Watkins Glen 2011

[Purple Frog]

OK sportsfans, we are done drifting. Movin' on North.

I know there is that little race in Indy next weekend... but, as the late great Ed Sullivan would say... we have a really big show for you!

As of last night 38 cars are entered in rounds 5 and 6 at Watkins Glen International for the weekend of June 3 - 5. OBTW, 37 are entered in the F1600 half of the event.

75 of the best small bore formula cars in the country all gathering at one of the great cathedrals of speed. This event doesn't need a Madison Avenue exec to hype it up. It is big on it's own.

F2KCS and F1.6KCS will have its craker jack team of field reporters and photographers trying to keep up with the coverage. Monty's fingers are going to be little nubs after a weekend of twittering away to cover this event. Dennis Valet better bring an extra box of memory cards and camera to get all the great shots. I might even find some time to post on Apexspeed. But your primary source for news and info will always be the two series' websites.

Note to all entrants/drivers: Check the competitors section often of each website for any advisories.

Expect to packed in like the proverbial sardines in the paddock. It is going to be very tight to fit our crowd into the delegated space. Work with us when arriving. It appears we will be mixing the classes up in the paddock to fit rigs into spaces based on rig size, not car class. Don't even think about your street vehicles being close at hand.

You will have to come to the grid early. Let me repeat that. You will have to come to grid early. Lining up 40 cars in proper order can not be accomplished "under the 5".

Watkins Glen will not allow us to register you in the paddock. You will first have to go to the registration building to get credentials before being allowed on the premises.

Early word is that the legendary Seneca Lodge will be the after hours headquarters. But... don't be surprised to find social events going on at any number of great watering holes located around Lake Seneca.

Janice and I have become bias over the years, we think WGI is the best place to go racing in North America. A prime reason is there is so much to do in the vicinity. Sailing/cruising on the lake, climbing, waterfalls, wine tours, antiquing, wine tours, sight seeing, wine tours, summer stock off broadway, wine tours...

Less than two weeks.

[HazelNut]

Early word is that the legendary Seneca Lodge will be the after hours headquarters. But... don't be surprised to find social events going on at any number of great watering holes located around Lake Seneca.

Finelli will FINALLY be on hand and I'm assuming he'll resume his former duties as series social director.

[Beartrax]

Mike,
I am looking forward to seeing you, Janice & the whole f2000/1600 gang.

It looks to be a fantastic weekend!

[Monty M]

First draft entry list is out for F2000: http://www.f2000series.com/drivers.html

[Purple Frog]

An event of this magnitude requires the presence of Jim Morgan! Twice the size entry, twice the stirring he can do. And who will babysit Jordan and Defer if not Morgan?

[starkejt]

Wow, I really hope to make it to this one.

[jim morgan]

Frog,
For years I thought the being at the track and not driving sucked. Now I realize not being there at all sucks worse. I only hope Finelli can find the motivation to provide some "Adult Supervision"

[Beartrax]

Frog,
For years I thought the being at the track and not driving sucked. Now I realize not being there at all sucks worse. I only hope Finelli can find the motivation to provide some "Adult Supervision"

Finelli requires "Adult Supervision", he certainly is not capable of providing it!

[LenFC11]

Finelli requires "Adult Supervision", he certainly is not capable of providing it!

[Will Velkoff]

This will be my first F2000/F1600 race weekend, really excited! I'll be heading out with Angelo as his "helper" on Bob Wrights machine.

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

-Will

[billwald]

Good luck at the Glen!

[Purple Frog]

Its easy to remember why racing in WGI is so much more pleasant than Florida in June. It's June 2nd and everybody is bundled up in sweatshirts. Gotta love the weather. Windy, or maybe better stated: WINDY. Bright skies, but a ton of constant wind out of the NW. Temps in the 70s, maybe.

Connery, got out of the simulator in WPB and drove north to WGI, not forgetting a thing he learned. So, for his first session ever on the track he set fastest time in the morning session.

In the afternoon session, the pace picked up. Connery was in after only a few laps. Livengood was the star of the session. His 1:52.9 was the quickest of the day, and he backed it up with multiple laps in that range.

Current points leader, Remy Audette was second fastest.

Robert LaRocca in a HPTech RFR was third, followed closely by Tim Minor.

5th was Niki Coello in his RFR, followed by Potolicchio in another HPTech RFR.

Zach Craigo (Front Range) was 7th, with Tom Schwietz following in his Piper. The top 10 was rounded out by two of the Alegra cars, Gustavo Rizzo, and Angel Benitez.

