Hoosier Tire FST Rounds 5 & 6 - Grattan

[Jmader08]

What do you mean "with EP"?

Does anyone know if Grattan has electrical outlets at each paddock like waterford?

[kea]

No they do not.

[rgu]

Its the extreme pressure additive. Any good gear oil has it. ATF probably doesn't.

[teamclark]

Qualifying

Rob Clark (pole)
Doug Seim
Dave Dawson
Bill Bonow
Bill Wise
Reece Everard

Race 1:

Rob Clark 1:25.105 (new lap record)
Bill Bonow 1:25.629
Bill Wise 1.27.163
Dave Dawson 1.27.532

More details to follow.

[Doug FST 5]

Beautiful racing weather today!

Qualifying:

Rob Clark 1:24.903
Bill bonow 1:25.276
Doug Seim 1:25.403
Jim Nash 1:28.062
Sam Farmiga 1:30.703
Jonathan Mader 1:30.754
Butch Deer 1:31.204
Dave Blevins 1:35.018
Doug Sharp 1:39.875

Race Results

Doug Seim 1:24.988 (darn close to lap record)
Rob Clark 1:25.072
Bill Bonow 1:24.910 (new lap record!)
Jim Nash 1:27.868
Doug Sharp 1:29.957
Butch Deer 1:31.727
Sam Farmiga 1:32.291
Dave Blevins 1:34.216
Jonathan Mader 1:31.360

[Steve Hill]

Congrats Rob on winning the BattlePack.Com total race points award!

Steve and Sarah Hill

[rgu]

I don't know why but I just picked up a Road and Track and looked at the pony car feature.

$55-65K Camaros and Mustangs can run a 1:28 lap time at Grattan. 16K FST car runs 1.24.9 with 30 less mph at the end of the front straight. FST cars tire cost 1/3 of the pony cars. Fastest FST (You can buy one just like it for 14K) was towed to the track by a Chevy Cruze (17K) which got 25 mpg.

So for 31K you get 1.7 g cornering and no speeding tickets and brake pads for 28 bucks for all four wheels!!

Think about it.

And yes that 1.24.9 was on an oily track with plenty of kitty liter. Your time may vary

[Bill Bonow]

Robert,

Have to be fair, I bought a trailer for $400 and put another $200 into it, so $600 has to be added to the $31k

It was my first time back to the track in exactly one year (too damn long for my liking). I love Grattan and had a blast, always good close racing. Although the total event entry level was low, I noticed plenty of people lining the fences to watch the FST races. Always a good show.

One point I would like to make about the weekend, I am really on a shoestring budget (hence my late season start), so I ran old tires all weekend. I did see that both Rob and Doug bolted on stickers during the weekend, but that was never a factor. I'm not sure if I had marked all the heat cycles on the side wall, but going by previous marks, the new lap record at Grattan was set on heat cycle 16. This was a heads up comparison against two top notch guys with fresh rubber. In this class, with these tires (Hoosier R60's), the package is spot on. I don't care what happens with tire longevity in CFF (the class the tires are designed for), these tires take the "tire factor" out of our racing in FST.

I love Bruce Foss and Hoosier Tires

[teamclark]

[FONT=Verdana]I know for some it was a tough weekend at Grattan, but for me we had just about the perfect weekend.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Saturday the car came off the trailer perfect (unlike the wheel Jim lost off the trailer on the way up) and we nabbed pole with a quick lap early in the session before the headwind came up down the front straight. The Race 1 start was a different story, I got jumped by cars on both sides of me heading into turn one and Reece threw in a blinder pass round the outside that left me back in 5th - unluckily for him his engine expired a couple of corners later. I then diced with an energetic Bill Wise for a couple of laps before getting past and setting off in pursuit of Doug & Bill who had a good lead. Eventually ran then down, in the process getting a great double tow that lowered my track record. I got past Bill who was struggling with top end, but was struggling with Doug's straight line speed when he broke a head stud and had to retire - that left me wide open and despite some pressure from Bill I ran out for the win.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Sunday Qualifying for me and for the crowd watching was a ripper. Bill hooked up with me and we ran some good laps, but with no beacon out and my radio getting unplugged I had no idea where I was, pulled into the pits and got the radio connected and Tracy told me I was second behind Bill and there was 8 minutes left in the session with both Bill and Doug still out there I went out to try and see if I could grab the pole, I couldn't quite get there, and had no drafting partners and the crew were telling me to come in. Crossing the line Tracy told me I had one lap left so I gave it everything and the last lap did it, claimed pole wth a 1:24.903 - what turned out to be the fastest lap of the weekend. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Race 2 was a typical FST race, with the 3 cars at the front Bill, Doug and I swapping places back and forth. Doug had a half spin in the middle of the race and I thought I might have gained enough of a gap to hold him off, but a couple of mistakes on my part allowed Bill to close and as we started to dice, Doug caught back up and passed down the front straight. Doug's straight line speed was going to make it tough to pull off a pass and I had several attempts but could only get along side. I thought about a late braking dive into Turn 1, but decided 2nd was better then a DNF.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Bill used the two of us in front to good advantage and pulled out a awesome fast lap, on the last lap, and claimed a new lap record of 1:24:910[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Have say a big thanks as always to Jim and the team at SR Racing, and also to Mark Kelly, you couldn't ask for a better race engineer then Mark in the pits![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Finally thanks to the event sponsors, Steve & Sarah Hill for sponsoring the BattlePack Grattan Meister Cup, Keith Averill from Averill Racing Stuff for his donation of prizes and of course our series sponsor Hoosier Racing Tire gotta love their black stuff!![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I am working on the video's will post up as soon as they are done.[/FONT]

