Hoosier Tire FST Rounds 9 & 10 - Watkins Glen

[Doug FST 5]

Qualifying -

1) Clark
2) Podgorski
3) Bonow
4) Seim

Finish

1) Seim
2) Podgorski
3) Clark
4) Bonow

More Later!

[teamclark]

Sincere thanks!!

For those not at the track our weekend went off the rails Friday night when we were involved in car accident leaving the track. Big hit airbags deployed, luckily we escaped with some bruising and strains.

I want to thank the whole FST community who rallied around especially Bill, Butch & Barb who left their dinner just as their table called to come and save us from the Roadside, Jim Schings for driving us to the track Saturday and Jim Nash for loaning Jim his truck to pick us up and Robert for bravely letting me take his car to go collect a rental vehicle.

Thanks to everyone else for your concern and sympathy!

Rob & Tracy

[rgu]

I feel guilty. I got home at 7:30 tonight. Most are taking two days to get home and will arrive sometime on Monday. I’m still tired but to inform those who are waiting for news tidbits here a few words that might satisfy you until some heavy hitters arrive at their keyboards.

Weather. Perfect racing weather.
Racing Excellent
Race organization Needs improvement

Saturday Race podium See Doug Seim’s post

Sunday race pole Podgorski in about 1.28.5
Sunday Race podium

1. Seim
2. Clark
3. Bonow

Again lots of work by all drivers that resulted in a good weekend. Much more to come.

[Bill Bonow]

Drove straight through, 11.5 hours from track to home. Took the day off work, so a detailed report later.

Quick notes:

• Track surface was in rough shape (did not expect that), but it was still a blast to drive.
• Faster that fast lap speeds, wow.
• Never ever go to WGI as the last race group
• There is something funky at that place that makes weird stuff happen, my trailer came off the ball as I was leaving the track

[G_J_Podgorski]

My son and I rolled in around 12:30 AM, parked the truck and trailer with unpacking waiting for the weekend. Now bright eyed and bushy tailed at work. Days like this could make me start drinking coffee.


I just wanted to pass along my thanks to the FST group for a fine weekend of racing. It was a blast out there! I just wish I could have been around at the end of Sunday with Doug, Rob and Bill. The racing was firm, fair and courteous. Just the way it should be done.


Personal thanks to Barbra Guhde for lunch on Saturday (that’s twice in the same year she’s been at the track!), Team Farmiga for Sunday’s lunch feast and the Seim/RGU team for the loan of crew and miscellaneous do-dads.


Again, thanks for a great weekend of racing and a big pat on the back to all involved in making it happen!

[rgu]

George

It is remarkable that Barbara was there. Her normal policy is to visit the track once a decade. Before this year the last time she came our garage was next to PL Newman.

[Bill Bonow]

Had some time to reflect on the weekend and I must say that WGI (both GP and NASCAR) are tracks I would gladly return to for another race.

Most of us traveled from a good distance away (Jim Nash 1100 miles each way?). A few tested Friday, I just hung out to help out those needing help.

Saturday GP circut qualifying: Sunny and high 60's. We knew from Fridays testing that the old GP course record of 2:18.389 would be lowered significantly..... and it was.

Q-9 (Watkins Glen GP - long)
1. Robert Clark - 2:14.923
2. George Podgorski - 2:16.745
3. William Bonow - 2:16.795
4. Doug Seim - 2:19.039
5. Aaron (Butch) Deer - 2:22.207
6. Jim Nash - 2:22.926
7. Reece Everard - 2:24.664
8. Doug Sharp - 2:24.839
9. Sam Farmiga - 2:29.884
10. Randy Shinn - 2:43.875
11. Bill Wolfe - no time

R-9 Saturday Race: Four cars broke away, Clark, Podgorski, Seim and Bonow. All very close with drafting, passing and good clean racing throuout the 14 minutes of racing. Being last group and the day running long, the clock hit 6:00 and the checkered flag fell (11 minutes before it should have) .

R-9 Saturday Results:

1. Seim
2. Podgorski
3. Clark
4. Bonow (new "race" record 2:14.988)
5. Sharp
6. Wolfe
7. Nash
8. Deer
9. Farmiga
10. Shinn
11. Everard (DNF)

We were lucky enough for NASCAR to let us use the winners circle for our Saturday race winner presentation (I'm sure someone has a photo or already posted on the FST Facebook page). A nice touch to the end of the Saturday round.

