ApexSpeed at the 40th

[dc]

ApexSpeed will be at the event this weekend, beginning Friday in the AM, and will be not only posting photos and comments here on the forums, but will be making updates on Facebook and Twitter during the event. There will also be News posted to the front portal page, as well.

Stay connected to the event if you can't make it, right here on ApexSpeed.com.

[tppj]

Doug, I'm curious: Is this a closed event, or can admission be purchased? I will not be competing, because my car is in the midst of restoration. I attended the Historics this past week-end, so I'm not 100% certain if my schedule will allow me to come, but if it's a closed, non-spectator event, then it's moot!

Thanks, Tom

P.S: I want to wish each and every competitor a safe and wonderful event!

[dc]

I'm 99% positive that the spectator gate will be open, with a $10 ticket price to all spectators (I think kids are free). You shouldn't have to go through the competitor gate like a regular National event.

Hopefully, someone can verify this for me.



d

[JHaydon]

Hooray! Front page of the RAm site -- $30 for the weekend, or $10 per day. That's the only downside, the $10 doesn't get you back in the next day.

http://www.roadamerica.com/

Season ticket holders note -- your season tickets include this event!!

And who is that in the photo? I think I see Reid Hazelton, John Vlasis (?), Dan Johnson, Allen Wheatcroft??

[tppj]

Thanks Gentlemen! Hope to see you all there...

Tom

[Brad Ellingson]

And who is that in the photo? I think I see Reid Hazelton, John Vlasis (?), Dan Johnson, Allen Wheatcroft??

Ehrlinger and Luxon as well.....

[PCalhoun]

Doug, I'm curious: Is this a closed event, or can admission be purchased? I will not be competing, because my car is in the midst of restoration. I attended the Historics this past week-end, so I'm not 100% certain if my schedule will allow me to come, but if it's a closed, non-spectator event, then it's moot!

Thanks, Tom

P.S: I want to wish each and every competitor a safe and wonderful event!

Yes, the event is open to the public w/ tickets $10 per day sold at the track ticket office inside the new Administration building, just to the east of the old farm house office.

As an SCCA member you of course are always welcome to attend events, spectator or not, you just need to sign in at Registration and pay whatever the nominal guest pass fee is normally.

[Purple Frog]

Doug,
I am sure glad you are covering this event. Looking at the schedule, Mrs Frog and i have our hands full just herding cats all weekend. Posting will be hard for us to fit into the agenda. When Rand said you were stepping up to do the weekend posts, a sigh of relief from the Purple Frog motorhome.

Traveling through Chicago to Elkhart Lake...

[Rob Howden]

Let's hook up for a beer, folks, the eFormulaCarNews.com crew will be at RA as well. I pulled in this afternoon and Al Craighead will be here tomorrow.

Rob Howden
www.eformulacarnews.com

[Purple Frog]

What a frekkin' rush to see over 100 FFs out in practice!

It was like the largest drivers meeting i've ever attended at 9:00 am.

No black flags! The kids are playing great.

Looks to be Niki and Treadway as quick CF.

DaveW was pilot of the Honda that session.

Soooo many great cars. I'm thinking half the field did frame-up restorations for this event. Many look like show cars.

You should be here not reading this.

[Todd McAfee]

Was even a bigger rush to be in it. Man, this is AWESOME. Kudos to everyone that put this together. Gotta go, back to the fun.

Todd FF89

[Rob Howden]

Hey folks,

I'm sure that the frontstretch photo with ALL of the FFs in attendance will be posted soon, thanks to Mrs. Frog....but let me tell you now, the smiles on the faces of Mike Rand and Steve Beeler certainly told the tale. The atmosphere on the frontstretch was incredible, watching 40 years of FF history takes its rightful place, center stage at RA.

Big thanks to everyone who was involved with putting this race together, and to all of you who have come here to make it such as success.

Rob Howden
www.eformulacarnews.com

[Purple Frog]

Unbelievable!

Unless you were on the pit straight at 5:30 this afternoon you can not grasp how many cars were lined up to be in the picture. From the starters stand, out of sight towards the walkover bridge, 6 wide... FFs of every era.

So many stories. So many cars with history.

