2025 Season Opener - Registration Link

The 2025 season is upon us! It is time to register with HMSA.

• If you have raced with HMSA in the past, you can use HMSA Online Entry Form

• If you have not raced with HMSA before, download the entry form, fill it out, and email to HMSA. You can also send via snail mail.

We are hoping to arrange for pre-season tech at a couple locations. Details as soon as we can get this set up. In the mean time make sure to double check your:

• Belts

• Fire Bottle

• License / Medical

• Driver Gear

Note that the schedule page also has links to register for all of the CSRG events.

The Corkscrew is calling!!!

2024 Season Finale & Top Gun Shootout Report!

2024 Season Finale & Top Gun Shootout Report!

FFotos by James Kim

Season Finale Crossflow Rounds 7 & 8:

We had a solid crop of 41 cars for rounds 7 and 8 at Sonoma Raceway September 14/15. Two new racers joined us in the form of one Matt Kelly in a LeGrand, and Gregg Cavan in his Konig-Heath. Kelly came from down south with the Monise crew looking after him and Cavan had raced at Sonoma before, but not since Ronald Reagan's second term (as President not Governor). We also had former Crossflow points champ Todd Strong making a return to the series this weekend, and Steve Romak was making his first Crossflow run of 2024. 

Friday testing looked like it would be a CF battle at the front with Adam White's familiar yellow Lola 540 again posting some solidly fast laptimes with only the 540E of Kelly Heil in the same area code. On Lap 2 of the final Friday afternoon practice however, Adam had a suspension failure on the LF corner of his Lola 540. Although he emerged unscathed, his Lola was in decidedly secondhand condition and was done for the weekend. Adam had wrapped up the CF points championship at Round 6, but not wanting to sit idly on the sidelines, a deal was struck for Andrew Wait's Titan and just like that Adam became a HF racer for the weekend. 

As I mentioned at the driver's meeting, this is an excellent warning for all Crossflow racers. Adam's car was effectively new-old-stock 1978 racecar. It had zero race miles before 2022. How many miles are on your suspension? How many kerb strikes, how many wheel to wheel bumps, how many times have your wishbones been repaired, or just stripped or replated? New suspension is cheap insurance. If you do not want to replace it, I urge you to remove it and magnaflux or x-ray your suspension this winter. Better safe than sorry. 

Qualifying 1:
White took all of 1 lap to get up to pace in his new mount, laying down a 1:44.2 at the end of lap 2, which would have been good enough for overall pole. But he dug deep and threw down a 1:43.5 on lap 7 to put himself .8 up on Kelly Heil overall with Heil P1 in CF with a 1:44.3. Steve Romak showed his time off hadn't slowed him at all with a 1:44.44 and Oliver Ramleth was P4 only .01 back with a 1:44.45. John JP Plavan had a career best 5th place (2nd in CF) qualifying effort with a 1:44.7 ahead of Baker, Smith, Hakewill and Strong. Brian Forster closed out the top 10, 3rd in CF with a 1:45.4. 

Alex Dodd had a great qualifying session, running inside the top 20 for a bit before ending up in the 21st spot (13th in HF), the always smiling Fred Greis ran a 1:51.8 to put him 30th, and Tom Blackmon continued to improve to end up 33rd (24th in HF) at the close of qualifying. 

Race 1:
The pacecar rolled at a torrid clip for the bulk of the pace lap, and the back half of the field was straggled out as the front half entered T11 formed up two by two. The gods of Pertronix Ignition decided Kelly Heil's chance of knocking Brian Forster out of 2nd place in the CF points was not meant to be and as Kelly made his way through T11 the car sputtered and came to a halt. Had their been a flagger in T11, it is likely that the race would not have been given a green. But as the current management of Sonoma Raceway feels the aesthetics of the Turn 11 building trump the requirements for a flagger, no such call was made. The race was given a green.

Polesitter Adam White, perhaps expecting a wave off, was swamped at the start by the twin orange Titans of Oliver Ramleth and Steve Romak, who moved to 1st and 2nd respectively at the wave of the green. Also having a dynamite start was Mark Smith, keeping a watchful eye on his HF points lead. 

The pacecar came out at the close of lap one for the crews to clear Heil's motionless Lola, and as the field bunched up behind it, 37th starter Matt Kelly in his beautiful LeGrand was caught out by the accordion and had an off in the Carousel. 

14 minutes of cleanup ensued at what felt like a glacial pace, but race control saw fit to at least give our racers 2 laps of green flag racing before calling it. And it was a dynamite 2 lap sprint. Oliver Ramleth knew he had one job if he had a shot at winning the championship: he had to maximize his points haul on the weekend. Commanding the lead at the restart, he held strong ahead of the challenge of White, Smith and Romak, no mean feat. This was the order at the finish however, with Oliver taking home his second HF class win on the season, but his first ever Crossflow overall win. A breakout performance for sure. 

Brian Forster came home 7th to take the Club Ford honors over Neil Porter and Glenn Woloski, and our Masters battle saw Mace Gjerman ahead of regular podium finishers Marty Benck and Chris Schoap.

Above Left : Saturday Masters Podium - Mace Gjerman P1, Marty Benck  P2,  Chris Schoap P3 
Mid Left: CF Podium - Brian Forster  P1,Neil Porter P2, Glenn Woloski P3 
Mid Right: HF Podium -  Oliver Ramleth  P1, Adam White  P2, Mark Smith P3
Far Right: Kelly wining the Ivey Certificate + shirt 

SATURDAY PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

Beer for the weekend was supplied by Mark Smith and John Fosse! Thank you both for taking care of the most important part of any Crossflow weekend!

Fastest Wrench (polesitting mechanic) - Adrian Reyes for Adam White
Ivey Engines $250 Gift Certificate - Kelly Heil 
Hard Charger - 3 way tie for H/C, so we gave Mark Smith the 2 points as he was the highest finishing hard charger, and gave Oliver Abate and Jay Streets the entry into the Top Gun Shootout

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Qualifying 2:
As it was the day before, the tale of round 8 was to be told in Qualifying. Again, White set the pace with Heil sitting P2 overall for the bulk of the session (CF pole), but both Smith and Ramleth were to come crashing through to 2nd and 3rd, setting their respective fastest laps on their last laps. Both of them fighting tooth and nail for the HF points championship and would likely have been hungry to claim the point for pole had White not been HF spoiler this weekend. 

Todd Strong moved inside the top 5 (4th in HF) but he had Hakewill, Baker and Romak all within striking distance and breathing right down his neck. Brian Swanson was finally feeling his oats and laid down a solid 1:46.1 to roll off on the inside of row 6 (4th in CF) and Marty Benck had a solid qualifying run to put him 13th (9th in HF). Oliver Abate made a big improvement from Saturday's qualifying effort to roll off inside row 8 with the RF79 Van Diemen of Glenn Woloski to his outside. 

A noteworthy point of excitement happened near the end of qualifying, as Kelly Heil and Jay Streets had a momentary bit of contact. Heil missed a gear in T11 and Streets climbed over the back of Heil's Lola. Neither car showed outward damage, but this slight bump was to come back to haunt Jay later in the morning. 

Race 2:
Sunday's grid looked sharp as they rolled through Turn 10 on the pace lap for the final round of 2024. The green waved, and the battle ensued... until Turn 2. Fred Greis was on a monster start, and had moved up a few spots, but found himself out on the gray entering 2 and had a slow spin. Ed Abate was on the inside and shot the gap, but the gap closed and contact was made. Both cars sat immobile for a bit, Abate was able to refire and come back to the black flag station. Meanwhile, the grid circulated behind the pace car for two long laps of caution while the mess was cleaned up. At the restart, White commanded from the point and held strong to his lead with Ramleth, Smith, Heil and Strong following behind. 

The race was again cut short and finished under yellow as Jay Streets had a component failure (a hangover from the contact in qualifying) that left him parked off track, while simultaneously Ed Van Tassel had a clutch release bearing failure, causing his car to sit immobile in the pit-in. So the flag dropped with the field in the same positions as they had been at the close of lap 5. Plavan had a strong run to 2nd place in CF with Forster 3rd (10th overall), and Hakewill finished up a solid weekend with a 7th place (4th in HF) finish. Ben Zlotkin had his first Hard Charger finish of the season, getting him qualified for the Top Gun Shootout later in the afternoon with a 23rd place finish, moving himself up 6 spots in 2 scant laps. 

And thus ended the 2024 Crossflow Cup Season. 

Far Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Hakewill filling in for Neil Porter P1, Marty Benck P2, and Mace Gjerman P3
Mid Left: Sunday CF Podium: Kelly Heil P1, John Plavan Jr  P2, Brian Forster P3
Mid Right: Sunday Historic Podium: Adam White  P1, Oliver Ramleth P2, Mark Smith  P3 
Far Right: Wine Trophies by Kitchens Family and Awards by Brian Forster 

SUNDAY RACE AWARDS:

We closed out our 2024 season awards ceremonies off with a great crowd. Neil Porter had a great stand-in in the shape of James Hakewill, we gave away the last of the Kitchen's family wine bottles with Brian Forster's medals for the year, and a great time was had by all. 

Fastest Wrench (polesitting mechanic) - Seth Bauer for Adam White
Hard Charger: Ben Zlotkin 

2024 SERIES AWARDS:

Mechanic of the Year:
Aaron Schuster was nominated by several folks in the paddock that he helped throughout the year. Taking parts home to weld them back together, helping with gearchanges, clutch repair, loaning parts and tools wherever needed to keep the cars on the grid. Starting from CSRG annual tech day, Aaron worked all season long to assist racers out of the kindness of his heart. 

MVP:
Danny Baker was chosen for flying the Crossflow flag (and flying it at the front) all around the world. Danny showed that the increased pace at the front of the grid in 2024 wasn't a bother to him, and he was in the hunt all season. His win at the FF55th at Road America and his pole position at the Rolex Reunion showed that the affable pilot and his venerable Lotus 61 were never to be counted out.  

FFanciest FFord:
Ed Abate could be mistaken for a docent at the museum of Automotive Developments. A knowledgeable racer for sure, Ed is ebullient with his passion for the marque. His car is a letter perfect example of what it looked like in the fall of 1973, and we should all aspire to be such fans of the cars we race!

Rookie of the Year:
Oliver Abate showed both a level head and massive pace in his rookie season. Strong finishes all season long, and never a foot wrong. In a model of car that wouldn't have been considered by any drivers in the top 10 to be their choice, Oliver showed patience and pace. Paying off with a steady string of top 10 overall finishes, and finishing just outside the top 10 in points for the year. Mark my words, we will see Oliver Abate on the HF podium at some point in the 2025 season. 

Crossflow Cup:

Late summer 2023 Thomas & Jason Blackmon came by my shop with their Caldwell. Drawn into Crossflow from seeing it on the outside and wanting to join in the fun, they found their car with assistance from ex-CSRG president Locke deBretteville. Doing all the work themselves, and doing it for the love of it. So many of us started off just this way, stubbing our toes and just keeping on keeping on. Their determination to learn, to get better, to have fun, and to make friends while doing it all is what earned them the Cup this year. Well done gentlemen, you're an inspiration to us all!

Above Left: Poopy, Mechanic of the year, speeding of to help someone
Above Right: Danny Baker, MVP
Below Left: Ed Abate, FFanciest FFord with son Oliver Abate, Rookie of the Year
Below Right Crossflow Cup Award to father and son Thomas & Jason Blackmon

CHAMPIONSHIP TOP TEN'S:

Club Ford:
1. Adam White - 69 pts.
2. Brian Forster - 57
3. Kelly Heil - 49
4. John Plavan - 47
5. Glen Woloski - 31
6T. Mace Gjerman - 31
6T. Neil Porter - 31
6T. Tom Minnich - 31
9. Todd Willing - 25
10. Brian Swanson - 9

Historic Ford:
1. Mark Smith - 74 pts.
2. Oliver Ramleth - 70
3. Danny Baker - 53 
4. Jay Streets - 31
5. Will Jackson - 25
6. Ed Van Tassel - 24
7. Adam White - 22
8. Chris Schoap - 20
9. James Hakewill - 18
10. Mike Wirrick - 15

Full Point Standings can be foundHERE

2024 CF Championship Podium:
Adam White 1st - 69 points
Brian Forster 2nd - 57 points
Kelly Heil 3rd - 49 points

2024 HF Championship Podium:
Mark Smith 1st - 74 points
Oliver Ramleth 2nd - 70 points
Danny Baker 3rd - 53 points

Top Gun Grid

CSRG Presents, the TOP GUN SHOOTOUT

The final highlight of the Charity Challenge weekend was the Top Gun Shootout. During the season, we had 9 drivers qualify: Kelly Heil, Glenn Woloski, Adam White, Mitch Roth, Caleb Hamm, Mark Smith, Danny Baker (defending his 2023 belt) and Rob Thull. 

Adam White again requalified with his dual-pole positions, and we had a unique situation on Saturday. We had 3 cars all tie for Hard Charger: Mark Smith, Jay Streets, and Oliver Abate. Smith had already qualified (back in Round 3), so we put Streets and Abate in the lineup. In addition, the cars of Thull, Hamm, and Roth no-showed on the weekend so we did a "promoters option" to draw 3 more names (Eric Verdin, Steve Romak, and James Hakewill). Ben Zlotkin was the final Hard Charger of the 2024 season so we had a lineup of 12 cars set to take the green, but then Streets went out with a mechanical in Round 8 leaving us 11 starters. 


The Grid was set by random draw:
1. Woloski       2. Swanson
3. Smith          4. Zlotkin
5. Heil             6. Baker
7. O. Abate     8. Verdin
9. White        10. Hakewill
11. Romak (did not start)

The Shootout was to be 6 laps (or 15 minutes) and it was to be the only all green flag race of the weekend! At the start, Heil jumped out to an early lead with Woloski holding his own in P2. Mark Smith's race ended at the close of lap 1 with a sticking throttle, and Verdin and Hakewill also were not able to make it to the checkered. White was moving forward by lap 3 though and was up to 2nd and closing on Heil. Baker struggled getting past Woloski but by lap 4 it was a familar train of Heil/White/Baker at the front. Heading into T11 at the close of lap 5, White moved past Heil for the point and stayed there to the finish of the shootout, taking the belt for 2024!

Top Gun Winner, Adam White

2025: SHIPPERTS STEP DOWN,
NEW CROSSFLOW CUP BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Katusha Speed Shop, Ed VanTassel, Brian Swanson, Jay Streets and Dan Wise (not pictured)

BIG NEWS FOR 2025!

At the close of Saturday's party, we made an announcement that has been in the works for the past few months. Rebecca and I have turned over series control to the first ever Crossflow Board of Directors. Five members, each with a unique strength and skill set.

Jay Streets, Dan Wise, Brent Katusha, Ed Van Tassel, and Brian Swanson will lead the Crossflow Cup into the future.

To start with, they are starting the 2025 points season by giving 2 appearance points to all FF's that come to the CSRG race at Thunderhill in November! That's right, you can start off your 2025 season with points in the bag! Any/all questions can be posed to your new board at crossflowcup@gmail.com

This will be the last email you receive from Rebecca and I. We have enjoyed working with all of you over the past few years, and I hope you feel like we did right by Crossflow. I personally have put a lot of my competitive fire into trying to make the series the best it can be, but ultimately so much of that is not up to us. It's up to you guys, the racers! Our series is the MOST competitive FF racing in the United States. Our series has the best esprit de corps of any series in the United States. I want you all to be proud of it, preach the gospel to anyone you meet. Keep growing the group, keep working on your skills, your cars, all of it. Rebecca and I aren't going anywhere; both our family and Shippert Racing Services have grown to the point that they need all the attention we can give them. SRS will still be active participants in the Cup, and hopefully I will be able to rejoin the grid myself for a race or two with my faithful Crossle in the coming years if time allows, and Rebecca will be chasing the boys on their bikes through paddocks across North America. 

Thank you all for everything you have done for SRS and the Shipperts, we look forward to seeing you at the track in 2025!

The 2024 Season Finale Crossflow Cup FFamily FFoto

Thanks for the memories!

Laps for Laguna, Race Report!

