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Here is my shot at a start grid....let me know if your in our out.
Yes
Butch Deer (entered)
Rob Clark (entered)
Dave Dawson (entered)
Doug Seim (entered)
Sam Farmiga (entered)
Jim Nash (entered)
Bill Bonow (entered)
Dave Blevins (entered)
Doug Sharp (entered)
Bill Wolfe (entered)
Maybe?
Jason Steeb
Randy Shinn
Definate No
Lance Renshaw
Gary Grubb
George Podgorski
Jerad Smith
Reece Everard
Jon Mader
Brian Finegan
Last edited by teamclark; August 22nd, 2012 at 5:44 AM.
As everyone packs up and heads for Road America, we have a starting line up of 10 cars. Weather for the weekend is promising to be warm with a stray thunderstorm possible.
The Championship is still very tight with four rounds to go - Doug Seim & Rob Clark trading a pair of round wins each, Bill Bonow at his 'home' track and coming off strong form at Grattan after sitting out the first two rounds, and Dave Dawson with a repaired engine ready to go, are all in the mix and others improving and ready to join the front pack.
We can expect some very close drafting in the front bunch on RA's long straights.
Startling Line Up
Butch Deer
Rob Clark
Dave Dawson
Doug Seim
Sam Farmiga
Jim Nash
Bill Bonow
Dave Blevins
Doug Sharp
Bill Wolfe
Just got the car unloaded. The short story for me, Saturday was great. Sunday was even better until about lap 5 of the race, then Sunday wasn't so good anymore.
More details to come, but all in all another great FST weekend.
Road America was a not like I thought it would be.
First the weather. The early forecasts called for moderate 80 degree summer weather. What we got was 94 degrees on Saturday and 78 degrees and heavy rains Sunday.
Qualifications: I thought would drivers bunched up in a big clump trying to pull off what Rob Clark calls the ripper from 5th in line.
No way. On Saturday Doug Seim ran alone and pulled off a ripper for sure of a 2:38.6! He backed it up with a 2:38.9 and something.
On Sunday it was dry at the time the cars went up to the grid so everyone was on slicks. On lap one of qualification the rain started to fall harder and harder. This I think made Bill Bonow really happy. He just kept getting faster and faster. On slicks in a goodly rain he got a 3min flat ripper. About 9 seconds faster than anyone else. I think.
Doug and Rob were forth and 5th.
This of course caused steward cognitive dissonance and the race grid was reshuffled with e First and the Fords in the front split group and the 500’s and Vee’s in the second. In my opinion this worked great only because the rain kept up.
The Races: I thought the races would be “draftapolouza” but it didn’t work out that way Saturday or on Sunday.
On Saturday Doug Seim lead the pack for laps 1-3. One of the Stewards told me they would meatballing him for oil leakage. A good call that saved motor and the track surface. Rob and Bill fought it out until Rob did something that pulled the hot lead off his coil. He coasted to a stop and Bill coasted to the win. Jim Nash ran a great race to second as did Dave Dawson for the last Podium spot. The oil leak was small crack in the oil filter can.
Sunday The rains kept going and all the drivers put on rain tires for the race. Bill Bonow charged to an overall lead and after four laps was 57 seconds ahead of Doug Seim and way ahead of the next Ford. This continued until the race was at least 2/3 done then Bill was stopped by a drenched master switch and his awesome charge was ended. It was then left to Seim and Nash to duke it out on the track when Clark peeled a rain tire off the rim. This race had at least one lead change ( you don’t see much at RA) but Seim won by 10 car lengths at the line. Dave Blevins passed car after car and was the last spot on the podium. This has another story attached to it and I’ll try to relate them all to you later on.
A “Bunch” of surprises. Thanks everyone!!
Last edited by rgu; August 27th, 2012 at 7:46 PM.
Reason: spacing
Wow - I knew that Bill was good at RA and also good in the rain. You put 'em together and good luck catching him! He put on a clinic on how to do it on Sunday.
I had a great start on Sunday. At the end of the front straight I was second in the run group and resigned myself to follow the leading FF through turn one rather than ask for disaster trying to go around him. Bill passes me on the inside, crosses over between me and the Ford to pass him on the outside and blast away towards turn 3. Yikes! I figured 2nd was the best I could hope for in the race! My racing gremlins from Saturday jumped from the #5 to the #69 on Sunday. There was simply no other way I was going to get past him!
I seem to have a real love hate relationship with this circuit, I love coming here and enjoy the fast flowing nature of the place, but damn I cannot catch a break here, for the second year in a row the mechanical gremlins appeared and ended both my races.
