2010 Runoffs - FE

[Keith Carter]

So it appears we'll have 16 cars. Lots of talent in the field even though the pro series had stolen a fair amount of entries from he usual SCCA crowd. It's going to be a hard fight to even make the top half of the field. If I can get a connection while at the track I'll update whatever I can.

[Ray Rivard]

First qualify of the week, and the dry track began seeing rain right after the cars enterred the track. After a few laps on a wet track with dry tires, everyone in the field either came in and called it a session or made some quick rain changes and went back out. Q1 final results....

Scott Rettich 2:50.171
Matt Mair 3:01.711
Jason Wolfe 3:02.119
Dennis Marklein 3:06.054
Joseph Sturm 3:06.939

Followed by Opperman, McDonald, Leeman, Gallagher, Walsh, Stadel, Carter, Przyborowski, Novak, Schneider, Evans (no time)

If it rains all week, this will be the grid as it was as dry as a rain session can get. If it dries up, this session didn't really mean anything.

[Zambo]

As always Ray, you are a scholar and a Gentleman! Thanks for keeping us updated! Any other news??

[Ray Rivard]

One other note.... The results of todays session are still provisional. There are a few cars that didn't pass the original fuel testing and the reviews are ongoing. Not sure who the cars are, but it doesn't appear that anyone is running "hot fuel", just that some may be caught out with the "non-spec" fuel still in their tanks from previous races. More to come later.....

[jim morgan]

As always at the Runoffs, Flush your tank,Flush your tank,Flush your tank!

[Ray Rivard]

Qualifying Day 2 - A much dryer day today, making yesterdays results unimportant. The field is much closer. Results from today:

Scott Rettich 2:15.248
Matthew Mair 2:16.359
Patrick Gallagher 2:16.762
Tyler Walsh 2:17.268
Nick Evans 2:17.512
Brian Novak 2:17.663
Dean Opperman 2:17.717
Jason Wolfe 2:17.766
Keith Carter 2:18.091
Steve Stadel 2:18.216
Matt Schneider 2:18.513
Jay Leeman 2:20.691
Carl Przyborowski 2:22.508
Keith McDonald 2:28.881
Dennis Marklein 2:35.665

Joseph Sturm had a wreck in the kink and recorded no time today. What a tight field!

Tomorrow is an off day so last qualifying is Thursday (rain possible). I'll post any events if they come up, but it should be pretty quiet.

Ray Rivard
HIPPI Racing

[Ray Rivard]

Some rain fell just before the final qualifying, so the grid is set for the race based on Qual 2 times. Again, no big drama and most guys just put the cars through a shakedown for the race. Race is Saturday at 9:30 Central.... that's 10:30 Eastern Confederate Time.

[iamuwere]

Thanks for the updates. Sitting at work right now is quite painful...

[Keith Carter]

Thanks for posting all the updates, Ray! Looks like there will be a tight group in the meat of the field. Should be a blast in the race if the weather holds out for us. After the last qualifier, it appears we've cured our downshifting issue (due to the linkage binding) so we should be set for the race. Finally got to meet Jay Green, Mark Eaton, and Brian Novak in person. Great to meet you guys!

[Dennis Valet]

Only took a few photos of the FE session due to the weather

[dc]

Congratulations to Scott Rettich for a masterful win. He was the class of the field, by far.

And a big Steve Matchett WELL DONE, SON to my brother, Keith, in his very first RunOffs. After a tough season of niggling problems and frustrating stumbling blocks, he earned a well-deserving 6th place finish—the highest "privateer" in the field. Considering his budget, seat time, shifter issues and the fact that pops is still working on which way the brake pads are installed , he was in sight of the pointy end of the field at the end.

Good to see Two Guys and a Truck knock on the door of the top 5 in their first shot at the National Championships. Wish I could have been there to see it all in person this weekend. I'm guessing they have tapped a vein for next year, though.



Man, what if we only knew what we were doing?



One of Dennis' beautiful shots of the ApexSpeed FE...

