I need a car with 2+ seats?

I'm assuming I can only run this type of car at solo events given the single seat nature of the car but correct me if I'm wrong.

I'll reach out to a drivers school and see next steps. Do they provide the car for their program or should I be trying to pickup a car first?

Thanks for the advice!

Hey Zak! Welcome to the madness.

The Formula 600 Challenge Series championship race will be held in conjunction with the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Road Atlanta over the Halloween weekend. If you can make it down, there will be plenty of folks around to talk with and cars to look at and sit in. I'm sure several of us will have extra crew slots available to get you in.

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Originally Posted by zookie

Since most of my track days will be at Mid Ohio, Putnam, Nelson (eh, maybe), NCM in Bowling Green, will attending a drivers school let me skip to solo events at these places where I'll spend most of my time? Or am I going to have to go through the DE classes to get to solo events in which case I need a car with 2+ seats?

I'm assuming I can only run this type of car at solo events given the single seat nature of the car but correct me if I'm wrong.

I'll reach out to a drivers school and see next steps. Do they provide the car for their program or should I be trying to pickup a car first?

Thanks for the advice!

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The schools provide cars.
Mid Ohio drivers school ask for Tommy Byrne.

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Originally Posted by GBugg

Hey Zak! Welcome to the madness.

The Formula 600 Challenge Series championship race will be held in conjunction with the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Road Atlanta over the Halloween weekend. If you can make it down, there will be plenty of folks around to talk with and cars to look at and sit in. I'm sure several of us will have extra crew slots available to get you in.

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Hey, thanks! That sounds like a perfect weekend, now I just have to see if I can make it down there. If you picked any weekend between now and December, that is the one and only that I already had booked up with some family events.

But I'd really like to get there so I'm going to try, just not very likely I can get out of the other stuff. It would be great to talk to people or be part of the crew. That's the last event for the year, right?

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Originally Posted by Pi_guy

The schools provide cars.
Mid Ohio drivers school ask for Tommy Byrne.

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Thanks for the leads. I didn't get to call him until after end of day so I'll call tomorrow morning. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Pi_guy

The schools provide cars.
Mid Ohio drivers school ask for Tommy Byrne.

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Is that 'The' Tommy Byrne!?
Pretty cool if it is!

He knows his way about Mid-Ohio and formula cars.

Zak,
Welcome to the best bang for the buck in formula cars. You are entering a whole new world of club road racing and there is SO much going on. Let's get you started.

Please read ALL the threads here and any in the F500 section here that might interest you in order to become more familiar with our cars and our events during each season.
And there is another forum that we hang out at more than this one - www.formula500.org/forum.php Read everything there as well. Remember that we are a passionate community and have strong differences of opinion but we are respectful and adhere to netiquette rules online. Find some local F500 and F600 drivers so that you can crew for them and help them work on their cars between races to get hands-on experience. The goal is to become an educated consumer BEFORE you spend any serious money. Know the idiosynchonsies of our cars so that you are not surprised. This process will take you a better part of 6+ months. Once you get your competition license, one option is to rent a F600 (before you buy a car) from us - www.formula600racing.com - to see IF you really like road racing a F600. If you are not a member already, go ahead and join Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), find the nearest Region (chapter) from our national HQ website - www.scca.com - get on that region's forum (region website will have the link) and introduce yourself so that you can meet the local region members (attend the region functions like the monthly board meetings) and build a network for anything that you might need in the future. And last, go to speedcasttv.com for the broadcast time that F500 will be running at the National Championships (the Runoffs). You will get to watch Clint McMahan, F6 driver, race. IMHO, I think that he will win, he is that good of a driver (multiple podium finishes in past Runoffs).

Jim
Been messing with these cars since 1982

It's Tommy, and YES, it's entertaining!

Zak, send me a PM with your phone number and a good time to call. I'll call you and talk about the class, I can talk faster than I can type! Ted

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Originally Posted by Pi_guy

He knows his way about Mid-Ohio and formula cars.

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I have a call in to Tommy. He was teaching a class so I'll hear from him when he has time. Thanks again for the contact.

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Originally Posted by jim murphy

Zak,
Welcome to the best bang for the buck in formula cars. You are entering a whole new world of club road racing and there is SO much going on. Let's get you started.

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This is tremendously helpful. Thank you very much for the links and info. If I have this right, the Road Atlanta (which I'm still trying to find a way to attend) is the last event this year. I don't know of a schedule for next year but are there unsanctioned events or days when I might be able to find guys/gals at the track with their cars even if it is just doing solo events?

My friend runs his 911 turbo on PCA days at various tracks so it's very easy to see where people will be and when but I don't know of this type of focused club or schedule for the F600 owners other than the formal events on the challenge site. Maybe I'll just learn from the forums when and where people will be found in between events or during off season but if you have any tips, that would be great.

Again, thanks for the info. If I make it down to Road Atlanta I'll send you a message.

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Originally Posted by tedsimmons2

Zak, send me a PM with your phone number and a good time to call. I'll call you and talk about the class, I can talk faster than I can type! Ted

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Ted, thank you for the offer. PM'd.

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Originally Posted by zookie

I have a call in to Tommy. He was teaching a class so I'll hear from him when he has time. Thanks again for the contact.

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Your welcome.
Pursue it, it will be worth your while.

[QUOTE=zookie;446646]This is tremendously helpful. Thank you very much for the links and info. If I have this right, the Road Atlanta (which I'm still trying to find a way to attend) is the last event this year. I don't know of a schedule for next year but are there unsanctioned events or days when I might be able to find guys/gals at the track with their cars even if it is just doing solo events? QUOTE]

The ARRC @ Road Atlanta is the last major event at that track. Go to the websites at your local track, like M-O and see what is on their schedule. There might be something that you can do at M-O BEFORE it gets too cold - traction goes down with the temperature. SCCA.com and each divisional website should have their tentative 2015 race schedule posted by now or soon. For next year as the temperature rises the races will commence in Florida and head north. IF you want to do a SCCA driver's school, there is on at Roebling Road (Savannah, GA) end of February hosted by the Buccaneer Region.

Don't forget to go read all the threads during your spare time.

Jim

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Originally Posted by jim murphy

Don't forget to go read all the threads during your spare time.

Jim

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Sounds, good. I'm able to read on the formula500 forum but still waiting for moderator approval of my account before I can post. Still, learning a lot just from reading.

Zak