FRP 2021- Season Opener

Hey folks,

I drove Morgan’s 30 year old (budget Honda) powered car, and was able finish 2^nd twice. This proves that you don’t need the latest car to up front. This was with a true father and son effort on our part. Since I am not a customer of Lee Racing, we didn’t have the testing budget or bring the proper personal to match a pro level effort. Team Pelfrey, Rice Race, Khill, and Exclusive Autosport; bring that level of operation to the field.

Racing in the F1600 Championship Series is something that I wanted to do for a long time now. I’m finishing up my sophomore year of my mechanical engineering degree, I help my father with our racing business and I race myself. I think that the FRP field is gaining some momentum and could return to that in the next couple of years if everything goes right.

I’m already excited for Mid-Ohio!

See you at the track,

Jon

Good job Jonathan. The regulars in the Series enthusiastically welcome participation from new teams, club racers, part-timers, and family teams. Chris Horan, in particular, has run very well at times, and without a "professional racer" father to help out. I am hoping we see more of Jeff Bartz and his father this year too!. The club racers will have to up their game to be competitive, but much better to take on that challenge, than waste energy and resources racing with cars in other classes.

https://www.formularacepromotions.co...series/results

F1600
In the always competitive F1600 class, it was Nicholas d’Orlando and Team Pelfrey who led the way in qualifying. Normally separated by only hundredths or thousandths of a second, d’Orlando played the draft perfectly to earn the inside front row starting spot by .380. With his fastest lap coming on the very final circuit, d’Orlano beat Exclusive Autosport’s Joey Brienza, Rice Race Prep’s Bob Perona, Team Pelfrey’s Hugh Esterson, and Rice Race Prep’s Will Holtz. Courtesy of his third-place effort in qualifying, Perona was the early leader in the F1600 Masters class as 2020 series champ Scott Rubenzer was second in class but eighth overall.

In the first wheel-to-wheel action of the weekend, the F1600 field had their normal long train of race cars as the front four began to open a gap on the rest of the field by mid-race distance. Led by Brienza and d’Orlando, K-Hill Motorsports’ Ax Kametches and Jonathan Lee ran third and fourth past the mid-race distance. In the late stages of the race, an on-track incident between the leaders forced d’Orlando and Brienza to both retire handing the point to Kametches. Focused on the task at hand, Kametches held his competitors at bay taking the first race win by .256 over Lee. Esterson was able to score the third step on the podium ahead of Holtz and Burton Kyle August. Bob Peron finished sixth to take the Masters win ahead of Rubenzer and Mike Scanlan in third.

https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/pr...d3df08b581.jpgIn the second F1600 race of the weekend, it was Perona who jumped out to the early lead followed by August and d’Orlando but as it does in 1600 racing, that changed quickly. d’Orlando moved to the point only to be overtaken by Perona a lap later as Joey Brienza marched forward to move into the third position. On lap six it was d’Orlando back to the point as Perona and Jonathan Lee occupied the top three positions as they began to open a small gap on the rest of the field. Halfway through and it was d’Orlando who opened a 1.394 gap on the field as they battled behind him and with more solid laps on lap ten and eleven, stretched that gap further. Lee was just over two seconds ahead of the new third-place runner Will Holtz as Huge Esterson and Brienza were able to move into the top-five. Esterson disposed of Holtz a lap later to move into a podium spot as yesterday’s winner, Ax Kametches, advanced to sixth after starting deep in the field. It was all d’Orlando from there turning fast lap after fast lap to drive off to the win. Jonathan Lee would cross the line in a distant second ahead of Perona, Holtz, and August. Bob Perona’s P3 finish overall gave him the top honors in the F1600 Masters class as Scott Rubenzer and Steve Roux joined him on the podium.

It was all d’Orlando in race three on the weekend as the Team Pelfrey driver went from flag-to-flag to score his second race win of the weekend. Though he was not the fastest driver on track, d’Orlando was one of the most consistent as he stretched his lead to nearly three seconds when the white flag flew. With some on-track scuffles behind him, the second and third place drivers made contact opening the door for Joey Brienza to climb to the second step on the podium while Will Holtz earned his first career FRP podium result. Round one winner Ax Kametches crossed the line in fourth as Burton August rounded out the top-five. Scott Rubenzer took advantage of contact that Perona had in the latter stages of the race to claim the F1600 Master victory.

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Originally Posted by Jonathan Lee

Hey folks,

After returning home and unloading the trailer, I would like to tell you about the amazing time we had running with FRP. Over the course of 3 days, 5 hours of track time was available! I believe that only one of our test sessions was temporarily stopped, and the staff did a flawless job to get the session back to green- quickly and safely.

As a pure driver, I want to race in a completive scene that involves no politics and nonsense. That is exactly what FRP offers; our f1600 field had 8 drivers going hard at it for 30 minutes straight. After the race was over, we didn’t have to deal with any unnecessary request, which is common in other types of similar racing series. The entire staff is organized, knowledgeable and always willing to help. This makes for a fantastic time.

I drove Morgan’s 30 year old (budget Honda) powered car, and was able finish 2^nd twice. This proves that you don’t need the latest car to up front. This was with a true father and son effort on our part. Since I am not a customer of Lee Racing, we didn’t have the testing budget or bring the proper personal to match a pro level effort. Team Pelfrey, Rice Race, Khill, and Exclusive Autosport; bring that level of operation to the field. My point is that there is no excuse. Show up, try your best, race, learn and have fun. As a real driver this is all you can ask for, you will get better as time goes on.

The field was 8 strong, 9 drivers if you count Scott who was fast by Saturday. The season is just starting, and many of the other drivers will get better as the races continue; so this lead pack of 8 could potentially grow to 10-12.

Racing in the F1600 Championship Series is something that I wanted to do for a long time now. I’m finishing up my sophomore year of my mechanical engineering degree, I help my father with our racing business and I race myself. There is no good excuse for not showing up, F1600 could return to a large 30 car field if more racers would just come out. I would like to experience what my father did, when he was coming up through FF1600, I think that the FRP field is gaining some momentum and could return to that in the next couple of years if everything goes right.

I’m already excited for Mid-Ohio, and we are trying to convince some more of our Florida drivers to make the trip…

See you at the track,

Jon

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Well said! As a self-funded privateer who strives to be able to get into that top pack with some more experience under my belt, the track time, quality of events, and competition FRP offers ticks all the boxes for me. Not to mention the friendly, open paddock atmosphere which helps us all hone our craft and become better each day we show up at the track.

Big fields should be very possible - we just need to get others to experience an event and we can be pretty certain they'd be hooked! I know personally I have no interest spending any portion of my racing budget on mixed class club events anymore. Was reading the supps for the June event at NJMP Lightning and the race groups show all formula cars and sports racers in one run group. Just no.

Looking forward to Mid Ohio in a few short weeks!

As another small family operation I have to second and congratulate Jonathan. From the live timing the races looked unbelievable with something like 8 cars under a second at the finish on multiple days. I look for competition not $10 trophies. And this series give you exactly that. These cars are reasonable to operate at a competitive level as has been said in this thread. I am glad I found the class and FRP!

We are in Texas and it is a long haul but I have two cars and hope to have one or two Van Diemen Hondas at the events that fit our Majors and Runoffs schedule.

Again congrats to FRP and all the big and small teams for a great weekend of racing.

JM