CFF Race Stories - FF40th

[mblanc]

Since the FF40th was the first ever 'Runoffs' of CFF. I see it as a never before held truly nationwide CFF Championship race, that likely is never to be duplicated.

I thought we could all share some stories of how your actual race went.
Please share your racing story, whether from the front, back or middle.

I'll go first.

In Q1, I went just about as fast as I ever had at RA, less than a sec off the record and was only P9 !

Wow, what a strong and deep field. Quality cars, and drivers, and seemed everybody played pretty well together, even if on a new track.

Q2 knew we had to step it up, and did, ran almost 2 secs below record, P5 in session, starting P6.
While the SuperTiga goes 2.3 secs faster than me yet.

Had a good race start, as guy beside me got it wrong, and I was over to the right lane, and moving up on the left lane. Then I notice a car in the middle, being passed by both lanes. I thought 'welcome to the drafting world (ie bad aero) of CFF Niki' and had a laugh.

CFF has got to be THE funnest class to race at RA. The straights are so long, and the speeds so high, and the aero so bad with all four shocks and stuff hanging out, that it's almost impossible to shake somebody, the guys behind always have the advantage.

Don't know how many wide we got through T1, but on exit, I was P2 ! behind Brumbaugh, threw it into T3 hard as I could, and made it through. As the draft started kicking in towards T5, and his car kept getting bigger, I thought it was gonna be really cool to be a close P2, in T5, where all the stands, crowds and cameras are. Gotta love the CFF draft, nope, wait, I'm going by ! Brumbaugh was a gentleman and left room, and I'm 1st one over the last crest, leading P1, what a sight, the crowd etc. Leading up through T6, hurry downs and into carrousel.

Full 3 wide, don't know how many rows back braking into T12, think I left P2, then got drafted on front straight to P3. Brumbaughs car unfortunately was getting hot, and looked like it wasn't gonna make it, as the FCYellow/black came out.

Restart was gonna be interesting, because the head of the field was the last 12? or so of the FF Regional, so the fast CFF guys picking their way through them while having their own dogfight will be interesting at the least.

At the green, Brumbaugh's overheating car sounded real flat, and wouldn't go, so chased up the hill by Niki, and back to P3 I go. The leaders passed two cars going into T6, I followed them, but the lappers were spinning and wrecking?, couldn't go inside, so turn right, INTO THE GRAVEL TRAP, somehow got it out the other side, long trip through the grass back on track before apexT7, (Tall Jack said lots of 'air' under the car) Thought I would've been freightrained by a row of CFF, but they must've also been held up by the spinners at T6, because they just caught me, but after a few corners I got a little gap. Sorry about throwing all those rocks and junk at you guys !

Lots of fast cars behind, so I pushed really hard the entire rest of the race, which was thankfully uneventful.

One of the best races I've been in. Tough tough competitors, and you had to be flying every lap to run up front.

CFF is a complete blast to race, love the hard tires, the draft, and especially that car. It is the same 35F as I raced it in the EWC 2001-2004. Hadn't run it since then, except one weekend this spring. Thanks Dave Harmison, Steve Beeler, and others for teaching me to race real hard and clean in those EWC races.

How about a rematch guys? With my trip through the gravel at T6, I went further to get to the podium than anybody.

Please share YOUR CFF stories,

Marc

[Jon Jeffords]

Great story, Marc. What was the cause of the all-black flag? Was it a single issue, or cars off in multiple corners?

[Allen_W]

Marc - Damn, I want to be back at R/A right now! The FF regional race was my favorite race I've run to date . . . Dave Livingston drove a fantastic race, as much as I saw of it. ;-)

What was going on behind us sounds simply amazing. Thanks for the details.

The black was for a couple/three cars off in one and ditto in five if I recall correctly. We sat quite a long time. One looked worse than five.

Allen W.
FF #9

[Roux]

On Tuesday the plan was to finish breaking in my new "best engine I ever built" unit, then roll the car in the trailer and get to RA by sunset on Wednesday. I wanted to learn the track on thursday and then have a strong run in the CF race. I also entered the national to get seat time and have more fun. Everything melted down right then and there. The brand new ring gear was rubbing on the bellhousing and it seemed to be rubbing where one of the studs was poking through the aluminum, so it did not "wear in" as hoped. After looking inside the oil filter and finding very small shiney flakes I started to have serious doubts about my new engine. Quit? Thrash to put the old mill back in? or drag this half baked effort a thousand miles and hope for a miracle? the only option I had no problem dismissing was the latter. Quitting seemed attractive. I was bone tired, jet lagged and had set expectations for myself to do well in the race. In one instant I thought, no, this is the big one, there will be so many opportunities for close racing, just swap the engine and get going by noon on Wednesday. Blow off the test day and deal with the lack of track knowledge via Youtube.