I echo Doug's comments, Bill's drive's in the rain on Sunday were impressive, not only did he set overall pole for the Sunday race on slicks on a damp track but the move on the first corner of the Sunday race made a bunch of FF drivers (and me) look like novice wimps....the video is great, which I will get posted a.s.a.p.
Also I was 'lucky' enough to watch a few laps of Sunday race from Turn 8 and have to say both Jim Nash and Dave Blevins put in great drives in very difficult conditions.
Hard luck has to go to Dave Dawson, whos gearbox selected two gears at the same time and pitched him into the wall just before turn 5 very hard.
Oh well, on to Watkins for the seasoner ender, the points race is too close to call, both between 1st and 2nd and between 3rd and 4th...all of who should be raring to go at the Glen.
Had a little time to come down from the race weekend. It was a really good weekend, even if Sunday didn't end quite the way I would have liked.
I was pulling double duty this weekend as I was assisting Lindstrand Motorsport with trackside for a Swift DB-4 FA, Bruce was short handed and I am always a slut for a cool race car. Lucky for me, the FA driver would only be racing Sunday, so it wasn't too bad splitting my time up.
Saturday qualifying, I teamed up with Rob Clark as my drafting partner and thought we were doing good posting around the low 2:40 mark. Turns out that Doug Seim cranked off a smokin' 2:38.627 (the fastest an FST has gone at RA) and nailed the point for the race. Add to that Jim Nash lays down a 2:40.033 in the Mission MRC-09, now Rob and I are starting from the second row. It's Road America and very few can escape the draft, so we all know high chance it will be the 4 of us.
Saturday race, great split start, just like we wanted. I grabbed the point for about half a lap, then the drafting started. Nash fell back (think he got crossed up) and then it was three. About lap 3 or so, Doug's oil filter had all it could take in this world and cracked. Post race he said he lost 2 quarts, but 99% of that went on my and Rob's visors. I don't think I'll need to lube anything on my car for a long time, plenty of oil to go around. Doug got a meatball at T-14 and then it was down to two. Rob and I went back and forth for a few laps. I tested to see if I could get him up the hill to the line. The timming for the move would be critical, but I was ready for a great "at the line" finish. I pulled behind Rob and waited. On the last lap, I was ready. Suddenly between 6 and 7, Rob's car slowed and his hand goes in the air. Apparently a power lead going to the coil had pulled off and I was actually dissapointed that Rob and I couldn't give the thousands of FST fans the photo finish they have come to love. Basically, I finished the lap and won.
Sunday qualifying, everyone knew the weather was coming. It was just a question of when it would start. Group 1 got a clean track and we were waiting on the grid. They gave 5 minutes, then 3 and it started raining. We waited for about 5 or more minutes while the grid officials wrote "rain on track" on a white board. When they let us go, it was raining and I knew that any good laps would be early in the session. I took off like a bat outta hell. Only got about 5 laps in before the dash times were getting slower and slower. Worked out OK as I was 16 seconds ahead of Doug Seim (also 7 seconds ahead of the fastest Formula F). I was happy with qualifying.
Sunday race, it had been raining on and off most of the morning/lunch time. Everyone had rains bolted on and air pressures set. The only people that didn't seem to realize it was raining, was the stewards. The race was never declared a "rain race". Interesting point, per SCCA GCR, FST must race on Hoosier R60A tires unless a "rain race" is declaired. It wasn't, so the whole FST field was "non-compliant"! Anywho, back to the racing. The split was mixed from the day before (Saturday FF/F5 front, FST/FV back, Sunday FST/FF front, F5/FV back). A few guys who were testing for the Runoffs had bugged out, so the grid was slightly smaller in F5 and FF. At the green, the FF's took off up until T-1. I drove around them and kept going (never was sure what made them slow down so much ). Unfortunately, about 5 laps in, the dash started rebooting, next the engine started missing. On lap 6, the electrical system shut down. Not sure if it's a kill switch or a battery, but it no more worky. I pulled off at the bike chicane just before the kink. The pisser is that after the race was over, the damn thing started right up. I drove it to Billy Mitchel where it died again, never to return to life.
Road America is always fun, sometimes are more fun than others, but always memorable.
I need to thank Larry Campbell for a great car, always a huge help and Hoosier for the best racing tires made.
Looking forward to WGI in a few weeks...... Does it rain much at The Glen in September?
Another way fun weekend of FST racing is in the books. Here's how it looked from where I sat.
