2010 FF Showcase Nationals - Atlanta, Mid O, Sprints, Glen

[TimW]

All:

Being that one of the best things of being at the 40th last summer was having the assembly of the best FF drivers from around the country, it was discussed how could we replicate some of that experience every year.

So, about ~20 FF drivers from mostly east of the Mississippi discussed creating a East/West Challenge type self-organization to show up at select nationals to create more events throughout the season having deep fields than just the sprints & the runoffs. The thinking being deeper and more competitive fields raises the enjoyment of owning and operating a Formula F.

So, the following 4 races have been chosen:

Mar 21 Road Atlanta
May 23 Mid Ohio
Jun 27 Road America (Sprints)
Jul 11 Watkins Glen

Each organizing region has been contacted and is open to allowing us an early run group to allow those who tow from out of division to get home on Sunday. Finalization of the schedules of these events will be made in the coming weeks by those regions. All races are additionally Super Sweep nationals.

Of the ~20 guys, which are made up guys from the front half National grid at the 40th, all said they would be at 2 or 3 of the 4 events. At 20 guys with 2.5 entries per guy over 4 nationals, thats 12 guys from the core group at each event. Adding in the others who are local to each event and guys who initially who didn't respond to the discussion we could possibly see 16-18 cars per event (if not 20-24 at the Glen since it gets 15-16 without any focus from the drivers).

The races are simply SCCA nationals run to SCCA rules, no other restrictions. There are no sub series points, no separate registration or no series decals to run. Just show up and race in a field of a gaggle of good fords. If the number gets high enough I'll look to see if there are some contingency opportunities but until we deliver committed cars to an event that discussion is chicken/egg.

So, if you want to race in the best National FF fields of the year, put these events on your calendar.

Tim Wise
CenDiv FF #25 Swift DB6

[bhayes]

Excellent plan.

Count me in for Mid Ohio and Road America for sure.

I had not planned on Road Atlanta, but now I might see if I can make that one too.

[jgrooms]

Count me in for Mid-Ohio and Elkhart.

John Grooms
89 DB-1

[Mike Scanlan]

3 out of 4, M-o and RAmerica are an either/or, lot of travel to arrange.

[TimW]

Great news guys! I've also gotten a couple direct emails of guys who want to put these races on their schedule. I'll start another thread a la Beeler for an entry roll call for Atlanta in a week or two. Anyone else want to join in to some of these races?

BTW, should we rename them the Stimola Memorial FF Nationals since pretty much every FF racer east of the Mississippi (and then some) has gotten direct support from Joe in one form or another?

Tim

[flycoop]

[FONT=Calibri]Tim,[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]I’m working on getting the car back together…a lot more damage than met the eye. I should have started earlier, just had a hard time getting the drive back. Hopeful for Atlanta, probable for the rest.[/FONT]

Thanks for your efforts.

Tim
FF88

[ric baribeault]

tim, thanks for all the effort with this schedule. i'll definitely support it once i have my piper converted. i also think naming it after joe is a great idea.....ric

[John Robinson II]

I am in for Atlanta, Mid-O and the sprints for sure. Already registered for Atlanta, now just have to get the car back together.

John

[Mike Scanlan]

Can't find the link for Rd Atl entry. Any help?

[TimW]

Can't find the link for Rd Atl entry. Any help?

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.c...36E2A1D8B4988B

An update, I have put some feelers out for some contingency opportunities and so far the response has been far more positive than I thought it would be given the economy. I should have everything finalized for Atlanta next week and will update here. Don't quit your day job, but should have a good assemblence of service or part credits with a distribution approach like Beeler in the EWC so that it won't all go to the pointy end of the grid.

Tim

[GT1Vette]

Can't find the link for Rd Atl entry. Any help?

You can also go to the Atlanta Region website (www.AtlantaSCCA.org) for the Supps & Schedule for the weekend, plus links to the registration system. FF will be running in Group 2 along with F500, FC, FV, and S2, which means you'll race on Sunday morning. Thank Tim for making that happen!

