Race Recap: 2022/2023 UF1 Series – Race 3 – United States GP

Post Race Analysis
My oh my, if you think the Australian GP had some drama, wait until you check out what the USGP had to offer! Cold temps, high winds and a covered track – sounds like a recipe for some major changes in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships!

Everyone converged on BWS Raceway, the site for Round 3 of the 2022/2023 UF1 Series. It’s an outdoor track in Perris, CA, and features a large, metal, wall-less covering that makes it a perfect location for racing in the summer, helping to keep the blistering sun off your back. During the winter, however, it manages just the opposite – keeping the temps in the chilly zone and preventing the sun from heating the track. While conditions are typically on point (BWS uses a bath of VHT to keep the grip up), the unusually high winds kept blowing dust on the track. This made tire and sauce choice incredibly important if you planned on piloting your 2WD F1 with any kind of pace!

Before we get to the mains and how everything panned out, let’s get to qualifying.

Formula 1
Qualifying
Since this was our initial visit to BWS, we opted for a slightly longer practice session to help drivers get a little more time with their cars. Once we started, it was obvious (painfully for some) that a few drivers had the right tires, sauce and heating regimen to get the most performance out of their cars under the conditions.

Pulling off a surprise P1 position was Phillip Enriquez. Phillip set a blistering pace that shocked everyone (including himself) and took top honors in qualifying. Posting a P2 was BWS local Jimmy Wright. Knowing the track better than anyone in the F1 field, he used his home-ish track advantage to get his ride around in a speedy fashion. Rounding out the Top 3 was Redbull driver Brian Ruvalcaba. Brian also put in a great performance, just a tick off of Wright’s time.

Honorable mentions were the Factory Team pair with Aaron Lane qualifying 4th and Thad Garner in 5th. McLaren ULTRA driver’s Rajan Monteiro and Mike Rydwell had another challenging day as well, with Raj posting a P12 and Mike posting a P…well, let’s just say his day did not start off well and he ended up packing up and heading home. Tough day for him, but we’ll see him back in action in January!

Unfortunately we had an issue with the timing on LiveRC so no times were recorded online. We had to use the physical sheets to figure it out (reflected in the list below).

16 F1 drivers in attendance, here’s how they lined up after qualifying.

Mains

Aaron Lane would pull off another win, giving him back-to-back P1 podium spots in the last 2 races. He would finish the day with a pair of P1s and a P2, securing 299 points on the day. His cool, controlled driving was awesome to watch and his Not-A-Team-Associated F6-Custom was amazing as track conditions changed throughout the day. This win also propelled him in the Driver’s Championship, putting the Factory Team driver solidly in 1st place! Lane does have ONE missed day (so his 3 throwouts are used already) so he has to be careful, but this is a great place to be going into the Winter break.

Landing in P2 was TQ Phillip Enriquez. The Independent driver scored 296 points with a P4, P2 and a win! To say that he was more than elated was an understatement as he stood tall with a big ol’ smile during the trophy presentation. Phillip also posted the single fastest lap of the event with a 13.500, showing he had pace in both the short and long game. The day-ending P2 position pushes Enriquez to 3rd in the Driver’s Championship, only 6 points behind Lane. This kid is slowly becoming a real threat!

P3 was snatched up by Jimmy Wright. The Independent driver drove a good race, completing the day with a trio of 3rd place finishes. Rolling solo with his Schumacher car, it was good to see him on pace with the top runners, even posting a fast 13.639 second lap. He’s now 8th overall in the Championship as well as the top Rookie driver of the year. He, as well, has a missed day so his 3 throwouts are spent – he’s got to keep his nose clean the rest of the Season if he wants to finish high up in the points.

Rookie Brian Marion brought home the 4th place position with 286 points. The B-Spec Honda driver posted some seriously fast times and put it all together for a great day’s finish, so far his best this Season. He was also able to clinch the 3rd fastest lap of the day with a 13.590. Brian bumps up to P10 in the Driver’s Championship and is only 10 points behind Wright for the Season’s Rookie of the Year award. Keep pushing Brian!

