F600 challenge: Road atlanta finale 2014

At this year’s final Formula 600 Challenge Race at Road Atlanta we had 10 entries in F600. Starting the field off was Clint McMahan who won the pole with a 1:32.1, 2 seconds slower than the track record. Following behind Clint was 2nd, Hunter Brayton, 3rd, Matt Strand, 4th, Cory McLeod, 5th, Ryan Barth, 6th, Ted Simmons, 7th, George Bugg, 8th, George Fox, 9th, Tom Edwards, 10th, Jack Walbran, 11th, Ken Van Horn and 12th, Carl Maier.

Clint McMahan had a smooth race. Keeping the lead for the entire race.

Hunter Brayton had never raced at Road Atlanta before but he quickly familiarized himself during the first and second qualifying sessions. After some laps in the 1:35 range, series champ Clint McMahan passed Hunter and Hunter decided he was not going to let him out of his sight. The result was an astounding 1:33.505 lap placing him second on the grid and just 1.4 seconds off of Clint. Starting the race in 2nd, Hunter fell back to 4th until he went off track at Turn 1. A full course double yellow allowed Hunter to catch back up for the re-start in 11th position. On the restart, Hunter passed one car after another, along the way having a classic duel with Ted Simmons, and then he came up on Cory McLeod and hunted him down until on the final lap he was able to make his final pass for a fine second place finish in class.

Ryan Barth, started in 5th position but was able to move up to fourth by midway of the first lap and took third coming down the Turn 11 hill on lap 3. Ryan ran a little behind Clint and Matt Strand who was running a close second. Those two battling for position helped Ryan get back up to them. Then the full course double yellow came out and allowed everyone to bunch back up. For the restart, Clint, Matt and Ryan built a sizable gap from the rest of the pack. Ryan was hanging with them until Matt broke a chain and Ryan drove over-aggressively trying to get around Matt and behind Clint and spun his car at Turn 4. The rest of the field passed and Ryan got back on the track. Ryan slowly fought his way back up to 3rd place by the end of the race, well deserved.

George Fox started in 8th and ran a steady race, avoiding several incidents and moved up to finish 4th just ahead of a charging Ted Simmons.

Ted Simmons started in 6th. He had a spirited race with Hunter Brayton, who had caught back up to Ted after Hunter had gone off at Turn 1, on laps 10 thru 15 when Ted, under pressure from Hunter, spun out at Turn 5 and got back on with Hunter too far out of reach. For the remaining five laps of the race, Ted drove hard, passing several cars and was closing in on George Fox for 4th place but fell short by less than a car length at the line, finishing 5th.

With a few complications during qualifying, Carl Maier made a last minute decision to start the race. Starting out in the last row Carl had a good start when the flag dropped, moving up three spots by turn 1. When the full course yellow came out Carl was able to get a good jump on the restart and moved up another spot or two. Carl ended up in six place.

Matt Strand who finished in 7th didn’t have the best start for the race. The double yellow restart gave him a good run at Clint until his chain came off.

The race results are as follows:

1. Clint McMahan
2. Hunter Brayton
3. Ryan Barth
4. George Fox
5. Ted Simmons
6. Carl Maier
7. Matt Strand
8. George Bugg
9. Ken Van Horn
10. Tom Edwards

Overall that was a lot of racing involving a lot of position changing throughout the whole race and a very entertaining run for all.
We will begin announcing the 2015 schedule and all the sponsors of our family very soon. We are so very grateful for our sponsors who make all this exciting racing possible:

Metalloid Corporation of Sturgis, Michigan (www.metalloidcorp.com )
Shrieve Chemical Products of Houston, Texas (www.shrieve.com )
ZIBEX, Inc. of Duluth, Georgia (www.zibexwater.com )
Hoosier Racing Tire (www.hoosiertire.com )
CoolShirt and Luna-C (www.coolshirt.com and www.lunaclothing.com )
Dallas, Texas area AMSOIL dealers
Solo Performance Specialties and Solotime (www.soloperformance.com)
Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies (www.pegasusautoracing.com)

The Formula 600 Challenge series was developed to help promote an affordable open wheel formula car to showcase talent without large financial race budgets. The Formula 600 open wheel cars use a 600cc motorcycle engine with a 6 speed sequential transmission revving up to 15,000 rpm hitting speeds in excess of 135 mph. The exhaust sound of this drive train is likened to a F1 car.

For more information please contact:

Jim Murphy
jdmurphy47@aol.com
770-861-2337

Fred Edwards
f.edwards@metalloidcorp.com
260-438-4295