The old engine went in. The oil lines and tank got cleaned and even though the old engine had noticeably lower compression when turning the crank to set the valves, it had a reassuring reliabilty about the way it started and ran smoothly. I arrived solo at RA on Thursday in time to watch packs of FFs and CFs practicing. I was too tired to care

Friday and Saturday were some of the best days of my racing career. Ran every session, every lap. Drafted in big packs, and got to know that fantastic race track faster than I expected. Some corners were easy to figure out and some kept asking for more skill. Great fun. I was also getting to see a lot of beautiful cars, especially in the vintage ranks.

Sunday. I had ordered a new set of tires and decided to put them on for the races to see if I could get into the top 20 in CFF and out of the bottom 25 in the national. The tires gave the typical big edge in the start of the CF race and I was passing cars handily but it came to an early end with the T1 crash that took 3 of us out. My car was not damage, just buried in the gravel. The workers towed me out and I drove back (on the grass) to the paddock. Dave Harmison came over and helped my remove a huge amount of gravel from every possible place in the car. with a few minutes to spare I made it to the National grid to take up my starting spot about 20 cars from the back. the last time I had to restart to take my grid spot the starter just spun with barely any contact with the ring gear. Gravel is suspected. This meant a push start and starting at the back of the pack. No problem. Lets race! When the first caution came out for the crash in the kink I was stuck behind a white DB1 that was suffereing a serious oil leak. Once that was cleared I was speeding along to get lined up behind the pack and pace car when the engine suddenly started running rough. Plenty of oil pressure, temperature looked OK. What the hell? Instead of hurting my poor old engine, I pulled over at a corner station near the carousel and jumped out. Spark plug wire was off! Reconnected and asked the marshall if he would give me a pushstart once I got belted in. Belting took forever. The car bump started just fine. All I had to do was back up from behind the concrete wall to where the gap was and get back on track. I stalled the engine going into reverse! Now the car was at a low point and could not be push started, so I jumped out and wrestled the car back up to the top of the hill (with my new best friend's help) and belted back in. The rain started as I was finishing my belting in stuff and I rejoined the suddenly chaotic race. It took about 3 messed up turns to remember to crank the brake bias backward. The rain brought out a lot of action with cars going off, spinning and others making really good forward progress. Like Mike Rand who was running really well on his classic Limerock line. Unfortunately the checker came too soon for my liking. I still had a lot of fuel on board and would have loved another 4-5 laps. So out of the car TWICE in a sprint race and still saw the checker. Doesn't get any stranger than that.

Thanks to all for the great weekend and I want to support any effort to get 60+ cars to a track as soon as next year. That was magic! Lets not wait 10 years to do this again

[Bill Bonow]

My ride for the 40th was "cooked up" about 7 months prior to the event. I knew the event was coming and just had to find a way to participate. Bob Roemer had a historic Lola T-540 (sat on pole at the '79 Runoffs) that had been parked for 9 years in Jim Roemer's (brother) garage after being diagnosed with MS. I though if I could make a deal and get the car running again, this could be my ticket to the 40th. Bob was happy with the idea of the car back on the track and a deal was struck.

I did most of the prep work other than insisting that Bruce at Lindstrand Motorsoprt, Inc. do the alignment. The car is ready and we're off to RA.

I'm ready for the first practice, driving on the out lap, all is great until t-14 where the half shaft breaks in half (quarter shaft?). I thought the weekend was over as a half shaft was the only spare we didn't have. Jack Bartell (Racers Only on Apex) was displaying (not racing) his Lola T-540 and was kind enough to loan us a half shaft for the weekend.

The rest of the weekend was straight forward with no issues and a very fast car.

I would like to post a list of thank yous to everyone who helpped get Bob's car back on the race track where it belongs.

Bruce & Cindy Lindstrand, Webster & Nicole Temple, Jeff Salcedo all of LMI who made this whole program go "as easy as pie".

Jack Bartell for taking parts off his car to help another racer

Jim Roemer for helping get this whole deal going and making sure all bases were covered

Bob Roemer who allowed me to use his car and show that old CFF's never die, they are just in waiting for someone to help get them back on the race track.

Had a blast, how soon 'til the next one?

[petewo]

Guess it's my turn. CFF #42, Pete Wood. I thought I was an old master of Road America but boy, there were some fast cars there for the 40th! The whole weekend was an abosolute riot although qualifying was scary at times. The party was super as well as the race. I guess I did move from 53rd to 35th somehow in the race but it must have mostly involved cars dropping out.

Kudo's to Steve and Mike for such a great event. I don't thing they'll be up for that much effort again soon but if so, I'll be there!

Pete

And the bonus of being in the Wall Street Journal was sweet. I can't count all the people I've shared that photo with and they all have "acted" impressed.

[bryancohnracing]

As posted to various other forums. Looong. You've been warned!

With Day 1 in the books, here are the results from the 40th FF Anniversary at Road America:

Practice: No time
Qualifying 1: 2:49.6
I'm 85th on the grid out of 112.

So, here is the story:
Recapping, I rented a Dulon MP21 from Liberty Motorsports for the event. The deal had me doing trackside support for myself. How hard can that be? Its not like I don't have the tools/equipment/knowledge.

