June Sprint Race Predictions F1000

[Richard Dziak]

Offical line up for the June Sprints - Formula F1000 Class FB-Road America

# 1 Osborne, J.R. ...........................Stohr F1000 Stohr
#24 Robinson, Daniel ......................Van Diemen RF 99 Novak
#25 Beauchamp, Mike ....................Van Diemen F1000
#43 Cooper, Glenn .........................RFR F1000 Firman
#56 McLaughlin, William...................Firman RFR09 FB Firman
#72 Schwietz, Thomas .....................Citation F1000
#77 Dixon, Brandon ........................Citation F1000 Citation
#81 Coello, Niki ..............................RFR-09 Firman

Ok- lets have some predictions for 1st Place......2nd Place.....3rd Place

[Northwind]

Richard,

I think you just asked one of the hardest questions this website has seen.

I personally think there are five guys entered at this point that could win. Factor in second and third place mixed with the DRAMA that will go on at the front of the pack and it could be anybody in any position. This will surely be a great race to watch. I glad I am part of it.

[Wren]

Niki is the man until somebody else proves they can beat him.

I think Brandon has a better car in the trailer this time around than he did a month ago, but we'll see.

I expect the cars to go a lot faster this time. I think the track record is a 2:08.6. Brandon and Niki were both in the 9's at the Cat National on a track that was widely considered slow/green. I think the Atlantics were running 7's. I believe the fast lap at last year's Sprints was Orbendorf's 2:12.04. It is going to take a lot more than that to win this year.

I should probably go to bed, I have to be up at 4:15 tomorrow morning to drive up.

[Purple Frog]

Six of those guys I consider to be friends. Two I haven't met.
If I was a betting man (i'm not), I would have to pick Brandon.

Niki is the undisputed current King of RA.
IMO, Brandon has the top car. If Niki was in Brandon's car it would be game over.
Schwietz is one hell of a racer. I'm thinking he needs more seat time in a FB. Could win, should podium.
Coop can never be counted out. On race day he comes alive. It depends if he is getting the new car dialed in enough to score.
That's my top four. Mix them up any way you wish. Mechanical reliability may be the biggest factor come race day.

I was thinking with 8 cars entered, how many engines will be required for this intense weekend?

[rickb99]

...I was thinking with 8 cars entered, how many engines will be required for this intense weekend?

That will be interesting to see. The 5 that raced the Seattle Double all finished the weekend running strong on the engines they started with.

[RussMcB]

It's going to be a surprise rain race and Mike Beauchamp will battle with Dan Robinson for the win.

Overall.

And there will be more engine problems in other classes than FB.

[Northwind]

Russ,

I see you believe in the Northern contingents for the rain race. 6 Months a year of driving on ice and snow certainly helps in the rain.

[rickb99]

It's going to be a surprise rain race and Mike Beauchamp will battle with Dan Robinson for the win.......

Hmmm, you guys know more about your midwest/southern drivers then I do. But I must say, if they are sorted and have drivers the equal of Nicholas Belling in the rain at Seattle, the Firmans are very good in the wet. In the totally wet race, his margin of victory was 37 seconds over the dry lap record holder BOTH of whom are highly experienced at Northwest wet racing.

[Bob Neumeister]

J.R. Osborne has won the Runoffs twice in DSR, once in CSR with the DSR and been on pole and won the sprints in DSR. I would bet on him.

[RussMcB]

FB has some awesome drivers, no doubt. Last year's ARRC race was extremely exciting. I was really impressed with the car control displayed. LOTS of gutsy passing and cars thrown through corners at high speeds (and yaw). I hope everyone's in-car cameras will be working.

Best of luck to everyone there.

[Richard Dziak]

This will be one heck of a race with the top FB F1000 drivers. The cars and driver will be pushed to the limit of physical endurance and the cars to mechanical limits of stress. I am very curious as how well the cars will hold up especially the engines as they will also be pushed to the limit of rev's and stress.

While Niki is the strong favorite, favorites don't always win, so I will go with the following, but would not make a monetary bet of these predictions. It's anybody's race, as racing is racing and anything can happen. It could even be a long shot entry who wins.

1st Place.......J.R. Osborne .....Stohr
2nd Place......Brandon Dixon.....Citation
3rd Place.......Niki Coello..........Firman

This event will provide results of reliability among the major constructors.
Unfortunitly the Phoenix chassis is not in the entry field, unless there is a surprise entry. I am most interested to see if the F1000 engines will hold up for the entire weekend.

I should be an exciting event.

Good luck to all entrants in the F1000 Class.

[RussMcB]

Unfortuneitly the Phoenix chassis is not in the entry field, unless there is a surprise entry.

