Hoosier FST Round 11 &12 - Mid Ohio

[teamclark]

OK the championship may be decided by who can pass up on a chance to run Mid-Ohio. Get your entries in NOW!

Entries are up at

https://www.motorsportreg.com/index....4D06C5AA6EA78F

Entered:
Dave Blevins
Matt Gordon
Doug Seim
Chuck Singeltary
Rob Clark

Maybe:
Bill Bonow
Doug Sontag
Jim Nash
Dave Dawson
George Podgorski
Sam Farmiga
Doug Sharp
Butch Deer

[teamclark]

Standing at 6....come on the rest of you get your entries in....

Entered:
Dave Blevins
Matt Gordon
Doug Seim
Chuck Singeltary
Rob Clark
Doug Sharp

Maybe:
Bill Bonow
Doug Sontag
Jim Nash
Dave Dawson
George Podgorski
Sam Farmiga
Butch Deer

[Doug FST 5]

The plans aren't fully set yet but we will be remembering Randy Shin at this event. I have some decals for our cars.

Doug FST 5

[teamclark]

We are still stuck at 6 Entries!!!!

Everytime people delay on entering it puts pressure on our series organiser(s) who have done a great job to work with the various race committees to get ourselves well placed.

Mid-Ohio was hot on everyones list for this season, so while its close to the end this is your chance to get out, and close out the season in style. So don't hesitate if you coming then get your entry in TODAY>>>

If you NOT coming (shame on you) then at least post back and let us know so we have an accurate count!!!

Entered:
Dave Blevins
Matt Gordon
Doug Seim
Chuck Singeltary
Rob Clark
Doug Sharp

Maybe:
Bill Bonow
Doug Sontag
Jim Nash
Dave Dawson
George Podgorski
Sam Farmiga
Butch Deer
Gary Grubb
Steve Dunlop.

[rgu]

There are a number of highlights and reasons to attend rounds 11 and 12. First of course is the course. What a treat it is to go to Mid Ohio one of the country’s great tracks. Not driving cars myself is very hard, but if you do give yourself a responsive formula car on this track you will enjoy one of life’s pleasures on the total cheap.


Secondly, we are honoring one of our own. As you know Randy Shinn passed away this summer. Those of you who knew and watched Randy can attest his goal wasn’t to be the fastest but he loved trying to go faster and he loved being at the track. He personified the amateur series we are promoting. It’s not like the other series which are "amateurs acting like professionals" rather, we espouse an openness to everyone who wants to participate at their level. The result is broadly based racing and, if we achieve it, our association with have met its main goal. What Randy also liked about FST racing was the high degree of mechanical involvement. These cars are a lot of work to keep going and go fast. You come to the track and work on the car, learn new things from your fellows. Randy liked that. The stockbroker who rents a spec racer wants only to drive the thing and the fact that SCCA bans some of the work is a good thing.
So come out and honor Randy. I’m told his wife plans to attend and she might even take your picture.

[Jim Nash]

I registered but I'm not showing up on the list yet. It might be that I registered with my long time number, which in fact has been already taken! Gall dang-it. That's what I get for not registering sooner! I am going to be there, new number and all.

Jim

[Amon]

Doug,

If I could have several of Randy's decals, it would be much appreciated!


Thanks!


Mark

[SamF]

I am in!

Now I just need to make the car happy with consistant ignition again, and with the help of Jim at SR this Saturday that should not be a problem! A Hit-and-Miss engine sounds very cool on a tractor but is no fun on a FST

Is anyone planning to do the Friday Twilight Practice session??? I am planning on running it.

[Doug FST 5]

I'm arriving at least early enough for the evening test but I'm not testing and I'm bringing crew. If you are considering testing and need a hand with stuff we'll be there.

Mark - how many decals do you need. I have some extra but not tons.