Laps for Laguna, Rounds 5 & 6

The back half of the season began early last month as Crossflow Cup racers from all up and down the West Coast funneled into the paddock. Two cars short of 40 were set to take the track, and after a 6 week break the racers were itching to get back in the fight. We had a handful of folks making their debut appearances as well. Jamie Moore was out for his first Crossflow run in Martin Lauber's Titan, Matt Kelly brought out his beautiful and freshly restored LeGrand, John Acampora brought his Crossle 16 to the fight, Edd Ozard was debuting the new-to-him but ex-Jim Lynn Crossle 35, Bob Kozinski was making a second attempt at a first weekend in his lovely green Hawke, and Ed Abate (while technically not a Crossflow rookie) graced the field with his sinister black ADF.  

Qualifying 1:
As per usual, our racers were lined up early for pregrid as the field of 38 strong sat waiting the 1 minute board under beautiful sunny skies. The traditional full course yellow out lap kept them bunched together and when the green waved, the guys got to work.

Our resident lap record holder and Club Ford points leader Adam White struck first, taking overall pole on only his second lap with a 1:35.539. Danny Baker ended up slotting in P2 overall and Historic Ford pole and, foreshadowing the rest of the weekend Oliver Ramleth and Mark Smith were right behind him. Baker had handling woes surprise him as he ripped around on his 4th circuit of the 2.238 mile rollercoaster, causing him to park his venerable Lotus 61 a few minutes before the close of the session. James Hakewill showed he was coming to grips with his new Titan quickly with a 9th place quali effort (5th in HF), and Jamie Moore showed he wasn't just there to toe the water with a strong 12th place starting spot (6th in HF). Our great new friend from the great white north, Glenn Woloski had a solid quali session, laying down his best lap on lap 5 to line up on the outside of row 9, and our lone Caldwell supporter Tom Blackmon continued to improve with a 1:47.7 to put him on the 15th row, starting in 30th. 


Race 1:
Excitement in the in-between time, the gang at Competition Touring Cars diagnosed Baker's handling issue to be a cracked suspension pickup point. Fortunately (perhaps a sign from the heavens), Andrew Wait's Titan was waiting in the paddock. Apparently our 2023 HF point champ wanted to keep folks worried that he MIGHT just show up to surprise us all. A clever ruse perhaps, but one that was to benefit one D. Baker. Phone calls were made, a deal was struck. And when all was said and done,  Danny was not just going to be wearing Andrew's helmet this weekend. He would however, be giving up his front row starting spot, moving young Oliver Ramleth up to row one for the first time in his Crossflow career. 

The first of two really nice starts of the weekend sent the pack over the hill 4 wide and into turn 2. A spot of excitement on the opening lap that saw John Plavan's Crossle spinning split the grid into "those that went the right way, and those that didn't." Tom Minnich was one of the unfortunate ones who "didn't" and the close of lap one found him back 6 spots from where he started, with much hay to be made. Slugging it out with Mace Gjerman and Marty Benck, Tom managed to get back a couple of his lost spots by the checker.

Up front, Adam White was attempting to break free from the brawl. But Kelly Heil showed dogged determination in hanging on, and managed to take the point for two of the 11 laps. Just past half distance, and back in front, White was able to put his head down to pull out a 3 second gap with a quartet of 1:36 laps. Heil showed some pace though and the weekend looked to have promise. In the end, White was unassailed in his 4th victory of the season, with Heil and Ramleth behind him. Ramleth's 3rd place overall was HF class honors (his first Crossflow Cup win!), trailed by Mark Smith who was struggling with a surprising and sudden lack of pace when he needed it most. Hakewill showed his qualifying run was no fluke, and brought his Titan home 6th overall (4th in HF), and Oliver Abate (a leading contender for this years Rookie of the Year honors) continued to turn heads this year, with another really strong run to finish in the top 10 (6th in HF). Ed, the more senior member of Team Abate, brought his ADF home in 30th spot (14th in CF).

Edd Ozard, struggling with a misfire that forced him to qualify further back than he would have normally been, moved forward in wholesale fashion and ended up in the 22nd spot. But the Racer's Safety Source Hard Charger was none other than Danny Baker, who gained a monster 26 spots on his run to 12th place (7th in HF). Danny qualified himself for the Top Gun Shootout with this run and if last year's Shootout is anything to judge, the other competitors should hope he draws a back grid position to start! 

Top Left : Saturday Masters Podium - Neil Porter P1, Tom Minnich P2, Marty Benck P3
Top Mid Left: Hard Charger and Top Gun Qualifier, Danny Baker!
Top Mid Right: HF Podium - Oliver Ramleth P1, Mark Smith P2, Greg Hoff P3
Top Right: Adam White P1, Kelly Heil P2, Brian Forster P3
 

Qualifying 2:
Sunday morning dawned cool and wet, the possibility of a damp session was looking very likely as car covers came off. However as nervous as the wagging tongues in the paddock were, it was all for naught as the track dried out just in time for cars to roll out. John Fosse spent a few hours digging into Mark Smith's lack of pace in Saturday's race, and found the secondary in the carb was only halfway opening so their hopes were renewed for a good qualifying session. 

Although the track had a dry line, the track continued to improve as the session went on, culminating with Adam White laying down a heater of a 1:35.1 on lap 7 to take overall pole by a massive 2 second margin over 2nd place CF Kelly Heil. But the real battle was looking like it was going to be for the top spot in Historic Ford, as the Titian Titan Trio (that's three reddish Titan's for those of you without a thesaurus next to you on the couch) of Danny Baker, Mark Smith and Oliver Ramleth qualified right on top of one another, with 4th place HF qualifier James Hakewill (in a fourth shade-of-red Titan) lining up behind 3rd place CF qualifier John Plavan in 6th.  Oli Abate had a fantastic session with a career best 8th overall (6th in HF) to line him up outside row 4 in his one-of-four March 729.  John Ostlund was coming to grips with his Crossle will roll off inside row 8, one spot ahead of Neil Porter. Ben Zlotkin was steadily improving in his Merlyn with a 21st spot (10th in HF) Fred Greis has contiued his march forward on the grid with a 29th starting spot, and Alex Dodd would roll off on the 11th row (11th in HF too!)

Race 2:
The pace car held the field tightly together as they left the grid, and this resulted in one of the best starts in Crossflow Cup history. Laguna Seca is difficult place to achieve good quality starts, because the nature of the last corner being so slow and tight means that a natural accordion happens as any grid runs two-by-two through it. So it is a rare thing indeed when over 14 of the 19 rows of cars are lined up like little soldiers for the starter to turn them loose. And loose they were turned. 

Kelly Heil jumped out to an early lead, putting his orange Lola on the point as the pack moved into the Andretti Hairpin at the start of lap 1, and tried his level best to make hay while the sun was shining. Eeking out a lead is a tall order these days in Crossflow though, and he relinquished the point to Adam White midway through lap 2, and White set sail. The Jellyman had settled into second, but on lap 6 he had an innocuous spin up in the corkscrew, which left him stranded on the kerbing and brought out the familiar full course yellows. 

At the restart, Oliver Ramleth got the jump and moved into the overall lead for a beat, hoping to distance the fellow Titan team from himself, but it was not to be. White resumed his lead and set fastest race lap in the process. Neil Porter was on the move forward though and didn't need a FCY to help his cause, gaining 8 of his eventual 10 spots in the first 6 laps before the yellow. Ben Zlotkin and Glenn Woloski also moved forward throughout the fight, picking up 6 and 5 spots respectively. Oliver Abate was proving he belonged inside the top 10, comfortably running the whole race distance there, until a booboo on the last lap dropped him back to the 16th spot (7th in class). And in a rough case of like father like son, Ed dropped 10 spots with an off course excursion in turn 10 on the last lap, ending what was an otherwise very strong first weekend for his resurrected ADF. Paul Kitchen also had an eventful race, falling from inside the top 15 to 35th, before hustling back to 26th overall at the flag (15th in HF).

The battle that had everyone on the edge of their seat though, involved the aforementioned gaggle of red Titans. Looking more like a World of Outlaws battle at Eldora than a FF race, the trio of Ramleth, Smith, and Baker showed what frontline Crossflow Cup racing was all about. Hammer and tongs from the drop of the green, and at the finish, a scant 12 hundredths of a second covered ALL THREE CARS. Well done gentlemen!

Tom Minnich came home 10th overall (5th in CF and 1st in Masters), Fred Greis had a stellar run to 20th (11th in HF), Alex Dodd finished his first Crossflow weekend of 2024 with a fine 21st (12th in HF), and the Racer's Safety Source Hard Charger was Rob Thull. Taking his Crossle 11 spots forward to end up in the 24th spot at the close of the battle (10th in CF), Rob had a really strong run. Congrats Rob!

Top Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Tom Minnich P1, Mace Gjerman P2, Marty Benck (Seth) P3
Top Mid Left: Sunday HF Podium:  Oliver Ramleth P1, Danny Baker P2, Mark Smith P3
Top Mid Right: Sunday CF Podium: Adam White P1, John Plavan Jr P2, Neil Porter P3
Top Right: Prize Table! 

Elkhart Lake Info
We are a couple weeks out from the Weathertech International Challenge at Road America. For those of you going, I promised I'd share gear ratios to get you started. This is for a 9:31 ring and pinion:
1st: 19/32
2nd: 21/29
3rd: 24/28
4th: 25/26 (or 26/26 if your car is good in a straight line)

If you have never been, Road America is not like any circuit on the west coast. A "good" lap is going to take around 2 and a half minutes. So with a warm up lap taking 3+ minutes, that means most sessions you might only get 5 laps for a whole qualifying session. Races are usually 8-10 laps. That is not a lot of bites at the apple. Make notes, pay attention to your surroundings, and do some exploring in between your sessions. You might learn as much from standing on the inside of the carousel for one session of spectating that you might get all weekend of driving though it. The place is massive, and you cannot understand it until you get to know the landscape. 

Other Items of Interest:
-Wisconsin is in the midst of a very wet summer, so be prepared for rain at some point in the week! Possibly the whole weekend.
-Make sure you have something solid to strap your canopy down to.
-If you make it into the area on Monday night (July 8), head over to Laack's Hall in Johnsonville for the Pretzel Bender at midnight
-Plan on going into Elkhart on Friday night for the racecar parade and car show! While you are there, have a beer (or several) at the world famous Siebkins Tavern
-At some point in the weekend, drive the old circuit in your street car. Info HERE
-Make sure to have an Egger one morning from the Gear Box (the North end of the paddock)
-Antoinette's in Turn 3 (by the Corvette Corral) has excellent broasted chicken (a Wisconsin specialty)
-A double brat and cheese curds at some point in the weekend (possibly several throughout the weekend) is key to a memorable weekend
-The full list of all the track concessions are HERE. Done properly, a race weekend at Road America requires removing ballast as the weekend goes along. 

Off Track Dining Establishments:
-PJ's at The Depot in Plymouth (the spaetzle here is killer)
-Lake Street Cafe in Elkhart (great wood fired pizza)
-Off the Rail for a great cup of joe and breakfast sandwich in the morning (great pastries too!)
-Schwarz's Supper Club in St. Anna/New Holstein (a Wisconsin Supper Club is a thing of joy and beauty. Order extra cheese curds)
-Gessert's Ice Cream for your sweet tooth (fantastic ice cream and sweets of all sorts)

Top Gun Shootout Qualifiers to this point in the season:
Kelly Heil
Glenn Woloski
Adam White
Mitch Roth
Mark Smith
Caleb Hamm
Danny Baker
Rob Thull

2024 Season Opener, Sonoma

Season Opener, Sonoma

The 2024 season kicked off last month with a bang. 2024 is to be a season of firsts for Crossflow Cup; new pavement at Sears Point, the first 4 rounds taking place on back-to-back weekends, and (as it would turn out) the first real rain race to happen in several years. 

An IndyCar-esque field of 33 cars took to the track for Rounds 1 and 2, eager to try out the fresh blacktop at Sonoma and see what magical laptimes it held. The forecast was lovely, the tracktime was due to be great, and our drivers and crews were anxious to get the 2024 season underway.

Qualifying 1:
The tension on grid was palpable at the 2 minute board as the 132 cereal bowl shaped Kent pistons loped away. The grid was so anxious to go in fact, that they released themselves at the 1 (instead of waiting for grid control to release them).

Adam White went P1 at the close of lap 2 before a black flag all put a temporary hold to qualifying. Greg Hoff had, by his own admission, a "money shift" at the top of the hill and emptied a quantity of oil that was moments before inside his engine onto the fresh black asphalt. Eric Verdin was one of the first on the scene and an unfortunate victim of an ice skating rink. While Hoff's weekend was finished due to crankcase ventilation, Verdin's was due to bent suspension and small chassis damage. 

Following a healthy clean up, the grid was re-released for a scant 3 lap blast before the clocks hammered a close to the session. Kelly Heil pipped Adam White for the top spot (and CF class pole) on lap 4 of the session with a 1:46.2, White to his outside, followed by Mark Smith with a HF class pole in P3 overall, with Brian Forster, Ed VanTassel, and Tim Monahan filling out the top 3 rows. 

A little further back, Eric Verdin did manage to claim the 11th spot with only 1 flying lap (impressive!) before retiring for the weekend, Mace Gjerman (making his FF return after decades away) in P15, series newcomers Malon Brown P19 in his Titan HF, John Ostlund in 21st in his Crossle, and our Northern connection of Glenn Woloski and Michael Nau ended up P28 and P30 respectively. 

Race 1:
Race 1 didn't fire off as planned. The phosphorescent green hillsides accented the bright colored grid of (mostly) British formula cars as they snaked around behind the pace car, spoiling for a fight. Unfortunately, Mace Gjerman had a brake issue crop up 2/3 of the way thru the pace lap causing the field to circulate behind the pace car for the first two laps of the '24 season. However, once the wrecker crew had him cleared off safely, the grid formed up nicely two-by-two and a wonderful start saw the snarling horde go 4 wide up the hill into 2 on lap 1. 

Adam White immediately put his bright yellow Lola 540 out into the lead, showing his clear intent for the CF points lead. Kelly Heil, in his orange "E"-model Lola 540, showed he wasn't going to go down without a fight however and managed to edge past White for a beat on the second green lap before relinquishing the point back to White in turn 7.  No one was going to touch either version of Lola 540 this weekend as Heil and White turned race laps in the 1:44's, being the first two Crossflow competitors in history to do so. Mark Smith finished up P3 overall (1st in HF) but was a solid 7 seconds back at the checker. 

Jay Streets opened his 2024 account with a solid run, moving into the top 10 overall (9 OA, 6th in HF) quickly and stayed there for the balance of the race, running a strong race pace in the low 1:47's, and finishing just ahead of Plavan's Crossle in 10th (4th in CF). Rob Thull enjoyed his first Crossflow Cup race as a Club Ford competitor (Rob raced a few seasons with a Titan in HF), and is now officially a Crossle convert finishing up 21st OA and 7th in CF. Oliver Ramleth had a solid run, and although he was adrift of Smith's Titan, he had a great battle with Brian Forster's Tiga (who ran a career best 3rd in CF) and the duo finished up just forward of Ed VanTassel who also showed he was here to play in 2024 with a solid 3rd place in HF. 

Glenn Woloski was really on the gas, moving forward to take the $100 Racers Safety Source Hard Charger award, Glenn was head and shoulders above anyone else possibly in contention for the award, moving up 9 spots overall in the race and taking a solid 12 seconds off his qualifying time in his first race at Sonoma. Our man Glenn is clearly a fast learner! Glenn edged out series regulars Mike Wirrick and Fred Greis; Fred finished up with a series high finish of P18 (P12 in HF).
 

Left : Saturday Masters Podium - Marty Benck P1, Chris Schoap P2,  Tom Minnich P3 
Left Center: CF Podium - Adam White (and Jr Crew!) P1, Kelly Heil P2, Brian Forster P3 

Right Center: HF Podium -  Mark Smith P1, Oliver Ramleth P2, Ed VanTassel P3
Far Right: Raffle Winner, Kelly Heil!
 

Qualifying 2:
"Swinging for the fences" is the only way to describe Adam White's performance in Q2. Not satisfied with a lap record in Race 1, he knocked almost a whole second off his Saturday best with a 1:43.4. For the record (pardon the pun), Adam set these laps on tires that were new last October at Laps for Laguna. Putting firmly to rest the age old adage that you need new tires to go fast in Crossflow Cup. (Your series director thanks you for this Adam). More on this as we move onto the race report for Rounds 3 and 4. 