I pick up the car on site and proceed to fit myself to the seat/pedals/etc. As we are working on fitting the pedals both the brakes and clutch are soft. No biggy, we start bleeding...and bleeding. After replacing the clutch master only to find there is still no clutch, I return the car to the team for repairs. They take the gearbox off and work on the annular slave for the better part of 10 hours, from Thursday afternoon to Friday at 2pm, when its finally got a clutch. Yay!

This leave’s me and TJ Bain exactly 50 minutes to check the car over, reset the pedals, charge the battery, add fuel, install a transponder, etc etc. As they say on Top Gear, “How hard can it be?”

We get it done and I jump in to head to grid. Brakes are mushy at best. Out I go in first qualifying, in a car I've never driven on a track I've not driven since 2000. Oh, with what, 111 other cars?
On the out lap I notice an exhaust leak. It gets worse as I make lap 1, then on lap 2 1/2 It fails going into 8 so I back off and head back to paddock.

TJ has a quick look, and finds the header has fallen off the motor! Yes, #1 pipe has fallen off, 2/3 are loose and 4 has 1 bolt barely holding it in place. At least no welding is required.

Tonite we find the front master is soft and change it out. Hey, a HARD brake pedal. What a concept!

Qualifying 2 is at 11:55 AM Saturday. The pole is a 2:28. 5 I think I can get in the 39's. The old record is in the 32’s. Yes, a pro driver reset the mark 4 + seconds faster! Can you say HOLY SH*T?

I think a 39 will put me abut 50th, give or take, about where I expected to be.

Welcome to Day 2!

Only one session today, Qualifying 2 at 11:50 AM.

After doing a compete preparation job on the car last night and finishing this morning, I was ready to have a serious go at qualifying. We even had time to mount up the new Go Pro Camera.
I get to grid early enough to be about 15th in the first wave. Good spot for some clear laps! TJ made the trek from our upper paddock spot to turn on the camera and I head on track. Exiting pit lane I stand on the gas. Hey, this thing has good power! We might have something here!

After much passing, drafting, being passed, more drafting, still more passing, I get in a good groove and knock off 9 seconds, to a 2:40.7. Best part on all three of my good laps I got held up in traffic. With 103 cars on track that will happen! Give me a draft, some clear track in the right areas and I can find a 2:35 easy. (Ha ha!)

I moved from 69th to 42nd today, about right where I expected near the middle of the field. The lap record was lowered again to a 2:28.1 today. Serious Fast!

Warm up is at 9 am, with the race at 11 am. I've got a set up change to make after warm up, as I need to confirm slight exit push in 3, 7 and Canada. Maybe a raise the rear ride height 1/16 inch? Stiffen the rear bar?? We'll see.

Here is the amazing thing about the event so far: Everyone has been cooperating on track. Sure, there have been some crashes, but for the most part its close, fun racing with drivers driving smart. Hopefully the race stays the same!

Special thanks to TJ Bain for working his arse off. He said it’s not work if it does not involve bench pressing a T-10 gearbox at 2 am into his American Iron Firechicken! Maybe I should make him change gears in the ole' Hewland just to keep him busy!

Day 3: Race Day!
Well, Warm Up came first at 9am. No wait, last minute schedule change to 9:30am. When did we find this out? Oh, about 8:45am as I was getting ready to head to grid and the guy next to us in the paddock (BIG LOUD GT1 Corvette that made TJ drool every time they started it) says, "Hey, what are you doing, we warm up at 9am. You guys got moved to 9:30am!”

Ok, no big deal, just the first of several long waits of the day.

So, out I go for Warm Up. Two things on the agenda:
1. Check running in carousel to make sure float level change fixed the problem.
2. Check out the minor push in 3, 7 and Canada to see if a rear sway bar change is in order.

Out we go and first lap into the Carousel it does not misfire. IT DIES! Right where I need to go to full throttle. A poor guy in a Lola almost runs me over...Good job missing me dude! I survive that and head for the Kink, where it cuts out again just after turn in! YIKES! Can you say oversteeeer? Lucky for me it catches fire (the engine) in time to get some power to the ground and stop the lurid slide from becoming a BIG CRASH.
So what do I do? Run more laps of course! I find I can pedal the car (pump the throttle to make the accelerator pump work) and the car runs through the Carousel and the Kink. Hey, now we know it’s running out of gas, not flooding! One problem solved!

The handling is up in the air. Not bad, could be better if the little exit push was gone, not sure if a change is in order. Might make it worse for the race!

I run one more lap, come in the paddock to prep for the race, which is in 1 hour and 30 minutes. Oh, the grid closes at the 3 minute warning, so add a 2 minute drive to grid and we are down to 1 hour 25 minutes...

