Historic Formula C Group change

[Jim Gustafson]

I lobbied to have FC removed from Group 5 (F-1, F-5000, F-2, 2L Sports Racers) and put in Group 4, for the Hawk/Redman event at Road America. This makes so much sense, and thankfully, this suggestion has been given the green flag. I know there are lots of older FC's out there, and in talking to many owners, the idea of running in Group 5, has been a little intimidating. Hopefully this change will get some of these cars back on track. The vintage crowd has contributed to the increase in value of S-2, FF etc. and can have a similar effect on FC.

Jim Gustafson

[J Weida]

If you are able to get this done on a regular basis you will see a big jump in fc cars. The big problem I have seen in running with the svra is they need to stick with vintage cars or maybe have a non vintage class . At indy this year they had more dsr. Cars than the scca gets I counted 5 just walking around.

[Rick Kirchner]

So I just ran SVRA Indy, classed in Group 9 as an F2 car.....because it has wings, slicks, and a 2L engine. It's a restricted 2L, but for this group, it must be the displacement that counts.

To give you an idea of the classing craziness in the wings and slicks group (I have no idea what kind of algorithm is used) Here's how things shook out for group 9:

11 BOSS cars: 2 modern F1, a Panoz DP01, 3x 80's March, 3x Dallara, 2x 90s Lolas, and a Shelby can-am dressed up like a 73 eagle

4 "F1" cars: All 3rd gen Lites (this grouping makes sense)

4 "FA" cars: 80 Williams F1 Cosworth, a 2L 72 Chevron, a 2L Ralt RT1, a 2L 72 Lola

9 "F2" cars: Swift 014, Pro Mazda, my 94 Van Diemen FC, 1.6L Ralt RT5, 1.8L ralt RT5, FBMW, Ralt RT4 ATL, 2L March 802, and Pop Chevy's Swift 008

4 "FB" cars (not to be confused with the non-winged, treaded, Lotus twin-cam FBs): Ralt RT1 ATL, 78 March ATL, 79 March ATL, 72 GRD ATL (this grouping makes sense, as these were the FBs before the F5000 FAs went away)

2 "FC": Lola AC FSV, Lola 1.6L flat bottomed FSV (this makes sense)

2 "FA5": F5000s

The problem could be fixed by putting all the FCs into a single group with one or two sub classes. You would have the 1800 full ground effect cars, 1600 flat bottomed cars, 2L air cooled cars, and FC pintos.

They'd have to figure out what to do with the variations on atlantics and unrestricted 2L cars, but until I come up with another $100k/yr, that's not my problem!

I had a blast for the most part despite some brake issues that made me suddenly learn how to drive a car with virtually no brakes.

The pace lap was a bit of a cluster F because pace speed for the F1 cars was near race speed for the back of the pack. They did not bring the pack down at constant speed, people started accelerating, it looked like the green wasn't going to fly, and suddenly the left lane, pinched against the wall, started to stack, and there was a crash. I dodged pieces off of Pop Chevy's car and hit his GoPro, expected to see the yellow at S/F but it was still waving green!

I ended up 3rd in F2 when Paul Lisec broke his camshaft. Got a cool bronze medallion. Told Paul I was going to kiss him....

The oval session for me was a complete disappointment. While the FF/FB guys got to whistle around at will, I was instructed to "stay the F low in the 3rd lane" so all that fast iron could cruise by on the high side. I could never really use the line and I spent the session with one eye constantly in the right side mirror.

Alan Johnson (who had the AC FSV) and I thought we should have been put into the FF/FB group for the oval session. Of course that's just an issue for the Indy event (but it's really why we are all there, right?)

I have some video of Bob Hatle and Todd Strong whistling by during their oval session and they were flying. Even a 1600 kent sounds great at max RPM when echoing off that structure! I just have to figure out how to get it off the iPhone and into an APEXSPEED post.

Need more Pinto FCs in SVRA!