Kelly Heil was P2 with a mega lap of his own, a 1:44.1, Mark Smith and John JP Plavan in row 2 both in the 45's with the dueling Titan Twins of Will Jackson and Oliver Ramleth occupying row 3. Tom Minnich set a new PB to put himself in the 13th spot just behind Marty Benck in the 47's, and Saturday's Hard Charger Glenn Woloski was clearly showing he had made room to bring speed along with racecraft in his trailer from Canada, with a 1:49 to put him in the 14th spot at the close of qualifying. 

Fred Greis had a solid effort to wind up P18 and Oliver Abate kept improving throughout the weekend, Q2 ending finding him in the 19th spot. Tom Blackmon also kept improving in his first Crossflow weekend and with the help of some small weld repair overnight to a halfshaft (thanks Aaron!) he was down into the 57's to roll off on the outside of row 14 for Race 2. 

Race 2:
Once again a textbook start was put in play by the front row, keeping the moshpit-to-be lined up square and straight until the green flag waved. White, as polesitter, chose the outside, but at the drop of the flag Jellyman Kelly Heil jumped to an early lead, with Mark Smith moving to challenge for the 2nd spot on the outside of White as they headed towards T1. A little further back Fred Greis jumped for an opening that quickly closed in front of him. Taking evasive action he moved hard right to avoid a collision with Dave Sandlin, but unfortunately came in contact with the outside wall. As the field went into T2, Fast Eddie VanTassel had a spin that knocked him out of top 10 contention, and forcing him to try to fight his way forward for the rest of the race. White would be back in P1 by the close of lap 1. 

The pace car came out at the end of lap 2 to clear Greis' dinged up Titan, but the FCY was short lived. When the field got back to fighting, it returned to status quo from before the yellow at the front. The real battle was between the Titan of Jay Streets (HF) the Tiga of Brian Forster (CF) Chris Schoap in his Titan (HF) Glenn Woloski's Van Diemen (CF), and Tom Minnich's Tiga (CF) as they furiously fought, slugging it out for 7th-12th place. A small mistake by Paul Kitchen on the last lap put him square in the middle of this argy bargy, where he would drag race Minnich out of T11 on the last lap to take 12th (7th in HF). 

Mace Gjerman was determined to make good on the previous day's issues, and ran solidly in the low 1:50's to wind up in the 16th spot, ending up one behind VanTassel's charging Titan. Dave Sandlin was just ahead of these two, putting in a really solid drive and a new PB lap time of 1:48.9. 

The lead cars eventually stretched to where Plavan in 6th (3rd in CF) was not really in striking distance of Jackson in 5th (3rd in HF), who in turn was several carlengths back from Ramleth in 4th (2nd in HF) who was several seconds adrift of Smith in 3rd (1st in HF). Smith was north of 5 seconds back from Heil was a similar gap from White at the finish. White put on an absolute clinic at the point though, never really relinquishing the top spot and just to punctuate it further, took another couple tenths off his qualifying time with another Crossflow CF lap record 1:43.2. 

Mitch Roth moved up 4 spots to 18th from his qualifying spot to take Hard Charger, Malon Brown had a solid close to his first Crossflow weekend to end up 19th overall (12th in HF), followed by Sam McCord's Zink and John Ostlund's Crossle (8th and 9th in CF, respectively). Oli Abate lost a few spots but closed out his first Crossflow weekend on a good note, building some momentum for the following weeks fight at Laguna Seca. 

Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Marty Benck P1, Chris Schoap P2, Tom Minnich P3
Left Center: Sunday CF Podium:  Adam White P1,Kelly Heil P2, John Plavan Jr P3
Right Center: Sunday Historic Ford Podium: Mark Smith P1, Oliver Ramleth P2, Will Jackson P3
Far Right: Our new Wine Trophies!

Below: Pit Lane

Above:
The dominant chassis of Rounds 1 and 2, seen here in both forms.  The standard US-spec Lola 540 in the hands of Adam White, and the euro-model 540E wheeled by Kelly Heil

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

Beer and wine for the whole weekend were supplied by Greg Hoff as amea culpato his Crossflow friends for the Q1 oildown. Thanks Greg! Your friends forgive you, and want you to know you are welcome to buy the beer again anytime even without oiling the track. 

Fastest Wrench awards this weekend went to Kelly Heil's brother Kris on Saturday and Adam White's dad Phil on Sunday.  

The Hard Charger award ($100 toRacers Safety Source) went on Saturday to Glenn Woloski and on Sunday to Mitch Roth. This also qualified both drivers for the Top Gun Shootout at the Charity Challenge this fall. Thanks to Chris fromRacers Safety Sourcefor being our newest series sponsor!

Alan Dezzani has graciously donated a digital print at every Crossflow round this season. Alan's artwork is fantastic (some of his portfolio can be seenhere) This weekend's print was won by Ed VanTassel who will have a lovely portrait of his Titan to hang on his wall!

TheIvey Enginescrew donated some gift certificates, which were won by Tom Blackmon and George Jewett. Thanks to the whole Ivey family for continuing to support Crossflow Cup, and for all that you do for Formula Ford racing nationwide! We absolutely could not do this without their support.

The CSRG Top Gun Shootout qualifiers for this weekend were: Kelly Heil, Glenn Woloski, Adam White, and Mitch Roth. 

SRSDonated a can of Amsoil fogger which was won by Chris Schoap, and series sponsorScott Young Enterprisesdonated a ($350 value!) genuine Hewland Mk series dog ring which was won by Tom Minnich. Thanks Scotty for continuing to help out Crossflow!

Terran Swanson has donated a couple of race worn Team Ganassi drivers suits to be raffled off throughout the season. This weekend we had one from the 2023 Toronto IndyCar race, which was won by Kelly Heil. 

Trophies for the 2024 Crossflow season are provided by Brian Forster and the Kitchen family in a wonderful show of teamwork. Each podium finisher will receive a custom engraved bottle of Twisting Turns wine, adorned with a medal around the neck of the bottle. Even if you drink the wine (and you should!) you have a lovely trophy for the shelf!
 

Thanks for your patience gang, the writeup for Rounds 3 and 4 is coming very soon! In the meantime, sign up for Laps for Laguna HERE! Forget about the Rolex, the only FF races at Laguna Seca this year that count are Rounds 5 and 6 of the Crossflow Cup!

Entry Links & Annual Tech

TIME TO FINISH UP THE CHECKLISTS, THE 2024 SEASON IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!

Winter prep work is coming to a close... who's ready for Rounds 1 and 2?

CSRG ENTRY INFO & LINK!

Ok gang, we are less than one month out from our first event of the 2024 season! So much to see that opening weekend, fresh pavement at Sonoma likely means we will have some new fastest laps and how great will it be to say that you took part in the first weekend on the new asphalt! CSRG entry here: Motorsport Reg

HMSA ENTRY INFO & LINK!

And as promised, HMSA is the Friday and Saturday immediately after the opening 2 rounds at Sonoma. This is a rare treat for our out of town racers (Eddie Van T and Chris Schoap, we did this just for you!) HMSA has two entry forms depening on if you are a member of their club or not:  Member form HERE , Non-Members use this form HERE

2024 MEMBERSHIP DUES

We are asking for $300 this year folks. This comes out to $75 per weekend for the 4 points weekends. This helps us provide the giveaways, prizes and refreshments, the year end trophies (The Cypress Lane Trophies, Top Gun Shootout belt, etc) As usual, you can send funds via paypal to ethan@shippertracingservices.com or pay in person on one of the race weekends.

ANNUAL TECH DAY!

CSRG is having annual tech day once again this year, and it is next Friday, February 23rd. Depending on your location, you have one of three options to choose from.  Bring your car and gear, have a donut and a little bench racing, and beat the line at the David Love races next month. The three locations are: 

North Bay: 
Shippert Racing Services
621 Carlson Ct. Suite #4
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Contact: Ethan Shippert 
(707) 292-8975 - ethan@shippertracingservices.com

Peninsula:  
Auto Keep Vehicle Storage
3536 Haven Ave
Redwood City, CA 94603
Contact: Ed Lauber
(650) 367-7788 - ed@autokeep.com

South Bay:  
Z Car Garage
140 Archer St
San Jose, CA 95112
Contact: Rob Fuller
(408) 452-0350 - rob@zcargarage.com

TIRES...

Lots of folks asking about the tire situation this year. For the moment, Roger Kraus is sold out of Avons. Over the past few months, Avon was purchased from Goodyear by another company. The sale is being completed at this time I am told. Apparently there are tires in stock in the UK, but until the sale is complete nothing can be shipped. So for the moment we are forced to either run on used Avons or new Hoosiers. It's not the end of the world, the first part of the season might be a little bumpy but hopefully by mid-summer we should be back to normal. 

It's not a great situation but the Hoosier is a decent option (much better than not running at all!) Your Crossflow Cup Team is asking that if you are going to buy Hoosiers in the interim, please purchase them through Roger Kraus as it will give them reason to come to the track. Roger and Brandon have taken care of us for a lot of years, we need to take care of them too! 

Shop Crossflow Swag HERE

HMSA, Rolex & Elkhart Info

HMSA DATE

Please note, the dates for the HMSA event in March are the 22nd and 23rd -- Friday & Saturday. This will be a quick turnaround for shops, cars and driver with CSRG ending Sunday the 17th, and back on track Friday the 22nd.

ROLEX ENTRY INFO

Please see below for the New Entry Application...
 

Dear friends,
 
Our New Entry Application for the Monterey Pre-Reunion and Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is now officially OPEN!
 
The design goal of this new entry request form is to make it as intuitive and user-friendly as possible. Plus, it is compatible with the most popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge.
 
For your convenience, attached are the run groups and tire regulations to review prior to applying. This will help speed up the process. The committee will review each entry and acceptances will be announced in two stages. The first group of accepted cars will be announced on March 29 and the final group will be announced on May 3.
 
Please click HERE to apply to one or both weekends. If the link does not work, please copy and paste the following URL into your browser: https://form.fillout.com/t/8WoNH2JZ5Dus
 
We will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of this historic event—1974-2024—and are expecting a magnificent turnout. The Monterey Advisory Council and the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca team are working diligently toward enhancing the experience and setting a new high standard. And it all starts with you and your historic race cars.
 
For registration assistance or questions, please contact Ardelle Lind at Ardelle@laguna-seca.com or Sandi Miller at Sandi@laguna-seca.com. For car preparation or technical inquiries, please contact HSR’s David Hinton at DHinton@hsrrace.com.
 
Thank you for your continued support of historic racing and interest in being part of this very special 50th anniversary celebration.
 
Best,
 
Barry
 
 
Barry Toepke
Director of Heritage Events & Public Relations
 

ELKHART LAKE IN JULY
We have 7 cars signed up already! Here are the bullet points:

• Towing will cost around $4800 round trip with Intercity. This is an incredible deal. We will be booking trailers in groups of 8 cars. The space will include your car, everything you can fit in the cockpit, 2 tote bins and 1 spare set of wheels. 

• Tenting will cost around $250 per car. This is a giant circus style tent and it will keep us out of the elements (which can be prodigious in Wisconsin) For those of you towing yourselves, you don't need to be on the trailer to be under the tent. 

These numbers are an estimate, they will move +/- little based on final car count, albeit not too much. I hope to have this finalized by the end of the month. Please, if you are planning on entering and coming on the trailer, shoot me an email: ethan@shippertracingservices.com and get on the list. This way I can start a group email with pertinent information and billing/dates. 

Race entry and info is located right here:  http:// https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/weathertech-international-challenge-july-11th-14th-road-america-964125

ONLINE SWAG STORE

Don't forget, you can now order your Crossflow Swag before the race weekends! Share with friends, family, show your loved ones you care with a new Crossflow Hoodie for Valentine's Day:
 

Shop Crossflow Swag HERE

2023 Champions & 2024 News!

2023 CROSSFLOW CUP CHAMPIONSHIP DINNER

On December 16th, Crossflow Cup held it's first ever year end championship and awards dinner. Serving the dual purpose of an awards banquet with a shopwarming party for the new location of Shippert Racing Services, around 80 guests filled the 4200 sq/ft shop, enjoying a few post-season libations and the warm embrace of fellow competitors. Many beers were consumed, much bench racing occured, and plans for the upcoming season were laid. 

Your 2023 Cypress Lane Trophy winners are Bob Lesnett in Club Ford, and Andrew Wait in Historic Ford. Our two champs had similarly strong seasons, both of them commanded from the front. But while Andrew's title fight was never a sure thing, Bob had a stranglehold on the top step from round 1. 

Lesnett came out swinging in his freshly rebuilt Crossle after a few preseason test days, and won both of the first two rounds from pole. In fact, Bob went 6 out of 8 on the season, never finishing worse than 3rd in his other two "non-wins". 

Andrew Wait has been on what at times might've seemed like a Sisyphean quest over the past few seasons. Always a contender, always at or near the front. The 2022 season looked like it would finally be his year, but the racing gods can be cruel.  For 2023 however, Andrew was not to be denied and with four class poles, two wins, three 2nd's and a single 3rd out of 6 starts, he finally got that championship cup he so roundly deserved. 

Congrats gentlemen!

Top Left:  Rookie of the Year: Max Minshull
Mid Left: Mechanic(s) of the Year: Steve Raymond of AutoSpa
Mid Right: Series MVP: Brian Forster
Top Right: Crossflow Cup: Fred Greis

Above: Jack Wilson's WDF3, your 2023 FFanciest FFord winner!

SPIRIT AWARDS

• For his efforts behind the scenes designing and purchasing our race weekend trophies, Brian Forster won the Series MVP.

• Your votes for FFanciest FFord saw Jack Wilson's beautiful rebuild of his Winklemann WDF3 (carried out by Katusha Speed Shop) take home the cup.

• Rookie of the year honors went to Max Minshull. Max made it to all 8 rounds (a qualifying criteria), kept improving all year, and had a great time doing it! 

• This year's Mechanic of the Year was given to Steve Raymond on behalf of his shop AutoSpa. They look after several regular series competitors like Steve Romak, Dave Sandlin, and Alan Dezzani, and the award was given to them for the relentless efforts they put in on behalf of their clientele. Great job gentlemen!

The highest honor our series has to give is the Crossflow Cup. This is a spirit award for the person that represents the best of what our series stands for. The trophy is handmade by Colin Ivey and the symbolic weight of this award is only rivaled by it's actual weight. This year's recipient was none other than Fred Greis. For those of you that don't know Fred, he is a relative newcomer to our series, 2022 was his rookie year. But Fred has something special in his approach; he always has a warm smile and a great attitude about his racing. He embodies everything that Crossflow is all about; putting your best effort on track, and never forgetting that camaraderie off track is every bit as important as one's effort on it. We are so very fortunate to have Fred amongst our ranks and if you haven't spent any time with Fred over the past 2 seasons, make a point to find him in the paddock in the 2024 season. I promise, you'll make a new friend. 
 

Above: CF Championship Podium: 3rd Brian Swanson, 1st Bob Lesnett, 2nd Adam White
Below:  HF Championship Podium: 3rd Art Hebert, 1st Andrew Wait, 2nd Martin Lauber

Above:  Wine Bar, Kids Podium, Gloves Giveaway, Founders Cup

CROSSFLOW NEWS

NEW SPONSOR FOR 2024:

Chris Emery of the Racer's Safety Source has stepped up in a big way for Crossflow. In addition to donating 2 pairs of Alpinestars gloves that we gave away at the dinner, all Crossflow Cup competitors will receive 10% off his online store for ALL gear and equipment. Just enter "Crossflow24" at checkout. Chris has also designed this custom OMP suit you see below, exclusively to Crossflow Cup competitors. This is a fully tailored, custom suit. For those of you that have never had a tailored suit, trust me when I say you will never go back to "off the rack". Crossflow price on this suit is $2300 which is a $500 discount off of retail. If you're interested, reach out to Chris - chris@theracerssafetysource.com and tell him to set you up!

HMSA DATE CONFIRMED

We have a confirmed date for the March HMSA event! It will be the March 22/23 weekend, immediately after CSRG, allowing out of town racers to hit 2 weekends on the trot. We are happy and excited to be working with HMSA again, and looking forward to a strong second weekend of the 2024 season. 