Looking forward to seeing you guys...

[Michael Rand]

Hey, somebody has to be a backmarker in stellar fields like this might bring, so, given the limited opportunities I have to race in 2010, I plan on bringing my Crossle Club Ford to the Glen.
A nice break from managing F2000, like the week before at the Glen with IRL...........
But fair warning, I'll put stickies on it !
No CF hard ties, no Dunlops, real honest-to-god sticker stickies......
By the way, no preload on a 1975 Crossle on Bilsteins, in case you were wondering Joey.....

[stonebridge20]

Ok, I'm in for the Glen since Rand is going. JT I'm sure also and the Sprints for him to. Probably not MidO or RA for either of us. Both JT and I will have preload. I was instructed to do so a long time ago by a friend.

[Mike Kolthoff]

Mike,
Nicely stated.

I am waiting for the gearbox for Road Atlanta, MO good to go. My time at the Runoffs was to short on speed to comment on my pre-load. I am going to put more in just for the hell of it and smile to the heavens.

MK

[TimW]

Guys:

I've just been given permission to let you all know that according to the current tentative Sprints schedule we'll be racing Saturday afternoon with FCs. The full tentative schedule should be posted over the weekend here and on junesprints.com. BTW, this is where we would have landed in the normal rotation of groups over multiple years...it had already been penciled in that way when I chatted with Kevin.

The Glen region also confirmed yesterday that we should see an early race group as well. There are rumors that the Glen event may get turned into a Double National so 'early' may be relative, but that would make it twice worth the tow!

More updates as they come.

Rand: will you be coaching us at the back of the bus that weekend?

Tim

[cliff]

Tim
thanks for all your work on this. Count me in for Mid Ohio and the Sprints..
If my stimulus check ever arrives I might be good for the Glen.
Thanks Again!

[swiftdrivr]

If we can get enough staff that they will let me out of the sweatshop, I'll be at the sprints and maybe Ohio. If the new springs convince the car to quit trying to lead with the tail pipe, I might even find a little speed! Thanks for arrainging this. Nice touch to name it for Joe, too. jim

[Tim FF19]

I was planning on the Sprints, The Glen and MO but with the CRB mandating a 27.5mm restrictor for the FIT, my car will stay in the barn.

Hopefully the CRB will come to their senses by the time some of the FIT conversions are ready to go on track. I am not going to any race 10HP down, FIT or Kent.

Tim Dunn
FF #19

[PRS56]

To Tim:
I can certainly appreciate your frustration with the turn of events regarding the restricter plate size for the FIT, but you may want to reconsider your stance.
Yes, it's possible that a podium finish might not necessarily be in the cards, but the development data you'll gather at all three tracks will be invaluable.
I guessing that any other FIT owners may not lay back, regardless of the restricter size and that could really hurt your chances of catching up in the future.

[Tim FF19]

What am I going to learn development wise? Any gearing choices I make will not be relevant. I already have quite a bit of setup data, certainly decent baseline stuff. Driving around 10HP down does not inspire me. There is always the scenario that I go to those races with a 116 HP Kent and not make the podium but at least I could just point to myself as being slow or unable to prepare the car reasonably.

I've been running FF's since the early 80's. In the learning stages of road racing I could not get too much track time. These days my time is more valuable to me so I am not interested in a race weekend where I cannot compete on an equal or near equal basis.

I have an ZETEC FC also so as much as I was looking forward to running more FF races, I would rather run a competitive FC instead in the pro series. I think John Robinson may have done the right thing by not putting all of his FF eggs in one basket.

What I really hope happens is that SCCA reviews the objective data and makes a reasonable choice of plate. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Scott Gesford]

Tim,
Watkins Glen, Road America, Mid-Ohio. Sounds like a good plan. With the pro series.

