Hoosier Series Gateway Event

Here is the information on the final Hoosier Series Formula First race at Gateway. If you attended last year you know what a great weekend this is!

The St. Louis and Southern Illinois Sports Car Club of America Regions are hosting their annual OctoberFAST event October 23-25,2015.

The event includes:

The Hoosier Tire USA Formula First Championship series races.
Double Regional Road Racing - the last chance for those wanting to win the MidAM and STARS Series championship.
TWO Days of PDX with Novice sessions each day.
Friday TEST DAY (open to drivers who have PDX or equivalent experience OR SCCA Competition License or equivalent). PLEASE register for the test day via Motorsportsreg! We are guaranteeing the test day, so we need you to be registered and paid to St. Louis Region SCCA.
Register at msreg.com/STLSCCAOct2015 TODAY! Invite your friends, family and acquaintance to join us for this fun filled weekend.

Supps and Schedule are available at: roadracing.stlscca.org/events.

A Special THANKS to our sponsors! They make it possible for us to put on these events.

EPC (http://www.epcusa.com/)
CSI Leasing (http://www.csileasing.com/)
Shay Roofing (http://shayroofing.com/)
Jack Walbran
Steve Hamilton
Ken Denault
Questions? Contact Sheila at registrar@stlscca.org.

Thanks!

Sheila

Only 3 Entries so far ?! ....come on this event is a great chance to end up the year on a high note, we know the organizers put on a great event and of course there is the highly anticipated Crew Karting Challenge....

Time to get your entries in....

Entered:
Rob Clark
Doug Seim
George Podgorski

Missing in Action:
Matt Gordon
Butch Deer
Brian Finegan
Doug Sharpe
Gary Moreman
and many more.......

Where's all the entries for GMP next weekend? Have your own group but only 3 signed up so far.

It's a very fun event, and I wish I could go but I would have to commute that weekend from the Czech Republic so sadly I will miss this one.

Last year this was our most enjoyable event so bummed I can't go:blackflag:

Any results from this weekend???

Race 1 Podgorski, Clark, Gray Seim out with hard hit to tire barriers. Seim's car was not able to be repaired so with championship on line he takes Podgorski's car for last race to make head to head battle with Clark. Race 2 Early race dice but Clark opens a lead, looks to be home when three laps to go engine blows and Seim cruises to win and championship.

Rob is right Doug Seim is the 2015 Champion. It’s been a weird year both Doug Seim and Rob Clark who have fought stupid issues all year. How many junk Pertronics are in race track trash cans? Thanks to Larry Campbell for not tossing 1980’s era points.

Anyway what happened to the #5 Mysterian can be quickly summarized below. The track was a bit oily due to an oil dump in the race before which may be contributed to this incident. Doug told me he was 3 ft off the line and the car got loose and hit the wall after turn one. Turn in speed there is 112 mph. The front end hit the wall bending the beam and breaking a forged steering arm and a wheel rim. The back end snapped around bending an axle tube. Oddly the axle and the brake disk were fine after being inspected. All replacement parts were in the trailer but the axle tube was AWOL. Larry Campbell, after looking at the tube suggested we weld a bead over the backside of the bend which might pull the thing straight. This was done and sure enough the long part of the tube was indeed straight.

New beam, steering parts and axle tube bolted on but the axle still did not turn freely. After an intense executive session it was determined that the tube had second bend right where it entered the end casting. Running the car that way might just trash other parts of the transmission. Too bad since this whole swap out took about three hours and the car would definitely made the race if an axle tube was in the inventory.

A new inventory clerk will be hired and the great Bonow beam machine will again be a trackside fixture.

It was a wild ride in this, our initial year in the Hoosier Series. In retrospect we accomplished more then I ever expected last April. Due in no small part to Rob Clark. His driving ability is second to none. Here's the synopsis of our debut year:
9 podium finishes
3- wins
4- second
2-thirds
2 track records
2nd in the Hoosier Series

Lots of thank you's are due but three are at the very top op the list

Jim Schings
Larry Campbell
J Wooster

Let me nominate a couple of great new contributors to our cause

Bill and Linda Gray

The 2015 season is in the rear view mirror now. Based on how it began I would never have figured it would end up the way it did. We struggled mightily in the first three race weekends with an ignition problem that only would show up after the car was on the track. We changed many, many parts. The original root cause of the problem will never be known but it was finally fixed after we put on a second brand new condenser at Mid Ohio. Other teams also faced some adversity along the way which allowed us to stay in the points mix.

Mid Ohio and Pittsburgh featured the kind of close racing that attracts us all. As it should, the season came down to the last event at Gateway. Lots of plot twists in the Gateway story line but at the end of it all we wound up with a narrow points lead for the season.

2015 saw 5 drivers reach the top of the podium. That’s the most we’ve had since 2011. We had 6 drivers earn tires through the Hoosier contingency program.

Many, many thanks to Robert Guhde for all he does to put the season together. He spends countless hours working with race organizers and our teams. This year was particularly tough due to the number of teams with unavoidable difficulty in making races. As the season closes we have very good news with idle cars making their way to teams that intend to race them next season. That, along with a return to regular racing among many series regulars should put our numbers back where they belong.

Thanks again to Robert for the tremendous support for George and me in the #16 and #5 cars. His knowledge and experience with the components and the cars is 4 decades deep. His cars reflect that in spades.

Thanks also to the self-named “Best Second Rate Crew in Formula First” of Matt Seim, Randy & Brodie Hensler, Jamie & Matt Allen and Craig Quick & family. A particular thanks to Jamie and Ginny Allen for the wonderful hospitality in the paddock. At times I was even less pleasant to be around than normal. The RGU crew took it all in stride and we found our way back to having a ton of fun. After all, “Wir Sind Alle Hier, Weil Wir Nicht Alle Da!” or “We’re all here because we’re not all there”.

Stay warm this winter – I’m already looking forward to getting back at it in the Spring!


Doug FST 5

Congratulations to the entire RGU team on a job well done. Competing against you made our team strive to be better every weekend. We are looking forward to an exciting season of close racing again next season. If you didn't bring your car out in 2015 then you missed one heck of a year. See you all in 2016 !