ONLINE SWAG STORE!

Rebecca has worked long and hard to launch the online swag shop for Crossflow. No longer will you have to wait until the race weekend to purchase gear! Click the blue button below, and make sure to share it with your friends and family to support your series and help it grow. (baby and kids clothes too!)

Shop Crossflow Swag (Click HERE)

2024 MEMBERSHIP DUES

As it is the new year, we humbly ask once again for your membership donations. For 2024 we are asking for $300 to help us pay for the costs of running the series. For the 4 points weekends, this comes out to $75 per weekend. This goes into things like giveaways, prizes and refreshments, the year end championship trophies (the Cypress Lane Trophy, the Top Gun Shootout belt, etc). As usual, you can send funds via paypal to ethan@shippertracingservices.com, or pay in person on one of the race weekends. Will Jackson has volunteered to be our "membership ambassador" to help when we have out-of-towners, as well as new members. As you all know, there isn't a more friendly face in the paddock than Will. Think of him as the guy in the background answering the phone on the PBS pledge drive...

ELKHART LAKE INFO

I almost have the transport and tenting ironed out for the Elkhart Lake trip in July. The bullet points are:

• Towing will cost around $4800 round trip with Intercity. This is an incredible deal. We will be booking trailers in groups of 8 cars. The space will include your car, everything you can fit in the cockpit, 2 tote bins and 1 spare set of wheels. 

• Tenting will cost around $250 per car. This is a giant circus style tent and it will keep us out of the elements (which can be prodigious in Wisconsin) For those of you towing yourselves, you don't need to be on the trailer to be under the tent. 

These numbers are an estimate, they will move +/- little based on final car count, albeit not too much. I hope to have this finalized by the end of the month. Please, if you are planning on entering and coming on the trailer, shoot me an email: ethan@shippertracingservices.com and get on the list. This way I can start a group email with pertinent information and billing/dates. 

ROLEX INFO

In case you haven't heard, Historic and Club Fords are being accepted at Monterey this August for the Rolex weekends. This will be our first time back since 2019, and once again Crossflow is being asked to help make it happen. I have been asked to steward the group; we will scale cars and run drivers meetings like it is a normal event. However, as most of you know, not all cars will be accepted. There will be more cars entered than they have room for.  As such, this will not be a Crossflow Cup points event. Entry forms will be available in the next week or two. 

WRAPPING IT UP

2023 was another great year for Crossflow. Once again, Rebecca and I have so many people to thank. We all owe a lot to our series sponsors: Jay, Cam and Colin Ivey at Ivey Engines, Scott Young at Scott Young Enterprises, Roger and Brandon Kraus at Roger Kraus Racing Tires, Brent and the boys at Katusha Speed Shop, and of course the crew at Shippert Racing Services. Most of all, we want to thank all of you that have contributed financially or with your time. Always remember, Crossflow is YOUR series. The racers make it special. 

See you in March!

2024 SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY,
MARK YOUR 2024 CALENDARS NOW!

2024 ANNOUNCED!

At long last! The 2024 Crossflow schedule is here. We have a great schedule ahead of us for next year gang, and we are excited for it to get underway. Kicking off with rounds 1 and 2 at the CSRG David Love event at Sonoma in March, we should see laptimes plummet as this promises to be the first vintage race of 2024 on the new asphalt at Sonoma. Next up for rounds 3 and 4 will see us tackle the familiar Monterey twists and turns with the HMSA event at Laguna. We do not yet have a firm date for this one, but we are expecting it to be one of the two weekends in March after CSRG at Sonoma. This will be great for out-of-towners to be able to hit double weekends in a short time span. Rounds 5 and 6 will see us back at Laguna for the ever popular Laps for Laguna event, supporting the track at one of the best fundraising events they have all year. Our bonus event will be at Elkhart Lake in July, the 55th FF birthday party. This will be an appearance points only event. All our racers that take to the track for one session will receive 5 points. We realize that not all our racers can make the sojourn east but we hope that those who can will get a something for their efforts. Closing out the '24 season with rounds 7 and 8 at the CSRG Charity Challenge, we will also have the Top Gun Shootout to add some excitement to the last weekend of the season. 


HEY ETHAN, ANY CHANGES TO THE POINTS?
Good question! We are dropping the drop rule. Last year, we only had 8 racers make every round (4 in CF, 4 in HF). So it didn't work to anyone's advantage, made keeping track of midseason points more difficult, and in the end didn't really function as we hoped it would. So there we go. 
 

• Green Flag Start (1 point for all who take the green)

• Pole - each class CF and HF (1 point each)

• Hard Charger - one hard charger each race (2 points)

• Max points haul for a weekend (Pole/Start/Win = 12 points, do it both days = 24 points, do that 4 times for a perfect season = 96 points, + 5 appearance points for Elkhart = 101 points!)

CSRG PRESENTS: THE TOP GUN SHOOTOUT
The Top Gun Shootout is back for it's second year! Once again, there will be a 5 lap shootout race for a maximum of 16 qualified cars. We are changing the qualifications for the Top Gun Shootout for next season: for 2024 it will be by setting fastest race lap or by being a hard charger. SO, If you set fastest race lap during one of the 8 rounds, you qualify for the Top Gun Shootout. If you are the hard charger for one of the 8 rounds, you qualify for the Top Gun Shootout.  Once again, the TGS grid will be set randomly for maximum excitement!

The winner of the Top Gun Shootout will join this year's winner Danny Baker as the Top Gun!

RULE CHANGES for 2024: 
1. Yellow out lap. Every qualifying session for 2024 will begin with the first lap under yellow. No more questions about it, this is now Crossflow Cup law. 

2. Jumped starts. for 2024, I will be in the starters box for each and every start. I will be sole judge and jury for jumped starts. If I feel that you have taken advantage before the green flag, race control will give you a black flag for a stop and go penalty.  I do not care where you are starting, or what is going on around you. Stay in formation until the green waves, then go nuts. It's that simple. 

3. Weaving/blocking. At our last round of 2023, we had a bunch of weaving and blocking taking place. This didn't happen all year until the last weekend so I'm nipping it in the bud. One move is fine. Take a defensive line if you want. Drive down the middle if you want. I don't care. But if you make more than one move and you are caught, there will be finishing position penalties. 


CROSSFLOW CUP AWARDS DINNER, THIS SATURDAY 12/16:
If you haven't RSVP'ed, check your inbox for the evite and click RSVP! We need to get the final head count for the dinner order by TOMORROW NIGHT (Monday, December 11). If you can't find the evite, then text myself or Rebecca. Thanks to donations, there is no charge for dinner or drinks. So please come on up and join us for what promises to be a great night of laughs and bench racing!


ELKHART LAKE IN JULY:
For those of you interested in going, will have more news about the event after the new year. We are planning on arranging group transportation, as well as tenting... Watch your emails for more news soon! 

Laps for Laguna: Season Finale & Top Gun Shootout!

Season Finale! Crossflow Rounds 7 & 8:

What was originally scheduled to be Rounds 3 and 4 ended up closing out the season due to construction holdups on the part of Monterey County. The plus side of this was that our racers got to run on fresh asphalt in what was a record-breakingly fast weekend on the Monterey Peninsula with mega fast lap times in every session. We finally saw the Crossflow Cup debut of Mark Smith, Ben Zlotkin made his debut in the ex-Chris Locke Merlyn, Ed Abate also debuted behind the wheel of Jim Lynn's rented Crossle 32, Jonathan Rosenthal toed the waters of historic FF racing with his Titan for the first time (and loved it!)), and Marguerite Willams jumped in Sam McCord's Zink for her first taste of Crossflow Cup. 

Qualifying 1:
136 treaded tires left the pitlane at 9:40 sharp Saturday morning (that's 34 cars, for you math whizzes) and the grid did their level best to show the last two rounds were going to be heartstoppers. It was cool and clear and the track was in stellar condition for some really quick times. Bob Lesnett showed he was ready to roll first thing with an opening lap in the low 1:37's... But then Mark Smith dug into his bag of tricks with a 1:36.9 and left jaws open all along pit lane. It wasn't long however before he had some company in the 36's. The top SEVEN cars were all in the 1:36's by the close of the session, with Club Ford standout Adam White throwing down a monster lap of 1:36.0 to put him on top of the grid overall (while simultaneously qualifying himself for Sunday's Top Gun Shootout.)

HF points leader Andrew Wait was struggling with braking issues early in the weekend which put him outside row 4 at the close of qualifying. Max Minshull showed strongly again in the Royale in his second weekend out with another top 10 qualifying effort, and you'd have to go back to row 9 and Ed Van Tassel before the grid was out of the 1:30's. Dave Sandlin had a solid qualifying session with a 25th grid spot effort, just ahead of Jonathan Rosenthal's solid debut Crossflow qualifying effort. 

Race 1:
There was a story going around the paddock on Saturday afternoon. It goes like this: Mark Smith sat on a hillside for over an hour watching race starts so he would know when to go. Like most race weekend fables, it might be true, it might be false. But based upon Mark's start, you'd be foolish to think there wasn't a HINT of truth to this fable. 

17 rows of 2 lined up at 2:25 pm, hungry to get Round 7 on the books. Polesitter Adam White chose the inside lane and brought the field up to a textbook smooth and steady start. When the green flag waved, the grid went 4 wide almost immediately, and slingshotting himself up from inside row 4 to take the point heading into the Andretti Hairpin on lap 1 was...Mark Smith. 

White followed P2, with Wait, Lesnett, Romak, Baker, Hebert, Ramleth, and Martin Lauber in close contact. Don't pay any attention to the order that I typed those names. None of them stayed in anything resembing that order for more than a lap. It was hard racing at the front, (we really danced on the edge of acceptable this race, gentlemen) but thankfully everyone came home with all 4 wheels on their cars and proboscis intact. 

A full course yellow came out around midway to collect the Zink of Mei Willams, which gave everyone a breather, and the bunched up grid went hammer and tongs again when the green came back out. 

The club ford battle raged between "The Brians" (Forster and Swanson), James Hakewill, Neil Porter, and Max Minshull at the bottom half of the top 10 overall, and the Club Ford podium. At the flag, Hakewill would see himself in front of Swanson to take that final spot on the rostrum.  Fred Greis had a great run to pick up 5 spots overall, and Mitch Roth was our hard charger with 6 spots, putting him 15th overall at the checker. Mark Smith would go on to take his first ever Crossflow Cup HF (and overall) win. Fittingly, Club Ford honors were taken by our other first time winner, Adam White. And in our Masters division, Neil Porter took home the win, followed by Chris Schoap and Dave Sandlin.

Far Left : Saturday Masters Podium - Elusive Neil Porter P1, Chris Schoap P2,  Sandman P3 
Left: CF Podium - Adam White (with Lilly) P1,Bob Lesnett  P2, James Hakewill P3 
photos by Vincent Puleo
Right: HF Podium -  Mark Smith P1, Martin Lauber P2, Andrew Wait P3
Far Right: Golden Hitch Ball, Long Tow Award, Chris Schoap

SATURDAY PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

Beer for the weekend was again supplied by Steve Romak. Thank you so much Steve! And we had a bunch of great giveaways provided by our series sponsors. Thanks to Shippert Racing Services, Dezzani Digital Art, Brian Forster, Scott Young Enterprises, and of course Ivey Engines!!!

Saturday:
Fastest Wrench (polesitting mechanic) - Dominic Giansiracusa, Fluke 101 multimeter
Ivey Engines $250 Gift Certificate - Alan Dezzani
Hard Charger- Mitch Roth 
Longest Tow- Chris Schoap - Chris also received the season-ending "golden hitch ball" for his efforts in towing all season long. Well done Chris, thanks for making the tow every time to come race with us!
Dezzani Digital Art Drawing- Steve Jeffords 

Qualifying 2:
Mark Smith showed everyone the meaning of "early to grid" on Sunday morning as most folks arrived to find he and his mechanic John Fosse sitting proudly at the head of the line as the sun came up. Sunday was going to be a quick turnaround as CSRG had given the Crossflow racers the bonus session of the Top Gun Shootout later in the day, so round 8 qualifying and race would both take place before noon on Sunday. 

Unfortunately, qualifying 2 was to be a bit of a shemozzle. A miscommunication on the part of the flaggers, as well as our front runners meant that some of the grid felt they were going out to a green track, and some felt the first lap was under yellow. A shunt occurred in T10 at the finish of the first flying lap, resulting in a black flag all and the extended cleanup meant the session was brought to a close with only one lap on the books. We were also down 2 cars with the Titan's of Mark Smith and Steve Romak on the trailer both with suspension damage. 

I do not like to use the post-race writeups as a platform for lecture, but I will say this guys: we MUST remember that qualifying is just that. It is not a race. We should not be fighting one another for turn-in points, apexes or track position. We should NEVER be blocking, least of all during a qualifying session. In the coming season, expect me to be more heavy handed with grid penalties if these shenanigans happen again. 

As the truncated qualifying session closed, Bob Lesnett took his 4th overall pole of the season, followed by Andrew Wait, Martin Lauber, Adam White and Oliver Ramleth rounding out the top 5. 


Race 2:
The butterflies in everyone's stomach from qualifying proved not to be a fluke as a waved off start caused some nose-to-tail contact as the grid rolled up in formation to the flagstand. In a moment, we lost the cars of Ed Van Tassel, James Hakewill, and John Plavan from the accordian.  The wave off turned into a yellow for another lap to clean up the mess; following that, polesitter Bob Lesnett led the field around to a start.

The battle at the front involved 3 other cars with HF points leader Andrew Wait, Martin Lauber, and Adam White fought doggedly over the top spot. Not far back from the lead 4 was Oliver Ramleth and perennial front runner Art Hebert, who by his own admission spent the weekend looking at the back of Oliver's Titan and was anxious to get by!

Danny Baker, who's entanglement in the earlier qualifying mess had forced him to start shotgun on the field was slugging his way forward from the first green lap. Eventually passing 16 cars on his way to an 11th place finish and hard charger honors which would prove fortuitous for the Top Gun Shootout later in the day. 

At the finish, Bob Lesnett went flag-to-flag to take the overall and CF victory, sealing his Club Ford Championship, Adam White was P2 in CF and Neil Porter took the 3rd spot. Martin Lauber ended up P1 in HF (2nd overall), bumping him up to P2 in the HF points standings for the year with Andrew Wait finishing P2 in HF and taking his first ever, long awaited, hard earned Crossflow Cup HF Championship. Oliver Ramleth closed out the HF podium with a great drive.  The Masters podium had a couple familiar faces, Chris Schoap at the top step, Dave Sandlin P2, and our newcomer Jonathan Rosenthal taking home a podium in his first Crossflow weekend. Congrats Jonathan!

Far Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Chris Schoap  P1, Sandman P2, and Jonathan Rosenthal P3
Left: Sunday: CF Podium: Bob Lesnett P1, Adam White P2, Neil Porter (caught on camera!) P3
Right: Sunday Historic Podium: Martin Lauber P1, Andrew Wait P2, Oliver Ramleth P3 
Far Right: Sunday Fastest Wrench Award going to Riccardo Pinero

SUNDAY PARTY HIGHLIGHTS:

Fastest Wrench (polesitting mechanic) - Riccardo Pinero - Leak down gauge
Ivey Engines $250 Gift Certificate- George Jewett
Hewland Dogring- F. Greis
Hard Charger- Danny Baker
Ivey Shirt- Sandman

Sunday's awards were short and sweet, as there was still one race on the season to go. At the conclusion of the prizes and podiums, we did the random draw for the Top Gun Shootout grid.  At the close of the final points race, the Shootout Qualifiers were: Andrew Wait, Art Hebert, Bob Lesnett, Brian Forster, Brian Swanson, Paul Kitchen, Oliver Ramleth, Martin Lauber, David Dupuis, Ed Van Tassel, Adam White, Mitch Roth, and Danny Baker. 