[Doug FST 5]

Another fantastic weekend of great racing and camaraderie! Many thanks to Robert, Randy and Matt for putting a great car on the grid every session. Also many thanks to Steve and Sarah at BattlePack as well as Keith Averil for their event sponsorship for the weekend - wish you could have been with us - it was a great show!

The paddock was busy on Saturday as folks pitched in to help guys resolve problems and tune setups. Saturday evening was a great time of bench racing, trading conspiracy theories and all that.

In Race 1 I had a great start but ran the opening lap on the conservative side. From there I worked to run down Bill and got it done. It looked like we had the solution for the checker until the engine went a little off song and we started putting oil smoke in the sky.

Race 2 looked like more of the same. In qualifying chose to run alone since there wasn't much time between qualifying and the race. I saw that Rob and Bill were near each other in false grid and figured the pole would happen there. For the race the track was in the best shape we could expect based on the oil loss in the previous race. You couldn't run to the apex in turn 1 and you had to run turn 3 tight. The normal concerns about running wide down the hill in 4 were made worse by the stripe of oil there. Another good start and another couple lap chase to get the car in front. I went for a little too much in 3 and put the right rear on the oil stripe (dumb!). I was just looking for a way to get the car out of the way of traffic at that point. Damaging three cars with 2 weeks between series races would be really bad. Surprisingly the car got up on the grass without looping around. I got back on the track about 4 car lengths behind Bill and Rob. After a corner or two to make sure I hadn't blown the alignment it was time to chase them down. I made some headway in that but the closing lap dicing between them certainly helped. I took the lead with two to go and trusted Dave Carr to keep the car in that spot on the final full trip down the long front straight. I saw Rob looking inside and left room for him in 1 (not much room!). Matt set up the car to optimize speed through the twisties after the jump which gave us some room to avoid an early draft by on the straight. A simply great race for us!

Attachment 32602

Can't wait for Road America - the fastest our cars go all season!

Doug FST 5

[jsteeb]

I am so jealous right now.

I was wondering if the cooler air temps, and rubbered in pavement would lead to lower lap times. Really spectactular times guys! Great job!

Glad to hear it was a typical FST weekend. Sounds like the battles were pretty exciting. I really wish we could have made it out to this event, but it just wasn't in the cards.

*sigh*

And, don't be too hard on the pony cars! Especially one of them in particular. If we could work launch control, no lift shifts, and the pleasing rumble of a chevy V8 into the FST concept it would be perfect.

Again - great job guys!

Jason

[steve everard]

Despite the spun bearing that took Reece out of Race 1 and 2 (after a perfect start from 6th to 3rd) we still enjoyed the whole formula First experience especially with some of the exposure the series got from the national event crowd we raced with this weekend.
It seems that many people where aware of the class but this was the first time they had experienced the thrills of really close racing with I don't know how many lead changes.
Thanks to "Battlepack", "Averill race Stuff" and "Hoosier Tire" for their sponsorship support.

Steve

[rgu]

Major thanks go to our event sponsors Steve Hill from Battlepack and Averill Racing Stuff. They made this event special for everyone and we appreciate their efforts. And speaking of “special”, I think from the standpoint of organization this was a terrific event. I learned a bit about restricted regionals and how they happen but it was clear to me that Verne Wandell and Dale Frame from Western Michegan gave us everything we needed for a great event. Things like a schedule that is quite different that what the national guys use and we got it. I looked back and they exchanged 22 e-mails with me to get it right. Maybe some of those people who go to the club racing planning meetings should talk to these guys because they did it the way it needs to be done.

I was also pleased that our association FFDA donated 25 lunches to the workers at the track who were just super. With the crappy weather on Friday (rain, wind, 57 degrees) I was amazed they even showed up. They did and were ready for us and turned in a great job which included cleaning up about a mile of oil before our event.