I'm not trying to make light of the mess this is. I would be very pissed if I was in your position.

That being said, since you drove my car before me after the Zetec transplant, I'm guessing I should do the same for you after the Fit goes in.......

[Tim FF19]

Tim,
Watkins Glen, Road America, Mid-Ohio. Sounds like a good plan. With the pro series.

I'm not trying to make light of the mess this is. I would be very pissed if I was in your position.

That being said, since you drove my car before me after the Zetec transplant, I'm guessing I should do the same for you after the Fit goes in.......

Scott,

I owe you one for sure. Once the FIT is installed we can go out to BeaveRun and play with it for a day.

Tim

[Scott Gesford]

Scott,

I owe you one for sure. Once the FIT is installed we can go out to BeaveRun and play with it for a day.

Tim

You don't owe me anything. I was just busting on you. Hope you do some pro races. Keith is really a lot of fun and very fast. You two would be very closely matched.

[Tim FF19]

Just because it won't be competitive in a race doesn't mean we can't go have some fun with it! I wasn't joking about the offer. You need to see what a non-wing car is like!

[ric baribeault]

Tim, i thiink you're right in your assessment of the initial restrictor size. but i have a lot of confidence in sandy and the other builders to bring reasonable parity fairly quickly

[Tim FF19]

Hi Ric,

if it was Sandy and QS there would not be an issue. They look at the Kent sheets and the Fit sheets and select a 30.5 or 30 mm plate. Perfect place to start. If the CRB decides it needs a competition adjustment after that, well that is what they are supposed to do. My only complaint is the CRB has selected a plate based on their 'feelings'. I am offended that they have a significant amount of objective data and choose to ignore it. I do not know what the comp board members do for a living but I suspect it is not engineering.

Life is Short - Go Fast

OR

Life is Short - Go for Mid Pack


My personal choice is some reasonable equality in FF or get out my FC and go to the F2000 Championship Series.

[stonebridge20]

[QUOTE]

Hi Ric,

if it was Sandy and QS there would not be an issue. They look at the Kent sheets and the Fit sheets and select a 30.5 or 30 mm plate. Perfect place to start. If the CRB decides it needs a competition adjustment after that, well that is what they are supposed to do. My only complaint is the CRB has selected a plate based on their 'feelings'. I am offended that they have a significant amount of objective data and choose to ignore it. I do not know what the comp board members do for a living but I suspect it is not engineering.

Tim, From what I understand and I may be wrong but .5mm = 3Hp per the Fit restrictor plate testing. A 30mm plate would support 119Hp and a 30.5mm plate would support 122Hp
Would it be fair to say that a "unpreped Fit engine" at an advertised "stock"117Hp would be unrestricted on a 30mm plate?

[VehDyn]

Here is a quote from Doug Carter in another thread. I dont think 30.5 supports 122 HP.

"People who have seen the numbers on the dyno can elaborate more than I can but the information I have is that the Fit was tested at 114hp with a 30.5 mm restrictor by Quicksilver. Sandy's suggestion to the CRB was a 30.0mm plate to compensate for the better throttle response of the FI Fit engine.

It went to Loyning where it was only tested down to a 28mm inlet, and it was 107 hp. The number they anticipate it at with the 27.5mm plate is down to 104hp. So yes, it hasn't even been dyno'd at the plate that they are mandating—it's LESS than the lowest number they saw on the dyno."

Thanks.

[Jon Jeffords]

Please note the topic of this thread is "2010 FF Showcase Nationals."

I suggest the discussion of Fit restrictor plates be conducted under its own thread.

[stonebridge20]

Please note the topic of this thread is "2010 FF Showcase Nationals."

I suggest the discussion of Fit restrictor plates be conducted under its own thread.

Jon, Your right. It's a disservice to Tim's hard work putting the showcase Nationals together.

I'll start a new thread titled Fit restrictor plate discussion.

Sorry, Mike