The Grid: (Did not appear)
Swanson
(Lesnett)
Forster
Ramleth
Hebert
White
(Roth)
(EVT)
Lauber
Kitchen
(Dupuis)
Wait
Baker
 

CSRG Presents, the TOP GUN SHOOTOUT

9 cars made the call for our 5 lap shootout to close the season. The random grid draw saw an all-Brian front row and the pair did a stellar job of holding the small group together at the start. The grid instantly transformed into two rows of 4.5 wide cresting the hill as the green waved and the fight commenced. Close quarters action between Hebert and Forster caused Lauber to lose track position early, but up front Mr. Toad himself, Brian Swanson had taken the point and set sail. Swanson showed massive pace early on as the pack of champions slugged it out behind him. A shark was circling though; Danny Baker was hungry for the championship belt and took 3 of the 5 laps to get his way to the 2nd spot. Adam White was running a solid 3rd place but mechanical gremlins sidelined him at the start of lap 3. Just behind the lead battle, Art Hebert was breathing down Oliver Ramleth's neck, trying desperately to finally show the back of his gearbox to Ramleth. Our HF points champ Andrew Wait sat within striking distance, as he was clear of Lauber, Forster and Kitchen. 

As lap 3 came to a close, Swanson struggled with power down in T11 which allowed Baker the advantage moving onto the front straight. Danny wasted little effort in moving his Lotus into checkmate position and came home at the close of lap 5 on top, followed by Swanson and Ramleth. A fantastic scrap to end our 2023 season!

All hail the Top Gun Shootout Champion, Danny Baker!

FINAL POINTS STANDINGS:

Final Points! Drivers with asterisked names ran 8 races, so the 7 race drop rule was enacted with their lowest points score removed.

HISTORIC

 Andrew Wait 60

Martin Lauber 52

Art Hebert 46

Steve Romak 41

Oliver Ramleth 31

Tim Barber 24

Danny Baker 22

Paul M Kitchen 21

Ed VanTassel* 18

Nicholas Colyvas 18

Will Jackson 14

Chris Schoap* 11

Mark Smith 11

Eric Verdin* 10

Marty Benck 10

Mitch Roth 10

Jack Wilson 9

Tim Monohan 9

David Sandlin* 7

Edward Lauber 7

Alex Dodd 6

Frederick Greis 6

Jay Streets 6

Mike Wirrick 6

George Jewett 4

Ben Zlotkin 2

Bob Posner 2

Chris Locke 2

Jonathan Kitchen 2

Jonathan Rosenthal 2

Ron Bonham 2

Steve Jeffords 2

Brian Swanson 1

Mark Colbert 1

CLUB

Bob Lesnett* 81

Adam White 51

Brian Swanson 45

Brian Forster* 41

Neil Porter 39

Kelly Heil 27

John Plavan Jr* 24

Max Minshull 22

Tom Minnich 18

Tom Duncan 10

Alan Dezzani* 8

James Hakewill 8

Terran Swanson 8

Daniel Wise 6

Sam McCord 6

David Dupuis 5

Mark Keller 4

Jim Lynn 3

Ed Abate 2

Marguerite Williams 1

Mike Malone 1

Congrats to our Champions, our podium finishers, and all of you who make Crossflow what it is. The racing is great, but the camaraderie and friendship are the special part of our series.

We will be sending an official evite out soon for the awards dinner! Please let us know if you don't receive it, and please RSVP if you plan on attending. 

Chairty Challenge Race Report

FFotos by James Kim

5 and 6, pick up sticks...

Schedule conflicts to the north and south, meant that a reduced grid of only 34 cars would be taking part in the fight this weekend. In addition, some of our "Crossflow die-hards" like Danny Baker, Art Hebert, Dan Wise, and our HF points leader Andrew Wait would be at Goodwood for the weekend. Meaning all was to play for, and lots of points were up for grabs. Ever the shrewd tactician, Wait hired noted local pro Tim Barber to keep the seat warm on his ever-fast Titan Mk6. Other than the benefit to our series in having another car on the grid, when said car is piloted by a bonafide pro that is likely to snag some points away from the thundering herd breathing down ones neck, all the better, right?

Most all of the grid used the Friday test day to knock off the rust,  get up to pace for the weekend, and work out whatever ails that might come to the fore when the green flag dropped for qualifying. There would be little time to waste. 

Qualifying 1:
Not long ago, a 1:48 was a front row time... Those days are gone my friends. Long gone. 

The snarling horde was released from the grid to sunny skies and a clear track. Immediately fast times were thrown up on the board with ex-SCCA National Champ Bob Lesnett immediately going P1, bettering his time every lap until lap 3 where he would stand with a 1:45.54. Lesnett only did 5 laps and 4 of them were in the 45's. Gauntlet, consider yourself thrown down. 

Not one to back down from what was clearly going to be a fight, Tim Barber went P2 on lap 7 (class pole for HF), also firmly in the 1:45's. Row two on the grid was all orange with Kelly Heil's Lola and Steve Romak's Titan (P2 in both CF and HF, respectively) both in the low 1:46's, followed by Adam White and Oliver Ramleth (P3 in CF and HF), Martin Lauber and Brian Swanson (P4 in HF and CF, with the top 10 closed out by the Club Fords of Neil Porter and a personal best qualifying effort for Max Minshull.

The grid was quite close with the top 17 cars all well below a 1:50, with Brian Forster in P17 and a career PB laptime for Tom Minnich, who yarded his Tiga into the low 1:49's and the 8th row on the grid. How's the view from up there Tom?

Alex Dodd had a great qualifying run to roll off P21 (P13 in HF), flanked by Jack Wilson, Mike Wirrick, and Ed Lauber, and closing out our grid we welcomed back George Jewett. Great to see you back on the grid George!


Race 1:
Overall polesitter Bob Lesnett used a Texas start to beat the field to the green, leaving the next few rows in his wake. After a lap or so though, the gap to Tim Barber, Kelly Heil, Steve Romak and Martin Lauber was gone and they got down to fighting. Barber got past for the point on lap 4 and didn't look back, leading with a small gap for the rest of the way to take his first Crossflow overall victory. The battle between Romak and Heil was fantastic, with Lauber never out of touch. Again and again Romak would throw a haymaker into T11, only to be rebuffed by the stupendous front braking prowess of Heil's Lola. Heil however eventually conceded the spot to Romak after an unforced error in T4, Steve went off in pursuit of Lesnett's dark blue Crossle.

Adam White held solidly onto the 6th spot (3rd in CF), more or less on his own, a similar position to Oliver Ramleth (7th OA, 4th in HF) as the pair had fallen back from the lead battle just past half distance.

Max Minshull showed that with the Royale chassis, he was going to need to be reckoned with by finishing up a solid run to the 9th spot overall (5th in CF), tailed by the now familiar faces at the front end of the grid of Paul Kitchen and Ed Van Tassel in 10th and 11th overall respectively. They weren't far ahead of Marty Benck at the stripe, who started off a solid weekend with a 12th place finish (7th in HF) and the top step of the Masters podium. Marty closed out his race fighting it out with Neil Porter, who had an eventful Round 5, losing nearly 10 spots on the second lap before clawing his way back forward to 13th overall (6th in CF) and second spot on the Masters podium. Eric Verdin rounded out the Masters podium with a 15th overall finish (8th in HF). When the checker fell, David Dupuis had moved up 7 spots to take home the Katusha Speed Shop Hard Charger Wine Country Motorsports $100 gift card in his super cool Gemini.

"JP" John Plavan's race ended early with a misfire, as did Reno's Sam McCord who brought his beautiful Zink back out with a fresh nose to play with us this weekend. Jack Wilson and Ed Lauber also retired early.  3 of the 4 retiring drivers were to return to the grid on Sunday, with McCord's weekend ending early.

Qualifying 2:
A cool and gray Autumn morning awaited our racers on Sunday as they got their fireproof jammies on for qualifying. The field rolled off at at 9:17 to see how they would line up for the race later that day. 

Tim Barber drew first blood with a 1:46.7 to put him on the top spot at the end of lap 2 but it wasn't to last as Big Bad Bob Lesnett layed down a heater at a 1:45.7 to take the top spot for the second day in a row. Romak and Heil would swap positions from Saturday with the orange Titan besting the orange Lola this session. Adam White would round out the top 5 to make it the second ever time that we would have two Lolas in the top 5 of qualifying. Perhaps the most noteworthy performance from this session might likely have been that of Martin Lauber who managed to set his 7th place (4th in HF) qualifying time while dealing with a stuck-wide-open secondary butterfly on his carburetor; no mean feat. 

Brian Forster finished up the session .033 out of the top ten and would line up inside row 6, with Jay Streets a few tenths shy of him in P13. Tom Minnich showed that his Saturday Quali pace wasn't to be doubted by notching his Tiga in 15th spot, ahead of perennial contenders Will Jackson, Eric Verdin, and Mike Wirrick.

Ed Van Tassel had a rough session, completing only one lap before the splines on his clutch disk took the morning off of work, and he parked on the outside of the esses to watch the session. His single flying lap was good enough for the 25th spot though. Further back Fred Greis was doing his best to come to grips with the beautiful papaya orange Titan Mk5, and he would slot in just behind George Jewett, rolling along now on his comeback weekend. 

Race 2:
A repeat of Saturday's start was not to be as the grid hung with Bob Lesnett when he went to the power, and something in the neighborhood of 3500 prancing ponies were released in the mad dash up the hill and into Turn 2. Jellyman Kelly Heil wasn't to join in the moshpit though, electrical failure sidelined him on the pace lap. 

Tim Barber took the point up the hill with Lesnett and White right behind, the argy-bargy ensued with Romak and Lauber going hammer and tongs ahead of Ramleth and Swanson. White hung a wheel off as the door closed on him but the only lasting impression was a cloud of dust as all the cars made it through. 

The lead pack stretched out fairly quickly with Barber holding a comfortable 3 carlength gap over Lesnett. The lack of passing belied the tension though; all the drivers up front were working at max capacity to keep the guy in front of him close, and the guy behind him back there. While Barber, Lesnett, White, Romak, Lauber, Ramleth and Swanson didn't let up, the positions looked pretty solid until Lauber spun his way out of the top 5 at about 1/2 distance, eventually ending up in 7th (5th in HF).

Ed Van Tassel however, was on the move. His new clutch disk was putting all the power from his Ivey engine down and he was slicing his way through the pack, picking up several spots on the first three laps en-route to joining what was to be arguably the best fight on the grid. The battle between Jay Streets, Will Jackson, Tom Minnich, Brian Forster, and EVT was a slobberknocker with Minnich's driving at an all time high as he fought back attempt after attempt by Forster to take the spot. All the contestants in this battle rolled though tearoffs as Jackson's car fired off a steady mist of oil, one could've guessed a James Bond-ish attempt to win the day, but a leaky oil line was merely the culprit. Jackson ended up leading the gaggle home for the 10th spot (7th in class), with Minnich a personal best P11 (P5 in Club Ford), Forster and Van Tassel picking up the Katusha Speed Shop hard charger award with his move up to 13th spot. 

John Plavan, still fighting a persistent misfire managed to bring his beautiful Crossle home in the 15th spot. Mitch Roth spent the day fighting it out with everyone's favorite bus driver, Chris Schoap, and the beautiful Winkleman of Jack Wilson. Jay Streets had a last lap booboo and spun his way out of the battle he had been engulfed in, and ended up P22 overall, just ahead of the Titans of Ed Lauber and Dave Sandlin. And finally Max Minshull's exciting debut weekend of his new Royale ended on a down note, with him retiring early. 

Top Gun Qualifiers (including this weekend):
Andrew Wait, Art Hebert, Bob Lesnett, Brian Forster, Brian Swanson, Oliver Ramleth, Paul Kitchen, David Dupuis, Ed VanTassel 

Our Crossflow Cuppies modeling the Top Gun Shootout Championship Belt!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

Beer and wine for the whole weekend were supplied by Steve Romak. Thank you so much Steve!! And we had a bunch of great giveaways provided by our series sponsors!

The raffle for the Lechner Racing Design helmet paint job was won by Jay Streets. Jay proudly commented that he bought ONE ticket. Thank you all for purchasing tickets, your funds help to keep the prizes and fun flowing!

SRS really stepped up their game with the Fastest Mechanic prizes; this weekend Riccardo Pinero won both a WIFI borescope and an infrared digital pyrometer. 

The Katusha Speed Shop Hard Charger award ($100 to Wine Country Motorsports) went on Saturday to David Dupuis and on Sunday to Ed Van Tassel. This also qualified both drivers for the Top Gun Shootout at Laguna next month!

Alan Dezzani has graciously donated a digital print at every Crossflow round this season. Alan's artwork is fantastic (some of his portfolio can be seen here: http://dezzanidigitalart.com/home/vintage_racing)This weekend's print was won by Eric Verdin who will have a lovely portrait of his Titan to hang on his wall this fall!

The Ivey Engines crew donated some gift certificates, which were won by Tom Minnich and Will Jackson. Jay and the boys also gave out a TON of great swag. 

Brian Forster, our race weekend trophy sponsor gave away to the Long Tow award to our resident East Coaster Fred Greis who comes all the way from Long Island!

The CSRG Top Gun Shootout qualifiers for this weekend were:  Bob Lesnett (twice!), and hard chargers David Dupuis and Ed Van Tassel.
 

Final Rounds - Laps for Laguna:
Rounds 7 and 8 will find the Crossflow Cup tackling the new surface at Laguna Seca for the first time this year. We will be sending out information about this event in the coming weeks. Some pertinent items of information about the event that we DO know:

• The "1 race drop" rule: I mentioned it earlier this year. Only your SEVEN best point finishes will count. So if you have missed a round, or you are worried that the DNF you had early in the season is going to hurt, never fear. We are only counting the best 7 finishes. 

• The Top Gun Shootout! This will take place AFTER the final points race on Sunday. We don't know a schedule yet but for those of you who do not qualify, you will want to delay leaving the track until after this race!

• Awards - we will do all our spirit awards (Crossflow Cup, MVP, FFanciest FFord, etc) on Saturday. The point championships will be handed out on Sunday. 

• This is our best chance for a big grid all year. To that end, if we hit 50 cars, I'll give away one free entry out of my pocket. So PLEASE come out and support Crossflow. 

• Swag will be available! If you haven't already bought  shirt, a hat, sweatshirt or tumbler, we will have them for sale there as well! All proceeds help to support YOUR series!

View points standings HERE

~ Thank you all for making Rounds 5 and 6 a success! ~

Top Left : CF Podium - Bob Lesnett P1, Kelly Heil P2, Adam White P3 

Top Left Center: Sunday CF Podium: Bob Lesnett P1, Adam White P2, Brian Swanson P3

Top Right Center: Lechner Helmet Paint Job won on Saturday night by Jay Streets

Top Right : HF Podium -  Tim Barber P1, Steve Romak P2, Martin Lauber P3

Bottom Left: Sunday Historic Ford Podium: Tim Barber P1, Steve Romak P2, Oliver Ramleth P3

Bottom Left Center: Saturday Masters Podium - Marty Benck P1, Neil Porter P2 (Mitch Roth standing in for Neil), Eric Verdin P3 

Bottom Right Center: Sunday Masters Podium: Neil Porter P1 (Riccardo Pinero standing in for Neil), Marty Benck P2, and Eric Verdin P3
Bottom Far Right: Fastest Mechanic Award Winner, Riccardo Pinero 

Sonoma Season Opener Race Report

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward...

Welcome to the 2023 Crossflow Cup Season! The long winter's nap was finally and officially brought to a close this past week at Sonoma, under much hoped-for blue skies and chilly temperatures. But the cool breezes were of little matter; the battles on track were hot enough to start a five alarm fire.

The Friday test day showed that the winter testing did little in the way of calming the storm of competition. Our frontrunners had all racked up the miles of testing but it was clear that as the sand fell down the hourglass leading towards Q1 on Saturday morning, it was all to play for with no clear vision as to whom would be standing the top step later that day. 

Qualifying 1:
There were some familar names at the front of Q1, accented by some folks making a statement with big moves for the opening salvo of 2023. In Historic Ford, Oliver Ramleth showed he was here to play in '23, following Kelly Heil as they rolled out for qualifying and laying down a low 1:48 to put him safely inside the top 10, and Alex Dodd showing that the off-season testing really paid off with him laying down a personal best 51 flat to put him in the 17th spot overall (just under 4 tenths would've found him 5 whole spots further north). Up front, Andrew Wait laid down a heater on lap 4 to take the pole (and be the first to qualify himself for the CSRG Top Gun Shootout) with Martin Lauber .009 (yes, you read that correctly) sec adrift in P2 and Danny Baker P3 a tenth back. Both Lauber and Baker's cars were fresh off massive winter rebuilds at the hands of the Katusha and CTC crews respectively, and all 3 drivers were clearly trying to put their mark on the season early.  

