Bob Lesnett and crew
Formula Car Festival of Speed
First off, this event happened in record time and only because of the support and enthusiasm of Brent Morgan, of Exclusive Racing, Telo Stewart of World Speed, Art Hebert of Motorsports Market, Scott Smith of NASA, the team at Sonoma Raceway and the inspiration and support of Brian Garzelli of CTC, Ethan Shippert of Shippert Racing Services and Jordan Slater of Indie Motorsports. We put together a crew on the ground of grid and tech, led by Henk Buverhuis, Dan Wise and Greg Hoff.. and Cynthia Torp functioned as everything from overall event coordinator, to roving reg and tech. We even pulled together a fantastic social thanks to the amazing Lyndsey Patton, Bob Lesnett, and the lovely Champagne gifts, courtesy of Veronica Oshea, and Dave Zurlinden. We owe everyone on this list a huge thanks.
It was clear, there was a lot of pent up desire to get out there and race. The weekend offered a lot of track time and almost without exception, every driver did almost 3 hours of driving over 2 and a half days. The racing on Saturday and Sunday afternoon were breathtaking. Below is some video to give you all a sense of the weekend.
Danny Baker
Kelly Heil
Steve Romak and Part 2
The event was also documented by Alvin Lumanlan
The weekend was marked by remarkable improvements in the mid-field and the very successful debut of Brian Swanson in his Van Diemen Club ford. A very long list of drivers set PB's including Steve Romak , Ed Lauber, Jeff Rothman, Jay Streets Rob Thull, George Jewett, Jonathan Kitchen and Chris Schoap.
The fast charger was a smooth and consistent Ed Van Tassel and the drive of the day, was Art Hebert. He set pole and pulled out a 3-second overall lead until overheating sidelined him, leaving the battle at the front to sort itself out between Historic Ford winner Bob Lesnett, Martin Lauber in P2 and Danny Baker in a very close P3. In Club Ford, Brian Swanson came home P1 in his first, and somewhat challenging (mechanically) Crossflow event, followed by Russ Werner in P2 and Jeff Rothman in P3.
While the battle up front was amazing (Sunday's probably a classic) some of the best fun was had by Oliver Ramleth, Jonathan Kitchen and Rob Thull, shaded by Chris Schoap who drove a beautifully consistent race. Bob McCormack was sidelined with mechanical issues, but came back and put in a strong drive on Sunday. Similarly, Will Jackson chased gremlins all weekend but achieved redemption on Sunday with a great running car and a massive improvement in his speed on Sunday.
We did have some incidents which came as a reminder, that this is a sport of great rewards, and consequences when things go wrong. But the rewards this weekend were also great, and best of all, it was great to back!
Here is to safe Race 3.