Don't those three Kents already obsolete every other KENT in the country?Originally Posted by stonebridge20
Don't those three Kents already obsolete every other KENT in the country?
Matt King
FV19 Citation XTC-41
CenDiv-Milwaukee
KEEP THE KINK!
Yes Matt, but those engines dont show up at eveery regional or national race in the country whereas a Honda with 31mm and power equal to them COULD be at evry race and most Kents showing up would therefore have no chance.Don't those three Kents already obsolete every other KENT in the country?
Tom,
For the most part I was kidding, with all the different chassis out their hp equalization alone is not only thing to look at. Please forgive me I am not a message board kinda person, and thanks are win was quite a shock, but the blame for are win goes to so many great people. I can not say enough about The Doug's at Fast Forward, they produce such a quality product. In 500 miles on are car we have just been putting gas in it. We are running a non blue printed create engine so are win really goes to Jims driving, Don S's design of the care and again the Doug's at Fast Forward for all their technical help..
But we also have a chassis dyno here it would be nice to finally end the debate of who has more power...
Heres the start and finish from our car!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVcM3MCrzEM
whoah
That definitley set off a time bomb. I was certainly not trying to take anything away from anyones effort here this weekend. Jim's win was WELL deserved. Sam's pole was WELL deserved. I only meant to point out that with this restrictor we've strayed from the agreement that the club members voted this engine in with. And mike, I totally agree with you in that there are very few options in how we can make (almost) everyone happy. However, your idea does sound pretty good!
If you know me you know that I will never complain about a finishing position, I'm out there to have fun. I also know I'm not the best driver out there. There's a reason why I don't have national champion, or even national event winner next to my name. And by all accounts I should have finished 5th yesterday! I'm racing for fun for as long as my dad lets me and this weekend has certainly been some of the best fun I've had in my time racing. I'm looking forward to what should be a much tougher qualifying session and race today, good luck to everyone.
This will also be the last I get involved in a restrictor discussion. I hate politics!
-Bill Valet
NeDiv Swift DB-6 #83
Bingo !
Stonebridge Sports & Classics ltd
15 Great Pasture Rd Danbury, CT. 06810 (203) 744-1120
www.cryosciencetechnologies.com
Cryogenic Processing · REM-ISF Processing · Race Prep & Driver Development
Yes, but the 31mm restrictor is also not legal for the SCCA, and last I checked, the F1600 series races are not part of the National/regional program.
Matt King
FV19 Citation XTC-41
CenDiv-Milwaukee
KEEP THE KINK!
OUCH! Any other damage besides the L/F corner and nose?
What-No updates?
Don't you guys have the Facebook Status Update button in the car?
WAIT A SECOND! That's IT!
"Following" someone on Twitter w/ a rearward facing cam...
I play this right and it could mean "Isla De Coopola".
Not yet.
Probably a new thread is best. Don't want to spoil this one for the guys racing in the first big show for this class.
Stonebridge Sports & Classics ltd
15 Great Pasture Rd Danbury, CT. 06810 (203) 744-1120
www.cryosciencetechnologies.com
Cryogenic Processing · REM-ISF Processing · Race Prep & Driver Development
Speedcast?
Not trying to sway this away from the Honda VS. Kent debate but......
I Sooooo wish this was on Speedcast TV! I would much rather watch this that the IRL race that is on today!
This afternoon
The sun has appeared and is warming VIR up nicely fOr this afternoons race.
Kautz laid down the best Q2 lap. Beasley, Valet, Robinson and Goughery round out the top 5.
It will be an entertaining race I am sure.
I still need to get a closer look at it, master cylinders, and a lot of fiberglass.
All in all looked like a pretty successful weekend for the F1600 series
Good Samaritans on pit road ...
Early in Sunday's race I had a rear wheel come loose. I came into the pits and a couple of guys, I don't know who (and they probably didn't know me) worked pretty hard on my car for a few minutes to get me back into the race. I am VERY grateful for their efforts. Even though my race was basically done, and they had their own driver to support, they would not take no for an answer when I suggested they stop worrying about it when it wasn't an easy fix, but they kept at it and got me back out. I really wanted to thank them after the race but didn't know who or where they were.
Whoever you are, I owe you a big thank you. You're efforts were greatly apprecdiated. It was good to get in a few more fun laps before the checkered flag.
I just drove 7 hours home and still don't know who won the race. I just know I didn't. :-).
The event was great. I'm hoping Mike Rand is able to get some southeast races into the 2012 schedule. It was fantastic racing with so many cars in the same class. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed if there aren't 30 Formula F's at my next SCCA race. :-).
Racer Russ
Palm Coast, FL
Fords take the top 5 spots and suddenly the restrictor discussion goes quite for over 24 hours.
Maybe there are more than 3 Kents that make the rest of the Kents uncompetitive.
What is really important looking back this morning is just how cool the event was. The closeness of the cars in the corners is jaw dropping. The 1600 guys get, and stay, a lot closer to each other than their winged friends. Very exciting to watch as a spectator. Ralph Firman was impressed, he said he had not seen racing like that in a long time.
