Race Recap: 2019/2020 UF1 Series – Race 1 – Australian GP | UF1 RC

Post Race Analysis
Welcome back everyone to the 2019/2020 UF1 Series!

The first race of this long-awaited Series took place at Cal Raceway. This is always a great venue to race at, but this time we decided to throw a little curve ball to all the competitors – we were going to be racing at night! Not only would drivers have to deal with the fast layout, they’d also have to contend with constantly changing surface temps, tire choices and, for some, being able to actually SEE their cars!

On top of all that, there were a few rule changes that would seemingly make cars faster – motor options, battery voltage, minimum weight drop – however these (and the lack of any real night-racing options) took some drivers by surprise.

All-in-all it was a good evening of racing with some very surprising results. In the Formula 1 class, we saw some locals struggle to maintain their authority of their home track while newcomers were quick to find the right balance. In Formula 2, a Las Vegas hero would come and put the hurt on the SoCal guys, showing that there’s some good talent outside of our local area.

Now that we’ve set the scene for the event, let’s get to the results from both classes.

Formula 1
Qualifying
Like previous years, the qualifying is a 3-minute stint where your 5 fastest laps are averaged for an overall seeding time. And, like previous years, the final times were SUPER close! Brian Ruvalcaba, new to the F1 class this year, threw down some serious laps in the early evening heat to post a 12.356 5-lap average. This would prove beneficial to Brian – under the new UF1 rules, TQ would lose the 2 point boost but, instead, gain the front row start from EVERY main event! A definite advantage to say the least!

Following Brian by only 22-hundreths of a second was 2nd qualifier Michael Monaghan, another newcomer to the F1 class. Rounding out the Top 3 was local Ken Gerberding. Ken posted a very respectable 12.444 5-lap average.

Here’s the breakdown of the how the rest of the field qualified. As you can see from the times below, this qualifying system has 1st through 14th only 1 second apart! Makes for a pretty exciting qualifying session!

Mains
By the time the mains rolled around, the stage had already changed; the sun was close to disappearing behind the buildings and parts of the track were starting to cool off. Shadows were forming even with the overhead halogens glaring down – it was that in-between time where natural light was still a factor in the ability to see the track.

Michael Monaghan was quick to find the balance early on to take the overall win for the day. His pair of 71 lap runs in R1 and R2 were a step above the field – he could have possibly made it a triple win had it not been for an unfortunate accident mid-way through Round 3. Coming through the sweeper, he hit a turn marshal’s foot at full speed and severely tweaked his front wing. Thankfully that’s all that happened, but that caused some handling issues and shut down his fight for the win in that race. No matter, though, as his incredible performance shows he’s going to be tough to beat.

Steven Jackson saw his day get better and better with each run. A 5th place R1 followed by a 4th place R2 showed his set up changes were working in the right direction. A 70-lap R3 win confirmed those changes thanks in part to some calm driving and Monaghan’s accident. But hey, a win is a win – that crash could have gone either way! This is a great first round for Steven, making his trip from Vegas well worth it. He would finish 2nd overall for the day. Good job bud!

Even with the TQ starting position in every round, Brian Ruvalcaba would struggle to take advantage of it in all 3 races. He posted a 4th/3rd/6th – enough, however, for a very respectable 3rd place overall. This is a great first round for him, seeing as he’s mostly an indoor carpet guy. With no more night races on the schedule, I’m sure we’ll see him feeling more comfortable back in the sunshine. That is, until we get to the second half of the season when we hit the carpet tracks. We’ve seen what he can do there.

Starting back in 8th in R1, Team Alpha driver Craig Hammon would have his work cut out for him. He finished 9th in R1 but got things sorted with a P6 in R2 and P3 in R3. This was good enough for 4th place overall for the day, only 5 points behind Ruvalcaba. Craig is a definite hard core F1’er and I think the dropping night-time temps threw him for a loop. I’m sure he’s happy things will be ‘back to normal’ from here on out.

