Thunderhill Double National

[ghickman]

We are up to 7 cars now for the Thunderhill Dbl. National. I've been told by the F1000 Pro Series that we should be expecting 15 cars to show. I believe that would put us at the highest FB car count to date including the Runoffs.

Should be a really great race. If you're on the fence about attending this race think no more...do it. This track is way too much fun to miss out on.

[ghickman]

Ok... we are up to 8 cars now for T-Hill. I believe we need 4 or 5 more to equal the Runoffs last year.

[britjunkie1949]

I've been told that there are more than 21 entries in FB!

[ghickman]

I've been told that there are more than 21 entries in FB!

I sure hope so.... but Motorsportsreg.com only shows 8 cars registered so far.

[F1000proseries.com]

We got word late that some of our series registered entrants won't be able to show for Thunderhill. Various reasons. But planning to show up for later events.

Currently looking like that there will at least 11 entries at Thunderhill. We know of at least 3 that have told us that they will there but haven't as yet registered.

We have been contacting drivers trying to get an idea of who else might be coming so a couple more might attend. One driver we know always makes it a last minute decision.

[ghickman]

One driver we know always makes it a last minute decision.

Well that would likely be Woodman of GoPro fame.

[britjunkie1949]

Yeah, I just looked at motorsporstreg.com and noticed that Terry Biner hasn't registered yet. We will be there, he's just being his normal lazy self, already have hotel reservations. Pretty soon I'm going to have to do everything

[Tiago Santos]

Someone better take some great video of this race! If I hadn't just returned from my holiday, I'd consider heading down just to watch

[ghickman]

Someone better take some great video of this race! If I hadn't just returned from my holiday, I'd consider heading down just to watch

I'll have my cameras mounted facing front and rear.

[F1000proseries.com]

Plans are to post a delayed webcast of the event on the F1000 Pro Series web site at: www.f1000proseries.com

We are hoping to broadcast some races live later in the year but we need to build up the infrastructure that will allow us to do that first.

We will be asking for drivers to submit any video they might have to add to video content on the website.

[Tiago Santos]

That's awesome, I'll definitely be watching.

[ghickman]

We are up to 9 cars now for T-Hill.....Terry Biner (sp?) added to the entry list. I believe that makes 3 RFR, 2 Stohrs, 2 PRW, 1 VD conversion, Edge

[ghickman]

Kyle Oberdorf is in...We are now up to 10 cars pre entered for the T-Hill Dbl. Nat.

This puts us within 2 cars of matching the 2010 Runoffs.

[F1000proseries.com]

Some updates for all drivers and teams coming to Thunderhill. We expect a good turnout at the Thunderhill race with a great weekend of competition, fun, and racing.

Here is the expected Thunderhill Entry as of March 17:

1. JR Osbourne Stohr
2. Kyle Oberndorf Stohr
3. Dave Palmer Stohr
4. Russ Werner Phoenix
5. John LaBrie Phoenix
6. Randy Michell Van Dieman
7. Gary Hickman Edge
8. Nicholas Belling Firman
9. Mark Belling Firman
10. Terry Biner Firman
11. Rod Morley Firman

Rod Morley has not yet entered but we expect him to show. He bought Copeland's Firman in December and has been testing extensively the past couple of months including testing new recently designed aero bits for the Firman.

We are hoping Nicholas Woodman shows up in his Stohr for the event. If he does it'll make it an even dozen (12) cars.

Last year's event winner JR Osbourne will be defending top honors against a highly competitive field. Expect lots of on-track action in this one. Joining him in the Stohr contiginent will be Kyle Oberndorf and Dave Palmer.

Phoenix will be represented by Russ Werner and series newcomer John LaBrie. If last year's event was anything to go by expect lot's of action between Werner and Gary Hickman, who will be returning to compete the full series in his Edge Engineering F1000.

Randy Michell will be bringing his Van Dieman making it 5 different manufacturers competing in this one single event, with one of the five taking home the trophy for 1st Place Manufacturer.

The Firman's will be there in force with 4 cars running 3 different engine configurations. Two 07/08 Suzuki's running with dry sumps, one 07/08 Suzuki running with wet sump, and one 09/10 Suzuki running with a Firman designed dry sump. It should be very interesting to see the comparisions between each car's engine configuration.

