Race Recap: 2019/2020 UF1 Series – Race 4 – Canadian GP | UF1 RC

Post Race Analysis
Round 4 was held at URC V Raceway in Northridge, CA. It’s been a LONG time for both myself and the UF1 since we’ve been to this location, however I do remember it being alot of fun and having one of the best ‘happy hours’ in the Series. The layout was fast and challenging with a good mix of high speed sections and hairpin turns.

Right off the bat it was obvious that most of the drivers were getting caught out by the speedy short chutes ending in hard brake zones – cars were either spinning out or pushing very wide – but after a short adjustment period, drivers were figuring it out. Passing zones were forming and drivers were pushing the limits to see just how hard they could drive. To me, this is always one of the best parts of the Series.

A good turnout in the Formula 1 class – 15 drivers – not so much for the Formula 2 class; only 4. While some of this is the result of the 702 crew not showing, it does make me think about the future of the F2 class. I’ll be looking at this pretty hard before the start of the next season to see what changes will need to be made to help retain these drivers.

We also had some drama (what’s a UF1 race without it) – basically some scoring issues – that popped up before and after the mains. Please guys – we run a very different program than most other race facilities; short qualifiers, triple mains, pit stops. This is also foreign to most race directors and, because of this, things are just going to happen. I’m trying my best to inform the tracks before and stay on top of them during the event, but things happen. I know it can be annoying but please know I’ll do my best to rectify it as soon as possible with minimum downtime to the show. If you feel something is off, just come tell me and I’ll get on it. No need to get all crazy.

Alrighty – on to the racing…

Formula 1
Qualifying
It wasn’t a surprise to see Michael Monaghan pull off the TQ with a 13.040 5-lap average, but there were a couple other drivers that made him really work for it. Chad Rott was very close behind, with a 5-lap average of 13.127, barely beating Carlos Duarte and his 13.218. Rajan Monteiro and Mike Rydwell were both right there as well, posting 13.3 5-lap averages. Finally, Craig Hammon was just outside the Top 4, posting a 13.404 5-lap average. Love watching how things work out on track in qualifying!

Here’s how it sorted out going into the first main event – 1st-14th with about a second separation.

Mains
The last race at RoadRunners, we ran a 13 car main event. Since we were starting quite a bit later than normal (track opening at 10am), I was hoping to be able to do the same at URC V. However, we’re dealing with a parking lot track design so a driver’s stand is not available. Instead, 8 step ladders are positioned so drivers can get an elevated perspective of the track. This, then, limits the amount of drivers per race to 8. Since we had 15, it was decided that we’d do a 7-car Group 1 and 8-car Group 2.

Like I mentioned previously, AMG Motorsport driver Michael Monaghan has shown that he is an incredibly talented F1 pilot. His consistency from track-to-track has allowed him to push to the top of the F1 class right from the get-go. He took the overall day’s win with 300 points (299+1 for Fast Lap) and goes into the Winter Break with a 23-point lead in the individual Championship. With the loss of our local carpet track, the next two races could be a challenge for him; it’s going to depend heavily on the competition’s desire to beat him. That, and his lack of low-score throwouts, make him a definite front runner for the rest of the season.

Newly independent driver Chad Rott has been steadily improving throughout the season and this day’s performance was capped by what is easily his best outing yet. Rott finished the first and second race with a P3 and P2, but it was his final race that was simply amazing. However, to make things even more interesting, the timing loop was having a hard time picking up his transponder, only posting 5 laps in the final race. He wasn’t the only driver with issues, so after the race a short meeting was called to discuss. It concluded with awarding Rott the P1 finish, boosting his points for the day to 296 – enough to grab 2nd overall. Not only was this a big daily win for him, it also pushed him to P5 in the overall, easily within striking distance of a Season-ending podium finish.

Third overall for the day was another independent driver and owner of Exotek Racing – Mike Rydwell. Rydwell had a P2 in race 1 and P4 in race 2, but it was his hard-fought battle in race 3 (with Rott) that was an absolute joy to watch. Clean driving and excellent passing showed just how much respect drivers have for each other in this Series. Rydwell could have probably held on to take the win, but an odd blow over sent him tumbling down the order with minutes left in the race. He was able to climb back up to 3rd, just not enough to grab points for 2nd overall (finishing 2 points behind Rott). Rumor has it that his car had some serious prototype goodies on it – business is going to be good if he keeps these explosive runs going. Mike has moved himself up to 4th place in the overall Series Championship.