All of our drivers came endured some bad weather and just kept working until their cars were ready to go. Jon Mader and Sam Farmiga just kept improving as did Dr. Doug Sharp. Matt Seim did total alignments on two cars in a matter of three hours moving them from rolling disasters to race ready. The result of all this was a series of great races throughout the pack. This is exactly what we want.

Naturally we were timing from up on the garage and I was able to sneak a look at others. Like me they were intently watching for the cars to come up the to the pit straight, setting up for drafts at the flag, then they would look under the tower to see what happened on entrance to turn 1, then turn back to see who was in the lead coming down the hill--- then watching the split at the jump turn –this happened lap after lap. Very entertaining.

[Bill Bonow]

Still winding down from a great weekend. I need to thank the people that make this series the best it can be as well as the Grattan weekend in particular.

Steve and Sarah Hill from BattlePack.com - Thank you so much for getting involved with our little group. We all appreciate your support of the class and helping to make this Grattan weekend very special.

Keith Averill from Averill Racing Stuff - Keith has been around for a long long time supporting racers from all over the country. Loads of knowledge and always at Great Lakes events helping racers of all types. Keith is new to us and we're very thankful to have him supporting the Grattan event. Thank you Keith, welcome to FST.
(Note: I was too focused helping Dr. Doug Sharp change engines on Saturday night to remind you that many, many moon ago, I ran an Argo JM-4 when you were getting ready to hang up the RT-1)

Hoosier Tire - Can't stop raving about Hoosier. Bruce was there for us on day one and have never stopped supporting our cause.

Western Michigan Region - Verne Wandell and Dale Frame. FST has been coming to Grattan with the Western Michigan Region with FST's since 2003. These guys have always been good to FST and really stepped up by giving us our first opportunity to showcase FST to a National crowd. Thank you WMR

Larry Campbell and Penny Morgan of Campbell Motorsport - Larry and Penny have been so very helpful and supportive of my personal racing and the development of the Evolution for the past (8) years. I am really lucky to have Larry as a friend, supporter and the constructor of the best FST money can buy.

I come off of weekends like we just had in awe of the great little club racing program that FST and the Hoosier FST series has become.

Thanks to everyone involved.

[rgu]

Rob Clark won the cup with a first place finish Saturday and a second on Sunday. Much congratulations Rob--you were truly the Grattan Meister.

Now the Big Question---Should we do this every race?

[teamclark]

If by 'doing it every race' you mean me winning then I am all in......

Seriously I like the idea of a Trophy for the weekends overall points winner. Maybe a jewel encrusted ring????

[teamclark]

Race video's are posted at the following links.

[FONT=Helv][FONT=Helv]https://vimeo.com/47497449 - Round 5[/FONT]

[FONT=Helv]https://vimeo.com/47509298 - Round 6[/FONT][/FONT]

[Doug FST 5]

Awesome video as always from Rob's car. Thanks!!!

Doug FST 5

[Steve Hill]

What's all that waving and finger pointing? Love the video

Steve

[teamclark]

Steve

I had some cramping in my fingers so tried to flex it out.....

[Steve Hill]

That's what I thought it was....LOL

Steve

I had some cramping in my fingers so tried to flex it out.....

[2BWise]

Double post...whoops

[2BWise]

I hadn't realized that we were 3 wide going thru Turn 1 at the start. Had to have been quite interesting being in the middle of that.

Little bit of frustration after getting swarmed at the start!? If I was running for points I could have made it a lot more difficult on you. I left you lots of room in Turn 2 and you didn't take it. When you got by on Lap 3 in Turn 1 you left the door wide open for me to cross over on you and beat you into Turn 2 again. I actually had to back way out of it to let you get by. I'd hoped to use you as a drafting partner to catch up to the leaders, but I wasn't quite close enough when we made it back around to the start.

Big thanks to Jim for letting me in the seat and allowing me to provide some feedback. With a couple potential changes that thing will be right up at the pointy end making the lead pack even more interesting. Watch out!

https://vimeo.com/47397590

[teamclark]

Bill

Yeah the start was frustrating, if you watch the video I had a wobble going in and Reece put a great move on the outside...I was OK to settle back at that point, as long as the pack stays together at Grattan being 5th on the first lap means nothing.

Once Reece dropped off and I reeled you in I was 'pointing out' you were dicing for every corner, and rather then 'leaving me room' I wanted you to get on it rather then letting the leaders gallop away, which they were

But I like to wave my hands a lot, if I keep on the wheel there are too many chances for me to screw things up

[dd46637]

Very cool video guys. Of course I would prefer to be in the front veiw. I did learn about 6 different things from watching including why I am still 1.5 sec. slower than Rob. Where do you get the data software?

[2BWise]

www.racerender.com

Pretty cheap; $25. Output your data file as a .csv and you can add it to the video. Takes some time to figure out how to sync the data and video, but once you figure it out it's not too bad.

[dd46637]

Thanks Bill.