Anybody care to give us a report?

Here's a report from the SCCA site: http://www.scca.com/news/index.cfm?cid=51274, list who won the poles:

Spec Racer Ford: Frank Severino, Daytona Beach, Fla., Spec Racer Ford (Race 1); Brian Schofield, Lakeland, Fla., Spec Racer Ford (Race 2)

Here's the link for live timing (a couple hours too late for today's race): http://www.sccahost.com/sccalive/
Tomorrow's race is scheduled for 10:35 am Eastern.

56 cars - 78 degree day. Franklin Futrelle pulls off the win with Boom Boom 2nd and Brian 3rd. Thomas Anspach in 4th, Scott Rettich holds of Chad Galloway for 5th by .038. Fun race. And we get to do it again tomorrow.

Watched it on SCCA.com...(live T&S)
Wished I could be there.

Thanks for the info, how about more details?

SCCA's report on Race 2 http://www.scca.com/news/index.cfm?cid=51276

Sounds like a great race!

Race 1 official results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2551284

Race 2 official results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2551285

SCCA wrote:The grids for Sunday were set based on Friday’s afternoon qualifying session, and when the fog lifted and the sun appeared, the Spec Racer Ford class cut right to the heart of the action. The No. 61 PM Racing polesitting machine of Brian Schofield, the No. 17 Meco Inc. Spec Racer of Saturday winner Franklin Futrelle, and the No. 58 Cottage Senior car of defending National Champion Cliff White turned up the heat. Joined by Tray Ayres’ No. 07 Ayres Racing Spec Racer Ford and tailed by Richie Stanley’s No. 66 PelicanWater.com entry, the five broke away from the field to sort out the podium.

White, Futrelle and Schofield all took turns at the front of the field, mixing it up in an encore performance of Saturday’s show.

With one to go, Schofield and White crossed the line in a virtual dead heat. White led in the run through the Gurney Bend but couldn’t fend off the draft of Schofield and Futrelle into Turn 7, falling to third. Schofield led Futrelle down the back stretch and into Sebring’s final corner, but Futrelle got just enough of a run to the checkered flag to inch in front for his second win of the weekend.

The final margin was so close that transponder placement in those two machines actually showed Schofield in the lead, though Futrelle was visibly in front at the stripe.

Dave

There should be some pretty epic on board footage coming this week. I know myself,tray,brian,and cliff all had cameras

It seems "epic" is the word I've heard most to describe this weekend and it sure was. 2 test days, rain 1st qualifier, sun and warmth, fog... two races mostly carnage free, wish we could do this every weekend, in-car video will be fun to watch. Although it would have been great for my motor to have worked perfectly,(anyone who has been around racing for a while knows these things happen) Erik and others certainly went above and beyond to make the weekend a success. (we heard about that in Erik's epic post ). Special thanks to Mike Amy for putting the "best set up ever" on the car. I think we need a race report from Lee Hill (that guy can write!).

Okay - I guess I've been drafted by Leff Jehner so here goes.

60+ pre-entered SRF - 56 actually showed. Weather forecast for the weekend was changing hour by hour - with possible showers here and there but nothing below 60 degrees forecast. The Wednesday track test day was lightly attended with about 20 SRF taking part. The track was very slick - even Brian could do no better than low 33's (he's been down in the 30's in past years). On Thursday, things got off to a slow start due to dense morning fog which didn't lift until mid-morning.

Friday morning was cool (60) with light rain. The track was soaking wet when we got to the track around 7am - and with SRF running as Group 1 it was obvious that the 1st session would be wet - and when rain resumed at about 7:45 that sealed the deal. The morning session was the 1st qualifying session (25 minutes) for Saturday races - and 29 SRF went out at 8am - at least 28 of them on the new rain tires (one that I know of was on dries - but I'll let him tell that story). The session was interupted twice by black flags - both times for spins in the hairpin. No serious damage except for the lone dry tire driver's encounter with the checker board paint at Start/Finish (and his subsequent encounter with the walls on the front straight). The new rains worked fine - Frank Severino was quickest with a 3:02 (I was 3rd with a 3:05) - roughly 30 seconds off of a dry time.

Friday afternoon was warm but the 25 minute session (1st qualifier for Sunday races) was interupted by a 3 car incident in Turn 17 which meant that everyone got two hot laps - one before the black flag and one after. Which meant that a problem in that hot lap left one pretty far back on the grid (I ended up 21st after missing the 5-4 downshift in Turn 1 on my lap). Brian was on the provisional pole with a 2:32.2 followed by Franklin Futrelle, Tray Ayres, Bruce Myers, Casey McKibben, Andrew Von C, Boom Boom, Dave Donovan, Mark Vultaggio, and Scott Rettich. Those of us with a less than successful effort took solace in the scheduled Sunday morning session (hah!!).

Saturday morning was 60 degrees and partly cloudy (Frank Severino and I were praying for fog - but no such luck). Coming over the bridge into the paddock at 7 am there were already 30 SRF lined up ready to go out at 8am for the 15 minute session - crucial for everyone since Friday's wet times were obviously not going to hold up for anyone. Tray Ayres broke an axle coming out of the hairpin on his 1st flying lap and ended up last (more on that later). Brian had the pole at 2:32.095 followed by Boom Boom, Franklin, Thomas Anspach, Casey McKibben, Chad Galloway, Dave Donovan, Scott Rettich, Richie Stanley, and Mark Vultaggio (I ended up 12th).

Saturday's race was run in warm sunshine - ah Florida in January!! I was too far back to be able to see much of the front runners - but it sure sounds like they had a real barn burner. I ended up in a battle with Bruce Myers, Jeff Lehner, and Randy Youngsma. We saw Tray briefly on his way by from 56th to 9th which has to be something of a record. One full course yellow for a single car incident in Turn 17 which required a hook to remove the car (backed into the tire wall under the bridge). Franklin Futrelle took the win followed closely by Boom Boom and Brian. Thomas Anspach was 4th about 4 seconds back followed closely by Scott Rettich, Chad Galloway, Dave Donovan, Richie Stanley, Tray Ayres, and Mike Greene.

Sunday morning was foggy - and all of the Sunday morning qualifying sessions were cancelled - so Friday afternoon's times became the grid. RunOffs type hardship laps (single cars spaced 10 seconds apart dispatched from pit lane to run a lap that ended at pit-in). The track was damp from overnight rain so our race was going to start in very difficult conditions (partially wet track with occasional puddles). We were given 2 pace laps to try to help dry things out and get tires up to temp - and then a 3rd pace lap due to problems in T&S. Don't ask me how, but we all got thru Turn 1 - as a matter of fact, the SRF race on Sunday morning was the only race of the weekend that was not interupted by at least one full course yellow (we had 289 cars in 6 groups so the place was very busy). Once again I was too far back to see the front, but had a fun race with Mike Greene, Chris Current, Chad Galloway, and Mark Greb. At the finish, Brian's transponder beat Franklin's but Franklin's car beat Brian's. Boom Boom was 3rd, followed by Richie Stanley and Tray Ayres (top 5 finished in under 2 seconds). Then a gap back to Scott Rettich, Mark Vultaggio, Jeff Lehner, Dave Donovan, and Thomas Anspach.

All told - an auspicious start for the new Majors program with 289 cars and lots of action throughout.

Great report! Thanks, Lee.

Despite all the smart remarks about race reports, they are the most popular type of post on the site. We usually have 3-5 users on the site this time of day, it has been between 8-10 since Lee made the post.

Dave