The schedule for the 2005 New England Challenge (NEC) series for Formula Ford has been set with 7 race events over 6 weekends. We are also keeping the Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock open as a possible 8th event in the series, if we are invited to participate in the Mohegan Grand Prix weekend.
The only change from 2005 is that there will no longer be a Club Ford class with no spec tire; Club Fords running on soft tires will be grouped with FF for the purposes of NEC points and awards. There have been only 2 or 3 Club Fords in this class the past 2 years and we cannot ask sponsors to keep contributing when participation is not there. Club Fords should continue to register for events according to the Supps for that event; the NEC coordinators, with help from the drivers, will track the Club Ford NEC class.
The 2005 NEC schedule is (SCHEDULE HAS BEEN REVISED -- SEE LATER POST) :
April 23/24 Summit Point
May 14/15 Pocono (only Sunday counts toward NEC points)
May 29/30 Lime Rock Park (tentative)
June 25 Lime Rock Park
July 9/10 NHIS (only Sunday counts toward NEC points)
August 20/21 BeaveRun (only Sunday counts toward NEC points)
September 17/18 Watkins Glen (both days count toward NEC points)
The defending 2004 NEC Champions, J. D. King in NCF and Bob Lutz in FF, will be back in 2005 to battle for the championship. Sponsorship for the 2005 series will be announced later in the winter as everything becomes firmed up. Last year we had an average participation of 16 FFs and a peak count of 32 cars at the 2004 Memorial Day event at Lime Rock Park. We also distributed over $12,000 in awards from our series and race sponsors. Hopefully, the 2005 series will draw even better car counts.