In CF, Bob Lesnett showed that he had lost none of his speed during his brief respite as he took the 4th spot overall and class pole in his freshly restored Crossle, ahead of Jellyman Kelly Heil's euro-spec Lola 540. Brian Forster's Tiga was P3 on the CF grid, followed by newcomer Adam White's USA-spec Lola 540, and thankfully Chip Ganassi and Alex Palou let us borrow Terran Swanson for the weekend so he could qualify 12th overall and 4th in CF. A little further back, Alan Dezzani was sorting out his freshly rebuilt Royale, and Sam McCord had honored us with debuting his beautiful Zink Z10 after over a decade of dormancy. 

Race 1:
A 36 strong field rolled off to take the green flag to really get the season underway and almost immediately the mosh pit began. The grid refused to line up single file until the race was almost 6 miles old; nearly 3 laps of the 2.5 mile Sonoma Raceway circuit had lapsed by that point. Clean racing from nose to tail though as battles raged all the way through. Before the end, mechanical gremlins culled Dr. Nick Colyvas' stunning Titan from our ranks, and the new car shakedown blues took Tim Monahan out of the fight as well. Losing Will Jackson and Brian Swanson both to engine woes meant we finished a few less than we started but the race ran clean and green from start to finish. 

No less than SEVEN cars fought it out for the top spot for the entirety of the race distance: Wait, Hebert, Lesnett, Romak, Lauber, and Baker slugged it out, swapping spots over and over but being very egalitarian in their fight. Seemingly everyone had their turn at the point at one time or another. Rarely less than 2 wide, and occasionally 3 wide, the frontrunners showed tenacity but gave fair racing room. 7th place starter Kelly Heil struggled with engine issues that kept him from having a say in the battle but he hung in there, notching up the first race finish for his car since 1979. The finish was equally bonkers as last year's Champ Martin Lauber showed '22 was no fluke as he took top honors by a nose over Wait, with Hebert, Romak and Baker filling out the Top 5. Lesnett took CF honors with Heil P2. 

The second pack scoffed at a 7 car battle and said "hold my beer". At one point there were 10 cars in the scrum which included Terran Swanson's Van Diemen, Adam White's beautiful new-old-stock Lola 540, Oliver Ramleth's Titan, "The Ed's"  both Lauber and VanTassel in their Titan's, Paul Kitchen's Lotus, and more. Ramleth found his way to the front of this group by the checker, and Brian Forster showed that he didn't actually need to qualify after a starter issue on the grid forced him to start last and he managed to fight his way forward right into the thick of this battle, winning the Katusha Speed Shop Hard Charger award in the process and qualifying himself for the CSRG Top Gun Shootout. Swanson finished P3 at the checker but fell afoul of the scales of justice, moving Adam White to the final spot on the CF rostrum.

Some of our Crossflow newcomers, perhaps wide eyed and swinging for the fences were John Plavan (in the ex-Heil Bros Crossle 30) ending up 18th overall, just ahead of Eric Verdin's Titan, while Sam McCord enjoyed a race long battle with Alan Dezzani and Fred Greis showing that the midfield fights just as hard as the frontrunners. 

Our Masters podium was topped by Marty Benck, Eric Verdin in the second spot, with the always shy and reserved Bob Posner on the final step. 

Top Left to Right: 

Saturday Masters Podium - Marty Benck P1, Eric Verdin in the second spot, Bob Posner P3 (Teo Lauber as stand-in)
CF Podium - Bob Lesnett P1, Kelly Heil P2, Adam White P3 (Noah Shippert as stand-in)
HF Podium -  Lauber Family P1, Andrew Wait P2, Art Hebert P3
Party People!
 

Bottom Left to Right:

Sunday Masters Podium: Marty Benck, Chris Schoap, Eric Verdin (Noah standing in)
Sunday CF Podium: Bob Lesnett, Kelly Heil, Adam White

Sunday Historic Ford Podium: Andrew Wait, Art Hebert, Martin (and Teo) Lauber
Ivey Cylinder head refresh winner - Mike Wirrick

Qualifying 2:
Q1 showed our racers that it didn't much matter where you qualified, you were going to have to slug it out when the green dropped. Nerves were jangling as the field of cars awaited the clock to start. 

Martin Lauber drew first blood with a mid-46 to put him on the top spot at the end of lap 2 but it wasn't to last as Andrew Wait put the big two-three on the board with a 46.08 on lap 5 to take the first chair. Flanked by Art Hebert and Steve Romak in 2nd and 3rd; 4th and 5th of Bob Lesnett's Crossle and Danny Baker's Lotus respectively doing their level best to take the fight to the army of Titan's. 

John Plavan showed he learned a boatload about wheeling a FF on Saturday with an outstanding 11th place starting spot. This was to line him up just behind Tim Monahan who's Titan had been given the "full triage" approach by the Katusha and Ivey brigade on Saturday night. Monahan's car wasn't the only one that the good Dr. Ivey performed surgery on; Kelly Heil's Lola was benefitting from some carb work and a new distributor and was firing hard on all cylinders now. The Jellyman would have legs to stand on in the afternoon's battle. 

Tom Minnich had an epiphany and used his fresh Ivey power to lay down a personal best to put him him the 20th spot on the grid, followed by Chris Schoap who struggled most of the weekend with braking issues. Never one to let it dampen his spirits, Chris kept a smile on and kept chipping away. Speaking of braking issues, Dan Wise was putting some new pads to good use as he knocked off the winter's cobwebs in his Crossle. And our Southern CA interlopers, the Monise crew had put in some hours on Saturday finding and eliminating an electrical gremlin on Max Minshull's blue Crossle 32. Max was to line up outside row 11. 

Race 2:
A partial track oildown by a Porsche in the group before caused a delay to the start of Round 2. This was to prove key as it led to a messy start and some action early on.  The grid formed up nicely but the starter threw an incredibly late green nearly causing a disaster as the grid went 4 and 5 wide into and through T1 at the start; Steve Romak commented that he actually pulled his shoulders in as cars blasted past him on both sides as he fell from 3rd place! Thankfully all our racers made it safely up the 13 story climb to the top of Sonoma Raceway's Turn 3A, plunging down into the off-camber Turn 4. Sam McCord got caught out on some errant oil in T4 however, and came together with Mitch Roth's Winklemann which brought out a full course yellow as the field came through to complete lap 1. Roth's car was able to roll in under its own power (though his day was done) but McCord's weekend ended with a slightly wrinkled Zink. 

The field, headed by Wait, circulated behind the pace car for a few laps. When they were released, Wait jumped quickly to a two-car lead, which he was to hold all the way to a truncated finish. After Saturday's donnybrook, Sunday's race was a bit of an anticlimax. Hebert was P2, Lauber P3 with Romak and Baker filling out the top 5 in class. Lesnett was 4th overall, again taking CF laurels, with Heil and White nose to tail in 2nd and 3rd (7th and 8th overall).  Our car-trouble twins from Saturday (Colyvas and Monahan) ended the weekend on a good note with top 10 finishes for both, and a tie for the Katusha Speed Shop Hard Charger award between Oliver Ramleth and Paul Kitchen.  

A little further back, Ed VanTassel finished up another solid performance by rounding out the top 15 and Chris Locke's lovely little blue Merlyn went toe to toe with Dave Sandlin's Titan with Sandlin coming out on top. Our Master's podium again found Marty Benck at the top spot, with Chris Schoap in 2nd, and Eric Verdin in 3rd. 

Top Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Marty Benck, Chris Schoap, Eric Verdin (Noah standing in)
Top Right: Sunday CF Podium: Bob Lesnett, Kelly Heil, Adam White
Bottom Left: Ivey Cylinder head refresh winner - Mike Wirrick
Bottom Right: Sunday Historic Ford Podium: Andrew Wait, Art Hebert, Martin (and Teo) Lauber

Below: Your Crossflow Cup couple, Ed and Dana VanTassel
Below Below: Adam White, looking sharp in steelies and a snorkel

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

Beer and wine were supplied by Crossflow donations, entertainment was provided by the Lauber and Shippert children, and we had a bunch of great giveaways provided by our series sponsors!

SRS donated some Amsoil Miracle Wash which was won by Terran Swanson. Convenient, considering Terbear had a bit of oil mess to clean up on the King's Royal Van Diemen. 

Alan Dezzani has graciously donated a digital print at every Crossflow round this season. Alan's artwork is fantastic (some of his portfolio can be seen here: http://dezzanidigitalart.com/home/vintage_racing)This weekend's print was won by Chris Locke who's Merlyn Mk 11 will be immortalized by Alan. 

The Ivey Engines crew donated a TON of great stuff. First up was a Tilton clutch disc which was won by Marty Benck, next was a discount on rebuild won by Alan Dezzani. And finally the big prize, a certificate for a cylinder head refresh which was won by the luckiest man in the paddock, Mike Wirrick. For those of you keeping score at home, you may remember Mike won the free set of tires last fall.  I strongly recommend someone set up in the paddock next to Mike next time and take him to 7-11 to buy some lottery tickets. 

This year's Crossflow race weekend trophies were donated by Brian Forster. The trophies feature a lovely image of a Compomotive basketweave wheel off of his Tiga. In addition to the race weekend trophies, Brian is giving away a "longest tow" award each weekend. This weekend's recipient was of the $50 Starbucks card went to Bob Posner for his 800 mile trip from the Pacific Northwest. Thank you so much Brian for stepping up to take this on!

Scott Young Enterprises donated a Mk box dogring, which was won by someone... but your writer is having a mental block and cannot for the life of himself remember who. Remember racers, call Scotty for ALL your Hewland needs, and remember to tell him you are a Crossflow Cup racer and Ethan sent ya for a 10% discount. 

The CSRG Top Gun Shootout qualifiers for this weekend were: Andrew Wait, Brian Forster, Paul Kitchen and Oliver Ramleth. 
 

Next Up, Thunderhill:
Rounds 3 and 4 find the Crossflow Cup tackling all the challenges that the 3 mile circuit of Thunderhill has to offer. We will be sending out information about this event in the coming weeks so please sit tight. Some pertinent items of information about the event that we DO know:

• A CSRG license is acceptable, you do not need an SCCA license for the weekend 

• There will be ample track time. SFR is going to give us our usual Q1/R1 Q2/R2 setup, as well as a possible Saturday AM practice session. There will be an optional track-run Friday test day for an additional charge, but this will not be mandatory

• We are our own group. If you have a buddy with a modern FF, they can run in Group 4 (the SCCA FF group). Ditto for those of you with Atlantics, or other SCCA cars. Even those poor unfortunate souls with fenders and doors. Come on out and double dip!

• They are going to try to give us our own space in the paddock. If you didn't come to T-Hill last September, this is one of the best parts. It's like going to summer camp with your racecar buddies.

• I really want this event to be a success. If we like this, we have the option to run more events with San Francisco Region SCCA in the future. If you want to have a say in how Crossflow is run, I need you there to "sample the merchandise" as far as what SFR SCCA has to offer. This is YOUR series after all; Rebecca and I are merely trying to steer the ship in the way you tell us to.  

• To that end, if we hit 30 cars, I'll give away one free entry out of my pocket. If we hit 40 cars, I'll give away two. Simple as that. That would be a 1 in 20 chance of winning, those are WAY better odds than the California lottery (and ironically better odds than any single car has of winning a on any given Crossflow weekend...) So PLEASE come out and support Crossflow. 

• Swag will be available! If you haven't already bought  shirt, a hat, sweatshirt or tumbler, we will have them for sale there as well! All proceeds help to support YOUR series!

~ Thank you all for making Rounds 1 and 2 a success! ~

2023 Schedule Update!

WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY ADDED A FOURTH WEEKEND!
 

The change in the schedule for this year moving laps to October has caused a wrinkle for all of us in our planning. 

As of 8 AM this morning however, your Crossflow Cup team has confirmed a date with SF Region SCCA for a Crossflow Cup Rounds 3 and 4 to take place at Thunderhill on June 3/4. This will be a 2 day weekend with an optional (run by Thunderhill) test day on Friday. Entry fee will be below $600 with the Friday test day being an additional fee. They are giving us lots and lots of track time, our own space in the paddock, and best of all this gives us the 4th round and the extra weekend we needed to fill the hole left in the schedule by Laps moving to October.

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE POINTS?
Good question! The addition of a 4th weekend allows us to add a drop rule to the points as well for the first time. We will count your 7 best finishes of the 8 races towards your final tally for the year. Too many margaritas on Friday night cause you to have a bad race Saturday? Not a problem, your humble  pointskeeper will throw that race out. Have to miss a whole dang weekend because your second cousin is getting married for the third time? Well buck up little camper, you’ll only be one race down, not two. 

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE...

CSRG PRESENTS: THE TOP GUN SHOOTOUT
Crossflow Cup Racers- CSRG loves you. "Yeah yeah, we know" I can hear you saying. But as love professed is outdone by love shown, let me show you how much they love you. The Top Gun Shootout.

This season CSRG is giving the Crossflow racers a bonus race at the final round of the season. AFTER the final points race on Sunday at Laps for Laguna, there will be a 5 lap shootout race for 16 cars. There are only two ways to qualify for the Top Gun Shootout: by being a polesitter or by being a hard charger. If you win a pole position for one of the 8 rounds, you qualify for the Top Gun Shootout. If you are the hard charger for one of the 8 rounds, you qualify for the Top Gun Shootout. This race is a bonus event to feature what is effectively our 8 fastest qualifiers and our 8 best passers in an incredibly brief sprint race with no points up for grabs, just bragging rights. Qualifying will be set by pill draw for maximum excitement!

The winner of the Top Gun Shootout will be canonized by yours truly as The Top Gun for a whole year and take home the Top Gun Belt.

Champions and race winners are great... but what we all want to know is who's gonna be the Top Gun?!?

I Heart Racing: 2023 Season

Getting ready for the 2023 Championship Season!

Hello gang! Happy Valentine's Day! We are nearing the start of our 2023 season, and it's looking stellar. We go into the season with the same rules package as last year, and the same point structure. We have had an absolute EXPLOSION of new competitors coming in for the '23 season; fifteen(!!!) new drivers slated to do at least one weekend, most have a verbal commitment to run the whole schedule. 

LATE BREAKING/BRAKING NEWS
NEW DRIVERS!!! To start with, we have a smash of new drivers under the age of 35; Adam White in his beautiful "new old stock" Lola 540, Jake Wadman in the ex-Bob Lobenberg Crossle 32, Clay Carr also in a gorgeous Crossle from back east, and 19 year old British FF standout Gabe Tesch piloting Tony Jimenez' Titan. We also have some returning faces like multiple time SCCA Champ and perennial Crossflow frontrunner Bob Lesnett returning to the grid, albeit in a Club Ford this time. Speaking of National Champs, we will have 2015 SCCA nat'l FF champ Rick Payne in a Van Diemen RF79 joining the grid. Ed Abate will make the grid in the new-to-him ADF later in the season. John Plavan has picked up the super fast ex-Kelly Heil Crossle 30, and will be running out of the Reilly & Co stable this season. Clay Carr's father Randy will be joining his son at the wheel of the ex-Jeff Rothman Royale, and we will have a bona-fide pro in the form of ex-Indycar driver Mark Smith helming a Titan Mk6 from the PNW. 