It should be an exciting weekend of racing that will include several off-track activities as well.

We are discussing with Thunderhill for special paddock space for our series drivers to paddock together. Some of our sponsor reps will also be in attendance. Goodyear Racing Tires will be sending along a tire tech to assist the Pro Series teams. He will be providing information and support to all the teams on Goodyear Tire compounds and how to get the best performance from your Goodyear tires.

All drivers will receive a driver's packet filled with both information and "goodies" including free F1000 Pro Series Polo Shirts and hats compliments of our title sponsors Goodyear Racing Tires, Williams Racing Developments and George Dean Engines. The information packets will include the series awards schedule and media kits along with other important information.

In addition to the contingency awards that we are giving away to the top 3 finishing drivers we will also be holding random draws at every event for the drivers where we will be awarding additional prizes including Goodyear race tires, Ballistic race batteries, and other prizes.

We will be sending out an email to all series competitors prior to the event providing information on where to paddock and about the various off-track activities the series has planned for the weekend.

We are working hard to provide a generous cash payout this year to our Series Champion (as well as 2nd and 3rd place in the series). This will be in addition to the championship trophy and contingency prizes that will be awarded to the series champion at the series banquet that will be held at the season finale at Miller Motorsports Park.

In addition to the various news outlets we have already secured for publication of our press releases and race reports we will be trying to provide a delayed webcast of the event on the F1000 Pro Series website. We hope to release it sometime within the first week after the race concludes. It is the plan that sometime in the future that these webcasts will be presented "live", but it will take a little time to build up an infrastructure to provide that capability.

In regards to the future of the series we have already been in contact with many potential sponsors about sponsorship of the series in 2012. We have also been in contact with other venues about bringing the series to their track. There are many things happening that are on the horizon that we can't release just yet but the overall future of the series is looking very good.

For all our series competitors and fans have a great day and we'll see you all at Thunderhill.


F1000 Pro Series


.

[Northwind]

Good luck to all it should be a great race.

[Brett Lane]

You guys on the left coast should be having a great Sunday with a great turnout! Good luck to everyone.

Brett

[Brett Lane]

Er, Saturday. Uh, weekend. What day is it?

[F1000proseries.com]

The races are the weekend of March 26-27.

See you all then.

[F1000proseries.com]

F1000 Pro Series Competitors,


With our first race(s) coming up this weekend here is a brief series update:


For the second year in a row the SCCA will be providing the F1000 Pro Series separate split starts at all national events where the series competes. This means all series cars will be lining up behind our own pace car and starting our race separate from the main body of national competitors (taking the green flag approximately 30 seconds later. If the fastest national qualifier is in FB then we start 30 seconds ahead of the field). This should ensure that we will get at least several laps of wheel-to-wheel competition amongst ourselves before we begin to catch up to the slowest cars in the main body of national competitors.


At many of the events (if not all) there will be paddock space reserved for series competitors where we can paddock together as a group (we recommend all series competitors paddock together). At Thunderhill the area reserved for the F1000 Pro Series will be under the canopy directly opposite the administration building (see the attached map). This canopy area should be large enough to hold at least 16 cars. There might be some overflow depending on how large some of our series competitor’s trailers might be. But we will attempt to accommodate as many cars and support trailers under the canopy as possible.


All drivers will receive a driver’s packet containing series information and sponsor decals for their cars. To be eligible for race contingency awards cars must have all sponsor decals affixed according the decal outline that will be enclosed in the packet. In addition to the driver’s packet all drivers will receive three (3) F1000 Pro Series polo shirts and caps for themselves and crew courtesy of our title sponsors Goodyear Racing Tires, Williams Racing Development, and George Dean Racing Engines.


The F1000 Pro Series invites all competitors and their crews to a free dinner Saturday night at Round Table Pizza located at 1237 West Wood Street, Willows, California (530) 934-2838. The dinner will be held from 5pm onwards. At the dinner there will be a brief update on the latest series news and we will hold the season’s first random drawing amongst the drivers where we will award sponsor gifts. These will include: one (1) Goodyear race tire from Goodyear Racing, one (1) ballistic race battery from Ballistic Performance Components, one (1) hand painted picture of driver and car signed and framed by Elizabeth Jackson Artwork, and one (1) $250 certificate from Geartronics North America. Additional prizes may also be awarded. We will also be showing in car videos from various drivers at the dinner.