Keith Roberts was hoping to go as of last month, but was not able to easily work out the logistics, mostly with his (non-racing) business.

I think another factor was Keith's DNS at Road Atlanta due to his fluke steering problem. That pretty much dashed his chances to qualify for the Runoffs in FB. SEDiv's nationals are done by May, I think.

That's too bad because we've seen the Phoenix run up front with the other great chassis. It will be an interesting race, though, even Phoenix-less.

[FrankRizzo]

Granted there will be some in-car camera video of the races, do any organized group do video from the outside?

If so, do you know if it'll be available online during or after the sessions?

[Wren]

Well, we are here. We managed to drive huntsville, al to elkhart lake with only one stop for fuel.

Niki and JR have already gone out with the continentals and will double register into group 7 with the FB cars also(at least JR will). JR is sporting a brand new car with all new aero bits. Nick Belling has been in our paddock all morning making Brandon and Tom's new shifters work. The T5 and T12 braking areas are so short in these cars that they cannot physically work the shifter fast enough to get down enough gears. So, they bought the Firman West air shifter. Nice piece.

Got to go work on the car.

[Rennie Clayton]

The peanut gallery wants pics of all the new aero whizzy bits!


Cheers,
Rennie

[preston27]

Is there any live timing or video for the 2010 Sprints?

[carnut169]

The peanut gallery wants pics of all the new aero whizzy bits!


Cheers,
Rennie

Bet it's the same new wizzy bits we saw last year at the ARRC.

Can't bet against Niki for the win.

Dixon comes in 2nd, Coop finishes 3rd.

[Wren]

Its actually a whole new car, just finished from what I understand. It is still the old chassis with the bodywork from the aarc but some new front wing. That has about 2 feet of chord, some camber, and a bunch of crazy stuff coming off of it. I think they had removed it by the afternoon session. We continue to run aluminum wings that I bent up on my living room floor.

We unloaded the car running an 11.0 on junk tires from VIR. But blew a radiator hose that sent Brandon spinning into the inside of T14. Damage was one front wing, one steering arm, one endplate, and one lower rear element.

Some of the residual crap from that kept us from turning more than 2 laps in the afternoon session. I only got times in the morning session but I had Niki in the 10s and no one faster, but I certainly did not get every lap. No idea what happened in the afternoon.

I do know that Brandon gets his helmet from Doug tomorrow, so that's pretty exciting.

[Purple Frog]

Wait, wait, call the bookies back!

I did not factor into my prediction of Mr. Dixon winning the whole burrito, the element that he would be driving with a new Squarehead designed helmet paintjob. That changes all the factors.

I must re-calculate...

[Nicholas Belling]

ROAD AMERICA ENTRANCE



BRANDON DIXON READY TO GO OUT.



COOPS RE-ENERGIZING HIMSELF ON THE COOLER - THAT WAS A GREAT STORY COOP !


STOHRS NEW WHIZZY BITS


AND MORE OF STOHRS NEW WHIZZY BITS

[Wren]

Q1 results

1. Brandon
2. Niki
3. JR
4. Schweitz
5. Mclaughlin

Just came off the track. Times later.

[Rennie Clayton]

Official T&S sheet from Q1:

http://www.scca.com/documents/Club_E...20Qual%201.pdf



Cheers,
Rennie

[dc]

All I can say after watching the FBs in total this afternoon is, those Citations are FREAKIN' FAST.


Geebus, Brandon is flying, and there looks to still be more left in the car, too.

[Purple Frog]

It's the helmet paint job.

[JohnPaul]

three different cars in the top spots, pretty cool

[dc]

It's the helmet paint job.

Has to be worth at least a second a lap.

[Wren]

Q2 is over. Still dixon then Niki. Not sure on third. He announcer was kind of confusing on whether it is schweitz or Osborne in 3rd.

Brandon went 2:08.34. Niki went 2:09.8.

[Ivinsea]

All I can say after watching the FBs in total this afternoon is, those Citations are FREAKIN' FAST.

The oil and water coolers on the Citations look really narrow; is their main advantage on high speed straights due to lower drag?

Obviously, they can't too bad on mechanical grip or downforce either.

[S4mom]

I've found my moving buddy.

Awesome Brandon!

[Purple Frog]

I think is became obvious a few years ago at the first big ARRC race for F1000, the least amount of radiator frontal area you can get away with the better. At least on fast courses like Road Atlanta, Road America, Roebling Road, Daytona, etc. Justin Pritchard sort of made the point that year with the Piper. Coop followed up for a while with his conversion. Now Brandon has taken what might be the best engineered small HP chassis in the US and converted it to MC power, with small radiator drag. A tremendous amount of time and work, but a great formula.

