Infineon Double Regional

[RussMcB]

Congratulations, Matt. I think your initial outings have been very impressive, especially considering the effort required to get where you are and everything that could have gone wrong. When my car finally gets to the track I fully expect to have problems and not be on the pace of others right off the bat. I do remember a lot of failures and issues with other earlier F1000 cars, so you should feel very proud. I don't have any doubt that your car will soon be getting lap records, wins, and championships like we've seen announced by the other prominent F1000 manufacturer.

[martyb]

Just wanted to comment on how nice it was to finally meet Matt and Dustin and actually see their Phoenix F1000. It is a nicely thought out package, and should do well once it is dialled in.

It sounded pretty certain that you won't be back out to our neck of the woods again for a while; I'll look forward to the next time you do!

Marty

[Matt Conrad]

I'd love to go run Laguna, but the AZ Region race season is going to start here in a few weeks and we want to go support them. Plus....fighting 50+ cars on track was sort of fun....but I'd rather not have to do that if we don't have to.

I also forgot to mention that Tom Robertson ran our first production car at the event over the weekend and had no problems at all. For him to run in the car for the first time....at a very technical track which he had never been to....was a daunting task even for a young man! Good job Tom.

In addition to all the work Dustin and the guys in the shop did, I also want to publicly thank Matt Bringuel for his support for us over the weekend. He contributed a great deal to the effort and I'm very grateful.

We'll try to get back over there next year sometime....

Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC

[GoPro]

Actually he did on that on Sunday, and very impressively I might add! That kid is a rocket!

On Saturday he was having multiple problems, so we were both top qualifier and won the race (in class). Sunday he blew us into the weeds!

Marty

Thanks for the nice words Marty and Lee. I really appreciate it

On Saturday we got 3 qualifying laps in before full course black flag pitted everyone. Then our car wouldn't start because of a bad ground we later identified. No more problems all weekend...but we only got 3 Q laps on SAT and posted a 1:38 something. We were running 1:34s in traffic the day before so that was a bummer...but made for a fun start! We got up to 10th by lap 2 but Donna Gillio knocked out our rear wing (no fault to her at all...she was just tucked in proper when I was pinched on the exit of T11 and had to lift...and she JUST nipped me). We were forced to pit a couple of laps later (meatball) and they ripped the wing off and we got to see what a Stohr F1000 feels like at full tilt with no rear wing.

Well, I can tell you that the rear wing does a lot! Haha. We were beyond loose...running 1:38s I think when before we could post 5 seconds better. We got back up to 23rd over all from DFL (I think) thanks to 2 full course yellows.

What I can say about the Stohr with no rear wing is that it is very driveable...no snap hooks or irregular behavior. Ever driven a car in the snow that's really hooked up in a loose-snow kind of way? "Can do no wrong" slide/carve boogie with lots of time to react to slow drifts? Bingo. Super fun and predictable. As a learning experience, we were fortunate to feel the car with no wing over the limit. If you want to really learn the car and see how it reacts over the limit...you might remove the rear wing for a test session or two on old tires and drive the crap out of it...I think that's a big part of why we had a ripping day on Sunday...because after a wingless Saturday the car felt DYNO-MITE! on Sunday.

Sunday was epic with Q 6th overall and we had a comfy 4th overall in the race, slotted in between 8 FAs with no pressure from behind. But then our rear tires overheated and started blistering. We never got a chance to due proper tire break in and the car was set up with slight oversteer to point better in key turns and I think I am guilty of having too much fun with the oversteer and not being smart enough about tire management. They're just too fun, these cars!!!

Team Auto Spa of Infineon (GoPro's team) was the reason we got the car back on the track in such good trim on Sunday. If you need a hand at Infineon you should look them up...total pros and SUCH nice guys.

All in all...strapped into a screaming Stohr F1000 (or any F1000) amidst a pack of 47+/- cars is a great place to be I hope to have time to post some GoPro videos soon.

Radness Realized -- GoPro

PS - thanks so much for these wonderful machines, all of you F1000 pioneering car builders. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[P. Howarth]

All in all...strapped into a screaming Stohr F1000 (or any F1000) amidst a pack of 47+/- cars is a great place to be I hope to have time to post some GoPro videos soon.

Yes please

[Bill Steele]

I was just wondering what a :32 looks like in an F1000 car at Sears.

I can't wait to see the videos from the GoPro Hero Cam.

[GoPro]

I was just wondering what a :32 looks like in an F1000 car at Sears.

I can't wait to see the videos from the GoPro Hero Cam.

I promise to make time to post this over the weekend. I do have that lap recorded and I'll post it. Or should I? That's good juju!

Just kidding...I'll post it! I hope it looks fast...hehehe

I was just watching some front / rear footage from the Sunday race...we were catching 3rd place FA and losing 4th and 5th FAs cause we were running alone and got into a rhythm. Then the tires melted. BUMMER.

After more review...we're totally guilty of not scrubbing the tires and letting them sit long enough to harden up. They were 175 compound (same used for qualifying and the 1:32). Other factors contributed...but that's likely a big part of it.

Long live F1000 - GoPro