Formula First Racing Arizona

Well I managed to get thru an entire weekend without blowing anything up!  The car ran pretty good on the new motor. Tim, Greg and I were the only ones who showed up and it seems that Greg has his car pretty much tuned up and running great. We all had very close races all weekend long, I was struggling with the front tires, Tim had problems with the motor mount setup (or lack thereof) and Greg was just plain fast all weekend!

On Saturday’s main race I was out qualified by both Tim and Greg, I managed to get around Greg early on and finally caught Tim, we went back and forth several times during that race and close to end, Tim was leading and developed oil pressure problems and pulled out of the race ( I am not sure I could have beaten him any other way, he was on fire!).  I finished  first with Greg not far behind.

Sunday morning practice session started out with Tim and I going at it again, swapping the lead several times until another oil problem forced Tim into the pits, Greg once again had faster lap times than either Tim or I.  Tim’s problems got worse when we discovered the cracks in the frame near the rear, the motor had no forward mount, which caused the wheels to hop when braking hard. That caused the frame to tear, in fact one hard bump and that car would have been in 2 separate pieces. About the only holding the front half to the back half was shift linkage and a few wires.

The next 2 sessions I got consistantly worse, I was trying to figure out why my car would bog down coming out of the turns, it turns out that all I needed was decent front tires, I could then carry more speed into the corners and in turn get out smoother and faster. I guess I was so leary of the new motor that I overlooked the obvious!

The qualifying race was my worst session yet. I started out ok, but the lost a plug wire on #3. After a quick pit stop i was back on, and 1 lap down, I came on just behind Greg but because of the crappy tires, all I could do was watch Greg get farther and farther away, He absolutely destroyed me in that race.

The Feature Race: Tim let me borrow his front tires (the Goodyear guys packed up early on Sunday…and I am still a bit pissed off about that), Greg started 3 cars ahead of me, and worked as hard as I could to finally catch him 4 laps later. I passed him on the inside of the carosel, he hounded me for a few laps and then I spun comming out of the carosel and watched Greg fly right by! I figured that was it for me, but I pressed on any way and finally caught Greg again 4 laps later (traffic helped quite a bit), We were flying into the chicane, when Greg lost it and went off, all I could see was dirt and rocks, Greg’s car had completely dissapeared and I wasn’t sure which direction he was headed. I went way right and we ended up side by side on the other side of the chicane, I had the inside line going into the carosel and I kept my foot in it, just barely slipping into first, Greg was all over me thru the back section, once I was back on the straight, Greg was no where in sight. I turns out that Greg’s right rear tire went flat (probably because of the chicane incident), and he was out of the race! Too bad, because that was one of the best races yet! There is no telling who would have won if that tire had not gone flat! But hey, that’s racing!

And here is the best part, our lap times were in the low 1:07’s and only 3/10 apart!

I have a whole new level of respect for Greg, it turns out that all he needed was a car that handles half way decent!

The race for the championship for 2009 is going to be a long hard battle, It will be the toughest year yet, and whoever wins it will have truly earned it. It is anybodys race at this point, the cars are pretty much even, as are the drivers. I am looking forward to next month’s race, I have no doubt that it will be an exciting weekend filled with very close races!

Thanks again to Tim and Greg for making this best racing weekend yet! I am looking forward to many close battles!

-Fitz