The fight from front to back will be stellar this year as we have so many returning faces! Last year's Crossflow Cup winner Ed VanTassel is gearing up to pick up where he left off at the end of last season, joined by the Pacific Northwest's fastest bus driver Chris Schoap. As always, Ed Lauber will keep everyone up front honest, along with Steve Romak in his super fast Titan. Andrew Wait has been pounding laps at the kart track all winter in preparation for the coming season; Tom Minnich's Tiga has a fresh Ivey bullet and he was looking strong in preseason testing; Dr. Nick Colyvas is committed to running the beautiful papaya orange Titan Mk5 at couple times this year; Alex Dodd has been racking up the testing miles at Sonoma, and Max Minshull and the gang from Frank Monise Motors will put in some serious miles commuting from down south to run a bunch with us this year. Our returning class champs are coming back with a vengeance, Martin Lauber will have a fresh chassis for his Titan, and the Jellyman has decided to change mounts completely and the Brother's Heil have been testing all winter to develop their Lola 540E (shocker, it's mega fast). Brian Swanson will again be fielding cars for himself and his son Terran who had so much fun he will fly out to run most of the races this season. We should see the yellow Van Diemen of Michael Malone a few times this year, and if you hear the opening chords of Def Leppard's Let It Go echoing through the paddock, that means Will Jackson is in the house. The "capo di tutti capi of Garagiste's" Jay Streets is raring to go (he might already be set up in the paddock at Sonoma), Dan Wise (who I believe missed his first Crossflow race ever last season to work at the SCCA Runoffs) will be coming back strong, and I've been told that Danny Baker has been doing an extensive amount of training at high altitudes in Mexico City for improved performance behind the wheel. Jim Lynn, Chris Locke, one or both of the pugilistic Posner's of the PNW (how's that for alliteration?), Neil Porter, Dave Sandlin, Richard Hybels, Mike Wirrick.... This is going to be a season for the ages. 

In 2023, Crossflow Cup will be the premier race series for Historic and Club Ford racing in the US. And you have yourselves to thank for this! By racing hard and racing clean, but most of all having fun while doing it, you are all showing the rest of the country how it should be done. 

SPONSORSHIP:
In sponsor news, Brian Forster has stepped up to provide the race weekend trophies this year, and we all owe him a round of applause and a cold one for that! Thanks so much Brian!!! And Brent Katusha from Reilly & Co will again be sponsoring the Reilly & Co Hard Charger award this year for each round. If anyone else out there would like to put money towards an award or a traveling trophy, please feel free to reach out! Anything helps keep the fun factor high and our racers wanting to come back for more.  

Once again this year we are asking for a "membership fee" to cover costs of beer/wine/champagne, stickers, giveaways, championship/year end trophies, etc. We are asking each driver to paypal $200 to cover these expenses. Think of it as $33 each race, to contribute to the cost of the fun. Please paypal to ethan@shippertracingservices.com (or if you'd rather send a check or cash contact us privately). We are going to have some new swag for sale at the David Love, and as usual all proceeds go right back into the series. We want to keep Crossflow at the very forefront of FF competition, but more importantly we want to keep the smiles per miles at an all time high!

If anyone has any pre-season testing photos, or off-season new paint jobs, maybe a new helmet design, send them over! We'd love to share on social media :)

We are looking forward to a great season!  David Love is just 4 weeks away so we will be reaching out again soon with event info! Thanks!!!
Your Crossflow Cup Team

2023 Schedule Released!

2023 Season Schedule Released...

Tis the season to be grateful, to be thankful, to celebrate with friends and family and to start planning for next season!

We have three weekends lined out for next year, all with double races again. So six points races leading up to and into the final race of the season to crown our champions.

We are, at this time, still hoping to add another race weekend at Laguna with HMSA, but we all know Laguna is ankle deep in repaving and have yet to complete the project before adding more dates in late spring/early summer. If HMSA is able to get a date, we will add that to the calendar. Obviously this isn't ideal but it is what it is. You will all know immediately if this comes to pass.

We would have loved to have Thunderhill on the calendar again since it was so much fun, but it was not to be for 2023. So, without further ado we present 2023 to you:

• March 24-26, Sonoma Raceway

• June 23-25, Laps for Laguna

• September 8-10, Sonoma Raceway

RULE CHANGES:
NONE! We had a fantastic 2022 season. Points fights went down to the final lap of the final race, we have good parity between compounds and brands of tires and the two classes are really competitive together. So we have good rules stability and no reason to change a dang thing for 2023!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We will be reaching out in the next few weeks regarding series donations to help fund the fun and excitement.

Sonoma Race Report & Crowning The 2022 Champions

Photo of FFriends

Finally! Finally? Finale.  

The 2022 season wound to a triumphant close this past weekend. The cool cloudy mornings gave way to warm afternoons and with sunny skies signaled the changing seasons, and indeed the Crossflow Cup had its own changes to contend with. We went into our final 2 rounds not knowing who would come out as HF champion; Martin Lauber was leading the points but 3-time champ Danny Baker, Wade Carter, Steve Romak and Andrew Wait were hot on his heels. In the CF ranks, Kelly Heil looked like he would be tough to surpass but strange things have happened over the past few races...

Qualifying 1:
Friday had taken a few cars from our ranks so we were winnowed down to what people in Indiana call a full grid of 33 cars when they rolled off to start qualifying just after 10 am on Saturday. First lap under FCY meant that the grid was packed up tight when the green flag waived and drivers got down to business. Kelly Heil was first to strike with an opening lap of 1:46.6. This would prove fast enough to secure the top spot until lap 5 when Steve Romak unseated him, followed by Andrew Wait both with mid 1:46's. The close of the session saw the top 6 cars all within .5 of a second, all in the mid/high 1:46's. A little further back we saw some familiar faces, Marty Benck making his only series appearance this year, closely followed by perennial CF contender Brian Forster, with series newcomer Terran Swanson set to roll off from the #15 spot. 

Race 1:
What was shaping up for a heck of a donnybrook for the top spot ended up going the other direction as "Steamroller" Steve Romak went flag to flag leading every lap to take his first win of a strong season. Behind him though, it was a mosh pit. 6th place starter (and points leader) Martin Lauber was on a mission to score as many points to add to his tally as possible on his march to 2nd place, fighting his way through the scrum of usual suspects. Andrew Wait struggled with front end grip after a hard opening salvo overheated his front tires, and Art Hebert finished where he started in 4th place. Danny Baker needed a good points finish to keep his championship hopes alive, but it was not to be as he ended up closing out the top 5. 

Will Jackson showed that he was just heating up this weekend though as he finished in a strong 6th place (foreshadowing another strong finish yet to come), and the midfield showed another incredibly strong performance. Seasoned veterans like Ed Lauber, Jay Streets, Tom Duncan, Ed VanTassel, and Mike Wirrick were slugging it out with our "Hoosier on Avons" Terran Swanson.  Brian Forster turned his bad battery on the grid into a good result as he worked his way 13 spots forward to earn the Reilly & Co Hard Charger award earning him a $100 gift card to Wine Country Motorsports. Alex Dodd continued to improve and moved forward a spot from his starting position, and Michael Malone enjoyed his first ever Crossflow Cup experience by battling it out with Fred Greis early on. 

Our Club Ford fight was won by Jellyman Kelly Heil, but Brian Swanson showed that he has the pace to run with Kelly and will definitely be a threat in races to come. Neil Porter, James Hakewill, and Tom Duncan filled out the top 5 in Club Ford. Tom Minnich moved up 5 spots to finish just inside the top 10 in class, finishing a sneeze ahead of Spencer Canon and "Mongoose" Jeff Rothman. 

The Masters podium saw familiar faces as Chris Schoap stood proud at the top step, flanked by Crossle runner Jim Lynn and Dave Sandlin who made some big jumps forward throughout the weekend!

Saturday Masters Podium - Jim Lynn, Chris Schoap, Dave Sandlin

Saturday CF Podium - Brian Swanson, Kelly Heil, Neil Porter

Saturday HF Podium - Martin Lauber, Steve Romak, Andrew Wait

Brian Forster - winner of the $800 cash "entry fee" prize (courtesy of Formula Ford zealot Ethan Shippert)

Mike Wirrick - raffle winner of a set of Avon tires (courtesy of Roger Kraus Racing and Shippert Racing Services)

Tom Minnich's, FFanciest FFord winner

Series MVP: Kelly Heil

SUNDAY FUNDAY

Qualifying 2:
Tensions were high as the cars rolled to grid to go out for Round 6 qualifying. Saturday's race had shown that the grid was to be so close and the racing so furious, that from front to back our racers knew it was going to be hard to move around much past where they qualified. Early season points leader Andrew Wait drew first blood, with a 1:46.3 time to take the pole on lap 3. Baker proved that the venerable Lotus wasn't yet to be counted out of the hunt when he took the outside front row spot on lap 5, followed by Heil, Romak, Hebert, and the elder Swanson. Will Jackson was again near the pointy end of the grid, showing that his Saturday pace was no fluke, and the final spots in the top ten were filled out by Martin Lauber's Titan, the always pretty Lotus of Paul Kitchen, and SCCA standout James Hakewill.

Chris Schoap was on a mission and showed the midfield that he was there to play with a very rapid lap to take the 14th spot, Tom Minnich found some serious pace from the previous day and cracked into the top 20, Alex Dodd showed that persistence pays off as he continued to march his way forward on the grid to roll off 24th, Max Minshull showed he was coming to grips with Sonoma's challenges with a 26th spot effort just ahead of series regular Jack Wilson's red Winkelmann, and Spencer Canon's very pretty Lola rounded out the top 30. The final few spots on the grid would see Steve Jeffords inside of Richard Hybels's Crossle, followed by another newcomer in Michael Malone with his pretty yellow Van Diemen and the always lovely Mk5 Titan of Fred Greis.

Race 2:
As the final green flag of the season waved, the field went 3 and 4 wide up the hill and under the walkover bridge. Polesitter Wait chose the right side of the road giving him the inside heading into T2, whereby he took the point and attempted to run as easy a pace as he could to keep his front tires under him. Baker ran in P2 early on with Heil behind, but Hebert was able to move past both of them and sit with Wait clear to the finish. Where was Steve Romak though? He stopped off on the side of the road on the pace lap for a latte and a biscotti to give the guys at the front a fighting chance it seems as he was tearing his way through from dead last on the grid, earning himself the Reilly & Co Hard Charger award for his troubles.

There were two standout performances underway though, one by the Titan of Will Jackson who was hanging right with the lead pack and did so the whole way, running as high as 4th in class (5th overall) one point before finishing up in 5th. Chris Schoap was feeling his oats as well and flat ran away from his usual competition, finishing inside the class top 10 and taking the top spot of the Masters podium.

Martin Lauber drove a smart race and took home 4th place points, which was enough to seal his first ever Crossflow Cup championship, while Wait came home on the top step of the HF podium, flanked by Hebert and Baker. Wait and Baker were to tie for the for 2nd place in the HF championship points with Wait's wins serving as the tie breaker to give him the spot.

In Club Ford, Kelly Heil again came home on top, again with Swanson and Porter on either sides of him. Ironically, this was how they would finish in the championship points as well, with Kelly repeating his 2021 honors. Back to the race results, Brian Forster took home the 4th spot, and Tom Duncan in his PRS rounded out the top 5. Max Minshull showed great pace to finish out his first Crossflow weekend by finishing 6th, followed by David Dupuis gorgeous Gemini, Spencer Canon, Jeff Rothman and Jim Lynn's Crossle finishing in the 10 spot. Richard Hybels and Michael Malone were next in line with Malone showing more improvement and his pace knocking on the door of breaking a 2 minute lap (a great achievement for his first Crossflow weekend!)

For those that didn't know, your own Captain Crossflow was asked to helm Tom Minnich's Tiga for the race (that was MY orange helmet, not his!), and starting at the back allowed me to see how hard everyone was fighting, but at the same time how clean all the racing was. I am so proud of every one of our racers. I really honestly feel that the Crossflow Cup is the BEST Formula Ford racing in the country right now. There is no place with the depth of grid, the skill and fairness, and (hopefully) the fun factor is right there too! Well done to all of you for making it so hard for me to find my way forward in the race!!

Crossflow Cup Award: Ed & Dana VanTassel

Mechanic(s) of the Year: Reilly & Co

The spoils of victory!

Rookie of the Year: Wade Carter (accepted by Danny Baker)

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

A great time was had, raffle tickets were sold, beer was donated by Brian Swanson, many laughs were had and memories were made. Kelly Heil won the Series MVP for his efforts to push himself to the front of the grid, FFanciest FFord was awarded to Tom Minnich's Tiga, Wade Carter was the winner of the Rookie of the Year award for his standout performance in his first real season of Crossflow competition (albeit slightly truncated, hope to see you back at the track soon Wade!), and the Mechanic of the Year award went to Brent, Dan and the guys at Reilly & Co for their efforts to keep their guys smiling, running and moving to the front.

The highest honor our series has to give is the Crossflow Cup. This is a spirit award for the person (or in this case, people) that represent the best of what our series stands for. The trophy is handmade by Colin Ivey and the symbolic weight of this award is only rivaled by it's actual weight. For the 2022 season, Ed and Dana VanTassel were awarded the Cup. For those who don't know, Ed is one of the nicest guys in the paddock; always smiling, always positive. Ed has been present at almost every Crossflow event since 2017. His blue and white Titan is always shiny and beautiful, and these days seen quite often towards the front of the grid. His efforts on and off track have been noticeable, and echoed by his lovely wife Dana who is not only his #1 fan, but a huge supporter of Crossflow Cup. Dana always volunteers to help and has worked with the Crossflow team on many occasions in many capacities. She is truly a joy to have in our paddock and her smile is so bright one could set the timing on an Ivey engine by it! We are all lucky to have Ed and Dana in our midst, and our series is buoyed by their presence. Congrats to our 2022 Crossflow Cup winners and thank you to them for their continued support of our series!

Sunday Masters Podium: Jeff Rothman, Chris Schoap, Steve Hoogs

Sunday CF Podium: Brian Swanson, Kelly Heil, Neil Porter

Sunday HF Podium: Art Hebert, Andrew Wait, Danny Baker

2022 POINTS FINISH:

HISTORIC:
Martin Lauber 50

Andrew Wait 43

Danny Baker43

Steve Romak 40

CLUB:

Kelly Heil 69

Neil Porter 43

Brian Swanson 39

Daniel Wise 25

Brian Forster 25

full list on website here

Champions Martin Lauber and Kelly Heil

HF Championship Podium: Andrew Wait, Martin Lauber, Danny Baker

CF Championship Podium: Neil Porter, Kelly Heil, Brian Swanson

FINAL THANKS, FINAL THOUGHTS

What a great season! Rebecca and I have so many people to thank. We all owe a great big thanks to Jay Ivey and his boys, Scott Young Enterprises, Roger Kraus Racing Tires, Brent Katusha at Reilly & Co, Steve Cook at Foreign Affair, Chris Clarke of CM Touring, of course Shippert Racing Services, and each and every one of you that has helped either financially or by donating your time.

Some of you have asked about where the funds from the raffle this past weekend would end up. They all go back to you, ultimately. Crossflow pays Rebecca a small amount of money each weekend for her time, and all my time is gratis. I take nothing from Crossflow; in fact SRS is the largest donor the series has. I think it's important that our racers know that all their funds, their money, their donations, are going back to their series. The more help you offer, the better we can make it. Bigger trophies, better giveaways, better raffle items, larger laurel wreaths... Rebecca and I try very hard to give you something special. Sometimes we have items given to us to use as giveaways, but most of the times the giveaways are purchased and donated. I feel that it is important that you know that YOUR money goes right back into making YOUR series better. Because after all, it is your series.

We are hoping to have another strong season in 2023 and we hope to have our schedule ironed out in the coming weeks. Thank you all for your support and we can't wait to see you in the spring! Personally, I'm already looking forward to seeing you guys roll off grid on the gas with dozens of sticker tires being sacrificed to the gods of fastest laps...

THANK YOU!

Martin Lauber's Cypress Lane Trophy winning Titan Mk6

CSRG Charity Challenge Info

SONOMA THIS WEEK - KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

• Crossflow Cups, rounds 5 & 6: CHAMPIONSHIP!

• Paddock load-in, Thursday at 5pm, prior to that park in Lot 2. (Thursday is a Sonoma Raceway Test day, so if you test you can load in earlier)

• CSRG did not assign space for Crossflow this time, feel free to paddock wherever space is unassigned

• Registration in the Media Center, make sure to fill out the speedwaiver. Complete this before seeing Petey!

