Hoosier FST - Rounds 1 & 2 Gingerman Raceway

[Bill Bonow]

It's only 7 weeks until the opening two rounds of
The 2014 Hoosier Racing Tire Formula First Championship Series
will be held on May 10 & 11 at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven Michigan and will be hosted by SCCA, South Bend Region. Registration is now open at Motorsportreg.com, here is the link:

http://www.motorsportreg.com/events/...0#.Uy1zgVNOWUl

I need to check the details myself, but I understand that a discount on your entry will be seen if you pay by check in advance vs. at the track when you arrive.

This is our 10th year of the series! The FFDA members are all very proud that the series has not only lasted longer than many "pro" series but seems to keep growing each year. We invite all to come join in on our fun!

An entry list will be posted and updated as we get closer to race day.

[Bill Bonow]

Motorsportreg.com was having a small issue registering for the event. All fixed now, so get yourself registered.

Currently (3) signed up: Blevins, Dawson and Bonow

[butch deer]

Pulled something in my shoulder while blowing the last shovelable snow. As of this moment I cannot drive a race car. I will leave my entry open untill I can drive. As of now Barb and I will probably go to the event with or without race car.
Butch

[rgu]

Butch,


To go this far and be a victim of the crappy winter! Get better, see physical therapists, all that stuff. Just so happens that we need one armed series officials at Gingerman—great that you are coming.

[lenhart05]

$325 paid by check, 5 sessions including two races.

[SamF]

Now we have 4 signed up: Blevins, Dawson, Bonow, and Farmiga

[Doug FST 5]

Now we're 5. That's a third of the current entries.

Doug FST 5

[rgu]

Calling all cars!


This announcement is for all FST drivers and really anyone else entering the Gingerman event May 10 and 11. There was no practice session scheduled there because the One Lap participants are using the track Friday. However, I have been in contact with Jeff from the South Bend Region and then with the track management and we now have a Friday Practice session scheduled after 4 pm. Right now it looks like 2 OW and 2 CW sessions can be accommodated. Cost will be $105 per car.

Of course this is dependent upon drivers signing up. No one signs up-- no session. I know we have drivers who have repaired significant crash damage from MO last year, we have a few brand new cars and we have a lot of drivers who have never been to GM. So we should have a lot interest.
For now since we have no other way to do it PM or E-mail me to reserve a spot. I’ll then make a more direct way to reserve later. Fst at Rochester dot rr dot com

[rgu]

We are now up to 5 open wheel cars. Need some more to cement this thing.

[Bill Bonow]

Here is the entry list with 1 month to go

Now at 6 cars

# 35 Dave Blevins 1986 Caracal MTV III Colerain RV,it'safirefighterthing.com
Cincinnati, OH
# 69 William Bonow 2007 Campbell Motorsport Evolution
Plainfield, IL
# 88 Dave Dawson 2006 Campbell Evolution
South Bend, IN
# 56 Sam Farmiga 2012 Adams Acer-J Scuderia Farmiga
West Chester, OH
# 5 Doug Seim Mysterian M5.1 P&NP Computers/AutoWerks
Okeana, OH
# 90 Dr Doug Sharp, Douglas 2006 Jacer V2K2 Sharp Chiropractic & Advocare Kawkawlin, MI

Others that might be entering?

Rob Clark
Jim Nash
Alex Bertolucci
Matt Gordon
Gary Morman
Phil McSherry
Gary Grubb
Dave Verstarnd
Phil Weller
Brian Finegan

[teamclark]

I will be entering, but Motorsport.reg wont let me enter because I haven't renewed my license yet.....

So I will either paper enter or once my license renewal goes through enter on-line.

Rob

[Bill Bonow]

Two more join the line up for the first two rounds.

Here is the current entry list:

Blevins
Bonow
Clark
Dawson
Farmiga
Seim
Sharp
Weller (Phil)

I think we're going to have a good shot at (12) for the opening 2 rounds!

[butch deer]

Even though I can't drive I think I will have my car rented for the event. Hopefully another entry.
Butch

[rgu]

Looks like the two yellow cars and the black car with be reunited in Western MI. Also two drivers picked brand new engines last week so I’m expecting their entries. I’m just a little bit amazed at what could be happening at this race. During the depths of winter all I heard is you can’t do glass work when it’s so cold and I can’t pull my trailer out of the snow and pick up my new car and many other weather related drags on getting ready for a pretty early race. But it seems like it’s happening.

[rgu]

Rob

Try the registration site again. The registrar tells me she has modified the site so the license requirement is not in your way.

