Since the FF40th was the first ever 'Runoffs' of CFF. I see it as a never before held truly nationwide CFF Championship race, that likely is never to be duplicated.
I thought we could all share some stories of how your actual race went.
Please share your racing story, whether from the front, back or middle.
I'll go first.
In Q1, I went just about as fast as I ever had at RA, less than a sec off the record and was only P9 !
Wow, what a strong and deep field. Quality cars, and drivers, and seemed everybody played pretty well together, even if on a new track.
Q2 knew we had to step it up, and did, ran almost 2 secs below record, P5 in session, starting P6.
While the SuperTiga goes 2.3 secs faster than me yet.
Had a good race start, as guy beside me got it wrong, and I was over to the right lane, and moving up on the left lane. Then I notice a car in the middle, being passed by both lanes. I thought 'welcome to the drafting world (ie bad aero) of CFF Niki' and had a laugh.
CFF has got to be THE funnest class to race at RA. The straights are so long, and the speeds so high, and the aero so bad with all four shocks and stuff hanging out, that it's almost impossible to shake somebody, the guys behind always have the advantage.
Don't know how many wide we got through T1, but on exit, I was P2 ! behind Brumbaugh, threw it into T3 hard as I could, and made it through. As the draft started kicking in towards T5, and his car kept getting bigger, I thought it was gonna be really cool to be a close P2, in T5, where all the stands, crowds and cameras are. Gotta love the CFF draft, nope, wait, I'm going by ! Brumbaugh was a gentleman and left room, and I'm 1st one over the last crest, leading P1, what a sight, the crowd etc. Leading up through T6, hurry downs and into carrousel.
Full 3 wide, don't know how many rows back braking into T12, think I left P2, then got drafted on front straight to P3. Brumbaughs car unfortunately was getting hot, and looked like it wasn't gonna make it, as the FCYellow/black came out.
Restart was gonna be interesting, because the head of the field was the last 12? or so of the FF Regional, so the fast CFF guys picking their way through them while having their own dogfight will be interesting at the least.
At the green, Brumbaugh's overheating car sounded real flat, and wouldn't go, so chased up the hill by Niki, and back to P3 I go. The leaders passed two cars going into T6, I followed them, but the lappers were spinning and wrecking?, couldn't go inside, so turn right, INTO THE GRAVEL TRAP, somehow got it out the other side, long trip through the grass back on track before apexT7, (Tall Jack said lots of 'air' under the car) Thought I would've been freightrained by a row of CFF, but they must've also been held up by the spinners at T6, because they just caught me, but after a few corners I got a little gap. Sorry about throwing all those rocks and junk at you guys !
Lots of fast cars behind, so I pushed really hard the entire rest of the race, which was thankfully uneventful.
One of the best races I've been in. Tough tough competitors, and you had to be flying every lap to run up front.
CFF is a complete blast to race, love the hard tires, the draft, and especially that car. It is the same 35F as I raced it in the EWC 2001-2004. Hadn't run it since then, except one weekend this spring. Thanks Dave Harmison, Steve Beeler, and others for teaching me to race real hard and clean in those EWC races.
How about a rematch guys? With my trip through the gravel at T6, I went further to get to the podium than anybody.
Please share YOUR CFF stories,
Marc