USF2000 Race - Sebring (FE Grid Portion)

[Zambo]

With the beginning of the season just about ready to start, some of us are curious as to what is going on. How about some updates from Sebring?

Last I heard, 14 FE's are entered. Notables include:

The ever spry and youthful Wally Osinga; Patrick Linn a/k/a Mr. PRL Motorsports; Patrick Gallagher; the reigning Pro and Runoffs Champ Scott Rettich; Eric (I'm not going to roll over again) Cruz; Jim Libecco and Mr. Excitement, Mark Eaton.

Good luck to all and let the rest of us know what is going on.

[ASRF1000]

Check out live timing and scoring on USF2000.com

Next test session is at 6:00 eastern

[Matthew Inge]

FE's seem to be off of the Continentals.

From memory an FC can run a 2:05 - 2:06. FE around 2:08 is a great lap. Looks like the tires slowed both down by 2 seconds. Sebring will be a big advantage for the FC with the aero bits.

Good luck all.

[Cole Morgan]

Matt, my FC track record is a 2.07.5. Fastest I've ever done in a club setup is a 2.07.0.

[Cole Morgan]

Also remember the track is very quick this week with the ALMS guy laying down some very tacky rubber.

[ASRF1000]

Young 15 year old RC Enerson laid down a 2:06.960 in a national class FC in the 1st practice session today. He just turned 15 a week ago.

[Speed Sport Engineering]

Must be one hell of a weekly allowance...

[Tiago Santos]

Hehe. All those useless video games, eh?

[ASRF1000]

The kid's been P1 in all test and practice sessions. Got to give him credit. He's got the talent and wants this to be a career and his parents are standing behind him. More power to them.

[Matthew Inge]

The kid's been P1 in all test and practice sessions. Got to give him credit. He's got the talent and wants this to be a career and his parents are standing behind him. More power to them.

Didn't we all..... But seriously, very quick time.

Cole, I was giving you more credit than what you deserved. Typical...
From what I've heard, the tire is 1-2 seconds slower on an FE depending upon track. There's no doubt an FC is quicker than an FE 9 times out of 10.

[Matthew Inge]

Being under the Z-Sports tent sure does help too... Those guys are good.

[DaveB]

Matthew, at the BIR pro race last year Scott put a real Spanking on the FC track record. Scott seems to be stuck in the low 10's. The race will be interesting .
Dave

[Dennis Valet]

Here is the starting grid

http://www.usf2000.com/results/2012/...0Line%20Up.pdf

12 FEs....

Best times for each class

USF2000 - 2:03.917
National FC - 2:07.766
National FE - 2:09.818

[John Robinson II]

congrats to Mark Eaton and Mick Robinson, win in race 1 and 2nd in race 2. Great Job!
John

[F1000champ]

Great turn-out at Sebring. Congrats to all.

[La Scuderia Raggi]

Would any of you that participated in this event like to share your experience with the rest of us?

[iamuwere]

It is well run.
There are lots of very, very quick drivers involved in both classes.
There was a fair bit of carnage up front in the event.

There is still a good bit of work to make an FE competitive with a Zetec FC, at least at Sebring. I believe they are waiting to see what happens at a street course like St Pete this weekend where the larger tire/torquier engine might be more important.

It was great having drivers like Johnny Unser, Derek Daly, Anders Krohn and Andy Lally at our disposal for advice and coaching.

If anyone in the top half of these fields lands enough sponsorship, they are the future of sportscar/open wheel racing.

I feel I have gained knowledge and speed in just the first event.

I can't wait for St Pete.

There are some fast Vikings.

Jim

[iamuwere]

Patrick Gallagher apparently has some engine issue that developed in the second race.

I had a battery fail, but only during practice.

It was nice have One Formula join the fun.

Cars with 3-5 degrees of camber look funny.

[La Scuderia Raggi]

Thank you Jim!
I had a great time when I ran the Pro FE event at Miller in Utah. Wish we had some opportunity out here in the West!
Chuck

[jcorsico]

Patrick Gallagher apparently has some engine issue that developed in the second race.

I had a battery fail, but only during practice.

It was nice have One Formula join the fun.

Cars with 3-5 degrees of camber look funny.

What does everyone think of the radials? Faster? Slower? Harder to drive? Better lifepspan?

[iamuwere]

I think the radials are different. I am not sure better or worse yet.

They are slower than the Hoosiers we have been running, at least for now.

They requires lots of camber to make them work. They have good lateral grip but don't seem to have as much braking ability with the added camber.

The slip angles are very nice, though. They have a very gentle breakaway and seem to like to roll into the corner.

I don't have enough green flag laps to really be able to compare durability. It seems good. I am going to use the same practice tires from Sebring at St Pete and even debate using the race rubber for the qual session. From the laps I do have on them, they are not deteriorating quickly.

[PRLMotorsports]

I love the tires. Different feel, harder to drive, less forgiving, heavier, however they hold up. the stated 160 miles not heat cycles may be misleading but for anyone who wants to drive almost anything outside of Scca and move up in there carriers it is a must you learn how to drive on them (radials). They have great grip, but when you lose it you won't recover 7/10 times unlike the forgiving Hoosiers. I hope my diabolical crash on Fridays race makes the highlights I had fun, the inexperienced drivers are tough to deal with (they should all be forced to run one Scca event with FA's and fv's in a run group), I just hope they have learned some things prior to st. Pete. Sebrings corner workers also need to retire, I went into the hairpin (no caution flags from a wreck happing 6secs ahead of me) and didn't come out because of some S*&()% kid not being able to control his car in a panic. I still had fun, and thanks again to the Robinson Motorsports crew for letting me use there shop all weekend and drink there diet coke! Great bunch of guys.