West Coast Formula Ford Festival

[Chuck Gillis]

I'm in the preliminary stages of planning the First Annual West Coast Formula Ford Festival. Planning a low stress, lots of track time event for all vintages of Ford powered open wheel race cars. I'm looking for feedback on attendance primarily, but also looking for suggestions on events during the weekend.

Thunderhill Park in Willows has dates available, and the Racing Drivers Club has tentatively agreed to assist in preparation and execution. Planned for Springtime 2003. If you've ever been to Central California in early spring, you know how superb it is.

Input Please?

Thanks. gm

[christopher burke]

INPUT:
1 Consult someone with marketing and promotion skills. There has to be someone out there in the profession with a tickle for the FF.
2. Invite every celebrity who ever had a thing to do with FF. Some names come to mind: James Garner, Tim Considine, any CART or F1 guys (Nigel Mansell is a big one.)
3. Get HSR and VARA members involved.
4. Invite manufactures and reps of now defunct manufactures.

[Rick Brannon]

Talk to Paul Phanner, he did the 20th Reunion at Willow Springs. It was the greatest I've seen.

[keithc]

Thunderhill is a pretty technical track, favors those with a lot of time there. Buttonwillow is more central unless you are looking to pull in a lot of guys from Washington and Oregon and the paddock is much bigger. The road course outside the oval in Vegas is a lot of fun, but pretty austere and hot.

[Hvonert]

Sounds like a blast.
Buttonwillow is a fun track, (and close to me) but does not hold a candle to Thunderhill.
Eitherway I would attend if there is room for Vintage FF cars.
I know some of the VARA guys would be interested. To bad the powers that be decided to shut down the VARA message board. It would make it pretty easy to get the word out to em'.

If there is anything I can do let me know.

Chris

[Swift68]

Count me in, even thou I am closest to Buttonwillow,I agree Thunderhill is a blast.

[Hvonert]

VARA did a 3 day event at Thunderhill. It was combined w/ the Porsche Owners Club.
Doing a 3 day event really makes the long drive worth the effort.
I also realize that getting a Friday off, (In reality Thursday, and Friday) may not be possable for many folks.
There are a lot of FF racers here in So. Cal. between VARA, HSRW, Cal Club, and you'd have to include the Legal and Proud crew from Colarado (RMVR)...
It could really happen.

Chris

[AJ]

Just to throw in my two cents. I would be coming down from Oregon and would be sure to come if it was held at Thunderhill. I don't know if I would make it all the way down to Buttonwillow.

[keithc]

If you're planning on a stand alone event, have you thought of opening it up to all open wheel? Especially on the vintage side of things, the really cool races tend to take place at Elkhart Lake, RA, and Watkins Glen, Lime Rock, and VIR. An open event might pull in some really interesting machinery, Jrs, B's, and some serious big iron. Fun to watch, fun to drive with. Just a thought.

[Hvonert]

Hi Rick,
I think the emphasis is on "West Coast".
I wonder how many folks would actually tow, truck, or whatever to get themselves and there cars out here for a 2-3 day event...
But then again maybe Todd, (A West Coast Guy) could toss in a couple dog rings to the winner :)
(Vintage class) :))

Just a thought,

Greg,
Have you considered contacting VARA? Neil Rupp is a pretty straight guy. He may be able to help out.
(He also runs a FF) It would be worth a look anyway.

Chris

[DENIS]

I'm all for it. The few problems I can see are these:

First we did this about five years ago at BW (and my customers Dulon won CF) and the second year attendance was down, finally the third year it was down more and we did not go either.
Point is that it's been done with only a little success.

Next, the second year we went there was a big 'hub-bub' about the rules on the classes. I was in the middle of it to some extent and was quite upset that the NorCal guys came down and shoved their class rules down the SoCal club folks. I was even more upset that the CalClub people rolled over!

Now, before you NorCal types start screaming, I know your rules about shocks, clutches etc. and even though don't completely agree with them. if I came to YOUR events, in YOUR region I'd fully expect that this was too be the way it is. BUT, if you come to another region with a CF you would be expected to run under THAT regions sup regs. As I recall, the 10-12 guys who came (and I'm glad they did none the less) basically pushed and shoved and threatened to go home if they didn't get their way..... This was in part the reason that the AZ members never came back again, and maybe the same was felt by the NorCal folks.

So....this being an issue (and to some extent the NW may have it's own issues) the only way it's going to work is if everyone can agree to the HOST regions rules and abide by them. Either way I'll push for it here, but don't go changing the rules on ANYONE from any place once the event starts. Nuf said.