Championship contender Thad Garner had his worst finish this Season with an overall P5. While that’s not a bad finish by any means, he had high hopes at the beginning of the day to take over 1st place in the Championship after Rydwell’s departure. However, sometimes things happen and the Factory Team driver still sits P2 in the Championship, but only 3 points behind his teammate. There’s lots of races to go and, right now, these 3 races are his worst so far. We’ll see if there’s any team orders popping up in the upcoming races.

Rookie Christian Lopez put on a great show today, claiming P6 with 282 points! This is a great result considering he’s still driving that ancient T-bar car but, in all honesty, it really looked awesome all day! I’m sure he’s happy with this result – his best showing yet – and has bumped his way to P11 in the Championship. It’s good to see team BYM making ground on the top competitors.! Great job Christian!

Tying Lopez with 282 points was P7 finisher Brian Ruvalcaba. Brian was on his way to a much higher finish with a P2 and P4, but his Race 3 P15 killed his total points for the day. A bad crash left him limping around with a broken wing mount that required him to retire the car. It’s unfortunate, but he still sits 4th in the Championship and within striking distance of the Top 3. You can see he’s got that Redbull car figured out – it’s a serious contender each time it hits the track. Now he just needs a little luck…

BYM driver Tim Valles finished the day with 281 points, just one behind his teammate. This put him 8th overall for the day, a good finish for the Rookie. He did, however, flex his prowess with the 2nd fastest Fast Lap of 13.515, only 1/100 off of Enriquez. Slowly but surely him and Lopez are gunning for the Top 10 with their relic F1s – Valles sits 12th overall in the Championship.

Independent Alex M had a great day as well, gathering 278 points on the day with a 7th, 8th and 10th place finishes. These results are up from his qualifying spot (13th), so it is a step forward overall. Alex was back with his green paint (I guess the pink was too distracting?) which seems to be the hot ticket – he’s done well in both races with the green body over the pink. Alex sits 13th overall in the Championship.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Independent driver Steve Jackson. ‘Sean’ ended the day with a 10th, a 13th and an 8th for a total of 272 points. Having raced the UF1 before, he knows it’s all about the long game – show up, do the best you can and the results will come. It’s working – Jackson sits 5th in the Driver’s Championship. I’m sure we’ll see him challenge the top 4 in the overall in the upcoming races.

P11 went to McLaren ULTRA driver Rajan Monteiro. Raj struggled a bit with Rydwell in practice to find the right combo of tires, sauce and heating techniques. They showed up a week ago for practice and got all dialed in, however with conditions SO much different, it caught both of them out! He did push through, gathering 270 points with a pair of P12s and a P9. Raj sits P7 in the Championship and well within reach of the Top 5 – as long as he can gather it back up and with some good performances. Raj is a true competitor – I know he’ll be at the track this weekend getting things sorted.

Team Alfa driver Mark Goldwater posted enough points to put himself 12th overall for the day. His P14, P10 and P11 certainly weren’t the results he was hoping for and I’m sure he’s ready to move on to tracks he’s more familiar with. He sits 15th overall right now in the Championship but, with 4 races to go there’s plenty of time to put the work in. We’ve seen what he can do and confident a Top 10 finish is easily reachable.

Carlos Duarte ends the day in P13 with an unusual 11th, 14th and 13th. With a fast lap of only 14.549, you could see he was struggling a bit all day. Even though he’s an Independent driver, he was subbing for missing driver Ken Gerberding and was able to add his points to Team Alfa’s bid for the Constructor’s Championship (he’s quickly becoming the Constructor’s Sub Superstar). Duarte sits 9th overall right now in the Driver Championship.

Doug Rebal scored 264 points, enough to slot him in to 14th spot overall for the day. Doug’s car looked really good but just didn’t have the speed to produce better results. His runs were consistent, though, so it’s obvious he can hold his pace, he just needs to put it all together. Rebal is sitting in 16th place in the Driver’s Championship, about 30 points out of the Top 10. Plenty of time left in the Season, Doug. Keep pushing.

