Fontana West coast race

[dwornik]

The first west Coast race…..the good and the bad.
A three day weekend with two Regional’s and one National races………a very wet Friday and two beautiful sunny, warm days on Saturday and Sunday.
So we had the first Pro Series Race for F1000 here at Fontana, and right at the front was Phil De LA O in the Phoenix Race Works factory effort. The car looked great…well turned out and prepared, and it showed as the weekend went on.
After a very productive Friday running 4 sessions in the rain…..working on rain driving, preparation and chassis tuning……. The weekend got into the dry part with Qualifying and the 1st regional race on Saturday.
After the time shortened damp Qualifying, the Phoenix was 4th on the grid of a 26 car field, and after a good start, and some close dicing, the Phoenix crossed the finish line 12.5 seconds ahead of 2nd place…….out driving everyone.
Sunday arrived with a National and another Regional race. And again, the Phoenix was uncatchable, with two more great starts and two wins. And along the way, a new track record.



Now the bad……no, the PATHETIC. After all the big talk, after all the big plans, after the announcement of the new Pro Series, with everyone of the nine manufactures stepping up to the plate with commitments to field at least one of their cars in the Pro Series,……..there was just ONE F1000 CAR at Fontana…….Let me say that again…..ONLY THE PHOENIX TEAM MADE THE EFFORT TO LIVE UP TO THEIR COMMITMENT.



What do you think would have happened if the planned 1st race at Phoenix had not been canceled, and gone ahead as planned……..we would probably have had just one car….The Phoenix team!!!!!

What does this say for the rest of the year………maybe one or two, or maybe three cars will dribble out?????

[Thomas Copeland]

The next F1000 Pro Series event at Willow Springs should see at least eight or nine F1000 cars participating. There will also be a race sponsor that will allow the series to have a cash prize payout to the top three drivers.

The series always knew that subscription to the early races would be light this year and that it would be difficult to obtain car counts. Some teams don't have their cars sufficently ready to compete yet. We would have liked to have started the series at Thunderhill. But with Nationals down South starting in January it wouldn't have been fair to those located in those areas to ignore those events and not include them on the schedule.

I know Firman West spent a considerable amount of time and money developing and perfecting their dry sump kit for the 2009/2010 Suzuki engine. The extended development time pushed the team to delay preparation for the 2010 season. Which is why they were not at Fontana. They will be at the next race at Willow Springs, with 1 or 2 cars.

Other teams I'm sure have had their issues getting ready.

The series also knows that this is a very much a building process especially considering the number of cars that we are actually dealing with.

Going back over entries for all SCCA events for all of the last three years in FB on the West Coast the series estimates that there are approximately a little more than a dozen FB cars in total on the West Coast. With possibly 2-3 more cars joining the ranks shortly.

So the series has it's work cut out in getting sufficent entries to the events. The fact that the next two events will be well subscribed is hope that the series will find it's footing and become a successful series for the drivers.

But the premise for series all long is that it is not a requirement to attend every event on the schedule. The idea behind the series is to encourage those that have cars to come to the races and participate, and by doing so encourage others to come out as well. So if even one car shows up for an event then we are doing the job we set out to do.

Willow Springs should see a good turnout for FB. Come out and see the series there. The split start should set up the series for a fantastic race.

[rickb99]

Geez,

We had FIVE FB's ( 4 Stohr's and 1 Phoenix) show up last May for the Double National in Seattle. They are out here, somewhere. Just need to get them to the track!

[Rick Kirchner]

you guys should have worked a deal with Pacific F2000, where the numbers fell off a bit the last couple of years. Between the two you would have a really decent run group.

[Thomas Copeland]

Funny you should mention that, because that was the original plan. A mix of half SCCA national events and half running with the Pacific F2000 series.

Can't go into reasons here why it didn't happen. I think the two groups together would have worked out great. The door is still open to the chance so perhaps in the future it will.