Sunday, Tim Kautz just went out and walked the dog. He was able to prevent any sort of draft behind him, and just legged it out. Sunday, we wised up and set up a video camera looking across the finish line. We surely didn't need it for Tim's checker. But, some of the other positions finished running three wide. Tim told me afterwards it was the most competition he had experienced ever, excepting maybe some events in the past with Treadway. He left Sunday agreeing it was like doing two Runoffs on back-to-back days.
Maybe if Jeremy can sell that Atlantic.....he'll come home.
Brian Graham won the Canadian Division in a close race with Caitlin Johnston. Brian was driving a car set up for a 135 lb. youngster. If he pulled out about 45 lb. of ballast, he might have finished higher than 5th.
In an early lap, Beasley went so far off at Hog Pens that we thought we would have to fish him out of the Dan River. He did turn the second fastest lap of the race trying to make up ground.
Lots of fun watching Dwight Rider put his vintage Lola 440 up in the middle of the pack.
James Lee Racing put cars on the second step of both races. A nice piece of wrenching.I'm expecting more teams and even some drivers to run cars in both Series on the same weekend.
Add in all the vintage Fords there running their event, there were like 85 FF and FC cars in the show. Cool beans.
The neatest thing this morning is realizing we are going to do this 8 more times this year. We don't have to wait a whole year for the next fix.
Congratulations to ALL!
First, my sincere thanks to the organizers and folks staffing the series! It's off to a great start, and it is a tremendous asset to all open-wheel racing.
Next, thanks to the competitors for setting the bar so high! The times, cars, and quality of racing were exemplary.
Kudos to ALL!
Larry Oliver
International Racing Products
Larry Oliver
8
Maybe it's the number.............
Too bad, glad you're ok.
Looked like a FANTASTIC WEEKEND, wish I was there.
CONGRATS TO TIM !
and all the competitors !
and the organizers !
FFCoalition.com
Marc Blanc
Congrats to Mike and the team and kudo's to Monty for the terrific e-mails...what a debut! Really impressive. HUGE
Sincerely,
Erik Skirmants
SCCA Enterprises
OUCH!
You had a good race going! What happened? Just lose it under breaking?Were you able to fix it for Sunday?
Anyone who didn't make it to VIR really missed out. It was one great weekend on my end, even tho I crashed in the 2nd race but I still got to meet some so great guys. I owe a huge thanks to Steve Roux, as he served as my track side babysitter helping me with my car. Another huge thanks to the entire Valet family for helping me in a way I can't mention
Mike Rand and crew did a hell of a job making this event possible, so hats off to all
I guess my only complaint about the weekend (besides wrecking my car) was the a$$ mugging I got to the tune of $90+ dollars in tolls on the way home on 95N to drive about 100 miles on the WORST bumpy F@!#ing roads ever
Brian Copperthite #31 FF
Bill is not going to post any more because he doesnt want to get challenged to another match race against a two time National Champion.He had his hands full with one 2-time champ all weekend and I think he is wiped out.
Speaking of JRII, wait till you see the picture Dennis took of him in impound after yesterday's race with the widest sh%&-eating grin you ever saw. He had the time of his life and that picture pretty much sums up the whole weekend.
Speaking of JRII and impound, Colin Thompson made his way over to Bill and John in impound to "apologize" for spinning at Oak Tree in front of those two during Sunday's race when the three of them had been going tooth-and-nail at each other all race. I cant say enough about this kid. And in return for having the class to "apologize" (in fact he had nothing to apologize for), John gave Colin some advice on what he should do the next time to save the car and keep it from looping in that situation. What a great scene.
Unfortunately, only the rear video for Sunday's race worked, but it is still pretty cool to watch. We'll get that up soon. But the one you'll want to see is from Saturday's race. It's going to take a while to edit it and we will need to find a way to do a picture-in-picture for the rear camera, so it may be a little while until it is ready but believe me it is worth the wait.
We had a late night last night and a very early start to the day, plus Dennis is starting a new job today which he was probably late getting to (but who cares, right?), so we are sorry for the delay getting pictures up. The pictures are also worth the wait, as Dennis and TJ have some really great stuff to share. In fact thankfully TJ was there to save the day yesterday, apparently Dennis' zoom lens was another victim of Saturday's awful weather, he had a seal go on the lens and condensation formed inside, so almost all of the track pictures from Sunday are TJ's work.
So for you old timer FF racers............was this how FF racing was in the 70's?
Poor Colin had to sit in the middle of the track just 20' past the apex of Oak Tree turn for the last two laps of the race. That must've been scary because he was not visible to drivers entering the corner. Good flag waving let us know there was something to avoid. I can only imagine what it looked like from his POV as cars suddenly came around the corner heading for him.
I was sitting in the bleachers watching it. I could only imagine how crunched up he was.
Only a couple people were really 'shocked' to see him from what they did as they came around the corner. Kautz probably made the biggest correction as he was the only one who was in front of it on the second to last lap. Most people actually played pretty well through it and didn't try to test eachothers nerves to get an advantage because of the yellow. Even the second time through.