Drivers are requested to provide any in-camera video that they might have to assist in putting together a delayed web cast of the races that will be made available on the F1000 Pro Series website sometime after the event.


We are looking forward to seeing all of you at Thunderhill. Have a really great weekend.



Thomas Copeland
Series Administrator
F1000 Pro Series

[F1000proseries.com]

With twelve cars registered the F1000 Pro Series kicks off it's opening round at Thunderhill this weekend.

Eleven of the entrants braved snowy mountain passes and pouring down rainstorms to make it to the track for today's test session. Cloudy skies and high winds persisted throughout the day but the rains held off.

All cars with the exception of the cars of Nicholas and Mark Belling made it on track. There were no major incidents. Track times will be posted later today.

Current entries include:

JR Osbourne, Stohr
Kyle Oberndorf, Stohr
Rod Rice, Stohr
Dave Palmer, Stohr
Gary Hickman, Edge
Russ Werner, Phoenix
John LaBrie, Phoenix
Rod Morley, Firman
Terry Biner, Firman
Nicholas Belling, Firman
Mark Belling, Firman
Randy Mitchell, Van Diemen-Novak


Correction: all 12 cars at track.

[Stan Clayton]

There were no major incidents.

Nick, what happened to JR Osbourne in the last morning session? I saw where the front left corner was lost in the T10 incident. Was the loss of the corner the cause or the result of the off? And did he get back out later this afternoon?

The cars looked great out there, and this is shaping up to be the best FB race west of the Sprints!

[F1000proseries.com]

First practice complete in hard driving rainstrom with very few cars taking to the track.

Kyle Oberndorf currently out with cracked engine. JR Osborne suffered a suspension failure in yesterday's test day and is currently waiting replacement part to arrive.

Currently pouring down rain, but all teams under canopy. Qualfying in 1 1/2 hours at 11:00.

More to come....

[F1000proseries.com]

Qualifying Update:

With a drying track the rains stopped long enough for the F1000 competitors to run the first qualifying session of the weekend. Cars that took to the track included Gary Hickman, Russ Werner, Rod Morley, Dave Palmer, Rod Rice, Randy Mitchell, John LaBrie, Nicholas Belling and Mark Belling. Defending race winner JR Osbourne was still sidelined waiting for a suspension replacement part to arrive and Terry Biner sat the session out.

The tricky track conditions made tire selection critical. Most cars started the session on wets were and found themselves looking for wet patches on the track as their tires overheated. As the track increasely dried Dave Palmer dove into the pits for a quick change to slicks tires. He was caught out however we the rain returned a couple of laps later and spun at the uphill turn 5.

Palmer was shown to have clocked the 9th fastest time on the unofficial results sheet however on SCCA lap time sheet he was shown to have a best time of 1:56.652 which would have put him 2nd fastest.

Gary Hickman ended up having the trick setup when he had his rain tires turned reducing the amount of tread on his tires. The setup proved to be the quickest of the contenders with Hickman taking the unofficial pole at a time of 1:56.209.

The two Bellings Nicholas and Mark Belling had their transponders reversed and both ended up in the sessions with each of the others qualiying times.

Two-thirds of the way through the session was black flagged all after a couple of national competitors in another class went off track in turn 2. The session resumed for one additional lap before the checkered flag.

Unofficial Qualifying 1 times:

1:56.209 Gary Hickman
1:56.794 Russ Werner
2:02.292 Randy Mitchell
2:03.770 John LaBrie
2:04.725 Rod Rice
2:07.481 Mark Belling
2:12.424 Rod Morley
2:26.713 Nicholas Belling
2:51.467 Dave Palmer
No Time JR Osborne
No Time Kyle Oberndorf


Still awaiting offical results

[JohnPaul]

Go Go Gary!

[billwald]

Good luck guys!

[F1000proseries.com]

Race start in less than 30 mins. Sun is out and track drying. JR Osbourne has his part and looks to start at the back of the field. Still waiting on official qualifying results.


UPDATE:

Results official. All times unchanged.

[F1000proseries.com]

Dave Palmer wins in a screamer of a race.