[nulrich]

When I first looked at the FB rules, then looked at the first chassis, my impression was there were very large gains possible if someone paid close attention to cooling drag. Brandon has done an excellent job with that, at least from the photos I've seen.

Big radiators sitting perpendicular to the airstream in full width sidepods with large inlets and exits is NOT the way to go! That lesson was learned many years ago (I think there's even a discussion in one of Carroll Smith's books) but seems to have been forgotten by some.

Put another way, every pound Brandon has eliminated from cooling drag is available to create more downforce or go faster down the straightaway. Imagine what will happen when he gets around to fairing in his airbox!

I'm also a bit surprised the FB cars aren't faster. Coello is only 4 seconds a lap faster in his RFR F1000 car than in an old Van Diemen FC car. With around a 40-50% increase in power/weight ratio and 2" wider tires front and rear, as well as potential aero advantages (if properly exploited), I would expect a much bigger difference.

Still a young class, I guess.

Nathan

[R. Pare]

I think it's called taking an existing chassis and adapting it at minimal cost. Part of the beauty of the class philosophy and the rules, even if they are not perfect, is that you do not have to start from scratch to be pretty quick and competitive.

Brandon is only 2.4 seconds off of the DSRs, with both a HP and an aero handicap, on an aero and HP track.

Don't worry - this class is a long ways from fully developed. It may take another couple of years before many possibilities that the rules allow are played with.

[Wren]

Niki runs on 6 and 8 inch wheels with small FC tires.

Only the very fastest FA cars got in to the 5's. How fast do you expect an FB to go.

BTW- niki's old tech FC car drove him to another June Sprints win this afternoon.

[nulrich]

Only the very fastest FA cars got in to the 5's. How fast do you expect an FB to go.

Didn't pro Atlantics get into the 1:58s or 59s? I would expect an FB car designed to fully take advantage of the rules to be in the 2:05 or 2:06 range. I think it's a great class, especially since it seems like the engine problems have been solved.

Nathan

[R. Pare]

Club FA's are generally 5 seconds or more off of the Pro times, depending on the track. Not sure what a pro spec RT41 used to do at RA before they castrated them, but under 2.00 wouldn't surprise me.

I wouldn't expect FB to ever match FA on top end , but eventually they should be pulling about the same G's in most corners.

[nulrich]

Anyone comfortable disclosing the highest speed seen by an FB car this weekend? And how about a good FA car? Rennie?

Given the much bigger tires and heavier weight of an FA car, I wouldn't be surprised if the FB cars see higher top speeds. But it'd be cool to find out for sure.

Nathan

[Stan Clayton]

Anyone comfortable disclosing the highest speed seen by an FB car this weekend? And how about a good FA car? Rennie?

Looking over our data, Nathan, I am seeing 150-152 for top speeds. Stan

[nulrich]

Thanks, Stan, very interesting. I did a rough calculation and came up with a top speed of 151 mph for an FB car like Brandon's at Road America. Interesting coincidence...if I'm right!

Nathan

[Stan Clayton]

Dave Gomberg just told me that Nick Coello won with Brandon second...no word on 3rd and back.

He said that the race started dry, but that it started to rain during the next-to-last lap. Brandon was catching Nick at that point, but could get no closer in the wet.

No further details at this time.

[JohnPaul]

I think is became obvious a few years ago at the first big ARRC race for F1000, the least amount of radiator frontal area you can get away with the better. At least on fast courses like Road Atlanta, Road America, Roebling Road, Daytona, etc. Justin Pritchard sort of made the point that year with the Piper. Coop followed up for a while with his conversion. Now Brandon has taken what might be the best engineered small HP chassis in the US and converted it to MC power, with small radiator drag. A tremendous amount of time and work, but a great formula.

So it's obvious that the sidepods on the Citation are the smallest of all the FB's out and that is helps in top speeds but what I'm curious about it that in the 1st qualifying Dixon and Coello are only .02 apart which make me think of either 3 things: 1) RFR's have faster corner speeds or 2) Coello is driving the wheels off his car (could be both) or 3) the difference in sidepods don't make a difference (not convinced that's the case), but then Dixon pulls another second out of his butt in 2nd qualifying (impressive) while no one else did, so now my question was is it adjustments to his car to make up that second or was it driving? and any thoughts on the other points I've made?
Also, in the pictures of the Citation it looks like the radiators are on an angle and the sidpods look like "small semi-tunnels" with a clear opening running through from the front out the back for the air to run through. I know tunnels aren't legal in FB but thought that may be a clever way to get some of the same effects/benefits of a tunnel and still be legal, am I on to something? ive never seen this car in person and its hard to tell from the pictures, is this the case?