The day had 36 cars taking the green. Unfortunately, Rob Nicholas went home when his motor went bad. Brian Tomasi also seems out with serious motor issues. Jeff McCusker has been forced to withdraw when an off course excursion damaged his bellhousing beyond paddock repair. Jonathon Scarallo, was busy rebuilding a LD200 and missed the second session, but should be back strong in the morning. Ardie Greenamyer suffered having his zetec swallow a small copper washer , but as the sun was setting Ardie's crew with the help of Erik from QS, was reinstalling the repaired head.

There were so many of the F2KCS contingent at the Seneca Lodge this evening, we probably could of just held the drivers meeting there. I do believe Charles Finelli may have had a larger contingent than Patrick Dempsey. Patrick did compliment the Fat Boys on their now famous day-glo hats as he passed by on the way to his private dining room. The Fat Boys table had an empty chair in hohor of our missing chaparone, Jim Morgan.

[Jtovo]

Connery, got out of the simulator in WPB and drove north to WGI, not forgetting a thing he learned. So, for his first session ever on the track he set fastest time in the morning session.

It always amazes me when someone can do that, just incredible.

[jim morgan]

Uncle Bill picked up 3 seconds on Uncle Mark ?

[nulrich]

Notice the name of the driver isn't listed next to number 42 for the second practice session. I'm told it wasn't Bill Jordan driving...

Nathan

[JohnPaul]

I just heard Kyle wrecked today, anyone have any details?

[Mike B]

http://eformulacarnews.com/news_info.php?n=9090

[starkejt]

Tonis Kasemets was in Bill Jordan's car in the afternoon session at 1:51.2, which is why the results have the name blank. The EFCN page understandably doesn't show his time, which was technically the fastest.

[Purple Frog]

OK this was a full day.

The first practice was ended 2 minutes early when Connery went hard backwards into the tire wall at T11. Kyle wasn't moving in the car, so Dave called for the checker and rolled the ambulance. Shortly thereafter Kyle climbed out of his car but wasn't feeling well enough to jog back to the pits. After telling the EMTs his lower back hurt, he was rapidly on a board and being wisked away to the hospital in Elmira. There he under went a lot of test, scans, etc. Of course, in Kyle's case the docs had to weed out what was damage from years of kart accidents and what was recent. Kyle was back in the paddock by sunset, a bit stiff, but planning to try to qualify the Connery Concrete Special in the morning. Lee Racing had the car reassembled by 10 p.m. Kyle had posted the 3rd fastest time in the morning session.

In that first session, something like 8 cars were under the old F2kCS track record. (Gotta love these new Hoosier radials) Conditions were near perfect. Coolish temps, bright skies, and a fairly stiff wind out of the north. Remy topped the chart with LaRocca only a tenth behind. 3 RFRs in the top 10.

The afternoon session was somewhat calmer, but much faster. Remy was fastest of all the entrants, breaking multiple times into the 1:51s. Of course many were watching the live timing with askance. Bill Jordan's #42 was blistering the pace with multiple laps in the 1:51s, and getting progressively faster as the session went on. About half of those on the pit wall figured out that a blue helmet with "Kasmets" written on it might not be Jordan's helmet. PoleStar had gotten prior permission to run Tonis in Bill's car to set a baseline on the data, and check out the setup. Tonis would do an outlap, a hot lap, and an in lap... Polestar would make some adjustments, and out Tonis would go for another three laps. Each time he got quicker. It was fun to watch.

On a more serious side, Remy kept bringing his times down all session. His 1:51.9 being over a full second under the existing record. 4 others were under the old record; Coello, Livengood, LaRocca and Benitez. Behind Remy's outstanding times, second thru tenth place were all covered under a 1 second blanket.

Qualifying early tomorrow morning should be pretty exciting. With only about 1 hour between the end of qualifying and the grid for the race, there will not be a lot of time for repairs nor big changes. It should be a fairly tense morning.

[JohnPaul]

Any pictures? specifically the guys with the full Dauntless setup??

[KevinFirlein]

we are the only car with the Daunltess package and we lost the motor on thursday. Spare still being rebuilt so car is already back in Virginia

[JohnPaul]

Damn too bad, I blew my engine in Sebring in Feb. What a sh@tty drive home. Take some pics and post them

[Purple Frog]

Pretty damn spectactular!

Great weather, great track. Really large field. Three different race leaders.

In the end Remy gets a well deservered sweep of a really special weekend.

Tim Minor lead for a few laps. He finished 3rd and Top Master.