Sunday arrives and we still have two contenders eligable for the 2012 Hoosier FST Championship, Doug Seim and Rob Clark. The delta starting Sunday is 1 point!

Cool day, but partly cloudy, high 60's with the sun, big air, lots of HP

Q-10 (Watkins Glen NASCAR - short)
1. George Podgorski - 1:28.510
2. William Bonow - 1:28.895
3. Robert Clark - 1:29.779
4. Doug Seim - 1:29.927
5. Jim Nash - 1:33.023
6. Bill Wolfe - 1:33.421
7. Doug Sharp - 1:33.535
8. Aaron (Butch) Deer - 1:34.787
9. Sam Farmiga - 1:38.604
10. Randy Shinn - 1:50.399
11. Reece Everard - no time

R-10 Sunday Race: Take out the boot and this track is screeming fast with a lap speed average right at 100 MPH! Same 4 cars break away as on Saturday, but the draft plays a bigger role. Lots of passing going into the interloop (bus stop). Podgorski drops out with an engine miss issue leaving 3 to battle it out. About 10 laps in, Bonow gets separated in lap traffic and loses the draft. Fall back far enough to no longer be a factor. Now it is down to the two guys who are looking for the crown, Clark and Seim. Multiple passes are attempted only to be follwed by a draft back past. At the line, Seim take the victory and the 2012 Hoosier FST Championship by .450

R-10 Sunday Results:

1. Seim (new "race" record 1:28.223)
2. Clark
3. Bonow
4. Nash
5. Sharp
6. Deer
7. Farmiga
8. Wolfe
9. Shinn (DNF)
10. Podgorski (DNF)
11. Everard (DNS)

A really great weekend at a really historic track puts a pefect ending to the 2012 season. Personally, I would not mind making the long tow back again....... and sooner than 6 years from now.

We must thank our series title sponsor, Hoosier Tires. Thank you Bruce Foss and company for another year of the greatest tires on the planet.

I would also like to thank RGU and his wife Barbara for providing lunch on Saturday, Team Farmiga for lunch on Friday and Sunday. I would also like to thank all the FST competitors that make this series great. Racing series come and go, but I think that Doug Seim's name plate will be the 8th plate added to the trophy? We've lasted longer than many Pro-Series. We should all be very proud of what we have created.

[Amon]

Bill,

A 14 minute race on Saturday? That's complete B.S. and I hope they gave you the
additional time on Sunday because those entry fee's aren't cheap.

Mark

[teamclark]

When I first moved to the US there were 4 major tracks I wanted to have the opportunity to race at Road America, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca. Well I now have 3 of the 4. (Hint to Robert - think about a west coast trip for the calendar next year??)

Watkins Glen - the Long course was awesome, and surprisingly bumpy. The Short Course was a little less engaging but still fun. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent on the track.

Off the track well there are lots of things that could be said about the running of the meeting - professional is not one of them. Saturday's race was a debacle...and trying to compensate by adding time to Sunday a joke.

However in the end none of it mattered. The championship came down to Sunday's race and with George dropping out and Bill dropping back it was a simple straight fight between Doug and I. Unable to match him for straight line speed on the short course with its long passing straights I was left with trying to unsettle him were I could, and despite my best efforts and sacrificing my nose cone to some energetic 'pushing' Doug didn't lose focus and scored a well deserved victory and a well deserved championship.

I enjoyed every race this year.

A few thanks -

Mark Kelly & Jeremy Levenson - my Race Engineers - couldn't have asked for better, worked their tails off meeting after meeting to give me a competitive car.

Jim Schings - Thanks for the support and friendship...and beer!

Tracy - who lets me do this crazy stuff and comes along for the ride!

Time to digest the season and start making plans for 2013.

[Doug FST 5]

Randy and I got back to Cincy around 1:30pm on Monday. We made it to Cleveland by midnight on Sunday. By what I’m reading here we were the travel “lightweights” of the bunch.