Rod Rice second with Randy Mitchelll third.

Full race report and photos coming up.

[F1000proseries.com]

Thunderhill Race Report

Dave Palmer drives through the field to win Round One of the 2011 F1000 Pro Series

Dave Palmer drove his Stohr F1000 through a full field to take the win in the opening round of the 2011 F1000 Pro Series sponsored by Goodyear Racing Tires, Williams Racing Developments, and George Dean Racing Engines.

Palmer, who had his best qualifying times disallowed for an improper tire change behind the pit wall which would have put him 2nd on the grid, stormed through the field avoiding the carnage from multiple incidents to take the win.

Finishing Second on the track was the Stohr of Rod Rice with Randy Mitchell in his Van Diemen-Novak rounding out the podium in third.

Polesitter Gary Hickman retired after a collison with then third place runner Russ Werner, who also retired after the incident. Both cars had fallen back from the lead after a storming start from JR Osbourne who started at the back of the field after missing all of qualifying. Osbourne. the defending 2010 race winner passed Hickman for the lead overpowering his car on the back straight on lap three before beginning to pull away from the field.

The race was put on pause around lap 5 for a double yellow resulting from an off from a competitor in another national class with the race resuming on lap 8. Osbourne stretched out his lead over the next half a dozen laps before the incident between Hickman and Werner brought out the second standing yellow of the day.

After the pace car pulled off Osbourne began to take off through the field of national contenders quickly reaching near the front of the national field before a clutch seal blew as he entered turn 5 sending up a huge cloud of smoke trailing behind his car.

After Osborne's big bang exit Dave Palmer who had been stealthly working his way throught the field took over the lead with Rod Rice running 20 or so car lengths behind followed closely by Mitchell in his Van Dieman FC Novak conversion car.

With the third standing yellow of the day coming out shortly thereafter the field took the checkered behind the pace car.

Unofficial race results:

1. Dave Palmer, Stohr
2. Rod Rice, Stohr
3. Randy Mitchell, Van Diemen-Novak
4. Terry Biner, Firman
5. Nicholas Belling, Firman
6. John LaBrie, Phoenix
7. JR Osborne, Stohr
8. Rod Morley, Firman
9. Mark Belling, Firman
10.Gary Hickman, Edge
11.Russ Werner, Phoenix
DNS Kyle Oberndorf, Stohr

Photos to come later.

[glenn cooper]

Awesome, can't wait to hear details!

[Smittty]

Way to go Randy on the podium finish!
Smitty

[F1000proseries.com]

A few photos taken by iphone. Quality only so-so:

[F1000proseries.com]

couple more:

[donpalmer]

Dave, congratulations on your win yesterday! The whole family is very proud of you and sorry that we were not able to be there to help you celebrate.

[F1000proseries.com]

Race 2 Top 3 Qualifying:

1. JR Osborne
2. Dave Palmer
3. Rod Rice

[F1000proseries.com]

Updated Provisional qualifying results:

1. JR Osbourne 1:42.831
2. Dave Palmer 1.45.017
3. Rod Rice 1:45.363
4. Nicholas Belling 1:45.525
5. Rod Morley 1:45.592
6. Randy Mitchell 1:47.322
7. Terry Biner 1.47.945
8. Gary Hickman 1:48.576
9. John LaBrie 1.51.211
10. Mark Belling 1:53.123
DNS Russ Werner
DNS Kyle Oberndorf

[rickb99]

Did Oberndorf give up and go home with the cracked engine? That's not like him.

[F1000proseries.com]

Top Finishers Race 2 F1000 Pro Series:

1. JR Osbourne
2. Nicholas Belling
3. Dave Palmer
4. Gary Hickman


Full race report and photos coming up later.

[ASRF1000]

Nice finish guys!!!! Great to see the Stohrs winning!!!

[F1000proseries.com]

JR Osborne leads flag-to-flag to take victory in Round 2 of 2011 F1000 Pro Series

JR Osborne drove his Stohr F1000 car from pole postition to first place leading throughout to take victory at Thunderhill Raceway in Round 2 of the 2011 F1000 Pro Series presented by Goodyear Racing Tires, Williams Racing Developments, and George Dean Racing Engines.

