Blackhawk Majors - who's in?

[Marshall Mauney]

Entries so far:

Beck
Budres
Carter - Split Start
Cutter
Lehr - Split Start
Marklein
Mauney - Split Start
Mueller - Split Start
Muffler
Opperman
Rettich
Zellers

Who else is coming?

[dsmithwc04]

Entries so far:

Lehr
Marklein
Mauney
Rettich

Who else is coming?

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend because of my novice license. Why do they keep novice license holders out of Majors races? Is there really a difference in competition???

[Michael Mueller]

I haven't put my entry form in yet...but I'll be there.

[Marshall Mauney]

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend because of my novice license. Why do they keep novice license holders out of Majors races? Is there really a difference in competition???

Unfortunately, there can be. Look into the June Sprints from a few years ago where a new FM driver was signed off and ended up in the middle of a FE dice. Net result was a couple of cars out of the race, coming in on the hook. It wasn't that he was a poor driver - he just wasn't expecting the level of competition and aggression that can show up at a Majors event.

That said, we'd love to see you in CenDiv Majors. Can you get enough events completed to be at the Sprints?

[turbotom90]

Entries so far:

Lehr
Marklein
Mauney
Rettich

Who else is coming?

It will be my inaugural FE race, but I plan to enter my "new to me" FE at the BHF majors race. Looking forward to meeting and racing with you all.

I'll try to get my registration done today...

[MAC Racing]

I will be there also

Mat

[dsmithwc04]

It will be my inaugural FE race, but I plan to enter my "new to me" FE at the BHF majors race. Looking forward to meeting and racing with you all.

I'll try to get my registration done today...

Do you have your full competition licence Or novice?

[Dale Carter]

Keith and I plan on being there.

[Marshall Mauney]

With 6 already registered and another 3 intending to enter, that puts us at 9 cars or more - very nice.

Split start?

[TrackBrat]

That is a great number for FE.

I thought I would let you know that I am going to have a good size group of Boy Scouts there that weekend. I already talked to mike about talking with the boys but if any of you others want to that be great.

[Marshall Mauney]

9 cars registered now. That puts us as the 3rd largest class, behind Spec Miata and SRF, and we're in the largest run group at 22 cars.

[Keith Carter]

Split start, indeed!!! Lets rally together for it now seeing that trying to talk to all the FE guys while at the track can be a hassle. This whole offer a chunk of money championship thing seems to be the only way to pull a big field unless it's a competitive entry level class like SRF or SM. It seems like this would be a serious way to do things within the SCCA if you want your augment your own class with or without the help of the SCCA. Draw sponsorship for the class to put up an end of season purse. One Formula started the ante and then has had support from other businesses to add to the payout. Could you imagine the amount of participation a $25k payout for a given class would get?

[Marshall Mauney]

Split start, indeed!!! Lets rally together for it now seeing that trying to talk to all the FE guys while at the track can be a hassle.

What does it take? I think our entry count makes the point, but who do we talk to?

[Keith Carter]

It looks like Kevin Coulter is on the Stewards list. I'll email him and ask what we need to do to formally request it ahead of time.

[Marshall Mauney]

We're now at 10 cars. Very nice.....

[Jnovak]

Excellent.

[Keith Carter]

Here's what I got back from Kevin. Sounds reasonable enough!

Split starts are at the discretion of the Chief Steward who must receive a request within 30 minutes after posting the final grid. Please note that many stewards (including myself) won't make a "final" decision on such a request until seeing the on track times of who actually shows up, and what the general times are on a given weekend.

As this is a Majors, both the Series Chief Steward Costa Dunias and our local Chief Steward Paula Spencer must concur. I'd start by contacting Paula @ flyenracegal at aol.com. Both her and Costa's numbers are also in the supps.

You can contact them prior to the event with your request. I'd start by getting concurrence of as many FE folks as you can (and maybe a few non-FE folks in your group). In a group with this much alphabet soup, you may end up with another class in your "pack" but when we do things like that, it would be a class that won't muck with your race much (i.e. would not be something like FC or FM). This goes back to seeing who shows up and such.

[Keith Carter]

Lets get a headcount of those in favor of requesting a split start before the race weekend here and note the entry list Marshall has in the first post.

[Marshall Mauney]

Related note: Our group (6) now has 26 cars. That's a lot for BHF.

[Jeff Read]

This is the track from CenDiv that I really miss

[Keith Carter]

Related note: Our group (6) now has 26 cars. That's a lot for BHF.

Forget split start, split the group!!

[Keith Carter]

We now have 11 cars in FE and 26 in the race group. Haven't had a lot of feedback on this post as to those who would be in favor of a split start yet so I don't have a lot of ammunition to contact the stewards with. Please respond to this post to state if you're in favor of a split or not.

[Michael Mueller]

Seeing as how this will be my first race in the class I'd be in favor of a split start. I'd imagine that would be easier to deal with than a mixing of us and prototype cars but I defer to those in the class who've experienced this mixed grouping before.

[SStadel]

I believe we're at 12 now. SCCA is very aware of us and will be looking at what to do after qualifying. Pretty sure we'll have a split. I've made a suggestion but we need to qualify first.

[skl2]

Definitely a split start....put me down!

[Marshall Mauney]

I'm amazed. How has this thread gone this long with this many entrants with no smack-talk?

[skl2]

I'm amazed. How has this thread gone this long with this many entrants with no smack-talk?

Rettich will be there...its hard to smack talk for 2nd place

[Marshall Mauney]

Rettich will be there...its hard to smack talk for 2nd place

Hey, now.....his car could break......it could happen........in some alternate universe where Marussia finishes on the podium......

[Marshall Mauney]

.

[skl48]

Marshall, it is Manor now...

And you may still have a chance, I think Merhli only confirmed for one more race...

[Keith Carter]

Fun race weekend!! After the streak of poor luck and seeming to always being plagued with bad qualifiers to put us at the back of a race or other nagging issues during the race for the past couple years, it was a lot of fun to have a weekend without serious problems again. Hopefully we can improve upon the turnout for the Sprints and get 20 cars at least!

[Marshall Mauney]

Fun race weekend!! After the streak of poor luck and seeming to always being plagued with bad qualifiers to put us at the back of a race or other nagging issues during the race for the past couple years, it was a lot of fun to have a weekend without serious problems again. Hopefully we can improve upon the turnout for the Sprints and get 20 cars at least!

Yes, Keith - I think I got all of your bad luck this weekend, especially in qualifying.

Great fun overall, though. It was amazing that all the FEs took the checker in monsoon conditions!

[skl48]

Fun weekend in spite of the weather... but boy it took a long time to clean out the trailer!! Tarps are still drying out.

Thanks again to Steve and the One Formula team for their help and support!!


Now on to the 60th celebration at the Sprints!!