| Challenge Series Information | |
| Factory
Five Challenge Series 2002
Nor Cal Region Race 9 and 10, Thunder Hill Raceway |
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| Races 9 and
10 of the West Coast Factory Five Challenge Series was another great
success.
Friday morning, Tim Noble, Bob Evan, Mike Easton, and David Borden set up our paddock space right in the middle of the action (near the food tent). We spent the day in a seminar called "Drive Intensive" put on by Bob Cornish and Barry Hartzel. the seminar focused on the link between the mind and driving, more specifically, the subconscious and it's affects on your lap times. Pretty heady stuff, but quite accurate. We enjoyed meeting some great guys and learning some neat stuff. Friday evening Dan and bob Lawson pulled into their saved paddock space and headed for the hotel. In the morning, we enjoyed a pot of Bob's Starbucks coffee while discussing the day to come. Bob and Dan Lawson showed up and unloaded their freshly rebuilt FFR Spec Racer. WOW is all we could say. The car was painted bright red with silver stripes all mounted to a silver powder coated frame. Everything was beautifully done. What is amazing, is that they did a complete rebuild in just a few months time. Everything looked so nice. |
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Saturday morning practice was successful and uneventful for Dan and David. The track was a little cold so the grip was low. Near the end of the session when track started to warm up, the times started to come down and the confidence started to come up. Bob Evans' cooling fan threw some blades and took out the radiator. He limped in and headed for the auto parts store while David kicked himself for forgetting one of his two spare radiators at home. |
| Scott
Peterson and Jonah Tollefson came up to check out the action along with
Bo, and Don DePontee in his newly completed FFR. Man, can Don
build a car! I can honestly say that was one of the nicest FFR's I
have ever seen. Bo asked if I would drive it, and it drove as nice
as it looked. Mary Borden also came up to support the group.
She got an idea in her head that she wanted to be a pace car
driver. What do you know, a few people spoke to a few more people,
and it was set up for the next day. Mary would ride shotgun with
the pace car drivers to learn the ropes.
During practice, David was experiencing a little push with the 750 lb. front springs. He decided to put in a bit more caster and camber before qualifying. Big thanks to Jonah and Scott for helping out. Qualifying went well with david and Dan qualifying in their respective order David qualified 4th in a group of about 30 cars, proving the FFR Spec Racer can hold their own on the track among different types of race cars. Mike ran in HPDE group 4 to get some added track time. Bob was unable to qualify as he was still replacing his radiator. |
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| Gridding for the race, the CMC cars started first, and the Pro-7's started in the 2nd group. The race started with the FFR's in the 3rd group with Super Unlimited. David took an early lead with Dan Lawson on his tail. bob Evans was chasing Dan down the whole race, but was unable to catch him. The racing field of 30 plus cars behaved themselves perfectly. all the cars ran perfectly with no mechanicals. Finishing order was David, Dan, and Bob. The day was successful with Bob, Dan, and Mike, all reducing their lap times significantly. |
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Saturday evening, NASA treated the participants to a BBQ. The food was fantastic! Grilled burgers, Chicken, Italian sausage, and Meatball sandwiches... another station was blending up mudslides for those who wanted them. They had a huge tub of sodas and beer free for the taking. We enjoyed the food and the good conversation for a couple of hours and rolled back to our paddock area. Bedtime came early for the next day's events. |
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| Sunday's
practice went well for being on a cold track. We had no incidents
or off track excursions. It was now Bob Lawson's time behind the
wheel. While out practicing, he heard an odd sound coming out of
the back of the newly completed FFR racer and decided to bring it
in. It turned out to be the stainless steel brake bracket. A
number of the guys worked on it for a while and were able to help the
noise a bit and we determined that, while disconcerting, the sound was
not dangerous.
Mike installed a passenger seat in his car on loan from Bob Evans and David and the new intercom radios hooked up went out with Mike's HPDE session to instruct him and continue lowering the lap times. The in car intercoms worked really well and Mike reported the instruction helped.
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| David experienced significant lap time improvements by setting his timing correctly after the last race's deboggle. He wondered what a few more degrees would do. Currently he was running 10 BTDC and bumped it to 13 before qualifying. It worked, lowering his already bettered 2:06.5 to a 2:05.0001 another 1.5 seconds off his time. It's pretty clear that small changes in HP and torque make a big difference in lap times. Qualifying results were David, Bob Lawson, and Bob Evans. |
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| The race was
a mirror image of Saturday's. David took the early lead with Bob
Lawson, and Bob Evans on his tail. The racing was clean and there
were no incidents with other cars. Bob Evans decided to see if he
could carry a bit more speed though turn 9. He lost the bet and
went off, cutting across the track and through the dirt. The shock
from the plowing broke his hinges and he lost his trunk. He
decided to wait it out and watch the race complete from the
infield. Bob receives the John Deere award and a free Green Paint
Job ;-). Lucky for him, he completed just enough laps to secure
3rd place points.
David started experiencing some elevated temperatures, so turned it down a bit and pointed some of the faster cars by. After a short time, Bob Lawson was right on his tail and challenging hime for first. David was able to hold him off for the next 4 laps and secure the 1st place finish. Bob Lawson took a close 2nd and Bob Evans secured 3rd. Overall, it was a great weekend with a few other FFR street cars and customers showing up to support the group. The next race is September 7-8th at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA. Come out and support the group and cheer on your favorite driver, or run your car in HPDE and get to experience your car on a world class race track in a safe environment. |
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| Special thanks to Dave Borden for the write up. | |
| Click on photos to enlarge | |
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