WGI has gotten rougher than I remember for sure but it has a very long way to go before it seems like Nelson. Much of it is still very smooth. The long, fast, smooth corners is what I remember WGI for and most of that remains.

I’m sure glad we ran the test on Friday. We found a few things that I probably would never find in the shop that could have resulted in a race DNF. Wow how that would have changed the season points!

Dave B’s incident led to nervous time in the paddock until Jim and Robert phoned back that he just needed to have his shoulder evaluated. We hoped that would be the end of it then Rob and Tracy had their scare on the way to dinner. At least that was it for really scary stuff for the weekend.

Testing helped us be ready to fly on Saturday but that wasn’t a prerequisite. Both George (limited WGI experience) and Bill (no WGI experience) got up to speed during qualifying on Saturday. Bill’s long course record and George’s short course pole tell you these guys know how to get it done. I’d have to say that WGI is “my track” given the miles I’ve run there. I’ll just say I’m glad it wasn’t raining….

Both races were incredibly stressful and incredibly fun. As George pointed out they were hard fought but run fair and safe. It’s what we do in FST and a big part of what makes this class fun. On Sunday Rob pushed hard – I can’t wait to see the video! It’s awesome to run so close and hard with guys you can trust.

Many, many thanks to Robert Guhde for giving me the opportunity to drive his cool race cars and all his effort before, during and after the season to put very competitive cars on the track. Also thanks to Matt, Randy and Brodie for the prep work in the shop and trackside. Another season of keeping it running like it should.

I’d also like to thank Robert for what I think is the best produced season we’ve had so far in the series. He did a remarkable job of promoting our series with race organizers and getting many things to go our way. He put quite a bit of work into this season and put up with a lot of frustration at times. I think his efforts were quite evident at each event.

Bruce Foss and Hoosier have been my heroes since this all started. They have a great product and their support of our series has been phenomenal. Also thanks to, Keith at Averill Racing Stuff, Steve at BattlePack, Larry Cambell, Trackside Tim, Sracing and Aurora for sponsoring the series.

When’s our first race next year?

Doug FST 5

[Doug FST 5]

Hey Rob - what's the ETA of race videos?

Doug FST 5

[teamclark]

Sorry busy trying to get a Uni assignment done.

Good news should have Saturday race done Fri/Sat.

Bad news the front camera shut off on the dummy grid on Sundays race...so no footage from Race 2 (probably shut off in case of an inquiry after the race???)

[Doug FST 5]

I got back to using our standard def Hero for this race weekend. The quality is really poor compared to Rob's to start with. The aiming also wasn't too hot. The worst part is the camera somehow wound up in the mode to take photos instead of videos for Sunday's race - so - I have a nice photo of false grid and a nice photo of impound but that's all. I'll work on getting my stuff up on Vimeo if it adds anything to Rob's Saturday video (I doubt it!).

Doug FST 5

[teamclark]

Round 9 Video

Watkins Glen Saturday race, the long course.

http://vimeo.com/49889468

[Doug FST 5]

Right in time to enjoy with morning coffee!

Doug FST 5

[2BWise]

Definitely an exciting race to watch. Looked like a ton of fun. That was one hell of a close finish. Congrats to everyone. Quite the intense season.

[dd46637]

So THAT'S how you go round the Glen .

[rgu]

In the pits all you see is the airscoops go by--great race to all.

thanks for posting Rob

[dblevins]

Excellent racing.Congrats to Doug on the championship and the others for the exciting racing
provided throughout the year.I would also like to thank Robert for all of the hard work and looooong hours to make this an enjoyable season and series.Thanks to SR for all of the trackside assistance .I'm sure there are others that I did not mention that helped to make this the best group of racers in SCCA. THANK YOU.
Has anyone decided on RA yet ? I would like to make the trip if anyone else is planning to go,or possibly go to MO on Oct.6,7.Any takers for either ?
I may have to reconsider the MO race,as I pulled my trailer out of the driveway today,one of my axles broke and my wheel departed for my my neighbor's yard.So,looks like another new axle is in my future.

[rgu]

Looks like you caught the trailer wheel shooting thing from Jim.

Going to to Mid Ohio?

[dblevins]

No,I'm still waiting on the axle that was ordered.I'm now thinking about Nelson later in the month.