The Silver Arrows driver, Carlos Duarte, finally put it all together this race, taking the 4th place finish with 292 points. Even though Carlos is a beast at Cal Raceway, he’s been struggling a bit at the travel tracks. That drought seems over though as Duarte put in an impressive performance finishing a mere 2 points behind Rydwell. Talking to him after the race, you could see the spark re-ignited – this Winter Break won’t go by fast enough. Carlos’ excellent run has also bumped him up the Championship standings – he now sits 6th overall.

Grabbing 5th for the day was Team 11 driver Charles Lightfoot. A pair of P6s in the first two races shows consistency, but it was his race 3 that had everyone watching. Lightfoot and Hickman would dice it out for the final 5 minutes (probably more like the entire 15 to them), drafting, passing, touching – it was another awesome race to watch. After, the two of them were giggling like little schoolgirls – THAT’S the kind of thing I love to see in the Series. Another great show of respect on the track followed by camaraderie off. Lightfoot is now 7th overall, only 36 points out of the lead (but only 13 points out of 2nd). There’s still light at the end of the tunnel… Teammate Doug Rebal finished off the day with a P11, P8 and P13. That’s good enough for Doug to jump to P14 in the overall, up one place from last race. He’s about 46 points out of the Top 10 – not impossible, but he’ll need a great second half of the season to get it in there.

Part 2 of the AMG Motorsports team, Bruce Hickman, pulled off a well-earned 6th place on the day. A better race 1 (he finished last for the round) could have easily pushed him up the leaderboards more, but a good race 2 and 3 helped salvage the day. Plus, his race with Lightfoot was fantastic. With the throwouts, though, Hickman drops to 3rd by 3 points in the overall – I’m sure he’s going to be gunning to get those back. Hickman is one of those guys that has no problem travelling to a track prior to the race to get a head start on practice – I expect to see him in Vegas the Friday before the double-header.

Rajan Monteiro, co-driver on The Silver Arrows team, ends his day with a 7th place finish. Even though he placed a P5 in race 1, his final 2 race finishes dropped him well off the pace. However, the beauty of the throwouts worked for him – his last two races were low scoring and effectively became his throwouts. That allowed his higher scores to take over and actually moved him UP to P2 in the overall! The down side of this, however, is that any lower scores could drastically change all of this. Thankfully The Silver Arrows team work well together and, after this weekend, I think they learned alot about what they need to do in the upcoming races. At least that’s what they told me!

Another driver plagued by the timing loop (in race 3) was Team Alfa driver Craig Hammon. Hammon had decent runs in his first 2 races but, at the start of race 3, the loop was not counting his car. I was close, so I picked up his car and proceeded to pull the plug on the transponder and pushed it back into the receiver. Viola – working! Or so we thought. After lap 1 we soon realized it wasn’t counting again. This caused a large problem; drivers that HAD laps counted could actually be adjusted with a little post-race math work (oye – math). However, Hammon had 0 laps, so there was no way to adjust his times. Rajan, though, stood up and mentioned he felt Craig finished in front of him in the race, just not sure how far. After a little more discussion, it was concluded that we would set Hammon’s time to 1-second faster than Raj. I think that was the fair thing to do – everyone was in agreeance. Hammon would finish with 276 points, unfortunately still 1 point behind Raj for the daily tally.

That, of course, created another interesting issue; with Hammon finishing with 276 points, he tied his Team Alfa teammate Mark Goldwater who also finished the day with 276 points! What are the chances of that??? The tiebreaker would be whoever finishes the first race with the higher points, that being Hammon. Goldwater would have to settle for 9th, still a good showing for both the individual and Constructor’s points.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Team Renault driver Brian Ruvalcaba. Brian showed great pace in race 1, finishing in P7, but a break in race 2 would kill his overall points for the day. Unfortunately Ruvalcaba missed the entire last race at Camarillo, so he’ll need to suck up these points towards his overall Championship finish. He sits 11th. Teammate Hector Martinez also missed a day, so his P12/P10/P13 points are going to have to count as well. I felt bad for Martinez in race 3 – at the start, everyone launched well from the line with one car crying out the dreaded screech of death. By the end of lap 1, that screech had gotten pretty bad and, midway through lap 2, the spur gear was done. Sucks that something so basic can fail so easily. Brush it off Hector – we’ve got carpet races coming up!

Speaking of Camarillo, our overall winner there, independent Ken Gerberding, didn’t quite repeat his performance in Northridge. Unfortunately in race 1, he was assessed a 5 second penalty for aggressive driving. Another unfortunate event in race 2 saw him leave the track with only 45 laps in the books and race 3, well, an 8th place finish. Again, though, the individual throwouts came into play and have relegated Ken to 8th overall in the Series – only 16 points out of 2nd. Another 1 (or 2) more Camarillo performances and Ken could see himself up on a podium step!

