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Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

manurespreader said:
A guy i know yesterday was run head on into a bridge abutment in a FC by a guy trying to jump the start on the pace lap. He survived with only a broken leg, but the car is a write off.
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I was there. Dave Weitzenhof at Watkins Glen. It was not the bridge abutment (there are no bridge abutments at this track; they are all behind the guardrail). It was the pit entrance wall. Still a very bad spot to hit.

I was watching from the Inner Loop, so I didn't know what happened until I got back to the paddock area. I heard he was knocked out in the process, didn't know of any other injuries until now. The front end of the car was completely gone. It was one of his tried and true 1994 Citations, a 95SFZ.

And he's no spring chicken -- 72 years old and can still run with the best of them, young or old. This is his 50th year of racing!
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Russell Jaslow said:
I was there. Dave Weitzenhof at Watkins Glen. It was not the bridge abutment (there are no bridge abutments at this track; they are all behind the guardrail). It was the pit entrance wall. Still a very bad spot to hit.

I was watching from the Inner Loop, so I didn't know what happened until I got back to the paddock area. I heard he was knocked out in the process, didn't know of any other injuries until now. The front end of the car was completely gone. It was one of his tried and true 1994 Citations, a 95SFZ.

And he's no spring chicken -- 72 years old and can still run with the best of them, young or old. This is his 50th year of racing!
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He was hit from behind a few seconds before the green would have gone. It knocked him sideways into the wall end. there is video out there but it hasn't been released yet. The guy immediately behind him had it on film. Looks like surgery and then a 2 or 3 month rehab. No racing this season most likely,... could have been a lot worse.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

manurespreader said:
He was hit from behind a few seconds before the green would have gone. It knocked him sideways into the wall end. there is video out there but it hasn't been released yet. The guy immediately behind him had it on film. Looks like surgery and then a 2 or 3 month rehab. No racing this season most likely,... could have been a lot worse.
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The series was collecting video from all the cars after that race, and I suspect now that they "own" the video, they won't release it. (BTW, many series, even grassroots amateur series like American Endurance Racing, now have a rule that you have to have in-car video recording. And if it's not working when they want your video card, you can get penalized for it. Sure cuts down on a lot of the "he said, she said" situations.)

The end of that wall is protected by water/sand drums, but it's still something you never want to hit. I almost got driven into it by a last lap blocking *ssh*le (though we later did become friends...).

Hopefully, Weitzenhof can make a full recovery in time to participate in the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford in the U.S. at Road America in September, 2019.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Russell Jaslow said:
The series was collecting video from all the cars after that race, and I suspect now that they "own" the video, they won't release it. (BTW, many series, even grassroots amateur series like American Endurance Racing, now have a rule that you have to have in-car video recording. And if it's not working when they want your video card, you can get penalized for it. Sure cuts down on a lot of the "he said, she said" situations.)

The end of that wall is protected by water/sand drums, but it's still something you never want to hit. I almost got driven into it by a last lap blocking *ssh*le (though we later did become friends...).

Hopefully, Weitzenhof can make a full recovery in time to participate in the 50th anniversary of Formula Ford in the U.S. at Road America in September, 2019.
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It's gotten to the point that SCCA is virtually abandoning formula car racing. The switch to honda power in FF has been poor, fields are tiny and overall they need to make massive changes. First they should mandate treaded tires in Club Ford, no one runs slicks on their car any longer and it's a pain to change the set-up to go to a regional. Second they should find a way to reduce the number of classes. For instance FC has Pinto cars, Zetec cars and everything in between. It's a disaster. Third they need to settle on one, spec, tire. The costs of running a competitive FF for one year are approaching 100k. That's not sustainable. Get the costs down. Personally i'd be requiring treaded tires on all FF like the British do. Seems like they are doing quite well btw.
Third SCCA is unique in that they can do a better job of enforcing the rules than the vintage guys. As it is now there is a lot of cheating, especially on the west coast.
There is also so many venues that fields get splintered. Maybe we should have an all formula Weekend at someplace like Mid Ohio where a lot of people can get to. Then we have majors and vintage racing on the same day at the same location. I bet it would be a huge success.And it would up track time for the sedan guys.
Or maybe we give SVRA the chance to host more events and get out of Formula racing entirely. They run a real nice event and generally it's more professionally done than SCCA does.
Most importantly, the competition board needs to not have people on it who stand to benefit from proposed rules changes. That's insane.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

manurespreader said:
It's gotten to the point that SCCA is virtually abandoning formula car racing. The switch to honda power in FF has been poor, fields are tiny and overall they need to make massive changes. First they should mandate treaded tires in Club Ford, no one runs slicks on their car any longer and it's a pain to change the set-up to go to a regional. Second they should find a way to reduce the number of classes. For instance FC has Pinto cars, Zetec cars and everything in between. It's a disaster. Third they need to settle on one, spec, tire. The costs of running a competitive FF for one year are approaching 100k. That's not sustainable. Get the costs down. Personally i'd be requiring treaded tires on all FF like the British do. Seems like they are doing quite well btw.
Third SCCA is unique in that they can do a better job of enforcing the rules than the vintage guys. As it is now there is a lot of cheating, especially on the west coast.
There is also so many venues that fields get splintered. Maybe we should have an all formula Weekend at someplace like Mid Ohio where a lot of people can get to. Then we have majors and vintage racing on the same day at the same location. I bet it would be a huge success.And it would up track time for the sedan guys.
Or maybe we give SVRA the chance to host more events and get out of Formula racing entirely. They run a real nice event and generally it's more professionally done than SCCA does.
Most importantly, the competition board needs to not have people on it who stand to benefit from proposed rules changes. That's insane.
Click to expand...