Independent driver Ken Gerberding had a stellar R1, finishing in 3rd place. With the traction changing, he made some changes to his car (as most drivers did) to compensate for the cooler temps that proved to not be so beneficial. He posted a 7th in R2 and 10th in R3. Not a solid day, however he is only 2 points behind Craig – and it’s early in the season. Lots of time to continue the fight.

Down the leaderboards a bit, we saw some favorites struggle all night. The Silver Arrows team of Carlos Duarte and Rajan Monteiro took advantage of the lighter weight rule and reduced the poundage of their cars, however had a hard time tackling the unbalanced performance of their cars. Carlos would finish 6th overall while Raj would finish 10th. An after race talk had them LOVING the complexity of the rules and night race – a real challenge they were ready to accept. Excited to see them come out strong at the next race.

Chad Rott and fellow teammate Brett Reichert had a bit of an off day as well. Rott finished 7th (1 point behind Duarte), however Reichert had a hard time coping with conditions. Tire choice and the fact that they were running dark blue Red Bull cars (with only a bit of yellow on the nose and airbox) made seeing their cars a little difficult. They’ve decided that the Team Red Bull name might be a bit of a voodoo for them – the boys will now be known as Team Rad. Now that’s rad!

The other half of Team Alpha (and Craig Hammon’s teammate), Mark Goldwater, had a great day with a 2nd in R1 and a 4th in R3. A failed power unit (AKA bad crash) would drop him all the way to P16 in R2. That would put him 8th overall for the day. Too bad – he looked really fast and on his way to a fantastic day. That bad race may be one of his throw-outs already.

Team 11 would struggle a bit as well with Charles Lightfoot finishing P9 and Doug Rebel in P14. Not a terrible day by any means (seeing as how tricky conditions were), but I’m sure not what the team expected. Still early in the season though boys – time to get at it.

Alex M, one of the few independent drivers, threw his hat in the asphalt ring for the first time. You’ll usually find Alex on the rug, so finishing 11th overall for the day is a great effort. Nothing like coming out to play with all kinds of challenges ahead of you – I’m sure it was a great learning experience.

Bruce Hickman, AMG Motorsport teammate to eventual winner Michael Monaghan, posted an 11th, 12th and 11th place finishes for the day to slot into 12th overall. Bruce had some good battles but couldn’t quite master the evening’s race. First race jitters are done; expect to see these boys pull it together.

Right behind Bruce by only 2 points was carpet-master Hector Martinez. The asphalt has always been a bit tricky for Hector and he has said he’s feeling very confident about his outside program; I think the added variables of night vision and track temp made things a bit more challenging (like it did for many others). We’ll see how he fares in future races.

Boris Tsenov, winner from the F2 class last season, came out from Vegas with fellow Marlboro 702 teammate Steven Jackson, hungry for some points. Boris did well outdoors in his F2 Championship fight last year but, again, changing conditions were a bit difficult. A 16th and a pair of 13th place finishes didn’t help much. Look to see that turn around at the next race!

Finally, privateer Phillip Enriquez finished 16th overall with a 17th, a 14th and a 15th. Phillip had zero runs on asphalt last season (only competed in the carpet races) and, on top of that, brought out a new custom FGX-based chassis to test. The car looked promising but just don’t think it’s quite there yet. Kid was pumped, though, so I expect this fully-independent suspension car to flourish in the upcoming races.

Fast Lap Award
One of the other changes to the UF1 this Season is the Fast Lap Award. Well, not so much the award, but what you get as a result of winning the award. He who pulls down the fastest lap of the day will receive an additional 1 point to their total – per race day. That being said, we saw quite a few low-12 second laps with Brian Ruvalcaba hitting a 12.031 and Ken Gerberding with a 12.057. Those were certainly fast, but nothing like Michael Monaghan’s 11.830. In fact, Michael also posted a blistering 11.959, showing he’s quite capable of multiple sub-12 second laps. Congrats Mr. Monaghan – here’s your award and your 1 additional point!