Alex M had a few glimpses of perfection – all this asphalt running in starting to pay off. Even though Alex finished 13th, his 13.6 fast lap is very respectable. Alex is my underdog and, honestly, I see him posting some good times when we hit the carpet after the Winter Break.

Finally, we have privateer Phillip Enriquez. Phillip is also a carpet guy; last season he did excellent in the F2 class on carpet so I bet he’s ready for the upcoming Vegas rounds. Enriquez has also been and interesting prototype built around the FGX and, as we all know, that can be a bit of project when you’re flying solo. He’s also not been sporting his awesome Ferrari shoes – I think we now see the issue, Phillip!

Fast Lap Award
There was quite a bit of talk in the pits about who had the fastest lap. On paper, it was all about Michael Monaghan. On the track, it was all about Chad Rott (in his head). Rott thought, for sure, that he was setting some blistering laps, especially in race 3. Since his transponder was acting up and we had to go with actual data – you know, those things called printouts – it was concluded that Monaghan indeed posted the fast lap. Sorry Chad, while you did a great job this weekend, Michael did have you beat.

Formula 2
Qualifying
With only 4 driver’s attending the F2 class, it was like all 4 were going to start from the front row. It also meant big points for those still vested in the Series.

Here’s how the qualifying order panned out:

Mains
With only two races under his belt, Mike Allen has shown he’s a force to deal with in the F2 class. He’s TQ’ed both events as well as punched out 600 points – this has moved him up to 2nd overall in the Series! If he continues his plight and no one comes to challenge him, Mike could very well be the overall winner and enter the F1 class the hard way! We haven’t seen him run on the rug so if he does make his way to Vegas, he’ll get a chance to race against some very fast F2-class carpet folk. Excited to see how that will pan out.

We also had a chance to see an old UF1 friend run again at URC V – Roy Volentino. Roy raced with us quite a few years ago and, if I remember, did very well! Not only did he finish 2nd for the day with a P2/P2/P2, he also posted the fastest lap in the class – a 13.914. He’s the only one to drop into the 13’s, which is an amazing feat in itself considering the size of the track and the power provided (all the F1 guys were in the 13 second lap time). Would really like to see Roy out full time to vie for the F2 Championship!

Joe Hawkins III joins us again after missing two rounds and slides into 3rd overall for the day. A P3/P3/P4 nets him good points and moves him to 9th overall in the Championship. Joe is not that far off a season-ending podium finish – only 30 points. Keep with it Joe!

Finishing the day in 4th place was Mark Hinkley. Mike missed the first round (filling his 3 throwouts), but has been in attendance for the last 3 races. His 4th place finish moves him to the top of the F2 Championship with 860 points – hat’s a whopping 259 point gap to 2nd! If he shows up to the rest of the races, he could potentially win this thing! Even if Allen wins and TQs the rest of the Series, Hinkley only needs to finish in the Top 10, making it almost near impossible for Allen to win. It’s all up to Hinkley at this point – how bad does he want it?

Constructor’s Championship
No big changes in the Constructor’s Championship – AMG Motorsport is still up top with 2316 points, leading 2nd place The Silver Arrows by 42 points. Team Alfa is still 3rd with 2222; Team 11 in 4th with 2180. The top 4 teams are still close – anything can happen as we’ve seen in the Driver’s Championship. The biggest thing is going to be attendance – ALL points count in the Constructor’s Championship – how committed is your team?

Final Thoughts
The day is done, the lights are out and everyone is probably ready for the Winter Break. One whole month of rest and relaxation before we head East in January. That is, of course, if you’re content with where you are in the Series.

Many drivers have been putting in some extra time, and it shows. Drivers want to also maximize their points, meaning a no-show (and 0 points for your 3 throwouts) could be disastrous for both the Driver and Constructor’s Championship. Looking forward to the second half of the season for sure. I’m just as excited about it as you guys are!

Going into the Winter Break, I’d like to thank everyone who supports the UF1 – not just manufacturers, but the drivers as well. I do appreciate you guys helping to keep it alive, dealing with all the issues that pop up and, of course, my mood swings when things just don’t go right. I want it to be a great experience for you so you’ll keep coming back. That’s what I enjoy. I’d also like to apologize to Cuda for exploding on him at the last race. So, yeah.

See you in January.

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

Photo Gallery: Gallery 65 – Round 4 – UF1 2019/2020 Series