FRP F1600 Team Requires Mechanics

[problemchild]

RiceRace is looking for experienced crew to support our multicar F1600 program.

Here is our schedule
https://www.formularacepromotions.co...-series/events

We will also be at the Road Atlanta Super Tour (Mar 20-22) and Road America June Sprints (June 12-14).

Contact Greg Rice greg13rice-at-hotmail.com

[Logpile98]

Greg, I just sent you an email. I need to update my profile on here, as I now live in Rochester, NY.

[problemchild]

Trying to resolve some email issues. Luke finally connected with me.

I am now monitoring my RiceRacePrep-at-gmail.com address so please redirect communication (on any Apexspeed matters) to that address. These email issues have been going back for some time, so if anyone sent me an email which you thought I ignored, please try again. Thanks!

[problemchild]

The season is shaping up nicely, but need some more help.
RiceRacePrep-at- gmail.com

http://www.riceraceprep.com/2020/02/...s-to-ricerace/
http://www.riceraceprep.com/2020/02/...-f1600-season/

[cliff]

congrats on the driver line-up.
looks to be the team to beat!!

[problemchild]

congrats on the driver line-up.
looks to be the team to beat!!

Thanks Cliff.
Hope we see you at some!

[problemchild]

I really don't mind if someone wants to hijack my thread.

In regard to too many competing race series, one might want to look at the last 51 years of history of OW racing in North America, and note that FV and FF were here first. FF has evolved into F1600. ALL the others came after, and many of us believe that FF/F1600 is the best first step in cars. For lower budget racers, FV is the best step in cars. If you look at the current fields of drivers in Indycar and IMSA, a large number came through FF/F1600 (both FRP and Canadian).

Update: Three people who responded to my offer worked for the team this summer, and are a huge part of the monster success the team is having. One 20 year old stepped in as head mechanic on Simon Sikes car, won the June Sprints at his first SCCA event, and has won 6 more times in FRP since. These guys were far more interested in the race cars than their phones.

I will be looking for similar help in 2021, but it will be very tough to match my 2020 recruits.
Thanks!

[E1pix]

No question that F1600 is still the best class for young upstarts carving their way up, especially coming out of karts. As a fifty-year fan of the class, I’m glad that’s still the case.

Perhaps off-topic but consistent with your points... who was America’s first FF graduate to enter the Indy 500?

(no cheating allowed without protest)

I will add, he was also the first to alter the path to Indy... from its long-traditional, circle-track background to the then-new and now-common ladder of karts > FF > junior winged formula > Indy cars.

[billtebbutt]

No question that F1600 is still the best class for young upstarts carving their way up, especially coming out of karts. As a fifty-year fan of the class, I’m glad that’s still the case.

Perhaps off-topic but consistent with your points... who was America’s first FF graduate to enter the Indy 500?

(no cheating allowed without protest)

I will add, he was also the first to alter the path to Indy... from its long-traditional, circle-track background to the then-new and now-common ladder of karts > FF > junior winged formula > Indy cars.

Is Gordon Smiley (1982) a fair guess?

[E1pix]

Gordon was a friend and race reporting mentor (we both started at 14, 14 years apart) but he debuted at Indy in 1980. He had a legitimate shot at winning in ‘81 for Patrick Racing — his only good Indy ride — alongside Johncock and Mario.

I don’t recall his being a karter, but believe he started in a G Production Spitfire — when underaged by a year or so. At some later point he claimed being three years younger, including being listed as “33” after his awful ‘82 crash, so in the eyes of his local Regioneers was four years younger by then. ;-)

Both practices were much more common in those days, if not invisible today, and he once wrote me “The day of the 20 year-old F1 driver is fast approaching,” though that took longer than thought.

But Gordon really cut his teeth in Formulas B and Ford. He raced FB in at least one Runoffs (‘71), Formula Continental once (Club-version Super Vee, 1977) and also only once in Formula Ford to my knowledge, in 1975 — first with the recalcitrant Titan Mk9 which proved as no upgrade to their great Mk6 series — and in the end qualifying and racing a Zink Z10 owned by our own forum member.

Overall, I personally consider Gordon to have been another product of Formula Ford, carrying that to pro Atlantic in the Days of Gilles in ‘76, showing well at times from the Fred Opert-Chevron tent.


Ahem, sorry... hope the OP doesn’t mind a little history here...

But the driver I mentioned first showed at Indy four years before Gordon, and has never gotten credit for inventing the new ladder.
(Hint: with the help of Carl Haas).

[cliff]

I'll give it a shot
Eddie Miller...?

[E1pix]

Well done.

Subtlety was “he entered Indy,” made a rookie mistake, and a great career mostly stopped.

He’s a wonderful guy and doing well, by the way.


First Indy qualifiers coming from Super Vee, and in many cases Formula Ford, started with Tom Bagley in 1978. From memory only, to follow in quick succession were Dennis Firestone and/or Michael Chandler, Bill Alsup, Bob Lazier, and Herm Johnson, all by 1982.

The days of Indycar training at Eldora and Winchester and Terre Haute were mostly gone forever.

[billtebbutt]

Gordon was a friend and race reporting mentor (we both started at 14, 14 years apart) but he debuted at Indy in 1980. He had a legitimate shot at winning in ‘81 for Patrick Racing — his only good Indy ride — alongside Johncock and Mario.

I don’t recall his being a karter, but believe he started in a G Production Spitfire — when underaged by a year or so. At some later point he claimed being three years younger, including being listed as “33” after his awful ‘82 crash, so in the eyes of his local Regioneers was four years younger by then. ;-)

Both practices were much more common in those days, if not invisible today, and he once wrote me “The day of the 20 year-old F1 driver is fast approaching,” though that took longer than thought.

But Gordon really cut his teeth in Formulas B and Ford. He raced FB in at least one Runoffs (‘71), Formula Continental once (Club-version Super Vee, 1977) and also only once in Formula Ford to my knowledge, in 1975 — first with the recalcitrant Titan Mk9 which proved as no upgrade to their great Mk6 series — and in the end qualifying and racing a Zink Z10 owned by our own forum member.

Overall, I personally consider Gordon to have been another product of Formula Ford, carrying that to pro Atlantic in the Days of Gilles in ‘76, showing well at times from the Fred Opert-Chevron tent.


Ahem, sorry... hope the OP doesn’t mind a little history here...

But the driver I mentioned first showed at Indy four years before Gordon, and has never gotten credit for inventing the new ladder.
(Hint: with the help of Carl Haas).

I owned GS's Merlyn FB car for a while a few years ago. It was one of only 3 I "think" (I am no Merlyn expert!), and i believe Scheckter still owns his. It was a large pile of decent parts that i never got around to putting together, sold along to a fellow in Arkansas....... That may have been a mistake

BT

[E1pix]

If he ran your car in ‘71, you’ve either seen this, or should. FB coverage starts at 15:10, with an errant note calling Mike Hall “Mike Hansen” — but the entire video is great.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNGVb3ZFkEf

Bittersweet last shot for us — RIP Bob. Tom Davey, too.