Doug FST 5

[Amon]

Doug,

Maybe 3-4 decals. I was going to give one to Randy's wife Brenda and one to my
son who knew Randy, plus 1 or 2 for myself. Any amount would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Mark

[rgu]

I'll be coming mid PM too if anyone needs help.

[sracing]

Sontag is coming. He will be driving the SR converted XTC. I just gave him the transponder number, etc. today, so he should be enrolled soon.

[Doug FST 5]

I bought 25 of the decals through Cafepress. I can get you 4 and cover the FST field.

Doug FST 5

[Doug FST 5]

The long range weather forecast has Friday, 10/4 as sunny with a high of 70 degrees. Looking like a beautiful Fall weekend at Mid-Ohio. The kind of weekend where lap records are set and folks hang around the track late bench racing......JOIN IN THE FUN!


Doug FST 5

[teamclark]

Thanks to those that entered yesterday, with Doug Sontag's entry still to hit the system we stand at 9... still missing some key people...

What more could you want, great track, great weather, great people and some good racing....lets go....

Entered:
Dave Blevins
Matt Gordon
Doug Seim
Chuck Singeltary
Rob Clark
Doug Sharp
Doug Sontag
Sam Farmiga
Jim Nash

Maybe:
Bill Bonow
Dave Dawson
George Podgorski
Butch Deer
Gary Grubb
Steve Dunlop.

[rave motorsports]

Wish we could be there but we are headed west that weekend to forge into virgin territory at the double regional at Pueblo Colorado. We have a minimum of 5 people who are coming down to look at the FST cars on track for potential racing next year.
GO CHUCK SINGELTARY !! Your representing the West.

[rgu]

Here is another reason to be at the Mid Ohio race. As mostly anyone who runs a race car with VW aircooled parts knows that many parts are totally suspect. So we are always looking for parts that are of the best quality. Most of what Scat sells is, for example, very high quality. But we have to test out new products usually with volunteers. Cylinder heads are one component we need to test. VW is phasing out their operations in places like Brazil and Mexico. So when we heard that a new premium product was coming out we asked the company to donate a set to the FFDA. (Note I’m not naming names here but I will on a separate post at the FFDA Forum)
They agreed and they sent them to Autowerks in New Jersey. Dave Carr arrived back from the Runoffs and has started the preparation phase and they will be ready for Mid Ohio. Current series Champion Doug Seim will be running them at Mid Ohio. It wasn’t easy to get Doug to separate his killer Autowerks motor but I did. I know Doug will do his best to test these heads. He’ll be glad to share some data about temperatures and overlay data for you. Everyone is welcome to come over and take a look. Doug will post some pictures of the heads when he receives them and after the race. The heads have ¾ reach spark plug holes so we’re expecting not to see cracks going toward the plug. More later.
See everyone at Mid Ohio—the FFDA test track!

[dd46637]

I'm Out.
Work is getting in the way.
After being slow for 8 months it's back to 6-7 day work weeks.
The timing stinks.

D.

[rgu]

Dave

I've learned that we race before lunch. Would a quick exit help?

[SamF]

That is the best news I have heard yet on what will be a great weekend. I need to fly to England that Sunday so it seem I won't have to be in such a rush to get to the Dayton airport.

[butch deer]

Unfortunately family plans will keep me away. Maybe St Louis.

Butch

[Bill Bonow]

Just finished registering. Will be driving the SR Evolution # 44 as Dr. Bill Wolfe will not be attending. Looking forward to being back at Mid-Ohio.

[dd46637]

Dave

I've learned that we race before lunch. Would a quick exit help?

Nope. I have to work Friday and Saturday nights as well as Sunday.
Maybe a helicopter would work.

[csingletary01]

I had to withdraw from Mid-Ohio as I just can't get all the details finished. Will be at Gateway. Also SCCA had their Tech people at the Runoffs and another was in a Motorcycle Crash and hurt so my homologation has not been done. They will return to office on the 30th. Bill good luck at Pueblo and I just can't get away that weekend to take advantage of you wonderful offer. Set the Track Record

[rgu]

Pst Just heard the following three things

Robert Clark will also be running a new set of heads from yet another supplier. These are very well priced and appear to be of VW origin. Thus we'll have more to evaluate. I'm sure Rob will do his best to torture these.