Livengood (Walko) crashes in qualifying and has to change a complete front corner and nose in less than 2 hours to make the grid. Then he finishes the race on the podium in second.

At one point Kyle Connery was leading. He spins. While trying to come back up through the field he hits some debri that cuts his rear brake line cleanly in two.

Nathan Morcom (Primus) had to do a complete engine sway saturday night to come back for a strong 7th finish.

Luckily, Lee Williams (Williams Race Development) had a spare used diff. Craig Clawson claimed it to replace the one that he broke in Saturday's race. Clawson came back Sunday finishing 9th.

Tom Schweitz is getting the Piper dialed in. Finishes the race in a strong 5th.

All-in-all one of the best weekends in the Series history.

[rp]

Did anyone use or see the NEW Showers in the paddock ? And If so where they are located ?
rp

[John Walko]

Hi Pete,
The new showers are a little small but quite nice, good heat and water pressure... There just after the tunnel that leads to the outside of the boot.

[kea]

What I found interesting from the WGI weekend, was the fact that Bill Jordan's test driver, using his rather standard format car (no alloy calipers, fancy F-1 looking wings) drove a faster lap than anyone else did all weekend. If they had done anything "special" to the car, the data would not have done any good for Bill or the other team members. And although he wasn't quite as advanced in years as Bill, he's not a kid anymore (I remember him then).

[John Walko]

Hi Keith, you may also notice that the next three quickest cars all weekend were running stock aero packages our car and Remy's have completely stock 1999 aero packages long rear wing mounts and all, Kyle's car appears to have the Elan DP-08 nose (my favorite of the high noses) and the long rear mounts. It seems that many people racing in the series now either weren't around in 2003 or don't remember that the then "Cooper Series" mandated the high nose configuration because it was cheaper not better...

[starkejt]

Not only did Tonis go faster than anyone else, he did it immediately and at will. Audette was pacing the field in the low 1:52s before Tonis threw down the gauntlet. First timed lap Tonis drove I believe was a 1:51.7, which he then backed up on the 2nd lap. After a few laps in the 51s, he got out of the car and removed his helmet. Some time later, Audette did a 1:51.8 or 9, and Tonis put his gear back on, got back in the car, did an out lap followed by a 1:51.2 and then came back in the pits. What a bad MF.

[mark defer]

it was a great exercise for the team and we appreciate the series allowing us to accomplish it on the practice day. their only requirement was that he had a proper license and had signed the waiver, which he had.
for the team, it accomplished 2 things.
first of all, it let jim know that the cars were damn close. both bill and i [can't speak for dan] have felt that the cars feel as good as they ever have. "good as they ever have" doesn't cut it with jim though. he's constantly pumping us for how to make the cars faster. and for me, more often than naught, i just feel that i'm the the limiting factor so i don't have a lot of feedback to give him. so i'm sure it made jim feel good to know that tonis got bill's car up to speed immediately with no changes from the previous session. scary to think what those two could do with a couple of sessions under their belts.
secondly, it set a great baseline for steve to tell us old farts where we are lacking and what areas to concentrate working on. and believe me, the areas lacking are obvious.
here's the wierd thing though. i went home after work last night and pulled out some old race sheets from nationals in 2000. i was routinely outqualifing tonis in cendiv that year. even beat him in a race or 2. when did he get so damn fast? or did i slow down?

mark d

[jim morgan]

Mark,

I bet if you go back to 2007 "similar" cars had about the same gap. Kind of like every time I get in the Swift the car mysteriously slows down.

[Cole Morgan]

I've always known Tonis is a great driver, but I never really realized how good until recent. When we did the Hoosier Tire test this year, it was really cool opportunity to work with Tonis, while also learning as much as I could from him. He is incredibly fast, can go like hell right out of the box, and without putting the car off. Not only is he a great driver, he's an extremely nice guy off track. Truly one of the best.

[Purple Frog]

Sunday's podium.

[Alan R Guibord]

Congratulations to all the winners. Especially Tim Minor. He makes us older guys proud.

[Al Craighead]

First off, congrats to Remy for the doubleheader sweep and the other guys earning visits to the podium. As always, it sounds like the F2000 guys put on a great show at the Glen.

As for Tonis, in my mind he's one of the those special drivers (like David Empringham or Martin Guimont to name a couple) who never got the chance to showcase their true talents at the top level in a good ride. An unfortunately reality in racing. That being said, he is a true racer. Unlike guys who say how much they love racing, but when don't make it all the way we never hear from them again, Tonis can be found behind the wheel year after year, racing anything and everything.