Formula 2
Qualifying
A light turnout in F2 during Race 1 of the Season – 5 of the 9 drivers being from Las Vegas. It was interesting to see how well the cars worked with the new rules in place, the biggest one being the Spec tires. These tires were included to level the playing field – we didn’t want the F2 guys relying so much on the ‘tire of the week’ as much as learning to tune and drive their cars. That being said, it was Las Vegas local Jonah Gallant that would crank off some fast laps to take the TQ by 1/2 a second over P2 qualifier John Christensen. Both of these guys were able to drop into the 13-second lap times, almost exactly 1-second per lap slower than the F1 drivers. Mike Montes would slot into 3rd with a 14.025 5-lap average.

Here’s how they sorted out with their final qualifying times.

Mains
With Gallant sitting in the top spot all 3 races, it was a pretty easy day for him. Good starts, controlled driving and clean passing netted him a 62-lap run, 64-lap run and 63-lap run – taking the overall win for the day with 300 points. The milder power units (25.5T motors) seemed a good fit for the Spec tires, granting drivers plenty of traction at both ends of the car. Gallant’s smooth driving also helped, making his trip from ‘the city that never sleeps’ well worth the drive. It’s early in the season but he looks to be the man to beat.

While Gallant’s wins were dominate, John Christensen didn’t make them particularly easy. John finished 2nd overall, mere seconds behind in 2 of the 3 races. Race 3 was particularly close with Christensen crossing the line less than 2 seconds behind Gallant. He definitely looked to have pace during all 3 races, just not enough to dethrone the winner. Let’s see what Christensen can do in the next couple of races.

Mike Montes, another Vegas participant, would have a day of 3s…he would sit P3 in all 3 races, finish the day in 3rd place and be only 3 points behind Christensen. In addition to his outstanding performance, Mike also gets the award for the best hat.

Victor Jimenez and John Brown would finish 4th and 5th respectively, only 1 point separating them. Both seem of equal abilities, so this might be one of those battles that lasts the entire Series. John would beat Victor in R1 and R3, however a bad R2 would allow Victor to make up enough points to put him ahead at day’s end.

Finishing 6th for the day was Stephen Ruvalcaba. Brother to F1 TQ Brian Ruvalcaba, Stephen was overheard to say this was one of the funnest forms of racing he’d been around. He also mentioned that ‘the driver isn’t very talented’… Oh Stephen, we were all there at some point. I bet your car (and driving) come around soon and you’ll be knocking at the door of a podium in no time. Or, just steal your brother’s car – I’m sure he won’t mind. Either way, good job!

Dwayne Battie, owner of 702 Raceway in Las Vegas, came down with his crew to show some support for the UF1. Dwayne finished 7th overall with 283 points, pointing out that asphalt (and night racing) were not his forte. Uh, I hate to say it Dwayne, but you looked pretty good out there! Looking forward to seeing how you do at the next couple races before heading home in January for the home-turf advantage!

Coming home in 8th and 9th were Trace and Mark Goldstrom. These guys also came out from Vegas for some asphalt racing and had a great time! A bad 2nd round (oddly, for both of them) cut their chances at a higher final finish, but thankfully our new throw-out system will allow them to ditch that one race instead of a whole day’s worth of points.

Constructor’s Championship
While it is only race 1 of the 2019/2020 UF1 Series, we don’t have any run-away teams yet. They all appear to be pretty equal with only 32 points separating all 7 teams. In the grand scheme of things, it’s still anybody’s battle. Very excited to see how this plays out throughout the rest of the season!

Final Thoughts
It feels good to see the UF1 back in action. It feels great to see drivers having to tackle both their competitors and the track. And it feels fantastic to see them enjoying it! The rules seem to help elevate the racing, the Spec tires seem to be doing what they were intended to do and the Bonus Points system really made drivers go all out on the look of their rides. It was a fun first event, night-time and all. So ready for the next race! See everyone at Revelation Raceway on September 7th!

Thanks to the following sponsors for this year’s UF1 Series:
ActivRC
Fenix Racing Shop
PROTOform
Tamiya
Team Associated
VBC Racing

Photo Gallery: Gallery 62 – Round 1 – UF1 2019/2020 Series