• Tech: no tech forms to bring, you already uploaded all your information to Motorsportsreg. Tech will open Friday at 7:30am under the Grandstands

• *SPECIAL NOTE* all spin-on oil filters must be safety wired to avoid coming loose (most of you already do this but is now required and apparently something they will check)

• Event Schedule ***The times on the CSRG schedule are correct, pay no mind to the way they worded the sessions. Friday is open, Saturday is a day all to itself, Sunday is a day all to itself:

  • FRI, PRACTICE DAY (no qualifying)

    • Practice 10:15am

    • Practice 12:10pm

    • Practice 3:25pm

  • SAT, Q1 & R1

    • Qualifying 1 - 10:05am

    • Race 1 - 3:40pm

    • Party ~ 5:45pm

  • SUN, Q2 & R2

    • Qualifying 2 - 10:05am

    • Race 2 - 3:40pm

    • Championship Awards 4:30pm

CROSSFLOW CHECKLIST:

• Scales - open Friday, as soon as we load in and set up

• Stickers/Patches AND T-shirts! ($25) will be available at the compound all weekend for anyone who needs them, please bring cash

• Awards & Adults Beverages on Saturday as per usual!

• Championship Awards on Sunday

• Awards for:

  • Fastest Wrench award (for the mechanic who's car is on overall pole each day)

  • Hard charger award (each day)

• *NEW* Raffle this weekend (bring your cash!) purchase $10 raffle tickets for:

  • Full set of Avon 46's (donated by Roger Kraus and SRS)

  • Hewland dog rings (donated by Scott Young Enterprises)

  • Hewland gasket kits (donated by SRS)

  • cans of Amsoil engine fogger (donated by SRS)

  • and lots more!

• ALL the above will be located at SRS paddock area (Garages 21-25)

A WORD FROM YOUR CROSSFLOW CUP TEAM:

Same setup from the first 4 rounds: two separate points races means double the fun! We are going to try to get our Sunday awards in during one of the quiet moments between races to get everyone headed for home before too late. Please make sure to come to the awards BOTH nights and support your friends and fellow racers!

Thunder & Thrill of Thunderhill: Race Report

Crossflow Brings the Thunder and Thrill to Thunderhill

The 2022 season continued with Rounds 3 and 4 at Thunderhill Raceway Park on September 10/11. A fine field of 19 strong competitors filled out the entry list, some looking to add to their points totals, some looking to open their accounts for the season. The Bypass configuration was used this weekend so even those that were familiar with T-Hill's challenges had something new to tackle before they could claim glory. It wasn't just the racers trying something new this weekend, your CC Team had new duties of race management to tackle. We had Steve Cook to volunteer as our Pace Car driver, Chris Clarke took the duties of Chief of Grid and Black Flag, Dana VanTassel leant a hand on grid, Rebecca tried her hand at splitting for the first time, and your loyal Captain Crossflow got to be up in Race Control, manning the radio and making the calls. 

Practice:
The sweltering heat wave that we faced on the days leading up to the event finally broke sometime during Friday night, meaning that any fears of drivers (or equipment) faltering in the heat were unfounded. An honest 1/3 of the grid had never seen the track before this weekend, so the first laps of practice were key to getting the weekend off to a good start. As practice drew to a close, it looked like it would be a battle at the front between series regulars Andrew Wait, Danny Baker, Martin Lauber and Steve Romak. 

Qualifying:
Qualifying got off to a bang for current HF points leader Andrew Wait as well as last years HF Champ Danny Baker, as an incident on lap 3 put them out of the running for the rest of the session. Due to damage that was beyond racetrack repair, Wait's weekend was essentially over before it started. But thanks to quick work by Jordan Miller, Baker's Lotus was able to get back to fighting form before racetime later that day. 

The early excitement almost overshadowed what proved to be a lightning quick qualifying session for a lot of our series regulars. When the clock ran out, Martin Lauber was fastest with a lap in the low 1:56's, with Steve Romak just .2 sec adrift. Wade Carter (in only his second Crossflow weekend appearance) lined up on row 2, with Club Ford polesitter Neil Porter beside him. The incident for Baker happened early enough that he would fall to row 3 by the end of the session, with Ed Van Tassel and Kelly Heil behind. Brian Forster, debuting a beautiful new paint job on his Tiga Club Ford, lined up ahead of the venerable Jay Streets and Dan Wise. Next up, and joining us for the first time this season was the Merlyn of Steve Hoogs, CF stalwart Jim Lynn in his Crossle, the lovely red Crossle of Steve Yarborough (who left after Round 3 to go motorcycle racing), Dave Sandlin was next up in his Titan, Tom Minnich in his Tiga who was learning more and more every lap, and our New Yorker Fred Greis made the long haul again to drive his Titan with us!

Race 1:
An early afternoon race due to the planned heat meant that the grid formed up right after lunch. A nice formation took a fairly late green and the field headed into turn one to start off the battle. Martin Lauber took a "strike early, strike hard" philosophy and stretched out a comfortable gap in the first 4 laps that proved almost unassailable for the remainder of the race. But for Race 1, the battle was from 2nd place on back! Romak and Carter locked horns for the first few laps while Danny Baker worked his way forward from his 3rd row starting spot. Further back, Neil Porter slugged it out with Ed VanTassel and Kelly Heil, while Jay Streets chased Brian Forster's fresh paint. 

Baker worked his way to second place and began slowly making ground on Lauber's lead, no doubt helped by smart driving on the part of Lauber who was able to maintain the gap without pushing harder than needed. It was all for naught though as Baker's hard work went up in a cloud of dust on the last lap over the bypass and the final podium spots were filled by Romak and Carter. VanTassel ended up 5th, followed by Streets, Hoogs, Greis, and Sandlin. 

in Club Ford, Kelly Heil drove a smart race moving forward a couple spots overall to get the 2 bonus points for the Reilly & Co. Hard Charger award, and he was flanked on the Club Ford podium by Porter in 2nd and Dan Wise in 3rd. Jim Lynn was 4th, followed Forster, Minnich and Yarborough.

 

Historic Ford Podium Race 1
1st - Martin and Teo Lauber (Titan Mk6)
2nd - Steve Romak (Titan Mk6)
3rd - Wade Carter (Titan Mk6)

Club Ford Podium Race 1
1st - Kelly Heil (Crossle 30F)
2nd - Neil Porter (Crossle 32F)
3rd - Dan Wise (Crossle 25F)

Masters Division Podium Race 1
1st - Dan Wise (Crossle 25F)
2nd - Jim Lynn (Crossle 35F)
3rd - Fred Greis (Titan Mk5)

Race 2:
It was nice to feel cool temperatures on Sunday morning. The schedule had been moved forward by a few minutes and our 9:50 start was pushed up to 9:40. The grid had been set the previous day, so the same formation rolled off behind our Crossflow pace car: Steve Cook's lovely BMW M2. Polesitter Martin Lauber again chose the outside to begin his run for max points haul on the weekend. But Race 2 was not to be like the one before it.

It seems our racers had finally come to grips with the Bypass section and they were showing it! The lead pack of Lauber, Romak, Carter, Baker, Porter, Heil, and VanTassel were slugging it out. Just about half distance, Baker managed a magnificent pirouette heading into Turn 1, and left Steve Romak nowhere to go but off in the dirt to avoid him. Two laps later Romak's throttle cable no longer wanted to actuate the linkage in its intended fashion and left his beautiful orange Titan stranded on the backside of the course; a full course yellow was put out to allow the workers to remove the car from harm's way.

The grid had lined up tight during the two laps of FCY, and as they went back to racing for the final 4 laps, all was to play for. Tom Minnich had finally gotten some confidence with the circuit and he was not going to let Jim Lynn shake him, nor was Lynn wanting to let Steve Hoogs or Dan Wise slip away. Kelly Heil managed to get a small gap from VanTassel and Porter and was doing his level best to catch the lead pack before the checkered fell. Lauber had focused on pushing hard to open up a gap, setting his fastest race lap of a 1:57.4 (only .1 off the overall fastest race lap, held by Baker) on the first lap back under green. But similar to Baker's Lotus the day before, a small miscue cost him his spot on the podium and the dogfighting duo of Baker and Carter would start the final lap nose to tail and no one else around them to say anything about it. At the line, Wade Carter took his first Crossflow Cup victory by .061 seconds over Baker. Fast Eddie VanTassel got his first podium of the season with another excellent drive. Lauber took home 5 points for a 4th place finish, followed by Streets, Hoogs, Sandlin, Greis, and Romak finishing up 9th (as he had completed more than half of the laps before retiring).

In CF, Kelly Heil went 2 for 2 on the weekend, moving himself into a comfortable points lead heading into the final 2 rounds of the year. Brian Forster proved that new paintjob was worth it with a strong 2nd place, and Dan Wise added a 3rd place to his collection of trophies. Tom Minnich was one spot off the podium and picked up the 2 bonus points for the Reilly & Co. Hard Charger award, Porter was 5th in class after a late race spin, and Jim Lynn picked up the points for 6th place.

Hard Charger, Tom Minnich in the 1981 CropsData CF - photo by Vince Puleo

Trio of Titans- photo by Vince Puleo

Historic Ford Podium Race 2
1st - Wade Carter (Titan Mk6)
2nd - Danny Baker (Lotus 61)
3rd - Ed VanTassel (Titan Mk6)

Club Ford Podium Race 2
1st - Kelly Heil (Crossle 30F)
2nd - Brian Forster (Tiga FFA77)
3rd - Dan Wise (Crossle 25F)

Masters Division Podium Race 2
1st - Steve Hoogs (Merlyn Mk20)
2nd - Jim Lynn (Crossle 35F)
3rd - Fred Greis (Titan Mk5)

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

The hot weather didn't dampen spirits any, as many cold beers were consumed as the racers and crews rehashed the days events with one another. Crossflow debuted a new giveaway this weekend for the Saturday party, the SRS Polesitter award. The mechanic looking after the polesitting car won a prize. This weekend, because one qualifying session was good for both races, both awards were given to Dan Banks of Reilly & Co. for his efforts on Martin Lauber's blazing fast Titan for taking the overall pole position.

~ Group Photo ~

POINTS STANDINGS:

full list on website here

Party People: fun for all ages

and we celebrated birthdays!

CSRG Charity Challenge is in 2 weeks:
We are at 27 entries with 7 days remaining. If we get to 35 entries, Crossflow will give away one entry fee at the Saturday night party. You heard that right, if we get just 8 more people to sign up, you will all have a 1 in 35 chance of a FREE entry to the Charity Challenge. So tell your friends! That's way better odds than the California State Lottery, and even if you don't win, you still win.

The points battles are heating up, in HF we have an honest 5 different drivers with a mathematical chance to take home the Cypress Lane Trophy. The Vegas line is looking tough to pick a winner for either race, as we are likely to have some fast guys at the front of the grid who aren't factoring in the points battle. If known front runners Art Hebert or Dan Cowdrey make an appearance, they could score some solid points that could upset the apple cart. Dr. Nick Colyvas is always fast at Sonoma, and if Ed VanTassel continues his form, he's likely to score some solid points and maybe crack into the top 5 before we all pack up on Sunday night.

In Club Ford, Kelly Heil is looking strong to possibly repeat his 2021 honors, but you can never count out the venerable Neil Porter who trails Heil in the points. Brian Swanson showed he had pace early in the year so he will likely score some solid points and improve his positions in the standings. And if Colin Cross can figure out how to open the door to his hangar and load his car in the trailer, we are likely to see him hanging around the pointy end of the Club Ford battle.

It's going to be a barn burner! Hope to see you there!

Thunderhill: Updated Schedule

Attention racers! Good news apparently comes in groups. First off, the weather forecast has already dropped the predicted temps down to the mid-90's for the weekend. Secondly, in preparation of beating the heat, Competent has moved the whole schedule ahead for Saturday. Sunday is still the same, but we will be starting and wrapping up about 30 minutes earlier on Saturday. Load-in, tech, track walk, etc are all unchanged.

SEE UPDATES IN BOLD BELOW

THUNDERHILL THIS WEEK - UPDATED SCHEDULE: 

• Crossflow Cups, rounds 3 & 4

• Paddock load-in, Friday afternoon - there are no assigned spaces, we have the whole end of the paddock available to us. This is the far end of the paddock, closest to Turns 14 & 15

• Registration & Tech: roving Registration and Tech, we will come find you. This will be the easiest tech inspection you've ever had, we promise!

• Event Schedule (updated 9/6/22 due to expected heat):

  • FRI, Track Walk 5:30pm

    • Meet @ SRS trailer first to make sure we are clear to go on track

    • Just a walk - no scooters, no carts, no cars, just your feet

  • SAT, Driver's Meeting @ SRS Trailer 8:00am

  • SAT Practice, 9:00-9:20am

  • SAT Qualifying, 10:20-10:40am

  • SAT, Race #1, 12:30-1:00pm

    • Podium/Awards/Happy Hour @ SRS 2:30pm

  • SUN Race #2, 9:50-10:15am

    • Podium/Awards @ SRS 11:00am

Thunderhill More Info

THUNDERHILL THIS WEEK - KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

• Crossflow Cups, rounds 3 & 4

• Paddock load-in, Friday afternoon (see map above)  - there are no assigned spaces, we have the whole end of the paddock available to us. This is the far end of the paddock, closest to Turns 14 & 15

• Registration & Tech: roving Registration and Tech, we will come find you. This will be the easiest tech inspection you've ever had, we promise!

• Event Schedule (tentative):

  • FRI, Track Walk 5:30pm

    • Meet @ SRS trailer first to make sure we are clear to go on track

    • Just a walk - no scooters, no carts, no cars, just your feet

  • SAT, Driver's Meeting @ SRS Trailer 8:30am

  • SAT Practice, 9:30-9:50am

  • SAT Qualifying, 11:00-11:20am

  • SAT, Race #1, 1:20-1:45pm

    • Podium/Awards/Happy Hour @ SRS 2:30pm

  • SUN Race #2, 9:50-10:15am

    • Podium/Awards @ SRS 11:00am

CROSSFLOW CHECKLIST:

• Note the Track Walk on Friday evening - we want all of you to feel good about taking to the track on Saturday AM

• Weather forecast says the hottest day of the weekend is to be Friday, the weekend is supposed to cool off as it goes. Nonetheless, please make all preparations necessary. 

• The Thunderhill Grill will be open for breakfast & lunch; stay hydrated!

• Due to the lack of a Friday test day, we are having session #1 as a practice session. THE SOLE QUALIFYING SESSION WILL SET THE GRID FOR BOTH RACES.

• Scales - open Friday, as soon as we load in and set up (probably by 3:30pm)

  • If you did a lot of work to your car or your physique over the past months, it would be a good thing to roll across scales BEFORE qualifying begins and get your weight slip

• Stickers/Patches will be available at the compound all weekend for anyone who needs them

• Awards & Adults Beverages on Saturday as per usual!

• Our weekend giveaways (must be present to win!) are donated by SRS

• ALL the above will be located at SRS paddock area

A WORD FROM YOUR CROSSFLOW CUP TEAM:

Same setup from the first weekend, two separate points races means double the fun!  Champagne will only be at the Saturday afternoon awards, the Sunday awards will be "dry" for your drive home!

Thunderhill Info

14 DAYS OUT - KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

• Still time to enter! Register HERE

• Crossflow Cups, rounds 3 & 4

• Paddock load-in, Friday

• Registration & Tech, roving Tech, we will come find you. This will be the easiest tech inspection you've ever had, we promise!

• Event Schedule (tentative):

  • SAT, Driver's Meeting @ SRS Trailer 8:30am

  • SAT Practice, 9:30-9:50am

  • SAT Qualifying, 11:00-11:20am

  • SAT, Race #1, 1:20-1:45pm

    • Podium/Awards/Happy Hour @ SRS 2:30pm

  • SUN Race #2, 9:50-10:15am

    • Podium/Awards @ SRS 11:00am

CROSSFLOW CHECKLIST:

• Due to the lack of a Friday test day, we are having session #1 as a practice session. THE SOLE QUALIFYING SESSION WILL SET THE GRID FOR BOTH RACES.

• Scales - open Friday , as soon as we load in and set up

  • If you did a lot of work to your car or your physique over the past months, it would be a good thing to roll across scales BEFORE qualifying begins and get your weight slip

• Stickers/Patches will be available at the compound all weekend for anyone who needs them

• Awards & Adults Beverages on Saturday as per usual!

• Our weekend giveaways (must be present to win!) are donated by SRS

• ALL the above will be located at SRS paddock area

A WORD FROM YOUR CROSSFLOW CUP TEAM:

Same setup from the first weekend, two separate points races means double the fun! Champagne will only be at the Saturday afternoon awards, the Sunday awards will be "dry" for your drive home!