Blackhawk Farms National Roll Call - May 5th

[Keith Carter]

Shake out the cob webs! Anyone from ApexSpeed planning on going? With there only being 5 National events in the CenDiv, I'm hoping for a 15-20 car field if not more. I would imagine Belardi, Tomasi, and Coello being there without a doubt. Who else?

[jnortonjr]

Hey Keith,

Looks like Hutchison and myself will be racing both Blackhawk nationals in May.

How's the car?

John

[Keith Carter]

Hi John! We're planning on running them both too. The car is coming along really well. My dad has been putting in all the work on the Winter rebuild since he works on it during weeknights and I'm at home helping Kim out with the baby. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the car again though. The 5th is coming up quick!

[jnortonjr]

No kidding! I sink into a mild depression during the winter and the only cure for that is a day of racing.

Mark Hutchison and I went out to Oklahoma to run the Hallett national and he finished 2nd which is very good for the limited time there and an excellent start for the Runoffs effort.

How deep did you go on the rebuild? What should we expect out of you?

John

[Keith Carter]

We've got a fresh motor and a couple wizzy bits to try out. We're running a full Nationals schedule this season and if we're in the points after the smoke clears, we're going to go to the big show if we can make it. We're looking forward to a full FC field, but the way that they have us grouped with other classes, it may be a little congested on the smaller tracks. Hopefully split starts will be frequent.

[Keith Carter]

Here's the entry list for the online registration to date. Registration deadline is Saturday!

Scott Hutchison
Keith Carter
Kirk Kindsfater
Brian Belardi
Steve Thomson
Niki Coello
Brian Tomasi
Mark Hutchison
Peter LeSeuer
Jim Victor

[Ron B.]

Early returns - hopefully somone will fill in the blanks...

Tomasi
Coello
Kinsfater?
Thomson

Tomasi set a new lap record in qualifying in the 7's??

At some time towrd the end of the race Belardi and Carter got together and took each other out running in the top 5. Thomson was forced tp run some year old 160's when his new ones didn't show up in time for the weekend.

[dc]

At some time towrd the end of the race Belardi and Carter got together and took each other out running in the top 5.

My "in-car reporter" said that Brian bobbled off of t7 and attempted a lazy spin off the corner. the ApexSpeed.com machine had nowhere to go, and center-punched him while they both battled for 3rd place. A rough start for the RunOffs bid, but good to hear that Keith and Brian were both ok, and in the 1:08s in the main. Looks like that Carter kid is starting to figure some things out, eh?


A nice run for Niki and BT as they both look for a National Championship in 2007.

[Keith Carter]

Yep, Brian and I were having a great run fighting it out for P3. On lap 13 I was about a car length behind him and he lost the rear end. It was one of those slow motion half spins and ended up perpendicular to the exit of T7 and I had about 10 feet to do something. All I could do was try to stop and it didn't happen. Not enough time to try and reroute to avoid contact either. Brian was able to continue, but was down on power since the collision punctured his exhaust. Completely a racing incident with nobody to blame. I limped it to the pit lane and retired. We suffered suspension, wing, and nose damage. We'll be back at it again in a couple weeks though for the next National at Blackhawk. Even though the weekend ended in carnage, it was a great weekend still (up until that point I guess).

Here are the results with fast lap times:

1) Brian Tomasi - 1:07.660
2) Niki Coello - 1:08.329
3) Kirk Kindsfater - 1:09.021
4) Steve Thomson - 1:08.893
5) Jim Victor - 1:08.993
6) Pete Lesueur - 1:10.135
7) Brian Belardi - 1:08.694
8) Scott Hutchison - 1:10.956 Not Running
9) Keith Carter - 1:08.748 Not Running
10) Tim Walsh - 1:12.433 Not Running
11) Mark Hutchison - 1:11.678 Not Running


Congrats to Brian Tomasi (1:07.248) and Niki Coello (1:07.863) for blistering the track record in qualifying!

...oh yeah, and my HANS worked like a charm.

[ajs]

Keith,

Do you have the FE results and times? Great run you guys.

Tony

[cooleyjb]

It was a great race to watch. Too bad for Keith and Brian, that was a great race to watch in Turn 1. Turn 1 was a lot cleaner than I expected it to be. An extra 5 or so corner workers showed up for the first couple of laps just in case which was a bit amusing.

From turn 1 it seemed like Coello and Tomasi were nose to tail for the first part of the race. With some of the FA guys coming through it seemed to spread them out a few seconds for the second part of the race.

There were some other good battles but I didn't know the cars well enough to figure out what was going on.

The FA driver Tonis kasemets lapped the entire field save 2 or 3 guys who were right in front of him when the checker flag flew. He can drive.

All in all it made me more excited about the prospect of getting a FC car here in the very near future. Although the national competition level is a bit intimidating for someone who will be a novice.

Thanks for the great race.

[Keith Carter]

Here's what we got from the incar camera. Not bad for the $60 Panasonic cam we got off of eBay, but the battery died before the crash. The quality is better on the original though. The uploaded video to Google decreased the res a bit, but you still get the idea...

2007 Blackhawk Farms National

The racing doesn't really start until around half way though since we had a wave off of the green the first time around. The first attempt at green, I had to stomp the gas and pull half way through second gear before we even hit the pit wall in order to keep up.

[dc]

Keith, how large is the original?

We have plenty of space on the ApexSpeed server now.

[JByers]

Keith,
How many FA's ran and what times were they running?

[Keith Carter]

There were 4 Atlantics (3 Swifts and a Ralt) that finished, but 8 entered. Tonis Kasemets ran a new track record in the race at 1:02.775.

[Keith Carter]

Keith, how large is the original?

We have plenty of space on the ApexSpeed server now.

It's 104 meg

[Keith Carter]

Does anyone know the website of the photographer who was passing cards out over the weekend? I was over in Stadel's camp when I saw him.

[TimW]

http://www.gron4.com/2007/event050407/

[Charles Livingston]

Anyone know the results of the FF race?

[TimW]

Anyone know the results of the FF race?

1. Rubenzer, 1:13.25
2. Kautz, 1.12.73
3. Wise, 1:13.19
4. Nash, 1:13:82
5. Luxon, 1:13.85
6. Valine, 1:13.82
7. Ehrlinger, 1:14.97
8. Genkinger, 1:15.23
9. Wheatcroft, 1:15.91
10. Roberts, DNF
11. Blanc, DNS
12. Coello, DNS
13. Vlassis, DNS

[Keith Carter]

I just copied your post over to the FF forum Tim so we don't lose anyone.

Thanks for the URL to the photo guy! Nice run by the way.

[Charles Livingston]

Thanks

[Keith Carter]

Results are posted

[agron4]

Hi all,

I followed our web stats here in regards to photos from the nationals at Blackhawk.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone interested know that our photos from the May 4-6th weekend are finally up and viewable. It usually doesn't take us this long but we got a bit behind on our work.

So, if you would like to see some photos you can go here:

http://www.gron4.com/2007/event050407/#menu1

We will be out there next week as well, hope to see you there.