[Keith Carter]

Thanks, brutha! Even though there were a lot of fast cars not with us due to the pro series, the group was still pretty tight considering the 4th through 10th qualifiers were covered by only a second at Road America. It was a blast of a race and I can't wait to see the webcast for it. There were a lot of young kids in impound, that's for sure. Made me feel a bit old at 36.

[mousecatcher]

the group was still pretty tight considering the 4th through 10th qualifiers were covered by only a second at Road America

WOW.

[Stan Clayton]

And a big Steve Matchett WELL DONE, SON to my brother, Keith, in his very first RunOffs. After a tough season of niggling problems and frustrating stumbling blocks, he earned a well-deserving 6th place finish—the highest "privateer" in the field. Considering his budget, seat time, shifter issues and the fact that pops is still working on which way the brake pads are installed , he was in sight of the pointy end of the field at the end.

What does this mean, Doug? I had the 3rd place finisher's dad tell me almost the same thing. He even described the first two finishers as "pro drivers".

I'll read your answer and any discussion tonight after I put in another 12 hours herding the rig westward across the shortgrass prairie.

[cooleyjb]

Matthew Mair has run Skip Barber national series stuff and was up there with RMS.

Rettich ran the SRF Pro series and FE Pro series along with some Pro Mazda stuff and was with HIPPI

Gallagher who was third was working on his F5 himself and in order to not spread himself too thin had Jay Motorsports look over his car.

Novak is an engineer out of MI and his dad Jay is doing as much of the wrenching as anybody on his car and his car is under the Jay Motorsports tent and ran the Pro series

Matt's a great driver as well and races with Jay Motorsports and ran the pro series.

The distinction betweeen privateer and non 'privateer' is pretty vague in the class as when there are big issues everyone including the CSRs walk across the paddock to chip in and help out.

[dc]

I guess I consider "privateers" in spec classes cars that aren't under a prep shop tent all weekend with 6 other spec cars. You know, guys with one set of tires and no trailer full of spares—beer & pizza league racers.

[TRW407]

Nice run Keith!

Does anyone know where pictures can be found at?

Thanks,

[dc]

We have some great ones of you, Tyler. Dennis is still in editing mode.

[iamuwere]

I have always done the work prior myself and have really liked moving under the big tent at Jay Motorsports. When my wife and I looked at the numbers for transport to all of the pro events this year and the time that I was spending in the garage versus time away from work to prep the car and transport, it became inviting to allow the "pros" to do it.

It has been a big learning tool for me and my wife is happy that I am spending money balanced against more time with the family.

None the less, congrats on a great drive. Car doesn't look half bad either...

Jim

[Stan Clayton]

Thanks for the explanations...and congrats to Keith!

I wasn't trying to cast aspersions on Keith's accomplishment. Just honestly asking while hustling out the door this morning to get on the road.

[Keith Carter]

No problems at all, Stan! Thanks! Don't get me wrong, if we could do the whole prep shop thing, we absolutely would. Our finishing position definitely exceeded our expectations, that's for sure. We gained some spots and lost some spots due to various events that took place, but it was all part of the racing game. It made the week long event worthwhile.

[Ray Rivard]

I'm not sure if I should feel good or bad about not being considered a privateer! I know that we don't have the fleet of FE's that the CSR's have, so being considered a pro team is something pretty new for the HIPPI's (and taken as a compliment). While we've only started working on formula cars for about a year, we have been working pretty hard to try and "make some noise" in the formula ranks - and Scott should get as much credit for his ability as a driver as Suren would for his ability as a crew chief. Thanks everyone (I think)!

Everyone in the FE field at the Runoffs should get accolades. The times throughout the field were really fast and everyone really stepped up their game for this week.

[Keith Carter]

No worries, Ray. I didn't get a good look at your camp, but it looked big time to me when I did see it. Scott and Matthew were both machines and walked away from the pack pretty easily. It would've been interested to see where Sean would've fit in as well. I'm sure he would've been up there as well.

Does anyone from Jay have any updates on Jason Wolf? After his shunt into the wall, on the following lap it appeared he was walking (barely) being assisted by a corner worker to sit down on the wall. Hopefully he was only shaken up a little with no injuries to speak of.