Have you heard of the Right Coast Formula F Series (http://www.rcffs.org/)? Simplicity seems to be their motto.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Ancient one here whose floor mates at Clarkson raced Formula Vee in the summer.

Is Formula Vee still around?
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

alfablue said:
What goes around comes around. Ferrari used a VSC to lose a 2nd place finish.
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Why pit there at all, and why not but on a softer faster tyre? Why didn't Ferarri qualify in Q3 on the softer tyres? They thru away a chance at pole. Ferrari's braintrust sucks.

What a stupid move by Newgarten to wipe himself out. He just should have waited until the straight then picked him off. I don't understand why the Penske drivers continually shoot themselves in the feet. Back in the day Mears, Emmo and Sullivan never made unforced errors like these guys are, especially Power.

Grosjean has totally lost his mind.

It is great to see Wickens doing so well. I like when the small teams do well, just not too well to mess up my Penske boys, but they seem to do that enough all by themselves.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

joecct said:
Ancient one here whose floor mates at Clarkson raced Formula Vee in the summer.

Is Formula Vee still around?
Click to expand...

Of course. :-)

But, they are running into supply issues especially with the engines. Not to mention, they are still hellbent on sticking to the old technology like drum brakes, on all four corners.

There are people, including a good friend of mine, are are leading a "revolt" to get SCCA to change their FV rules, and have instituted a regional only class called Formula First. Same chassis, disk brakes, different engine.

https://formulafirst.org/

And here's a good write up on the FV vs. FFirst history and situation and the technical specs: http://formula-first.org/Historical/FCM_Press_release.pdf
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Zak Brown was at the Indy GP most likely to discuss McLaren’s future in INDYCAR. It’s been mentioned Michael Andretti is their first option as a partner. But if Andretti brings up Colton Herta with Steibrenner’s team in 2019 AND teams with McLaren that's A 6-car team and doesn’t sound sustainable.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

manurespreader said:
I saw it. the course if you ask me, isn't very good but it is all about the money.
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IMHO, "isn't very good" is being way, way too nice about how bad it is. It's two really long straight over a single bridge plus two shorter straights connected by a handful of twisty bits. Terrible. Very not interesting, unless you want to see a lot of DRS being used.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

I hate the concept of having different boost for qualifying and the race. Run qualifying boost all the time.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

James Hinchcliffe misses the show...wow

Drivers say there will be a ton of passing between the top 3 but beyond that the slingshot affect is less significant?
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

solovsfett said:
James Hinchcliffe misses the show...wow

Drivers say there will be a ton of passing between the top 3 but beyond that the slingshot affect is less significant?
Click to expand...

Boy did that suck. Shocking to say the least.

This was my first Bump Day. Not a fan of it. I understand the tradition and all that and I am on board with that but lock the full-timers into the field. This is a double-points race and a driver 5th in the standings is now essentially done for the season. Huge implications as well for Leaders Circle money for Sam Schmidt. Yes they royally screwed the pooch. Rain really killed much of a window for bumping. Let the one-offs race to fill out the field. But at least guarantee entry to full-timers. I know people have interesting opinions about Pippa but she's amazing and it was brutal to see her miss out as well.

Anyway, feels like Chevy has an advantage this time around. Have to think Penske or ECR will be looking good next week. But.. anything can happen once pit windows open, yellow flags start flying, and backmarkers muddle the situation for guys in front. How about Fast Eddie laying down that pole like a boss?
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Boy did that suck. Shocking to say the least.

This was my first Bump Day. Not a fan of it. I understand the tradition and all that and I am on board with that but lock the full-timers into the field. This is a double-points race and a driver 5th in the standings is now essentially done for the season. Huge implications as well for Leaders Circle money for Sam Schmidt. Yes they royally screwed the pooch. Rain really killed much of a window for bumping. Let the one-offs race to fill out the field. But at least guarantee entry to full-timers. I know people have interesting opinions about Pippa but she's amazing and it was brutal to see her miss out as well.
Click to expand...

No.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2018- with less winglets.

Nick Papagiorgio said:
People really freak out about this stuff. It's been interesting to read up on.
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There's nothing, really, to freak out about. Indy has a long history of drivers who can only afford to attempt that one race. And that sometimes comes at the expense of regular drivers. Given the stakes, there's more on the line for the one time driver vs. the regular one- as they have the rest of the season to make some money. And if they didn't go as fast as the 33rd fastest, when that's slower than over 10 one timers, well..., that sucks for you.

What I don't understand is the need for regulars to make it in at the expense of others. Just for the sake of making the show. That is part of the appeal of Indy.
 
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