The Friday morning qualifying session was cold and wet so few of the F600 drivers ventured out onto the track. Unfortunately, Jeff Delong went out and slid into the back of a FF in a braking zone on his 2nd lap and bent his front suspension; it was finally fixed for the race. The afternoon session was dry and the drivers qualified as follows – Ryan Mayfield,1st, with a 1:32.887 as he got used to the pink Scorpion (it was his first time in this car as Clint McMahan’s busy schedule prevented him from running this race); Eric McRee, 2nd, with a 1:33.395; Aaron Ellis, 3rd, with a 1:34.111 and looking to lock down the Series Points Championship this weekend. Craig Laprade was 4th, George Fox was 5th, Jeff Delong was 6th, George Bugg was 7th and Carl Maier was 8th after blowing his motor due to an incorrect oil line connection; Carl discovered a leaking water hose and a broken bolt in the clutch cover after the replacement motor was installed necessitating that it come back out to fix, Carl made the race just in time.
For the race on Saturday, the weather stayed dry but got a little cooler. With the F600’s in the lead pack of the split start shared with the FF’s and CF’s, Eric McRee took the lead as he out drag-ed both Ryan and Aaron into Turn One with the rest of the pack close behind. Both Eric and Ryan were running laps in the high 1:31’s as Ryan hung onto Eric’s tail. Jeff Delong moved up quickly and challenged Aaron Ellis until Aaron went off course. Ryan continued pressuring Eric for most of the race until about the 18th lap when he got past Eric with both of them posting even faster laps – Ryan at a 1:30.877 and Eric with a 1:30.907, close to the F500 track record of 1:30.725. The finishing order was Ryan Mayfield in 1st, Eric McRee in 2nd, Jeff Delong in 3rd, George Fox in 4th, Aaron Ellis in 5th, George Bugg, 6th, Carl Maier, 7th and Craig Laprade 8th.
Over $5,000 was paid out this weekend for the Tow Fund and the Series Points Fund with an additional $50 gift to each and ever driver’s crew chief in appreciation for all their work over this past season. Jeff Delong was not able to catch Aaron Ellis in the Series Points so Aaron again won the F600 Challenge Series for 2018:
1 Aaron Ellis 88
2 Jeff DeLong 80
3 Carl Maier 59
4 Clint McMahan 48
5 Ryan Mayfield 46
6 Eric McRee 44
7 George Bugg 34
8 Craig Laprade 30
9 Sven deVries 20
10 George Fox 18
11 Zak Morvik 16
12 David Lapham 13
13 Calvin Stewart 12
14 Mo Makki 0
We are looking forward to the 2019 schedule with the VIR Runoffs as the Series Finale.
The Formula 600 Challenge Series was developed to help promote an affordable open wheel formula car class to showcase talent without large financial race budgets. There are no paid staffers and one hundred percent of all sponsorship monies and product goes directly to the drivers in our series mostly as a tow fund payment for each race. The Formula 600 open wheel cars use a 600cc motorcycle engine and a six-speed sequential transmission revving up to 15,000 rpm with speeds in excess of 140 mph. The sound of these cars is likened to F1 cars.
Please visit our website: www.theformula600challenge.com for news, photos and videos. Like us and share on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/Formula600Challenge/
For more information, please contact:
Jim Murphy Fred Edwards Carl Maier
jdmurphy47@aol.com f.edwards@metalloidcorp.com cmaier@amsoil.com
770-861-2337 260-438-4295 972-897-9763