All others please register ASAP so the organizers know what they are dealing with.

[teamclark]

Robert

Already done...I'm on the list

[rgu]

They have set up a registration mechanism for the Friday testing. Sign up early. Other test dates are also available.
We've opened the May 9 test and tune to open wheel drivers. They can register at the following link: http://gingerman.mycustomevent.com/S...om=productlist.

We've also added several other open wheel testing events to the schedule, specifically on May 15 and June 6. You can find those on our registration page.

[rgu]

A few regulars have not paid their FFDA memberships. Remember you can’t score series points unless you are an FFDA member. Still a great bargain at $25. Send your check to Jim Schings our treasurer. Jim tells me there is a giant late fee if he gets the check after the fun starts at Gingerman. Don’t exactly know how much this could be.

[AlBerto]

I just registered, and we are up to 10!

[Bill Bonow]

The first two rounds looks to be a very strong opener in number of cars so far. After the completion of the Waterford Hills drivers school going on this weekend another 3 cars could be entering. Additionally, there could be up to 2 more that are currently on the fence. Given a miracle, that's 15 cars for the opening rounds!

Here is what Motorsportreg reads as of now:

# 11 Alex Bertolucci - Campbell Evolution - Mount Prospect, IL
# 35 Dave Blevins - Caracal MTV III - Cincinnati, OH
# 69 Bonow, William - Campbell Evolution - Plainfield, IL
# 37 Rob Clark - Campbell Evolution - Rochester, MI
# 88 Dave Dawson - Campbell Evolution - South Bend, IN
# 56 Sam Farmiga - Adams Acer-J Scuderia Farmiga - West Chester, OH
# 57 Matt Gordon - Citation FST - Lexington, KY
# 5 Doug Seim - Mysterian M5.1 - Okeana, OH
# 90 Dr Doug Sharp DC - Jacer V2K2 - Kawkawlin, MI
# 26 Phil Weller - Campbell Evolution - New Berlin, WI

New names at Gingerman in the Series for 2014:
Alex Bertolucci, a regular in CenDiv FV competition will give FST a try in the Black Evolution # 11 of Butch Deer. Phil Weller will be a regular in the ex-Middelegge Evolution. Phil has mostly race sedan in MC.

Other potentials that still could enter:
Bob Farmiga - Vector GB -4
Dave Verstarnd - BRD
Brian Finegan - Campbell Evolution
Gary Morman - Adams Aero

Don't forget that a great and low cost test time is available to us on Friday night:
http://gingerman.mycustomevent.com/S...om=productlist
If going, please register.

This is our first event back at Gingerman in a long time. It looks like people are excited about the longer track and centralized location as typically an event this early in the year has a weak turn out. I'm looking forward to another great FST weekend.

[rgu]

I’m sitting at the window in my daughter’s apartment in Berkeley California with a great view of the new Bay Bridge and I’m thinking how lucky I’ll be in a couple of weeks. Just before I was in a coffee shop buying Danish (it was very good) but I couldn’t stay to eat it there. I was surrounded by severe looking coffee shop types (I saw Grant Wood’s faces there) with laptops that had glowing Apples on the back. They were obviously multitasking and still able to listen to music with their Sennheiser earphones. There were at least a dozen of them in the shop. I felt out of place. Walking home up a hill that lead up to the better neighborhoods, I noted a slow moving line of Pruii obviously fresh from parking spot battles at the Whole Foods. These were followed by a lone Porsche driven by a perhaps a “one percenter” who backed off following them and then out of primal instinct hit the throttle. The Porsche shot forward for one second and almost rear ended the last of the hybrids.
This made me really happy because in two weeks I’ll be at Gingerman with a lot of noise, a a bunch of flat out corners and I’ll be surrounded by the other folks who just love to come to the track. I’ll gain further solace by knowing that any six of the FST’s there can be had for less money than the Porsche. Better yet you can keep your foot on the accelerator for a few hours without ever following a Prius.
Come on out and have some cheap fun.

[Doug FST 5]

Hey RGU - As I recall you spent part of the summer of '68 in Berkley. Not the same groovy vibe now? (cue In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida...)

Its time to have a "weekend well wasted" at the track!

Bring on the sights!
Bring on the sounds!
Bring on the smells!
Bring on the racing!

Doug FST 5

[rgu]

I'll bring the frying pan!
I'll bring the Castrol!

You bring the rubber shavings!

The Breakfast of Champions!!!!

[jsteeb]

My dad had me thinking long and hard about cleaning the dust off of the old Lynx... Actually tried to put it on the priority list for the last month or so. Just too busy at work and home right now.