B-Spec Honda pilot Brian Santos comes home in 15th, a rough day for the Rookie driver. He struggled all day on the tricky surface, never really finding his Zen with the car. A 13th, 16th and 14th was the best he could muster all day, definitely not the results he was looking for. F1 is a tricky mistress – not only do you have to fight the track, you also have to fight drivers that have been at this level for awhile. This may be a full-test season for the Rookie – I expect him to start gaining ground later in the year when his nerves settle and his skills grow. You got this Brian – keep at it!

Finishing in 16th for the day was Joe Hawkins III. Joe was another driver that suffered the new-track-blues. He had only a little time to practice and, with the track changing all day, never really got up to speed. It happens to the best of us (as seen by some of today’s results), but we know Joe will be back and ready to rock and roll at the next event.

Fast Lap Award
Setting the pace in qualifying, it was obvious Phillip Enriquez had come to play. His time was super consistent all through the quals and mains, but what really stood out was his stellar fast lap. Phillip dropped a 13.500 second lap, the fastest of the event, in Race 1 of the day (the ‘slowest’ race). A close second (by only 1/100th of a second) was Tim Valles. Tim hit a 13.515 on his way to a 2nd Fastest Lap dinger, with Brian Marion 8/100’s of a second back to secure the 3rd Fastest Lap of the event.

These guys aren’t usually posting the fast laps, but it’s great to see their pace starting to take shape as the Season progresses. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more from them later in the year.

Formula 2
Qualifying
We had a few new faces show up to Race 3 of the Series – Kevin Harris, Danny Gaines and Brian Wright (BWS owner and operator). These 3 put on a great show, but it was Gabriel Gonzales that would top the qualifying charts. Right behind him was Matt Skipple followed VERY closely by Stephen Ruvalcaba.

Here’s the full standings of the Formula 2 qualifying:

Mains
Gabriel Gonzales would take his TQ spot and make the most of it, bringing home 299 points with a pair of 1sts and a 2nd place finish. His runs were fast and consistent, with the only real challenge coming in Race 3 when some issues in traffic relegated him to P2. Gonzales sits 3rd in the F2 Driver’s Championship by only 6 points – a couple more good races and we could see a lead change. Keep it up Gabriel!

Finishing 2nd was current F2 Driver’s Championship leader Pat Moneda. Pat had a good day as well, finishing 4th, 3rd and 4th for a total of 292 points. He’s been super consistent so far all year, with Top 5 finishes in every race but 1. He just needs to keep this up and he’s in great shape for podium placement at the end of the Series (notice I didn’t jinx you with an actual position call out!). He leads the Championship by 5 points over 2nd place.

Keven Harris made his debut to the UF1 with a solid 3rd place overall finish, grabbing 290 points with is P7, P5 and P1! His final main was helped out by the fact that we stuck 10 cars in the main (to speed up the program slightly), but he kept his cool and worked his way from 6th on the grid to the top podium spot. He didn’t have the fastest lap, but he did have a Consistency percentage of 86.18, one of the best in that race. Good job Kevin, hope to see you back out in the UF1 soon!

Capturing 4th overall for the day was Matt Skipple. Matt was one of the few (other than Gonzales) that picked up the track right away, getting a 2nd, 2nd, and a hurting 9th. Had he not had that errant last run, he could have easily brought home 2nd for the day. However, even though it wasn’t meant to be, he did post one of the fastest laps in F2, a 14.573 (2nd only to Gonzales). Matt’s got the patience, he’s got the driving – he just needs a little luck now and he’s going to excel. Matt sits 2nd in the F2 Driver’s Championship by 5 points.

Another inaugural UF1-racer, Danny Gaines, posted a 5th, 4th and 5th on his way to his 289 points. That’s a great showing for your first race in the Series. I’m sure that his cool, consistent driving played a major part in that, but also a little home-track advantage helped him out as well. Sure would like to see how he’d do at some of the other tracks in the Series – might shake up the results of the Top 5 a bit!