Larry Campbell claims something in the water at Menominee drags him to FST Series races. So Larry will be their lending his expertise to all in need. I'm hoping Penny has some of the macadamia nut cookies left.

Gary Grubb tells me he's testing his newly designed Vector leading arms at Nelson think weekend. If they pass the stern NLBT (Nelson Ledges Bump Test) he'll be at MO.

[Jim Nash]

Coincidentally I too will be doing some testing. I have built a new, narrower oil tank that should fit into conversions more easily. It is smaller than the tank I have used and sold with the MRC kits, but should be up to the job. If the test and data gathered prove this out, more info will follow.

Jim

[dblevins]

anyone have any info regarding the evening test at MO?I can't seem to find anything
on it.

[SamF]

Dave, Mid-o does a very good job of hiding it on their website, once on their website follow the steps below:

The Mid-Ohio School | Courses | Racing Programs | Open Testing & Tuning

http://www.midohio.com/School/Course...-Tune-Sessions

[Bill Bonow]

OK, this looks pretty close to a line up for Mid-Ohio. We will likely be loosing Chuck as his car is not yet completed (he is trying very hard).

# 35 Dave Blevins Caracal MTV Colerain RV, it's a firefighter thing.com Cincinnati, OH
# 44 William Bonow Campbell Motorsport Evolution Mk 1 Plainfield, IL
# 37 Robert Clark Evolution CM-1 Team Clark Motorsport, SR Racing Rochester, MI
# 56 Sam Farmiga Adams Acer-J Scuderia Farmiga West Chester, OH
# 57 Matt Gordon Citation FST BattlePack.com/Jaygo Racing Lexington, KY
# 2 Jim Nash Mission MRC-09 Mission Race Cars Bloomington, MN
# 5 Doug Seim Mysterian M5.1 Battlepack/AutoWerks Okeana, OH
# 90 Douglas Sharp DC Jacer V2K2 Sharp Chiropractic & Advocare Kawkawlin, MI
# 2 Chuck Singletary Predator DW Coat Pro Edmond, OK
# 55 Doug Sontag XTC-41 SR Racing Georgetown, KY

In looking at the current weekend weather forecast, looks to be a good chance that rain will play a factor

Hope to have a great 2013 series final races.

[Doug FST 5]

..... formula car classes are bashed because "its a waste of track time to have a session for 5 cars when we have so many more cars with doors" its interesting to note that the largest run group for this race is the small formula car group.

Doug FST 5

[Bill Bonow]

Had to look back, but this weekends race at Mid-Ohio will be the end of our 9th continuous year of running the FST series and the season ending race will be the same as it was in the first year series, at the famed Mid-Ohio.

It's hard to think that next season will be our 13th year since the first FST hit the track, 10 years as a series and 6 years as an SCCA GCR class.

That's pretty impressive for something that started as a "test bed" for future ideas for FV upgrades.

I'll leave in the morning, heading for Mid-Ohio where we will share the track with another group of rebels trying to improve there class with an ongoing series, the F-600 guys. I'll have a talk this weekend with Jim Murphy about which one of us two have eaten more crap over the concept of class improvements.

Hope to see many ApexSpeeders at Mid-Ohio this weekend for one of the last regionals......... ever.

[rgu]

Someone said that on some days it’s your turn to be the pigeon and some days you are the monument. For Formula First this weekend the weather made sure we were the monument. It was always bad when the small formula cars went out. Of course by the mid afternoon the weather perked up and we all got to enjoy someone else’s dry race. I will not do the weekend’s events justice with this quick post so I’ll wait for others to give a full report. Two things stand out in my mind. I think we did a great job honoring out late comrade Randy Shinn. The fact that the Randy Shinn Cup will be presented to the current and future champions is a great tribute. Secondly, I was proud of every FST driver because the handed in a great performance in Saturday’s drenching rain. Virtually every FST car did well in the worst possible conditions.