Doug Carter walks up to Mrs Frog and I at the end of the shoot, introduces himself, and then vanishes into the crowd. Too short a conversation with a guy that has made formula car racing so much better with one incredible website.

Mrs Frog has been averaging 800 pictures per session, and we had 7 photo session today! It's totally insane.

We got Beeler and Rand to get out of their cars at the front of the group shoot and the ovation was crazy. These guys with the help of guys like Luxor, dreamed the impossible dream and then pulled it off.

Imagine 106 cars in a run group and folks at the results board celebrating when they see that they qualified 47th.

The scope of this event is really hard to get your arms around.

Focus on the track. Stand at turn 5. the track 4 miles long. And the cars keep coming by in a constant stream. A break might be 1/2 a second. Lap after lap.

Rand and Beeler were insane that they thought they could pull this off, but wow! what a show!

[Purple Frog]

Just a shot to show the size of the field, and the celebration when we got Beeler and Rand out of their cars at the front of the horde.

Do you think these two guys are happy? Look behind them. What a mess of Fords!


The good shots were taken from the roof of the control tower, but I love this shot because Rand got so dressed up for the occasion.

[Purple Frog]

You can only imagine this evening...

Before sunset the party was out of control...

[Purple Frog]

We know Rand probably can't read, much less the Wall Street Journal. So... Steve read it to Mike. Mike loved the pictures.

[Purple Frog]

Somebody please buy this car.

Gibby has restored it to exacty how it won the Runoffs in 1983. Serial number "A"

Help the Mays family. Bid high and bid often.

[Purple Frog]

Ho hum.... just your average little Formula Ford grid...

[Allen_W]

Thanks for all this. It is very cool to get up on a Saturday morning of "just another" race weekend and see all of it. A nice way to relax a little before taking a deep breath and trying to keep halfway respectable amongst so many Ford drivers.

I want to add to the thanks for the organizers a big bit of recognition for the Milwaukee Region and also for John Luxon--if you are not here, not a participant, you seriously need to get your hands on the program he put together. It's spectacular.

Now, back to stomach churning and dreams of glory . . .

Allen Wheatcroft
FF #9

[Rob Howden]

Hi folks,

We have the full results from Friday's qualifying sessions as the Top Story on eFormulaCarNews.com today. Here's the link:

http://www.eformulacarnews.com/news_info.php?n=5829

Rob Howden
www.eformulacarnews.com

[reidhazelton]

Hooray! Front page of the RAm site -- $30 for the weekend, or $10 per day. That's the only downside, the $10 doesn't get you back in the next day.

http://www.roadamerica.com/

Season ticket holders note -- your season tickets include this event!!

And who is that in the photo? I think I see Reid Hazelton, John Vlasis (?), Dan Johnson, Allen Wheatcroft??

I'm Reid's dad, Bruce and I was really surprised to see him in the front of the RA photo. Pretty cool for the kid trying to be competitive with the 3 shock wonder. Even cooler yet is that you guys even know who he is just from the picture!!

[Purple Frog]

Ok... we shot another 4,000 shots today. No frekkin way we can go through them and show you just how cool it is to be here,

So... look at this picture. Imagine the talent. imagine being in the same room with them. imagine just being able to be lapped by them.

Left to Right:

Jim Harrell 1971
Dave Weitzenhof 1977, 79, 81, 87
Bruce Macinnes AFFA
John Scratch CASC
Tony Kester 1990
Alex Purdy AFFA
Tommy Byrne Brit FF Festival Winner
Dennis Firestone 1976
Skip Barber 1969. 70
Bob Lobenberg 1980, 82
David Loring 1978
R.K Smith 1983
John LaRue 1997
Scott Rarick 2004
Keith Nunes 1998, 99
John Robinson II 2005, 07
Chris Keller 2008
Andy Brumbaugh Canadian FF Champ

[Purple Frog]

Group 9 Vintage winner on Saturday afternoon.

[Purple Frog]

The two guys that had a dream, and somehow in two years made it happen.

Like 250+ FFs running in one weekend. VERY large party....

Standing ovation please.

Mike Rand and Steve Beeler

[Purple Frog]

You know, in this world there are some people that can be identified by just one name.

Joe, Sandy, Gibby, Jay, Arnie

Say their name, we know who you are talking about.

