Round 7-8 2015 FST Series - Mid-Ohio

Entries are open at....

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...0#.VZNBcmBEXIo

Note - Entries close 8th July

Enter early and often ;)

:checkered::checkered::checkered::checkered:

Entries Updated

All

Just a reminder that entries for Mid-Ohio Close on the 8th of July.

Much like Formula 1 this will be our last round before our 'summer break' until mid September, so you can't afford to miss the fun.

Entered:
Rob Clark
Doug Seim
Phil McSheery
Sam Farmiga
John Reisert
Doug Sharp
George Podgorski
Garry Moorman
Dennis Richardson

Rounds 7 and Eight of the 2015 Hoosier Tire Formula First Championship will be contested next weekend at the Mid Ohio Sports car course in Lexington Ohio. I for one can’t wait because Mid Ohio brings out the best in our drivers and we have a great bunch of prizes which we are awarding from drivers suit cleaning kits, to Formula First VW components and long drive awards to drivers.

In addition drivers have been struggling to get engines back from builders, getting brand new cars running right but I’ve been told that all things look pretty good.

While there may be a last minute entry if a car can be obtained, the entry looks like this.

7 Clark, Robert FST 2015 Campbell Motorsports Evolution TeamClark Motorsport Rochester, MI
56 Farmiga, Sam FST 2012 Adams Acer-J Scuderia Farmiga West Chester, OH
57 Gordon, Matt FST Citation FST Jaygo Racing Lexington, KY
14 McSherry, Phil FST Mysterian M2 Kent, OH
74 Moorman, Garry FST 1999 Adams Aero FST Fenton, MI
16 Podgorski, George FST Campbell/Guhde Evolution 2.5 RGU Racing Glastonbury, CT
55 Reisert, John FST 2013 Evolution FST New Albany, IN
53 Richardson, Dennis FST 2012 Adams Aero DooDah Racing White River Junction, VT
5 Seim, Doug FST 2010 Mysterian M5.1 RGU/AutoWerks Okeana, OH
90 Sharp DC, Douglas FST 2006 Jacer V2K2 Sharp Chiropractic & Advocare Kawkawlin, MI

See you all next Friday.

Linda and I will be there Friday morning and Robert provided us with a map of the preferred paddock area so look for our maroon & black trailer as you pull in.

In spite of the residual mud from the prior heavy rains, in spite of the oppressive humidity and the 90 degree temperatures our Mid Ohio round was a great success. As I’ve said before I’m never in a position to give a great race report so I’ll content myself with just giving some random thoughts and a quickie finishing position summary.

Both races were won by George Podgorski who towed his RGU Racing blue and pink Evolution in from Glastonbury CT for the race with his son Nick as crew. This was George’s first time at Mid Ohio but he left with two wins, a pole and missed a track record on a greasy Sunday track by a 1/10 of a second. The races were great races but again just the briefest summary. Saturday’s podium was very tightly contested but it was George, Kent Ohio’s Phil McSherry in second and Doug Seim in third. Doug started out strong but had a front adjuster slip and ended with positive camber, Phil Mc Sherry led most of the laps but George got by him on the last lap for the win. Sunday’s race was a dandy. At the start Seim missed a shift and dropped back to the tail of the pack, McSherry lead for a bit but something happened to McSherry who dropped back It was then a lead pack of Seim,Podgorski, Matt Gordon, Doug Sharpe and McSherry with Sam Farmiga just back a bit. McSherry moved back in the top three due partly to Gorden’s off track. Podgorski took advantage of Seim not being aggressive in the keyhole to grab the lead on the last lap and he held on for his second win.

I’ll post more on the weekend and great individual efforts after I mow my grass. In sum though as an eye witness put it, George drove the “lap of his life” to get by McSherry in race one then drove the second “lap of his life” to get by Seim in the Sunday race.

I have picture I'll post too.

After 3 race weekends of sputtering around the track we finally cornered the gremlin in our Mysterian "Diabolical" and made it a Mysterian M5.1 again. The root cause of the final problems we had was the ignition condenser. We had replaced that early on in all this with a brand new Bosch part but it would fail once it got hot. Therefore we had trouble getting it to fail in the garage or paddock. Dave Carr tells us he's hearing more and more about failed condensers. This is the first one I can remember failing in over 20 years of racing VW engines. I guess "they don't make them like they used to". Keep that in mind if your car starts sputtering!

Unfortunately, the weird running engine bad juju seemed to float over to Rob's car. For sure he would have been in the mix up front. Here's hoping they can corner the problem in our long mid-season break so we all have a strong weekend at Pittsburgh.

The action on the track was terrific with our more normal sized field. The races started with a crazy, lead swapping, late braking drafting pack of 4 or 5. Lots of close but fair dicing. It was terrific having the FSTs lead a run group that included FF to the checker on Saturday. It took the FF's all race to make up the split start difference to finish ahead of us on Sunday. Without the full course yellow they might not have got that done.

George put in two very strong drives in his first Mid-Oh appearance to win both days. I don't have to tell you that Mid-Oh is tricky to learn. That thing about old dogs and new tricks can't be all that true. I will never give George pointers about a track again. Ever. :thumbsup:

Matt Gordon had a tough weekend in the paddock with a relatively simple problem that just plain took time to resolve. Once on the track he ran quick and consistent right up to that jump turn on Sunday. Here's hoping he can get the repairs turned around and get back to the track by Pittsburgh or at least Gateway.

Enjoy the break!

Doug FST 5

It was great to be back at the track with everybody. Unfortunately, I spent pretty much all of the social time under or next to my car working on a couple strange issues it developed Saturday morning. As always, without Doug and Robert's help/tools/fix ideas it would have been a short weekend and an early ride home for me...which probably would have hurt less than hitting the wall on Sunday. :mad:

Up until my half spin and hard wall smack on the way into Thunder Valley, though, Sunday was the best day I've had with this car and the best day I've had in a long time. The car was truly competitive and I was having a blast running at the front and dicing with everybody in close, but respectful, quarters. If anybody has a video of the first few laps of that race it would make a great advertisement for why people should come out and run FST. I'd also like it so I could prove to my kids that I actually ran up front!

I have a work conflict for Sunday at Gateway so that doesn't look like it would be doable for me. I am debating Pittsburgh - Jim is going to help me make a list of all the new stuff I need and how much it will all cost and I'll figure it out from there. I should also probably be a lot less sore than I am now before making that decision. :o

Sorry for causing the :yellowflag::yellowflag: on Sunday, but hopefully I'll see you guys again this season.

Matt Gordon

Nobody likes to pay for crash damage but this one would be 10X the cost in an FF vs an FST.

Doug FST 5