WATKINS GLEN RACE 2013
The weather cleared up on Sunday from the overcast light rain on Saturday making for beautiful and dry conditions for a great race day. Twenty- Eight cars were in the race group of FF’s, F5’s, F6’s, FV’s and even one FST; the FV’s started in the back pack of the split start. The front group had a mix of fast F6’s in the back of the grid due to the results of the qualifying race on Saturday. As expected, the start was exciting as both Clint McMahan followed closely by Matt Strand shot up the right side of the track going into turn one and joined Keith Jocelyn (sp?), the F5 pole sitter. These three quickly began a show of excellent racing with many passes every lap and long side-by-side runs down the straights. Meanwhile, Fred Edwards had begun his march to the front picking off Ken VanHorn, then later Jason Fitzpatrick and, by mid-race, Chris Ross, to be running in 4th place. Up front, the side-by-side battle for the overall lead had been reduced to Keith and Clint as Matt had dropped back. On the last lap, Clint bobbles in the Esses, loses contact with Keith to finish 2nd overall, but 1st in class; Matt finishes 2nd in class while Jason gets by Fred for 3rd when Fred loses the bolts in his PTO shaft. Fred finishes 4th and the rest of the finishing order is Ken VanHorn 5th, Chris Ross 6th and Tom Edwards 7th.
The Formula 600 Challenge series was developed to help promote an affordable open wheel formula car to showcase talent without large financial race budgets. The Formula 600 open wheel cars use a 600cc motorcycle engine and a 6 speed sequential drive chain revving up to 12,000 rpm with speeds capable in excess of 135 mph. The sound of these drivetrains at 12,000 rpm with their 6 speed sequential transmissions is likened to a F1 car.