Any chance one of you guys can add me to a crew list? I'm sure this will be some of the best racing I see all season.

Cheers!
Jason

[rgu]

Jason

It would be great to have both you and your Dad there. I'll look around for empty crew slots and send you both an e-mail.

[dblevins]

I only have one crew listed and would be glad to add you on my crew. Dave Blevins,35 FST

[rgu]

Thanks Dave,

Jason and Steve,

Sign in on Dave's crew--Im sure he'll expect help buckling in

[dblevins]

you're on the list,see you there.

[Bill Bonow]

Guys, I am sorry to say that my engine is not back yet and I just pulled my entry

Will be in attendance at the race to help out, but just without a car.

Was really looking forward to running the new configuration.

[jsteeb]

Thanks guys!

If the planets align, we will see you there.

[Doug FST 5]

If you haven't signed up for the Hoosier Contingency do it today. It takes a minute with their on-line form.

Doug FST 5

[AlBerto]

If you haven't signed up for the Hoosier Contingency do it today. It takes a minute with their on-line form.

Doug FST 5

Thanks for the reminder.

If this works, here is a link to the on-line form.
http://www.hoosiertire.com/sccareg_db.asp

[Bill Bonow]

The first two rounds of The 2014 Hoosier Tire Formula First Championship Series is in the history books. A great weekend, weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and upper 70's, just fantastic.

We had one more drop from the registration list due to basement flooding at home, Dr Doug Sharp. A local who was really looking forward to this weekend. However, we had a last minute mystery car/driver show up. Garry Moorman brought his ex-John Stofka Caracal D conversion out for the first time, bringing the total entry to 9 cars. We had (1) CFF (Phil Kingham), (1) FV(Adam Jennerjahn) and (1) FF (Brian Eli). All were very courteous and a pleasure to share the race group with.

Some new name this season: Phil Weller in the ex-Carl Middelegge Evolution, Alex Bertolucci in Butch Deer's Evolution and Garry Moorman in a freshly converted Caracal D

Round 1 Qualifying:

1) Robert Clark - 1:43.926
2) Doug Seim - 1:44.255
3) Matt Gordon - 1:46.826
4) Alex Bertolucci - 1:46.909
5) Dave Dawson - 1:51,267
6) Dave Blevins - 1:51.365
7) Phil Weller - 1:52.520
8) Garry Moorman - 2:31.848
9) Sam Farmiga - NT

Round 1 Race Results:

The start of the race saw a familiar battle between Clark and Seim. Switching spots a few times and suddenly, Seim retires with an engine misfire after the half way point. Clark pick up his first win of the season and the official race record for FST.

1) Robert Clark - 1:43.485 - Fastest Lap and Record.
2) Dave Dawson
3) Alex Bertolucci
4) Matt Gordon
5) Phil Weller
6) Sam Farmiga
7) Doug Seim
8) Dave Blevins
9) Garry Moorman

Podium and last years series trophies were presented at the LMI trailer about an hour after the race. Due to no rookie drivers last year, Jim Schings presented Dave Blevins with a "Most Improved Driver for 2013" award.

Round 2 Qualifying:

Qualifying saw Clark on top, but Dawson really picked up his game ("Hello Kitty" good luck charm?). Pretty much everyone bettered their times as they got more comfortable with the circuit.

1) Robert Clark - 1:43.605
2) Dave Dawson - 1:44.301
3) Doug Seim - 1:44.353
4) Alex Bertolucci - 1:45.743
5) Phil Weller - 1:48.100
6) Dave Blevins - 1:49.282
7) Sam Farmiga - 1:51.612
8) Garry Moorman - 2:02.282
9) Matt Gordon - NT

Round 2 Race Results:

Seim is still battling the misfire and can't make the grid. 3 laps in, Clark loses 4th gear and pulls in. Dawson leads the rest of the race, but Bertolucci is nipping at his heels most of the race. Matt Gordon makes it to 3rd spot after starting dead last. Congratulations to Dave Dawson on his first FST series win!

1) Dave Dawson - 1:45.850
2) Alex Bertolucci - 1:44.850 - Fast Lap
3) Matt Gordon - 1:48.394
4) Dave Blevins - 1:48.537
5) Phil Weller - 1:49.269
6) Garry Moorman - 1:54.932
7) Robert Clark - 1:47.973
8) Sam Farmiga - 3:17.384
9) Doug Seim - DNS

A truly great start to our 10th season as a series. Strong entry numbers for an early May event. Looks to be a very strong season with lots of new faces.

I took many photos that I will get posted shortly.

