Thunderhill Majors F1000

[ghickman]

Since the West Coast no longer has a Series thought I would post this thread for the Thunderhill Majors. This would normally have been our "Kick Off" race for the West Coast US F1000 Series which has for the time being been put on hold.

So far we have 4 entries
Vollum
Labrie
Cook
Hickman

Larry Vollum will have his brand new Phoenix F1000 there. This is by far one of the most sophisticated F1000 to be built. All the bodywork was designed by a former Ross Braun designer (the year Button won the title). The differential housing took over 400 hours of machining. Super trick is an understatement.

I'm expecting Randy Cook to be quick in his JDR and John Labrie will no doubt be fast. Labrie probably has more seat time in an F1000 than anynone and based on how quick he was at Fontana he will be a threat.

Since none of us West Coast guys are chasing a title out here we are looking forward to the Runoffs at Daytona.

[Stan Clayton]

The differential housing took over 400 hours of machining. Super trick is an understatement.

Four-HUNDRED hours, Gary...is that a typo?

Looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

[Nick77]

Good luck guys have a great race
Nick #77

[ghickman]

Four-HUNDRED hours, Gary...is that a typo?

Looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

Nope, not a typo. Took 325lbs of 6061-T6 and turned it into 12lbs. We had one machine running for just short of 8 weeks. The length to diameter ratio for the endmills we had to use was ridiculous. Slow was the only speed we could go below a certain point. Over 1 million lines of code and 20 programs broken up. Had to drip feed to the machine since it exceed its memory capacity.

Had to machine 2 of everything just in case I made a setup or code error. So Larry ended up with 2. No scraps.

Dustin Wright gets all the credit for designing a work of art.

[JEREMY HILL]

Hey Gary, can we see pictures? Cheers, Jeremy

[Stan Clayton]

Nope, not a typo. Took 325lbs of 6061-T6 and turned it into 12lbs. We had one machine running for just short of 8 weeks. The length to diameter ratio for the endmills we had to use was ridiculous. Slow was the only speed we could go below a certain point. Over 1 million lines of code and 20 programs broken up. Had to drip feed to the machine since it exceed its memory capacity.

Had to machine 2 of everything just in case I made a setup or code error. So Larry ended up with 2. No scraps.

Dustin Wright gets all the credit for designing a work of art.

Impressive...thanks for the explanation.

I completely understand the stresses. We have run a fair number of million-plus line toolpaths to make bodywork patterns, though they take a comparably short 20-30 hours of machine time to run. Still, those are nerve-wracking 3-5 day stints.

I use a 32-bit controller, and found that breaking the toolpaths up into 300,000-ish line blocks before parking, shutting down, cold rebooting and re-zeroing aids in preventing the my-brain-is-full-can-I-go-home-now syndrome.

And of course, tooling board is a bit more forgiving than 6160-T6...

[Jasonrmbell]

I'm with Jeremy can we see this Picasso

[Wright D]

Larry has asked us not to share too much about his car, but a few pictures of his car can be seen here. His is the white car in the top row.

http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/album.php?albumid=62

Thanks guys!
Dustin.

[Stan Clayton]

Larry very generously gave Patti and me an hour of his time to look over his car between qually and the race yesterday. Wow...work of art! Congrats to Larry, Dustin and Gary.

[JohnPaul]

The car is sick. I want one....

[sccadsr31]

Both Larry and Gary allowed me to spend an unlimited time looking at their cars and they are really nice. As much as I really wanted to take pictures my camera stayed in my pocket. The longer you look the more there was to notice.
I saw both the machined rear spar and the sheet metal unit both are very nice pieces.
David

[Wright D]

Team Phoenix has spent tons of time and put in a lot of effort. Thanks to the f1000 community for noticing all the effort Gary, Tony, Larry and I have put into these cars. This is a great class and an awesome group of people to race with!
Dustin.

[ghickman]

Race report coming this evening, stay tuned.

[Tony Moore]

Thunderhill Race Report 2015

The San Francisco region ran a tight show and Saturday's qualifying started promptly at 11:00am. The skies were clear and 70 degrees. The grid was fast!

P1 Gary Hickman 1:40.914 2013 Phoenix/Suzuki
P2 Larry Vollum 1:43.232 2014 Phoenix/Kawasaki
P3 John LaBrie at 1:44.521 2013 Phoenix/Suzuki
P4 Randy Cook at 1:46.675 2012 JDR/Suzuki

The track record is 1:40.546 set last year By J.R. Osborne.

Saturday's race start was scheduled for 4:50pm. There was some confusion about a split start which had all the FB cars sitting on the grid idling while the rest of the cars left pre-grid. Just as the paddock Marshal sent the cars out, Hickman's car let out a puff of steam from under the engine cover. He was told go for it but watch the water temp.

The start was clean and the dicing began immediately. Hickman retired after 1 lap with a loose water line. Vollum, LaBrie and Cook kept it tight. After 5 laps, Vollum retired with a mechanical. This left an entertaining duel with Labrie and Cook. Some swapping places with LaBrie coming out the winner of Saturday's Race.

Saturday results:
P1 Labrie 1:43.779
P2 Cook 1:45.258
P3 Vollum 1:47.741 (5 laps)
P4 Hickman 1:44.340 (1 lap)

Sunday's race was looking to be a good dogfight. The Grid positions stayed the same with no one bettering Hickman’s Q1 time. LaBrie and Cook did better their qualifying times in Saturdays race.

Sunday's start was exciting with Chris Farrell in his P2 car edging Hickman into turn 1. On lap 9 saw a full course yellow and Hickman's lead evaporated. The Restart was clean and Randy Cook got around Larry Vollum to take second. Hickman continued where he left off and pulled away from the field while Cook, Vollum and LaBrie slugged it out. LaBrie passed Cook and was hot on Vollum's tail until the last lap. LaBrie passed Vollum to take 2nd with Cook close behind. Cook was ready if either let their guard down to reclaim the position.

Sunday Race results:
1st Gary Hickman 2013 Phoenix 1:42.687
2nd John Labrie 2013 Phoenix 1:43.451
3rd Larry Vollum 2014 Phoenix 1:43.940
4th Randy Cook 2012 JDR 1:43.386

Link to in car video courtesy Randy Cook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8eIi8fcihQ

[Jasonrmbell]

Nice Report looks like a fun track !!

[Tyler Thielmann]

Looking forward to seeing this new car in person!!!