Taking the green flag under cloudy and very windy conditions from the split start JR Osbourne stretched out to an early lead and was never threaten during the race. Nicholas Belling in his Firman took second place honors with Round One winner Dave Palmer in his Stohr rounding out the podium in third place.

Gary Hickman, who was force to start at the back of the field due to a sound violation in qualifying and only just made the grid after a last second sound check worked his way through the field to finish fourth in his Edge Engineering F1000. It was a good result for Hickman and his crew after Hickman's mechanic Tony spent a good deal of the previous night back at his hotel room patching the bodywork of the car back together after the incident with Russ Werner in the previous day's race. This followed a similar patchwork job Tony had to do on Friday night repairing the front wing on the Edge. Definitely a good thing the drivers have their mechanics who are the real unsung heroes of racing!

Back in the pack Rod Morley suffered a spin on the opening lap in the tricky off-camber turn 3 which put him out of contention. A couple of laps later Rod Rice while attempting to hunt down Nicholas Belling 360'ed his car at the turn 5 Eagles Nest corner ending his chances for a good finish. After a standing yellow a couple of laps later so workers could retrieve the head surround bodywork from the middle of the main straightaway that had flown off Nicholas Belling's car both Rice and Morley got restarted by the track crew and resumed their race, however by this time several laps down.

Both Terry Biner in his Firman and John LaBrie now in the lone Phoenix entry drove an uneventful race to finish behind fourth place Hickman. Mark Belling likewise drove a steady but uneventful race to finish behind LaBrie.

Randy Mitchell had been looking at a decent finish to go with his third place result from Saturday's race when he got tangled up with a CSR in the ultra quick turn 8 sending him off course and bringing out the final full course yellow of the day. The race never resumed after that and finished as on Saturday, behind the pace car under yellow.




A more full report on all the weekend's activities will posted later on the F1000 Pro Series website at f1000proseries.com sometime during the week.

The planned delayed webcast however will not be posted as not enough footage was recovered during the weekend. We will try again at the upcoming Buttonwillow event. We will try and post some in car video from the Thunderhill weekend on the site instead

Thanks to all the drivers and their crews that braved the bad weather to make it out for the race and special thanks to all our sponsors Goodyear Racing Tires, Williams Racing Developments, George Dean Racing Engines, Hyperco, Ballistic Performance Components, Jongbloed Racing Wheels, Elizabeth Jackson Artwork, and Geartronics North America for helping us put on this fantastic event.

Extra special thanks to George Dean for making it out to the event while recovering from illness earlier in the week.

See you all at the next round at Buttonwillow Raceway on April 30.


.

[ghickman]

Hi All
Had a rough weekend to say the least. In Friday's testing I came up on a Terry Biner at the entry to T4 and he brake checked on me and I ended up damaging my front wing. We had a spare and got that fixed right away.

Sat. moring it was raining pretty hard and very windy. I took a gamble with my tires from the Fontana National and had them grooved. Tony pulled out his Tricks from our days racing Midgets and sketched an awesome tread pattern then proceeded with the good ole' tire grooving iron.

By the time gualifying came around it was looking like I had made the best call. It was drying up fast and my setup was the fastest.

During the race on lap 8 I believe, Russ Werner was following me closely up the face of T5 when we came up on some slow traffic. Russ over cooked it a bit and ended up skying himself off the back of my car. As he went over the top of me I could have stuck my pinky out and touched the belly of his car. I was bummed thought I had my first legit FB Nat. win in the bag. Both our races were done so we began the thrash for Sundays race.

Tony worked most of the night putting the car back together, thank god we had a spare rear wing assembly. Tony glassed the engine cover back together in the Hotel room that eve.

Went out to qualify Sunday and they Black flagged me for sound violation on I believe my 3rd lap. Never did get up to speed. Tony made some changes to the exhaust and as our run group was lined up for grid I did a sound check...Thanks Chief Steward Blake for letting me do that. I ran around T15 blew 98 came up the pit wall made a U turn and grid last. Green flag came out and I put my head down and drove my ass off. JR, BELLING, PALMER were all in my gun sight. Yellow flags ended the race never could make a pass on Palmer.

Forgot to mention....thanks to Tony Moore for patching the car back together. Also my patient driver award goes to Dave Palmer...congrats on 2 very solid finishes.