Big F125 Regions

Larry MacLeod · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject:

Detroit keeps growing (almost daily it seems). We still have our 5 that ran Nationals last year (3 ran all our local events, 1 ran a couple with us) . We've added 1 new co-driver (with me) and 5 others guys that bought karts.

I think that adds up to about 11 running 9 karts, with another guy that has run one or two in past years and might come back to make it a full dozen.

Lefty
_________________
F125 #196
Old Birel/ hodgepodge Honda CR125
Lefty Funk
Detroit Region

Andrew Bell · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 9

Just to throw in 2 cents from OVR we have run from 1-4 shifters per event for the last 2 years. We could have as many as 6 this year.

What kind of junior turn out are you guys having? We have everything from 5 years and up and 6 -12 per event.

Larry MacLeod · Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:39 pm Post subject:

Brian Garfield · Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:08 pm Post subject:

This year we'll have:
2 Formula Junior Juniors (5-7)
2 FJA's
5 FJB's with season subscriptions.

As said above, 10 F125'rs.

Brian
WDCR SCCA

Andrew Bell · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 9

Thanks for the Formula jr info. I'm trying to collect info to share best practices.

OVR's first Test nTune will be April 1 and 2. We are definately kart friendly.

The WOR event is in March. When I talked with their chair, the current site is not kart friendly, but they hope to change that very soon.

Andrew Bell · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 9

Ooops it was Cincy that has a March event. I'll have to check with Pam at WOR to see if she has anything in March.

Cincy has a couple junior karters that have visited our region but I don't know if they have any 125's or not.

Bob Monday · Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 91

Is OVR treating shifters like a real class now? My son and I used to come over, but they ran us with the junior karts over lunch break. We got 3 runs back-to-back, often not even getting out of the kart. There was no time for changing ANYTHING, not even tire pressures. The good thing was that tires did get warm. We quit coming over for that reason, though. With a son now living in Columbus, we might come back over. I'd like to do more autocrosses this summer. GLSKUSA is doing almost all double-race weekends, so it's fewer weekend commitments.

Bob Monday
Indy

Andrew Bell · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 9

Yes, we are trying to make this aspect a little better. The karts do all run in the same run group, but we don't lump all the runs at once any more. They typically run as the last set of cars in the second run group. We pull off the last full bodied car, run the karts fastest to slowest and then park them again while the next run takes place. It is just like running a regular car in the event. It helps the karters to review their runs or make adjustments and it helped eliminate the dreaded "go karts slow down the event" problems we were having. Unless stuff goes wrong (like the timing lights dying last year)we get 4-5 runs.

Larry MacLeod · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:34 am Post subject:

Vic Madrid · Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:42 am Post subject:

Also, how are the OVR events run now? Do you have to be there all day or is there a morning and afternoon session? Reason is we travel to Columbus every so often to visit family/friends, but would have to drive the 8.5 hours back to Baltimore on Sunday. If we could leave by 1-2 that'd be great. 5pm, no way.
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- Vic
- SCCA/WDCR F125 #54
- 2006 Tony//Kart Krypton 125

Andrew Bell · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 9

In answer to Larry, we run them just like regular cars (with the exception that we pull off the last car before we release the first kart for safety and they all run consecutively) Our full size cars tend to group together too. It is not unusual to see all the STX's together just because they like to hang out together. One run, park, and wait for your next turn to come up again. We usually give kart grid an 8-10 car heads up to get ready as we approach their run. My son would take off his outer suit stuff between runs on hot days last year. (Each run group is around 50 cars including karts)

For Vic,we do run cars from about 10:00AM to 3:30 or 4:00 with trophies at 4:30 to 5. Typically we have 4 run groups. You run once. work once and have two off groups. We shuffle run/work groups but karts are typically in 2nd or 3rd run group. (I can only think of one time last year when we ran the 125s in group 3 and jr's in 2. This was due to some lopsided classes that we had to make up workers for.) If you want to try it some time let me know. We might be able to work out an early work assignment to get you on the road right after your runs.

Rick Brown · Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:44 pm Post subject:

Cal Club (Los Angeles) and San Diego run the shifters in the same group as the mod cars and while we typically come to the line as a group we don't have to. We do run on course with cars, but with double spacing before and after (same spacing between karts). Mixing F125 and FJ didn't make sense - why have the fastest and slowest vehicles together?

Cal Club runs FJ at the beginning of the first group after lunch with back to back runs and any 2nd drivers at the end of the group. This allows parents to support their kids without taking away from their own running. San Diego doesn't allow FJ.
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Rick Brown
SCCA F125
03 Tony Mitox - Honda Stock Moto

Brian Garfield · Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

D.C. runs the FJ in the same manner, right after "lunch" or first in the afternoon with back-to-back runs.

However, we have an FJ that beats 75% of the cars out there, six seconds off of F125, so they're not the "slowest" group. My guess is you were making an assumption tongue-in-cheek.
They clearly need to run separate for safety purposes.

In the past, regretfully, we ran the F125's with the Juniors, since we only had a couple of shifters. That wasn't fair for the shifters, but it worked well for our "parade lap" we did for the kids where a shifter leads the FJ's around for a slow speed course learning exercise.

Now with 10+ shifters, we're running with mostly Modified and Prepared cars, but we won't be on course with any other cars. All it takes is less than a minute to insure safety, we'll wait.

Brian

Larry MacLeod · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:22 pm Post subject:

In Detroit we run our events almost identically to National Tours. We post a run.work order than changes for every event for variety and to be fair to all classes. And it's basically random with some emphasis put on the event chairs and chiefs.

We treat FJ and F125 like we do all our classes. And I like it that way. Juniors take their runs in the same order within a heat as any other class. That's how it should be. Why should they have to take their runs back-to-back?

Besides, what lunch break are you referring to? I've never seen one of those.
_________________
F125 #196
Old Birel/ hodgepodge Honda CR125
Lefty Funk
Detroit Region

Brian Garfield · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject:

Larry, since NO car should be moving around while the FJ's are running, I'm not sure how you run them in a regular heat. They need their own grid, and shouldn't have a car on course, or around them in grid.
That's the reason for running them on their own.

When we say back-to-back, we mean ONLY Jr's running. They still take a run and wait for the rest of the Jr's to run before their next run. But, rather than have them drive back to grid and pose even a minor amount of danger to people walking/driving/etc, we create a special driveway between the finish and the start. Our lot works well that way.
Another thing to consider that's unusual about our region is that we run 5yr olds, and most of our FJ's are very young (2 FJA, 6 FJB, 3 FJJ's)

The "lunch" I speak of is this: Our events are 6 heats. Heats 1,2,3 are the Morning and 4,5,6 are the Afternoon. "Lunch", if you will, is essentially an afternoon walkthrough. Right after the afternoon course walk, the Juniors run a miniature heat, then the 4th Heat starts.

Brian