I pulled this picture out because , out or 45 pictures, it's the closest we got of a hint of a smile from Gibby.

Gibby is a superstar. If you are at a track, and you are trying to race, ask Gibby for help. and he'll help if at all possible. One hugely class act.

[Purple Frog]

649 people at the party. been looking at party pictures for two hours... golly, drunks make for some interesting photos......

i think these are the only two people that left sober. not quite sure about the dude in the 40th shirt...

[Purple Frog]

We shot a lot of staged photos all day today. I picked this one for a few reasons:

Pipers are just downright beautiful cars.

Sweitz (72) wasn't at the party to get in the shots, and deserves much recognition for winning multiple national championships.

John Luxon (49) produced a fabulous program for the event,

[Purple Frog]

So quit the emails asking if I died. Everybody wondering why I haven't posted about the 40th. Been busy. Carter and Valet can vouch for how much work it is to go through thousands of pictures. Rand called and told me i must have been thrown in the briar patch. Maybe if i catch up on recovering from a 30 day road trip, trying to keep my day job, shipping posters and such, and getting ready to go to M-O... i'll write some (now that I have my voice back...you had to be there).

There were thousands of stories at The 40th. Big, little, tear jerkers, hilarious, and everything in between. Take Joe Fisher for example. Shows up with a beautiful car. Prime spot on the "midway" to watch all the paddock action. Having fun on the track... until... (no good deed goes unpunished.)... he moves right in T5 onto the rumbles to avoid a wheel-to-wheel deal, and a suspension link fails... UH OH. He spends a LOT of time getting the car rebuilt, with help from many folks around the paddock. He was one tired and happy camper when he rolled on to the grid Sunday.

[Purple Frog]

The late Fred Schmucker thought that all cars should have round white number plates and bold simple black numbers. You see corner workers have to be able to see a car number quickly to call in timely reports.

But, even Fred would like the clarity of these numbers. (an excuse to post another pretty car picture on Apexspeed). Notice in the background, one Mr. Doug Carter.


In the two pictures below the Tiga you will notice a corner worker's nightmare. The worker on the outside of the corner radios in "red 5", and then gets chastised by the corner marshall on the inside of the corner for not reporting "blue 5"... I bring you our very own favorite, Mr. Steve Beeler.

And, some cars photgraph so well, and are so easy to see on the track. So I included another Tiga just cause.

[Purple Frog]

It not a real event unless Al Craighead and Rob Howden are in attendence.

Rob came in his motorhome, which i passed in a very brillant and well executed dive-bomb move into the toll gate on the south side of Chicago. Rob then proceded to display that his diesel (not pulling a tow behind car), could blow by my gas V-10 (pulling a tow behind car with two kayaks and 29 days of dirty clothes) on the next straight leading into Indiana. I called 911 and reported a wildly speeding RV on I-94, to see if the law could slow him down so I could get back past. So they pulled me over.
Rob also had his very beautiful wife in attendence. That is not Rob's wife with him in the golf cart, that's Al.

Anyway the point of all this is that it is pure magic to hear Rob announce a race. Especially when he does the row-by-row introductions of each driver on the grid... all 124 of them. When he's calling the race, you know you are listening to someone who knows what he is talking about and loves the sport. His announcing made the 40th even that much better.

Rob brings his own rainbow and puts it up over his motorhome when he parks at the track. That way he can remember where he parked it.

We tried to get Rob to MC the banquet. He found out there was no microphone, 500+ people, and a thunderstorm raging above the tent, and somehow excused himself.

[Purple Frog]

So a FF competitor calls up Joe Tovo and says, "Joe, if you'll pay for my race gas at the FF40th, I'll run your decals." (ed note: obviously thinking about Tovo's trucking business...) Said competitor shows up at Road America, Joe pays for his race fuel and hands him the stickers...

[Purple Frog]

Black cars look the best, but only when they have fresh paint and are polished to the max. A few black cars follow:

Every year at concours events that Road & Track attends they pick the car they would most like to drive. I'm thinking at the 40th that car for me would be the Viking. Bob Lobenburg's to be precise.

Look closly at Tony Kester's Reynard. (very fast) Notice that all the pickup points are re-engineered. Especially in the rear. Requires custom rear uprights. He can run tons o' rear spring. Lots of innovation in that special Reynard.