TJ rips open the carb so I can adjust the float, and we find a broken float. All I have to replace it is a plastic float, instead of the original brass float. I've never installed a plastic one and they are different, thus require different settings...I read my cheat sheets, no luck. Next, find one of the engine builders on site. After several phone calls I get hold of Jay Ivey (Ivey Engines, Portland OR) and he says, "I'll be right over". 10 minutes later (30 minutes before race time) he shows up, looks at my carb and says, "****, this won't work." He pulls out a new float from his kit, plus a return spring on the secondary that broke (We totally missed this in the hurry to fix the float). Jay then installs the float, set the level and installs the spring. No charge. I know Jay from my days racing in FF, but I’ve never bought a part from him in my life. (Note to self: Send nice thank you note to Jay!)

TJ quickly installs the bodywork, airs the tires and I suit up and climb in. By this time its about 15 minutes to race time, so we got to get moving!

On the pace lap I notice that the crowd at 5 is huge. Stands packed, hillside packed, fence line packed. Other spectator areas are the same, like the stands outside Canada Corner. We line up 2 by 2 quite nicely (I’m on the outside) and knowing I won’t see the green listen for the cars ahead to gas it. Amazingly this works and I get a good jump, moving right and picking off the car ahead easily. There is a hole ahead I’m going for but suddenly a Red Crossle from behind me zooms past on my right and fills the hole! DRAT! I thought I got a good jump, he must have gotten a GREAT jump! No matter as we enter 1 I pick off 2 more who get hung out to dry on the outside. Into 3 same deal, I pick off 2 more under braking on the inside. Woooooooo!

The rest of lap 1 is a bit of a blur, with masses of cars 2 wide in 5, 7, Canada, with single file smart driving in the other corners. As I’m exiting 7 I notice cars 2/3 wide snaking ahead down the straight into 8 and out of sight. It’s WAY cool.

On lap 2 heading into the braking zone for 1 I see dust in the air and the yellow is out. 3 cars are off in the kitty litter, with one on its side and little left of and suspension. Driver is still in it, while the others are climbing out. By 4 we are under full course yellow, at 5 2 more cars are piled up and at the S/F line the Black ALL comes out. The field comes in the pit lane and we sit for 20 minutes for clean up in aisle 1 & 5. So what do I do? NAP! Ok, maybe only 10 winks, but it was a nice relaxing 10 winks! We are informed our race will run full length. Thanks Stewards!

We restart single file. I know to look for the double yellows being dropped when they go green, and out of the corner of my eye I see the flags drop at Canada just as I’m hitting the apex. Perfect! Stand on the gas son! I pass one car on the outside of 13, then 2 more under braking for 14! One more up the hill to the S/F line for good measure.

I spend the next 5 laps dicing with a blue Lola (Bruce Domeck I think) and several other cars. The blue car and I work together, drafting to catch and pass cars and each other. I can get a better exit out of 14 and get by up the straight, he is better in 3 and 5. Generally his car brakes better than mine, so even when I can draft by out of 3 down the back straight, I can only get about 3 feet of my car in front of his and he can outbrake me into 5. Damn! I just don’t have the confidence in the brakes I’d like plus the pedal is going a bit long…

Eventually I get by and am able to put some distance on him and immediately set about catching the next group of cars. I do this in about 1 lap and go about passing them!!

Lots of waving on the cool down lap. I’m happy with my drive, glad to have been a part of something this big, and generally had more fun than I thought possible.

Final result:
Started 42nd in class, 83rd overall
Finished 23rd in class, 44th overall
6 cars in my class DNF’d, of which 5 were ahead of me on the grid.

The Saturday night party was surreal. 16 past champions were present, from Skip Barber, David Loring, Dennis Firestone, Bob Lobenberg and Bruce MacInnes to current champions of the last few years. The hero’s of my youth and those I have seen in person and know very well.

One word sums in up: EPIC

Thanks to my good friend Mark Blythe for schlepping my tools/equipment along, to TJ Bain for his hard work, Hoosier Tires, Jay Ivey and lastly, the Apexspeed.com website, where the gang of online FF friends re-motivated me to find a ride and make it happen!

[andyllc]

Our event was a roller coaster. We had been planning on this event for a long time like so many others here.

I insisted that we get to the track early on Wednesday to get in line to get a good parking spot. In the end we did get a good parking spot but parking was not the mess I expected.

The Thursday test day was going to be split up between myself (running our Crossle 35F in the CF and my dad running the same car in the National). I did the first session as I had driven on the track before (2003) and could get the car setup and tell him what gears for what corner. Overall it would be more efficient for us if I went first. First session rolls around and I cannot find a clear lap to save my life (boy wouldn't that be the story of the weekend for all of us!). At the end of the session I knocked off a low 2.31. Not bad for the first session but I knew there was plenty more. I told a friend of mine at that point that I would qualify in the 27's. I was still getting up to speed as I hadn't raced in a year (hard to find a ride during these times) and hadn't raced an open wheel car since 2003.

The second session was my dad's first session on track. Things went fine except for a black flag all that took up most of his session. He only got a few laps and for whatever reason our AIM didn't work so we couldn't compare data.
The last session of the day we decided to split. I told my dad I would run long enough to feel real comfortable and make sure I liked our changes and if there was time we would do a driver change in pit lane so he could finish the session. We did do that and he was able to get a couple more laps at the end of the day so we were happy all around.