While you are waiting for Dennis and TJ's pictures, I give you this "spy" photo I took of Colin Thompson's DB-6 rear end. They have come up with an innovative way of closing up the tail section and ducting the air from the radiators out the side engine covers:
Is that an extra height roll bar on his car?
I was worried!!!!
Thanks. My arms are tired! As I wrote on FB:
" ... but I felt TOTALLY useless for 1.25 laps! He was sitting RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of track-out facing counter-race! They couldn't see him until they were 10' from him and then had to make a 2' correction left in a nano second running at 99.999%. I STILL can't believe it ..."
" He was so close to me that we had conversations<<short>> between cars!!! I just stood there looking him in the eyes ... KNOWING what was certain to happen but Thank God it didn't!"
Don't know what Colin thought but I was worried!!!! Good job ALL!
what an awesome series!! mike & everyone who put this together you did a great job!! thanks for making this happen. all in all i had a fun weekend
we thrashed hard last few weeks to get car together to be part of this inagural event. still working on car & setting up as she never hit ground with race tires till thurs morn. we had typical new car teathing pains that my crew worked hard all weekend getting sorted. you guys are aightttt!!
i also have not had a lot of seat time last few years so hope my mistakes didn't cause too many problems
the compitition is fierce, 30 FF's on track is awesome! i'm happy to be back in this class. how tight you can run in FF is a lot of fun. i was incehes away from my teamate for a few laps on sundaygreat fun! just how i remeber FF to be
colin's car above is sweet! one of the trickest cars i've seen. i believe the fella who put it together is todd. great job! more you look, more you see
it's just my opinion.. but.. couldn't any one of those top 5 or so special kents that made obsolete the remaing 90%+ of engines show up at any regional or national? and when they do, why do you want to be one of the only cars to have? i'm not sure i see a problem with everyone having access to a competitive engine at reasonable cost that the manufacture supports. win win there... kudos to honda for stepping up to the plate. seems to me they helped make this play ground possible for us
was great to meet some new guys, never enough time to say hello to everyone, but i look forward to racing with you all this year. thanks for a great weekend of fun safe close racing
Cheers
Len
Porsche River Oaks. Houston
Hey all, I'll post some more pictures when Dennis gets home with all the pictures, but here are some that I took at Oak Tree during the Sunday race.
TJ
Mike, JT's killer motor is at every regional here. I am sure that there are other strong motors also at regionals nationwide. We both know that the motor is only one part of the package. If it was all only hp based then every Honda powered car would be at the top.
What the Honda has done is allowed anyone to get a top motor without either playing the game with the engine builders for years or spending major time and bucks (Art Smith) to develop a top motor.
I seriously doubt that the SCCA will EVER let the restrictor be 31mm, 30mm perhaps.
I lobbied Rand hard on Friday to reduce the size to no avail. We will have to wait and see if other tracks will favor it more or not. The best part of the series is that Mike has lots of other restrictors to hand out if it does.
John
PS thought you were registered for this past weekend! You missed one helluva race!
So that's a bad thing?
Crossle 32F, Piper DF5 Honda
Some more photos from the race
A few more memories of last weekend...
Colin Thompson's #5 Swift is drop dead beautiful. My second favorite Swift next to Gibby's (ex R.K. Smith) that now resides in the Swift Museum. Perfect bodywork. Cooling by twin modified IRL rads that reside as low as possible to help the C/G. And the most comprehensive Kevlar driver protection panels that I have ever seen in a tube frame car fitting between the frame rails and the Swift bodywork.
While JR2 was lapping his valves Friday afternoon he allowed me total access to his Butler/Kent w/AL head. So with GCR, magnifying glasses, calipers, and dial indicators in hand, i measured away. Deck heights, valves, springs, ports, gaskets.... just measured away. Only thing I found was he could have slightly bigger valves, his being under the GCR max. I guess he just knows how to drive.
On the grid on Sunday I snuck up behind all the cars and applied the GCR "broomstick test". The results were not good.
Gibby had the best T-shirt on pit lane on Friday.
WOW
The only serious complaint I can find is that the rest of the series is out of reach, and now every race with less than 20 competitive cars will be a letdown! This was GREAT!
Jim, don't fret about decreased fields. We will not be surprised to have 45 entries for Watkins Glen.
Besides, Jim it's only about a 13 hour drive for you. Load up.
Thanks
Colin Thompson here, and I just wanted to thank everyone for all the great things you guys posted on me above. Also, everyone on the track who avoided me deserves a BIG thank you for avoiding me in such close quarters at Oak Tree. It was a major bummer to have DNF in race 2, however it was my first time in the car and I was glad just to see the car could run...and run well at that.
See more of my racing at:
http://www.colin-thompson.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colin-...09341862421655
After all those miles this weekend, how many of the fords are ready for a rebuild. That was the main driver for converting to Zetec for the Pinto guys, the amount a miles added up to too many rebuilds. I see the same happening here.
Video from day 2?
My GoPro failed [as usual]. Did anyone get any video from back in the pack on Sunday?---Jim
I have video of me (Colin) working my way up the pack that I hope to put on youtube by the end of the night.
Worlds greatest in-car camera:
http://replayxd.com/
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