Another favorite of mine, (showing my age) is the ADF. The one under Neil Porter's tent was beautiful.

[Purple Frog]

Mike Engleke!

As part of the tough life i live, i have to travel around North America all summer helping Mike Rand put on great race events. In that vein, i see a lot of road racing tracks, and a lot of management. I sort of know first hand what it takes to run an event for say... 40 cars.

I'm pretty sure Rand will agree, the Chief Steward we had at Road America for the FF40th was outstanding. Mike Engleke was trying to run the Cat national, and OBTW Rand and Beeler drop in another 200 or so cars. Not only were we made to feel welcome, but he worked hard to make everything happen that needed to happen (including splitting run groups.)

I'm sure Engleke will say it was the whole Milwaukee Region doing their best. But, there has to be a person at the top, where the buck stops, and Engleke was that guy. What an impressive job they did. Engleke is a fellow racer, understands racers...

I'm sure i speak for all at the 40th, Thank you Mike Engleke!

[Purple Frog]

While we are on a roll with the "thank yous", guess who else got a standing ovation at the banquet... none other than Mr. Apexspeed, Doug Carter!

Of course Doug is sort of a "ah shucks, was nothing" type of guy. Not one to give speeches.

Let's face it. Why was the FF40th so huge an event? Number one reason, without question, APEXSPEED! Couldn't have done it without you.

In the picture with Steve Beeler on the left and Doug on the right, they are awarding Matt King his reward. Looking at the shot, i did notice, hard not to notice... Doug's shirt. Does it say Honda enough?

[dc]

Looking at the shot, i did notice, hard not to notice... Doug's shirt. Does it say Honda enough?

You know how many people asked if I worked for Honda that day?

It's nice to be able to wear my Jenson Button kit and not get hammered for it.




I was having flashbacks, standing on that wobbly table, to falling off the JCPenny's children's portrait table as a little kid. I had visions of me and Steve tumbling to the ground while camera flashes went off in slow motion.

[Purple Frog]

When I first started racing in FC i used to hear all sorts of stuff about some character named Jon Horgas. Was it that he could get excited?

When you go to "a gathering of the clans" you not sure who in the family you'll get to meet for the first time.

I like this picture for many reasons: Look at how many pages it took to print the results for one group's session. 3 pages!

Now look at Mr. Horgas. He is one proud daddy. I'm thinking he's more excited than if he had been driving. The son unit is pointing to a 4th in qualifying. Expect to see the name Horgas at the pointy end of many grids in the future.

[Purple Frog]

I started this post to show a picture of some neat cars... then I looked up and realized it was my 5000th post!

So indulge me here for a minute. We have been posting pictures on Apexspeed for what, maybe ... 5 years? There's one very special person that takes most of the shots. She makes it possible for me to be able to participate in a sport I love. Makes my life wonderful everyday. Many of you see her just as you are apexing a corner... and then loose concentration and mess up that lap. (She got warnings from competitors at Summit point last month that maybe she is getting a wee bit too close. )

She is still not sure she's a photographer, especially of race cars. ("Now, tell me again, what is the difference between a F500 and a Formula Atlantic?) She prefers to be on a lake at sunset trying to capture a loon "strutting" his wings. Some of her best photo work are of all the characters that one might see in the paddock.

She won't like any of the pictures i post of her. At Road America for the 40th, she didn't have to wear the long pants she hates, nor the closed shoes, nor the dreaded non-flattering "media vest". You can see in these shots, obviously she is the purple in Purple Frog.

Her favorite camera failed just after she was seen here inside T6. Seems the shutters on Nikons are only good for about 150,000 shots. Every year about this time she burns up another frame. So buy some posters, and put her back trackside.

Mrs Purple Frog, Janice Eakin:

[Purple Frog]

Things to avoid on and off the track...

Seriously, there is maybe nobody funnier, nor having more fun in racing than Del Vecchio. Obviously the junior Horgas got more valuable racing education at the banquet.

[Purple Frog]

Afterall it was the 40th Anniversary of Formula Ford in the US of A.

Looking through thousands of pictures it seems like for many of the cars, showing the "colors" was important.

[Purple Frog]

More of the red, white, and blue theme...