We knew Friday would be the toughest day for us scheduling wise because of 4 on track sessions and while we were both running on the hard tires we were using our own sets so we would have a lot of swaps to do in addition to making sure the car stayed prepped.
My Friday practice went fine, still working on the car, still trying to find clear track. Unfortunately my dad's session did not go fine. We had....we had so many problems at the track I can't remember what happened to him in this session. Bottom line, there was some sort of motor issue that prevented the car from really running so he didn't get any track time.

Next session for us was my first qualifying session. Put on the stickers and let's roll. Jeremy and I hooked up some what early in the session. We weren't close enough to draft each other but we served as a good reference to each other as to how we were doing. Car was running well and we were on it. There was a black flag mid way through the session. At this point I was discouraged because our first flying lap, Jeremy was able to get through traffic without any issues and I didn't. My first lap was a 32 so I figured he was at a 30. I knew I could do a whole lot better so I just needed the track position to do it. Jeremy and I (not previously planned) both went down to the end of pit lane to get in line to go back out for the restart of the session. As soon as we went back out we were on it. Thankfully for us a lot of cars just parked themselves during the black flag so it was a lot easier to get clear track. We had time for about 2 or 3 hot laps and we were both lowering our times. Jeremy had a 29.3 (I believe) and I pulled out a 28.2 (I believe) to be on provisional pole. I was super excited when I found out I was on provisional pole because that whole last stint in qualifying our dash was blank so I didn't know when to shift or what times I was doing, nothing.

The next session of the day was my dads qualifying. He couldn't catch a break at all. I was driving the car up to grid to get a good spot in line (big key to the weekend was going out towards the front of the field). Well on the way to grid our fuel line managed to cut itself and light the car on fire. Beautiful Crossle, on fire, not good. Thankfully other members of the Formula Ford community came to the rescue and were able to put it out quickly (thank you whoever it was!). I pushed the car back to our trailer and told everyone what happened (imagine their shock). We took the engine cover off, fixed the fuel line, cleaned up some stuff, started it up and it SEEMED as though we got lucky and we didn't have a major miss. Wrong. On my dads first hot lap the wiring just went to hell and back from melting itself from the heat. So again, my dad gets no laps.
That was the last session of the day for us. We spent the evening getting stuff ready for Saturday.

Keep in mind that during all of this we realize our crank seal actually seals about as well as....well it doesn't seal, it sprays oil like a hose on full blast. So each session we are cleaning up a huge mess (about a quart per session) that we really cannot do anything about unless we go home (not happening) or change motors (no spare). Also, hoping that the motor lasts the event.

Saturday was final qualifying, one for me and one for my dad. The brakes were horrible on Friday in qualifying for both of us so we are trying to fix a leak out of the caliper and it isn't happening. Go to Porter and get a new caliper, bolt it on, bleed brakes only to find the other front caliper is messed as well, back to Porter I go for another new caliper. I go out for qualifying and immediately the motor is not running well. I come in to the pits, a spark plug wire (number 3 cylinder) is loose. We put it back on and hit the track. I end up only getting maybe 3 laps, none of them clean but I can tell the car is HOOKED UP. You just know when you get the car like this that you are going to fly. I come in disappointed because I knew I had a 27 I just didn't get the chance. Later I find out that Niki beat my time by a tenth. I was certainly disappointed because pole would have been nice but at least I was on the front row and the race is what really matters. We get the car ready for my dads session (maybe he can get some laps now). And of course after he does complete one hot timed lap, the header breaks and we are basically done again. Again, my dad can't catch a break.

Sunday is race day. We are confident, excited, and ready to get going. DaveW saved our weekend by welding our header. We get the car ready and it is about race time. Grid was a cluster (although it was not the fault of anyone, just bound to happen by so many cars). Our oil pressure and water temp sensors melted in the fire so we have no idea what either of them are reading. I am trying to keep the car turned off as much as possible to not overheat but there is only so much I can do. We finally get going on the pace lap and I am ready. I get a great start and pass Niki into turn one (which was my goal). However Treadway and Blanc got even better starts and pass us both. I am running in third going down the back straight and have a great run on Jeremy and Mark but have nowhere to go, which lane do I pick? I picked the left lane and so Niki picked the right. Niki is underneath me in Canada Corner but I hang on the outside and get him back in 13. On the front straight we go to finish lap one and I am in third but feeling pretty good. On our way into turn 5 on lap 2 I outbrake both Jeremy and Mark to take the lead. I have the lead and am feeling pretty good although I know it will come down to traffic and drafting at the end. Jeremy and I are already pulling away from 3rd and 4th. Jeremy drafts back by me going into Canada (Jeremy, I thought we were going to just push each other and pull away? )

Back on the front straight I get a huge run on Jeremy from 14, our car was really handling superb. I catch him way too early to consider pushing him down the front straight so I pull out and we are side by side going into one, not in a hurry and wanting to keep pulling away I brake early and fall back in line, same with going into turn 5. Just as we exit turn 5 it is full course caution, next lap we see the black flag all and we come in the pits. Not good. I felt a big hesitation under acceleration while we were on our way in the pits and I know the motor is sick. We are surely puking major oil and and I have a feeling water. As soon as we stop in the pits I know we are screwed. I can smell water wetter as though I was sniffing it out of the bottle. Everyone around us is complaining about our oil and water spray. I told my dad I am just going to go for it and hope it lasts, we are here to race. As soon as we get rolling again, the motor is done. It literally cooked itself under the black flag without the water flowing through it. I pull off on the restart and it is game over. Super disappointing for myself and also my dad because that meant he didn't even get to race.