See you all at Grattan........ With a car!

[rightturntiger]

Thanks for the write-up, Bill. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

As for the weekend, it was good to be back at the track and the weather was beautiful.

I want to say 1,000 thank yous to the RGU Racing and Scuderia Farmiga bunch. When I sent Doug an email that I wasn't going to have any crew with me (and I know I'm not at a level of mechanical knowledge where I can fix anything too advanced by myself) he said to come on up and I'd get all the help I needed. I'm not sure he would have agreed if he knew exactly what that would entail but I couldn't be more appreciative of the help all those guys gave me (and especially Ted for his knowledge of my car and quick work directing the rebuild and Craig for lifting my engine in and out and other help as my back wasn't up to the task this weekend).

Beyond that, I think it took tools, knowledge, or elbow grease from almost every driver and crew member in the FST paddock to get my car on the track Sunday. I cannot imagine a friendlier, more helpful bunch to race with...I was *this close* to packing up and heading home Saturday night and I'm glad I didn't. Thanks again all, and hopefully I'll see you at Grattan.

Matt Gordon
Jaygo Racing #57

[Doug FST 5]

Matt,

Seeing you take the checker on the podium was a high point of the weekend. Of course I don't wish that kind of racing luck on anybody but we'd do it all again if that's what it takes. No worries.....

Doug FST 5

[rgu]

Here are some things I remember from this event


Gary Moorman came in the ex. John Stofka Caracal. Gary worked harder than I suspect he originally thought in flushing out the gremlins but by race time Sunday things looked pretty good and the main problem, a binding clutch cylinder, was solved. Gary’s race to the line was without incident and Formula First has a new car which we look forward to seeing at other events. Next time look for this car with the Adderly Silver Bullet body.
Dave Blevins and Matt Gordon had a great dice after spins put them back in the pack. Ever since Dave changed his Dry sump tank his motor has been a champ. Dave showed why he won the FFDA’s most improved driver award.
Congratulations to Dave Dawson and Alex Bertolucci on their great dice over the last half of Sunday’s race. A lapping incident dropped Alex back at the end so we were robbed of a great run to the checker. Congratulations to Dave Dawson for a Sunday win at his home track. Its been a long time coming but very much deserved.
New to the series driver, Dave Vestrand, stopped by to give us a progress report on his new BRD purchased from Dimitri Mariuto. Dave was late picking up the car due to the bad early spring weather so he only recently decided to update and prep the car. He said he was just about to start the car when the fuel cell decided it had enough of the “holding gas thing” and it dumped its load on the floor. The cell has been sent out for repairs and I think we’ll see Dave at Grattan next month.
Sam Farmiga had no luck with his homemade shifter. He is now so sick of driving around tracks in one gear that he just bought the superior Evolution shifter from Campbell Motorsports. I should think this problem is now officially solved.
While they are typically front runners, Doug Seim and Rob Clark had bad weekends (well Rob did win Race one and that ain't bad). Neither were particularly happy and both will be back at Grattan with fire coming out of their noses.
Most impressive to me was Matt Gordon’s Sunday run to third place on the podium. This drive showed off Matt’s new Autowerks motor but he literally made the grid with 5 minutes to spare. Saturady PM Matt could not engage any gears because of clutch release issues. We fiddled with it, bleed the slave cylinder adjusted same. Nothing worked. Reluctantly everyone agreed the engine needed to come out. When it did removing the clutch cover revealed a clutch disk with lining. Only metal parts were intact on the disk. So it was decided to take a balanced and pinned flywheel and pressure plate off a spare engine. This was complicated by the fact that the spare had the large gland but the available Torque Meister would only handle the stock sized nut. Finally, on Sunday morning Dave Dawson brought back the right tools and with all available hands the task was completed in time for Matt to start last and finish 3rd. Thanks all who helped.
Lastly many thanks to race chair Jeff Luckritz and registrar Mary Shiloff for all their help in getting this event off the ground an insuring its success. As one competitor said we would “come back next year in a heartbeat”.

[Bill Bonow]

Got my lost camera back. Lots of good pics. Interested to see some?

[rightturntiger]

Yes, definitely!

Matt Gordon

[Bill Bonow]

Well Matt, since you so nicely asked...

Here is Matt Gordon's weekend at Gingerman:

A little clutch adjustment trouble on Saturday, qualified 3rd and finished 4th.

Massive thrash overnight resulting in a 3rd place finish on Sunday

[rgu]

In case you don't recognize the glop on the ground in the pic on the upper right its Matt's clutch plate lining. Wonder what that was made of?