Saturday qualifying started wrong. I spent too much time following a car warming up and let Bill and Rob get away. Matt and I went a bit of a different direction on setup than before on setup for a big track. It worked but took a couple laps to get familiar. I was going OK quick compared to Rob and Bill then The Lap kind of came together. Drafted a car on the front straight. Got passed by a Ford before 3. Drafted him to 5. Kinda held with to the kink. Caught another car running to Canada. More help up the hill. Turned a 38. Darn near wrecked when the number came up on the dash.
After qual I replaced the pulley seal that I put back together after Grattan. It had come apart again. Ran the engine, even drove it to the scales and back. All is good. Start the race and go a couple laps - oil again. Still kicking myself for not looking around the engine bay more....i wanted to find some kind of way to back up The Lap during the race!
Sunday qualifying was not fun. I never drove RA wet before and I'm doing it on slicks. I did a few laps and passed the IQ test by bringing the car in. Good news - no oil leak!
Sunday's race was odd. A great start the Bill hits the afterburner and disappears. Something happens behind me and I'm alone on the track in second place of an FST race. The radio cord got water in the wrong spot and I don't know what's up past what I can see. After a while I see yellow 69 trackside. Alone in the lead. I get a case of don't-mess-up-itis and an orange car is in my mirrors. I enter the carousel and catch up with an FV. I decide to pass on exit and that orange car passes both of us on the outside! Awesome job by Jim! I get back by on the rundown to 5. I mess up here and Jim's on me. He messes up there and I get some room. One to go and I try not to mess up but go ok quick. I see the checker first. Breath again...
Bottom line? I should have thought through the setup more when preparing for a certain rain race. Some of the stuff that was great on Saturday needed to get tuned out on Sunday. I don't think that would have allowed me to run with Bill but it would have improved my pace.
Thanks as always to Robert and Randy for a great car and a great weekend! We're looking forward to heading to Watkins Glen - an old friend to me. Its been too long since our last visit!
Another great FST Series race weekend! My perspective might be skewed a bit since I had a blast in the rain chasing Doug and keeping it out of the gravel! Overall the region did a great job working with the series and the racing was intense. My car handled the best it has, credit to Bill Wise and his recommendations after his time in the seat at Gratten.
A big congratulations to Dave Blevins on his stellar drive to third on Sunday. He ran a hell of a race setting a time faster than 2 of the FFs that finished in front of him and the 4th quickest FST time. Pretty good considering the last time I spoke to him he was carrying around a broken internal engine part Sat. afternoon. Given the exhausting nature of running fast in the rain on top of putting his engine back together the evening before it was a heck of a drive. Nice job.
I appreciate all the nice comments,but I really could not have gotten my engine going if it had not been for Jim lending me his special mystery head.I need a pair of them babies.Thanks to all who helped and offered support.As usual,the best group of guys at the track.Also thanks to Doug,who gave a last piece of advice before the race,"just remember,keep your ass on the track".
This has happened in the past. It’s rare on heads sourced from VW but I can think of three incidences on a genuine VW head and all of these were easily fixed. Jim Schings says that the Autolinea heads have been very good also.
There is one brand of head that is not worth fixing because the aluminum under the seat cracked at an alarming rate. I personally spent a lot of money on this brand and was miffed that they needed to be scrapped. Anyone can PM me if you want to know more details.
Anyone can PM me if you want to know more details.
If you are talking about the heads I think you are, you are correct they are junk. More irritating is the fact that when we started this series we specifically talked to them about their quality and our planned use. They wanted to be the "FST head builder of choice". In fact, I don't think we have seen a head from that lasted more than 2 or 3 races.
__________________
Jim
859-252-2496
http://www.sracing.com
I echo Doug's comments, Bill's drive's in the rain on Sunday were impressive, not only did he set overall pole for the Sunday race on slicks on a damp track but the move on the first corner of the Sunday race made a bunch of FF drivers (and me) look like novice wimps....the video is great, which I will get posted a.s.a.p.
Thank Rob, interesting to see the start from another perspective. I don't think anything magical happend, just new rains and knowledge of where the car sticks in the rain.
As I hope many can see from this video, FST's really work well in the rain.
As you might remember the rain made our race interesting at Road America but it canceled our podium presentation. Instead we held it at Watkins Glen and it was a very appropriate venue.
So I present our Podium
Finishing Third and driving up from from Cincinnati Ohio just to receive this award is Dave Blevins
Finishing Second and driving 1100 miles at 12 mpg from Bloomington MI is Jim Nash
Finally in First place is the Exxon Valdez driver from Okeana Ohio Doug Seim
Randy Shinn just sent me this picture. Congrats to all
FST: Event News, Info & Results
Hoosier Tire FST Rounds 7 & 8 - Road America