Oh well, it was a great event and I was just happy to be there and compete. I can't wait for the next time everyone gets together like that. At some point in the future Jeremy, Niki, and I will have to do a rematch.

Thanks for reading my long post, pics and more info is on my website or blog at the links below.

[J.D. King]

My week started out at NJMP with a new motor to break in. Long story short, that motor had cam trouble and I switched it out for an older wheezing lump. Okay, we're at least going to make the biggest Formula Ford gathering ever at Road America's 40th Anniversary of Formula Fords in America.
So into a transporter it goes with some spares and my gear along with the shortblock with the bad cam.

As luck would have it Elite Engines is on the way and the short block is dropped off on Tuesday to be checked over and have a new cam and lifters installed. It is delivered to the RA on Wednesday night.....okay, this is a once in a lifetime event, let's get the fresh motor installed and get testing on Thursday. We get it done by 11:30pm and hope for the best.

Thursday dawns and we get timing done and bleed brakes and warm engine. Off to the test sessions and my first ever laps of Road America. We run high 30's that session, engine feels great, breaking in new tires and motor and in the high 30's, "is that good?" I ask a local and was told "that isn't bad for your first go" so I smile and feel good. The rest of the day goes great, on the track with more Formula Fords than I've ever seen in my life at arguably the greatest track in North America, awesome!!!! Last session on test day, driving laps, pushing harder, let's go for mid 35's. Lots of traffic, great cooperation and some museum quality cars out here, beautiful man, just beautiful.

Friday morning practice session, we are motoring and cars feels great, coming out of 8 and shifting into 2nd........what's this? Red light flashing on dash!!! A quick look to oil pressure gauge confirms "zero" pressure. Cut it off quick!!!! I coast around the carousel and pull off driver's right wondering what happened.
Ok, let's pull the oil pump and have a look. Damn it!!!! Stripped gear, pump must've seized. I shine a light into the shaft hole, "*%#*" pump drive gear on brand new cam is toast!!
You guessed it, out with the new engine, in with the old...ugh. Does anyone have a pump? Short of taking a day to ask each of the hundreds of competitors personally Mr. Lampkin from California hears I'm looking and offers up his spare. Thank you thank you!!

The rest of Friday and early Saturday we get the swap done but miss both qualifying sessions for the CF race as we change everything.
We get the car done and buttoned up in time for the FF70 and Vintage FF race. We get a 23rd starting spot due to the split grid. I've never had so much fun, the race goes on without much drama and at the end I made it to 5th. Great, car at least runs well enough to climb through the field.

Sunday comes and off we go to start the CF/FF race dead last in 108th starting position. From this far back you can't even see the front of this enormous field due to the curvature of the earth. Some cars don't make the race so we actually start 99th, great, inside the 50th row.
We get the green and the traffic jam is severe, but everyone uses good judgment and we all get through and I'm able to start gaining positions right away. With all of the cars on track something's gotta happen and sure enough 3 cars tangle in turn 1 and 2 in turn 5, full course caution followed by a black-flag-all. The mess gets cleaned up and the cars realigned on the grid, it seems like forever until we are off again to start single file, I think I'm about 1.2 miles behind the overall leader in that line. Headed towards Canada corner the double yellows drop and we're off. Some epic battling ensues, typical FF racing stuff, 2 and 3 wide, 3, 4 & 5 car drafts the norm, yes, heavenly. One instance headed into 5 I draft and pull inside of Ian Lenhart as we race into the braking zone, Ian's car locks rears for an instant under hard braking and his left rear smacks my right front so hard it knocks the wheel out of my hand, but I grab it and do quite the "tank-slapper" save and we all make it around the corner, but I lose 4 spots...argh. The right front feels ok after 2 corners so I start to push, but as you move up passing gets harder. I manage to clip off a few more positions and made my way to a 51st overall finish and 27th in class with a best lap of 2:37.208. Some cars dropped out so they were easy to pass, but every other position was fought for and I had the best of fun driving to get it done. I'm sure in my mind that given some clear track and a healthy motor 2:33's or better are attainable.