I’m sure you’ll get more complete coverage and pictures this week in other posts. We had a big organizational flaw which will never happen again and resulted in two wrecked cars. I’ll post on our BBS my frank assessment.

[Bill Bonow]

Well, The 2013 Hoosier Formula First Championship Series is now history. The Mid-Ohio weekend is completed and was a real soaker. Rained when the forecast was for dry and dry when the forecast was for wet, general craziness.

We share the track with the F600 series guys and found that solid axle cars don't work so well in the rain .

Saturday qualifying:

Bonow 2:21.204
Nash 2:34.406
Clark 2:34.480
Blevins 2:36.841
Sharp 2:39.370
Seim 2:47.149
Sontag 2:58.548
Gordon 3:00.574
Farmiga 3:01.174

Saturday Race:

Split Start with the F5/6 guys up front. Downpour as we roll out on the pace lap. No real story, lots of cars spinning off, no real major incidents, but the pace car came out for a clean up. Race ended under time with 9 laps in.

Bonow Fast Lap: 2:19.706
Seim
Blevins
Gordon
Sontag
Nash
Sharp
Farmiga
Clark

Sunday Qualifying:

Still have to sort this out. The host (OVR) like to run those "qualifying races" on Sunday morning and we don't do those. Will edit later with the whole grid. Here is the top 3.

Bonow
Seim
Gordon

Sunday Race:

Not going to go into the grid issue, but the letters "CF" come to mind and I'm not speaking of Club Ford. The first lap saw major carnage at the start finish due to slow FV's being placed in front of the entire FST pack. (4) DNF's resulted including Seim, Sharp and Nash. In addition, everyone was on rains waiting for the sky to open up. It never did, track was dry as a bone, but almost the entire grid (all group classes) were on rains. I was amazed that the rains weren't chewed up much worse.

Race Results

Clark Fast Lap 1:43.242
Bonow
Blevins
Gordon
Farmiga
Nash - DNF
Seim - DNF
Sharp - DNF

One thing that was very nice at Mid-Ohio this weekend, we awarded the newly renamed Randy Shinn Cup to this years Champion, Doug Seim. A great supporter of FST for many seasons, Randy will live on in our hearts and our Championship Cup.

[Mark Filip]

Why were the FVs placed in front?

[Bill Bonow]

Mark,

Great question. I have no idea, but it was way wrong.

[rgu]

It was a mistake and we were supposed to have a split start which did not happen. I really need to get in touch with the organizers before going into it in depth.

[Mark Filip]

Then they rolled a F600 over during a flat tow? What the heck?

[Amon]

I wanted to thank all of you for naming the FST Championship Cup the Randy Shinn Cup! It was a classy decision for someone who had a lot of class and as you mentioned, was a great supporter of Formula First!

Thanks again guys!

Mark

[Doug FST 5]

... sometimes you're the bug.

I'm sure there are many perspectives in this incident. I'll offer mine. This incident happened because a driver lost control of his car in front of a pack of cars. It doesn't matter if the guy was in a fast car or a slow car. If he stayed in control we wouldn't be having this conversation. That car slipped on a small puddle in the pavement. I slipped in the same puddle but caught the car.

In 2011 at the ARRC we were gridded according to qualifying speed only. In turn one I lost control of my car and did very substantial damage to another car as a result. I got a real nice view of the car tumbling into the gravel and losing its floor. Pretty scary stuff.

None of us are beyond making an error in challenging conditions. This was a racing incident of the kind we can all expect to experience from time to time.

Doug FST 5

[sracing]

None of us are beyond making an error in challenging conditions. This was a racing incident of the kind we can all expect to experience from time to time.

Doug FST 5

Class comment Doug..