F4 runs at Mid Ohio

[budawe]

16 cars took a standing start at Mid Ohio last weekend for the inaugural race of the SCCA/FIA F4 series. I heard that Derek Walker and staff had a great kickoff and folks really like the standing start..
I understand there were a lot of spectators and would enjoy hearing from any of you that watched the race.

[Steve Bamford]

16 cars took a standing start at Mid Ohio last weekend for the inaugural race of the SCCA/FIA F4 series. I heard that Derek Walker and staff had a great kickoff and folks really like the standing start..
I understand there were a lot of spectators and would enjoy hearing from any of you that watched the race.

There were 14 cars racing. Would have been more however those are all the cars so far produced by Crawford. There will be more cars at the next race weekend as more cars are finished.

It was run at an All Formula Car Weekend put on by FRP. I wouldn't say there were a lot of spectators but there were some who seemed to watch most of the other races as well.

[steve everard]

How was the race itself Steve, close, safe driving etc ? lots of talent ?
How did it compare to your other races.

[Steve Bamford]

How was the race itself Steve, close, safe driving etc ? lots of talent ?
How did it compare to your other races.

Lots of talent & will likely be more joining as cars become available. Drafting is not easy nor does it make a difference to the racing like it is does in F1600. We had some issues with the car, as some other teams did, but that is some what to be expected with a brand new car at its first race event.

Overall I would say this type of car is the car of the present & future for ladder type series racing. I will add that I think this should be a step after F1600 as I believe there is a lot of race craft that can be learned there along with mechanical grip before this step.

[GAR]

The common feedback from teams (like us) and drivers about the first event was that it was a great success and well worth the wait after the initial delays. The series did a great job running a very professional event. The paddocked area looked great, the competition level an quality of teams is very intense as well.

Track support from Crawford, Honda, GEMS, Pirelli, was fantastic. Any question or issue that came up they were there to take care of it.

The standing starts went great. To be honest going into the weekend I was not looking forward standing starts. I would have never guessed that 3 starts with 14 cars that saw most drivers under the age of 20 would see 0 stalled cars on the grid.

I would not really say they were fans since it was a low profile weekend. But should be a good crowd when we go back in a few weeks with NASCAR XFInity and Trans Am

We have seen quite the dramatic increase of people wanting to test and race with us now that everybody see's its officially real and how great it was, and we are trying to get more cars.

Here is some in-car from pre season testing. Hoping to get some race footage up soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8vUxYtNYBo

Looking forward to seeing the TV broadcast as well!!

[Steve Demeter]

Is it my imagination or was there a good bit of understeer in the car.

Or do they simply have a slow ratio rack?

Nice sounding cars.

[Steve Bamford]

Is it my imagination or was there a good bit of understeer in the car.

Or do they simply have a slow ratio rack?

Nice sounding cars.

Yes there were some issues with understeer compounded with some issues we had made it worse.

[Wren]

Optimistically, I would put the number of F4 specific spectators at zero. Total, there seemed to be a handful of spectators but they were watching most/all of the races.

I'm not sure who told you that there were a lot of spectators, but I believe you have been misled. There were several of us from the other run groups who watched the first session or watched the first standing start. I'm sure we wouldn't meet any reasonable person's standard to be considered a "spectator."

My impression was that there is a huge disparity in driving talent. There were some good drivers and some who didn't even know to apply the brakes when they spun. The paddock setup was much more about putting on a show for the participants and the people writing the checks than for whatever spectators there might be. It's another spec class. That's hardly a revolutionary idea.

After hearing about all of the challenges with the Crawford car in FL, I'm interested in how the cars held up. I saw one or two cars come in on the hook that looked like they might have had an issue with wheel retention(stub axle), but that could have been from on track contact. So, were there issues with the car?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stan Clayton]

What were lap times like? Club course or Pro?

[Steve Bamford]

What were lap times like? Club course or Pro?

Pro, 1.26's were fast times. Not sure why times make a diff though to be fair as it is a spec class.

[stonebridge20]

I'm sure we wouldn't meet any reasonable person's standard to be considered a "spectator."

You were probably only out there looking for your hero.

[Stan Clayton]

Pro, 1.26's were fast times. Not sure why times make a diff though to be fair as it is a spec class.

Knowing the times helps us place the cars in their respective place on the scale of FV to FA. For instance, for us the difference between the Club and Pro courses was about 1.5 seconds, which puts current F4 times about where the FM Club record is. The F4s will get a bit faster, of course, but they aren't in FA territory. Just curious, is all.

[Wren]

You were probably only out there looking for your hero.

When you have front row seats to the **** show, you watch.

The SCCA's choice to promote this scam artist remains inexplicable. The problem isn't just the failure to pay prize money. I am aware of drivers who gave Jon Lewis a lot of money for a season of racing and never got any seat time or money back. SCCA pro should be ashamed of themselves.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Steve Bamford]

Knowing the times helps us place the cars in their respective place on the scale of FV to FA. For instance, for us the difference between the Club and Pro courses was about 1.5 seconds, which puts current F4 times about where the FM Club record is. The F4s will get a bit faster, of course, but they aren't in FA territory. Just curious, is all.

Not sure about Club records, do know the Pro records but I would not use them to figure out where the F4 car is as the track evolves each & everyday. I would prefer to use FC & FF times from the weekends as a reference point. 23.7 in FC & 28.8 or 28.9 in FF were the fast times if I recall. 26.4 was the F4 low times I believe.

Pro records are well below these numbers in FC & FF so that is why I am saying I would compare using these times as to where the car is verses against lap records.

[Stan Clayton]

Not sure about Club records, do know the Pro records but I would not use them to figure out where the F4 car is as the track evolves each & everyday. I would prefer to use FC & FF times from the weekends as a reference point. 23.7 in FC & 28.8 or 28.9 in FF were the fast times if I recall. 26.4 was the F4 low times I believe. Records are well below those numbers in FC & FF so that is why I am saying I would compare to these as to where the car is verses against lap records.

I agree with you, Steve...I was just looking for a benchmark.

Also, I was posting just one Region's records, which may or may not represent the actual course records, which I did not locate in a quick search. Here are OVR's Pro course records...

[Steve Bamford]

I agree with you, Steve...I was just looking for a benchmark.

Also, I was posting just one Region's records, which may or may not represent the actual course records, which I did not locate in a quick search. Here are their Pro course records...

Those times are way off what has been done on the Pro track in FRP Series. Just for clarity here you are.

1:23.035 FC Lap Record 2014
1:27.1 is FF Lap Record 2013

[Stan Clayton]

Those times are way off what has been done on the Pro track in FRP Series. Just for clarity here you are.

1:23.035 FC Lap Record 2014
1:27.1 is FF Lap Record 2013

Thanks!

[stonebridge20]

This dude had a long history of douchery even before Jeremy stuck a bike engine in an FC car.

Back in the day, I started putting a F1000 deal together for my boy Treadway. I looked at who was at the helm and decided to wait a year and see how the series panned out. I'm not sure who was luckier we didn't tool up for that mess, him or us.