Okay, one last race, the FF70 and Vintage FF final race. I'm gridded 6th but it is raining, some guys choose not to chance hurting their sublime and perfect cars. I can't blame them, but I don't feel my old crap-wagon deserves any special treatment so we're racing. The rain stops, but having never been here and being on the grid, what do we do? Will the track dry quickly? Will those rain clouds turn and come back? I roll the dice and we go with slicks, siped with a razor knife to give a little more heat, let's go for it.
We start 4th and enter into a 4 way battle 4 the lead, two cars on slicks, two on rains. In the end rains were the way to go, but I did run 2nd for a bit and narrowly lost out to Rich Leslie for the final trophy position as his slicks kept him on a slightly drier line out of the last corner and he motored by to snatch the 3rd podium spot.

Overall, this event was a dream come true. A big thanks go out to all who made it to the event, to those who helped me make it, but most of all to Steve Beeler and Mike Rand and the whole Milwaukee Region's race committee for putting it all together.

Even though I would've liked a better overall result for the racer in me, the man in me is so satisfied with the experience that if I was unable to race ever again, the mere memory of such an event would be enough to sooth my racer's heart.

[Bob Wright]

I'll keep mine short...

Arrived Thursday afternoon and inspected my "ride" for the first time: Mike Rand's CFF VD RF81 that he fondly refers to as the "evil step child". And it was. Spent the rest of the day doing a bolt check, scaling and fitting myself into it more or less.

Friday and practice...I realize this is the first time I've been in a FF in 25 years. Everything feels ok, but I can't understand why everybody is passing me on every straight. Coming off the track it becomes clear the carb is not right. Yep, secondary linkage has fallen off...first qualifying and the car feels more like what it should; bouncing, rattling, sliding and in this case painful as I don't fit very well. Its a FF all right. I qualified somewhere in the low 40's of the 100 odd cars that recorded times.

Saturday; second qualifier and I feel confident I can improve my times...out lap and by turn 5 there's a real bad sound coming from the motor. The headers have fallen off (so much for my bolt check). I'm begining to understand why Rand calls this car the evil step child. So far, I have a grand total of 8 laps on track. Fortunately, its all easily fixed, but now I'm mired at the back of an awful lot of cars.

Sunday race- they split the grid FF and CF so I find myself 75th (!). Oh, boy, this is going to be fun. Two laps and a black flag...it was ugly going by turn 1 and seeing cars littered around including one on its roll bar in the kitty litter. We finally get going and get 7 laps of racing. I discoverd that the step child does, indeed have brakes and I managed to go from 75th to 38th overall and had a ball doing it.

Being on the track with 100 cars was something for the ages. From what I saw, most everybody behaved and there was great racing going on all over. Kudo's to Mike and Steve for pulling it off, and thank you, Mike for lending me the car. I almost forgot how much fun a FF is to drive.

[formulasuper]

My short Formula Ford career:

I bought my Lola T440 FF last year to participate in the 40th vintage FF70 race class with the idea of selling it at the event & then proceeded to spend the next 8 months doing a complete restoration. Having never previously owned or even driven a FF it was quite a steep learning process, both the restoration & the driving. After hearing all the stories about the T440 being the "flexy flier" with it's flexible chassis I expected the car to be a real handfull, however I found the car to handle just fine & it was a blast to drive. With the large field of vintage FF cars there was plenty of equal competion which added to the enjoyment. Of course as would happen I received a call on Friday before our first practice session that the car had been sold, so now the goal was to just have fun & bring it home in one undamaged piece. Being a first timer at Rd America made it all the more challenging & I was looking at my mirrors as much as forward at the track! As discused in the vintage driver's meeting I had the yellow tape on my half shafts to designate a first timer & added a big red X to my rear body work as an extra measure in hopes of not getting run over. Evidently this worked & all the faster drivers played very well with us Rd A rookies, thanks guys. I was making good progress & knocked off a little time with each lap, ending up about midpack in the practice session, & then taking off another 8 seconds in the qualifying race which put me mid pack for the start of the feature. Just before our race we had a downpour which ended a few minutes before the green flag so the track was soaked & a few vintage drivers decided to skip the race. As soon as the green flag fell I could see these vintage drivers were being very cautious & I was able to pass several before T1 & had worked my way up to 6th by T5, still telling myself - be carefull, it's sold! However, going up the hill to T6 the engine started to pop & crackle & then died as I coasted down to the carousel & pulled off track. Later investigation found the little condenser wire in the distributor had broken off. On the 14 hour drive back to Atlanta I realized that maybe that little wire failure had saved my sold car!

Thanks to Dave Kettler, chief of tech at the 40th, for his work getting all the FF's thru inspection, Jeff Jagusch & the Carl Haas Lola group for their support of all the Lola cars, Mike Rand & Steve Beeler for organizing the entire FF event & everyone else that made it possible. This was one of the most enjoyable race events I have attended in my 20 years of open wheel racing.

[Mike Allison]

a car that wouldn't give me a moments rest, and an old body that finally failed me before the best part of the weekend began, I still am happy I was there.

Most of you don't know, but after the first Vintage race on Friday PM, which I ran completely in 3rd gear due to a faulty shift linkage, I ended up being dragged from my car and taken to the St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan. Seems as though my Kidneys decided to shut down, which is kinda scary. In addition I had a hugely swollen right knee due to an infection in the bursa which is kinda like a lube point for the knee joint.

