FCC Southeast Roebling Road Race Results

March 7, 2011
Roebling Road Raceway
Bloomingdale, GA
Round 3 of the Southeast Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear took place at Roebling Road Raceway with threats of heavy rain looming all weekend.
Curt Harrelson, travelled from his home in Alabama to take the win at Roebling Road. It appears that it was Curt’s weekend at the 2.02 mile road course outside of Savannah, Georgia. He was able to earn the pole and finish in the first position.
The day of testing and qualifying was graced with great weather, which resulted in some good fast times on the track. The pole position time earned by Harrelson was 1:08.9, with Robert Noell close behind at 1:08.9, Brock Baldwin at 1:10.4. The tight grid was finished off with Beau Borders and Sam Lockwood, respectively, with times of 1:11 only being separated by hundredths of a second. Now that is the kind of competition we like to see in Formula Mazda Racing.
On race day, all eyes were on the sky. Thunderstorms and heavy rain were looming, and the decisions between dry setup and rain setup plagued the paddock, making for a very long day. The rain fell, in fact it poured, and then the storm passed, and the sun came out just minutes before the drivers took to the track for the race. Several of the FM’s were still on rain setup and others had gambled for dry. With the speed that the track dried, the ‘dry setup’ was sure to be the ticket.
The green flag dropped and the race took off with a pretty fast pace. Harrelson, Noell, and Baldwin were running 1, 2, 3 for the first third of the race. It was a tight battle, and things really started to heat up between Robert Noell and Curt Harrelson as it appeared that Curt had the straight line speed advantage, but Robert was hooked up in the corners. There was not much passing but surely not for lack of trying, Noell tried everything to get past Curt, and was finally successful with a bold pass on the outside of turn 6. Curt was able to regain his first place position on the straight away, putting Robert back into second. This would remain unchanged for the rest of the race.
Baldwin running third at the time, began to slow off the pace a bit with minor problems. He had worn out his rear tires, and although he showed incredible car control defending his position, he was unable to hold off Beau Borders and Sam Lockwood, putting Brock back to 5th.
Congratulations to everyone who came out to race this weekend. I want to thank all Formula Mazda competitors for making Round 3 a success. Despite the weather, it was a great weekend. The Formula Car Challenge is building steam and we are looking forward to the Road Atlanta and VIR Double Nationals coming up. Both will have a great turnout.




Race 3 Results:
1. Curt Harrelson
2. Robert Noell
3. Beau Borders
4. Sam Lockwood
5. Brock Baldwin


About the Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear The Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear is a multiple-region series with an annual NASA sanctioned national championship. The series features a multi-class format; Formula Mazda (FM), Pro Formula Mazda (PFM), and the FormulaSPEED2.0 (FS2.0). All classes are powered by Mazda, and equipped with Goodyear Racing tires. For 2011 there are four Formula Car Challenge regions; The West Coast Region promoted by World Speed Inc, the South West Region promoted by Texas Autosports, the East Coast Region promoted by The Speed Connection, and the Mid West Region promoted by Lake Effect Motorsports.

www.formulacarchallenge.com
www.formulamazda.com/fcc-east-coast.html