[Joe Mendez]

Just for the record,

I am from NorCal, and I do not agree with the club ford rules here either.
I was in on one of the very first meetings from way back, when CF was being invented, and the discussion of stock formula cars first came up. The issue then was origional suspension pick up points.
Since I owned, and still own, a Lola 340 I asked what set of plates were the origional ones.
( I was crewing for the orgional owner of my car from day one, and I knew that Tom Gloy was providing a new set of suspension mounting plates fresh from Carl Hass on almost a weekly basis. ) So, to me, formula cars were always like tinker toys, and set ups were constantly in a state of flux.) I also bought a spare chassis a few years later, that had been set up for Billy Scyphers ( sp?) by Hass and it is totally different from mine. I also ended up with Glen Brien's Lola too, and it isn't the same as the first two. So much for stock pick up points.
Also, my particular car came from Gloy with a F3 clutch, so I never saw the point of that issue either.
As far as the dampener thing goes, I bought a set of "stock" bilsteins for around 1,300 bucks in 1980, which was a lot of money back then, so what's the point on the cost of shocks as well?
Some how someone in NorCal got the idea that some folks were buying the class wins. I have always contended, that from my point of observation way back in the field, the real factor in CF was then, and has always been, and will always be the driver. When the Swifts came out all the screaming was about low drag, not shocks, clutches, pick up points. I know, I was there.
Since I am in NorCal, I have to run under the crybaby rules here, but I don't have to agree.
I still have the car ready to go. I will be back.

Berry

[Rick Brannon]

When I was running a CF seriously, I was the San Diego Club Ford rep,and still am. When San Francisco adopted CF we had conferences on the rules and consulted the other regions before changing rules. San Francisco has not spoken to me in years about any changes. (I have the same phone #) The issue of stock clutches is dumb. If you want to make a small weight penalty, that might be OK.(my car is overweight even with a F-3 clutch) We had consistant CF rules from San Diego to San Francisco before, and should have now. I don't even know what there rules are, but only San Francisco seems to be out of touch.

[Dave]

Before the flames get too big, keep in mind that "NorCal" has 3 ford classes, Club Ford, Spec Ford and real FF. Spec Ford is comparable to other regions Club Ford. If you don’t like the restrictions of SFR's CF class, come and run Spec Ford. Rules are available at the region's website: [url="http://www.sfrscca.org/RoadRacing/index.shtml"]www.sfrscca.org/RoadRacing/index.shtml[/url]

Steve Gomas

[size="1"][ September 21, 2002, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: SteveG ][/size]

[Chuck Gillis]

Roland: The Club Ford committe has been pretty silent, having nothing to do for a long time in the rules business. I've seen no changes for this class in 3 years, and the rules are available from the office at Willows. If we haven't changed, then we probably still match.

For everyone else:

What's the rhubarb about anyway. This Festival is supposed to be low stress, FUN event, not a rules hassle. Geez, run what ya brung and have a good time with other Fords. If it turns out to be too much pain, the planning will stop and a good? idea will go away before it has a chance to develop. I'd like to see about a hundred Vintage/CF/SF/FF/FC cars on parade, wouldn't you?
Beer and BBQ on Saturday night and bench racing for days?

Let's get back to who's comin'.

gm

[ThinkFast]

Sounds like fun. Will this be a Restricted Regional or a stand-alone open-wheel event?

Do you need to wait until the SoPac Regions have released their schedules or are you hoping to be included?

[Chuck Gillis]

For the record, this will be a non-SCCA sanctioned event. It will have all the insurance we need, but will be run without the blanket of SCCA unless they will actively promote and support it. I'm hoping to get enough response to persuade the staff at Thunderhill to put us on the schedule. So far it just isn't economically feasible. gm

[ThinkFast]

Greg,
Do you have anything written up? If you could post some more details, perhaps some of the members could forward the info to other drivers in their region. The concept is great and it looks like you've done some initial footwork but it's hard to commit completely without additional information.

[DENIS]

Greg,

So are we then to assume that there are three classes of cars here; VF, CF and FF or are we going the NorCal way and splitting out the CFs into SF also with all the 'penalties' etc or what?

Don't get my comments wrong, while I stand by them, they are in the past. I simply want to know what to expect BEFORE we consider loading a trailer. We'll make our desisions based on the rules, distance to tow, cost of running and schedule I'm sure.

[Rick Brannon]

I'll try to get a copy of the CF rules from SFR, and then we can discuss them. The three CF/SF/FF split was started here in San Diego, so I am well aware of the differences. Telling all the CF people not from SFR to just move up a class, doesn't inspire us to come up.

[Rick Brannon]

I have sent Greg a private email addressing the San Francisco Club Ford rules. Anyone else interested may contact me.