I spent 3 days in ICU after an Orthopedist sliced a bit of my knee open to drain the gooey stuff out of the joint. My kidney specialist was on the job and on the ball. He got things going again and after another 10 days in Sheboygan, I was on my way home, with a friend who flew up to drive me and the rig home.

Oh, I forgot that on my first laps on Thursday a fuel fitting came loose and gave me a nice tub of gasoline to sit in. Yes, Mr. Rand, I did get some burns (2nd and 3rd) on my backside and shoulders. That stuff is really caustic. And it was just 110 Leaded. Glad I don't use rocket fuel. If it ever happens to you, get the suit off and rinse your body with water, immediately.

I'm feeling much better, thank you, and wish I could have made the entire show. This was to be my "swan song" in auto racing after 44 years of pleasure and pain. Heck of a way to say goodbye.

Thanks to all of you who made my FF40th a memorable event, in spite of the tragi/comic opera I was enduring.

Best regards to all, my car and equipment will be on the block shortly.
\
Mike :checkereda car that wouldn't give me a moments rest, and an old body that finally failed me before the best part of the weekend began, I still am happy I was there.

Most of you don't know, but after the first Vintage race on Friday PM, which I ran completely in 3rd gear due to a faulty shift linkage, I ended up being dragged from my car and taken to the St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan. Seems as though my Kidneys decided to shut down, which is kinda scary. In addition I had a hugely swollen right knee due to an infection in the bursa which is kinda like a lube point for the knee joint.

I spent 3 days in ICU after an Orthopedist sliced a bit of my knee open to drain the gooey stuff out of the joint. My kidney specialist was on the job and on the ball. He got things going again and after another 10 days in Sheboygan, I was on my way home, with a friend who flew up to drive me and the rig home.

Oh, I forgot that on my first laps on Thursday a fuel fitting came loose and gave me a nice tub of gasoline to sit in. Yes, Mr. Rand, I did get some burns (2nd and 3rd) on my backside and shoulders. That stuff is really caustic. And it was just 110 Leaded. Glad I don't use rocket fuel. If it ever happens to you, get the suit off and rinse your body with water, immediately.

I'm feeling much better, thank you, and wish I could have made the entire show. This was to be my "swan song" in auto racing after 44 years of pleasure and pain. Heck of a way to say goodbye.

Thanks to all of you who made my FF40th a memorable event, in spite of the tragi/comic opera I was enduring.

Best regards to all, my car and equipment will be on the block shortly.
\
Mike

[swiftdrivr]

Mike, Good to see you are back at home. I told you I had some pictures of you at the 40th, but check out Doug Carter's in the section above. they are much better than what I got. Best of luck wherever the future takes you, Jim

[Mike Allison]

Hi Jim,
I saw Doug's work and they are great. I still would be happy to see your photos. If it's not too much trouble, my email address is miallison@msn.com.

Also, thanks for helping me mop up the Exxon Valdez. I managed to get out on the track for the Vintage Race on Fri. but I could only get 3rd gear for the entire race.

How was your experience? I'm sure a lot of people were overwhelmed by the massive field charging into turn 1. Wish I could have been there.

Best to you. I'll be trying to sell my stuff but may get a chance to run somewhere if the market dries up.

See ya,
mike

[PK]

I finally have a minute to put in my nickel's worth.

Road America has never been particularly good to me. I ran there once in my ITA Capri, a couple of times in my FC and never was particularly competitive. I tried to go there a couple of years ago for an EWC race with the Zink, but the fully loaded trailer ended up on its roof just as I was getting going to the track. So, I know I can be competitive in CF in the EWC, but Road America just didn't seem likely to be good to me.

At the end of the day, though, I'm very happy with the results. I was running both the regional and the national which was really good for getting some track time. I ended up qualifying 12th in CF which was pretty good, but I had hopes for picking up some spots in the race.

I was too timid at the start, and I lost 3 spots by turn 3. This isn't going as planned. I know the guys who run EWC, but with all these cars I don't recognize, I couldn't convince myself to go 110%. Just as I was really getting going, the black flag stopped things. They moved the guy behind me in front of me. I'd forgotten I had passed him between start/finish and the black flag. Fortunately, I was able to get that spot back on the restart as my crew told me it was green at the starter station before the yellows were down in 14, so I got a good jump.

After that, it was a case of working through traffic. Towards the end, I was catching Bill Bonow in the beautiful Lola. I got him in Canada corner (I think), but he drafted me out of 14 and got me by a nose at the line. I didn't know it at the time, but he had just repassed me for 6th which is much better than I thought I'd do.

In looking at the results, my fast lap was well under the old track record and only about 1.2 seconds off the new track record, so I can finally say that I can be fast at Road America!

The national race was then the icing on the cake. I started 28th and finished 14th which isn't too bad for an old Zink. Rain is my friend!

Phil Kingham
Zink Z10-C #27