Steven Strohm brings home 6th, scoring 285 points with his 8th, 7th and 3rd place finishes. Funny, he told me he struggled all day in the first 2 races (with 5 cars in each race) but in the 3rd, with all 10 cars in there, he excelled and did really well. Guess he’s becoming the master of traffic! Steven sits 5th overall in the F2 Championship, however 17 points out of 4th. Lots of time left, lots of racing. As we saw today, anything can happen. Stay with it Steven!

Behind Steven, in 7th, was track owner Brian Wright. Brian’s car looked really good all day but, in 2 of the 3 races, he had battery issues that ended his runs a bit short. Even with his issues, he did manage to grab a pair of 6th and an 8th place finish. In his defense, he was running around making sure everything was running smoothly, so, yeah. His priorities were elsewhere, but it was great to have him on track anyway! Thanks Brian!

Taking home 8th with 280 total points was Ed Bohon. Ed was doing double duty in both the F2 and Spec LMP class, so he was chasing both cars all day. He finished with a 9th, a 6th and a 8th, all decent finishes despite the conditions. Ed has attended every race so far and sits 6th overall in the Championship. There are a few drivers above him that have missed races, so as long as he keeps pushing, he might be able to break the Top 5 by the end of the Season.

Steven Ruvalcaba brought home 278 points for 9th overall for the day, which was unfortunate since he had a great Race 1 with a 3rd place finish. A DNF in Race 2 dropped him out of contention for the day and he left before the start of Race 3, giving him a pair of 11th place finishes in the final 2 races. Points are points and, had he stayed, could have put him higher up the list in the USGP as well as allowed him to ‘save’ one throwout for a later date. Whatever the case, Stephen dropped down to 9th overall in the Championship. He’s still got an outside chance at a Top 5 but really has to do well at the final 4 races.

Hardcore racer Jerermy Dee scored 275 points and a Top 10 finish. Jerermy struggled a bit as well but managed an 11th, a 10th and a 7th place finish, the 7th best place being in Race 3 with the gaggle of cars. It was good to see him manage traffic and pull off a good run as it really seemed to boost his confidence. With the day’s results, Jerermy jumps up into the Top 10 in the Driver’s Championship, currently sitting 8th! Great job!

Finally, a big shout out to Anthony Hamilton for another fun time in the UF1. His first attempt was at The Lap Factory where he did well despite zero practice and qualifying. Here, he struggled a bit due to conditions but still pulled off a 10th, 9th and 10th, never finishing last in any race. That’s a start to a forward motion and we’re happy to see him giving it a go! Anthony sits 10th overall at the moment in the F2 Driver’s Championship!

Constructor’s Championship
So, now, on to the biggest shake up of the Series – the Constructor’s Championship.

First off, with Rydwell leaving and not appointing a sub, only Monteiro’s points counted towards their score which, as you can see, pushed them from 1st to 4th place.

B-Spec Honda, who was next on the list to take the lead, lost out on Santos’ points. Even though he was there, he wasn’t running the required team-livered body, so only his teammate Brian Marion’s points counted. This lapse cost them dearly as well, dropping them from 2nd (or a potential 1st) to 5th.

BYM, who was 3rd at the last race, now inherits the Championship lead by 31 points over Team Alfa, a team that has been using the sub-system well. That 31 points isn’t a monumental amount and, with some good races, could bring these 2 teams closer together by the end of the Season.

The question now becomes – can Factory Team, who sits 3rd in the Championship and 156 points out of contention – actually make up those points in 4 races? It’s a HUGE ask, but both Lane and Garner have been outscoring both team’s drivers quite handily. Just at this last race, the Factory Team duo scored 585 points – BYM, only 563 points (deficit of 22) – Team Alfa, only 533 points (deficit of 52). Theoretically, they should be able to overtake 2nd, but first might be a bit much. Remember, though, Garner has finished 2nd in Race 1, 3rd in Race 2 – he finished 5th in this race. If he gets back up to pace and finishes in the Top 3 (as well as any Team Alfa driver or BYM driver finishing off the mark), they JUUUUUUUUUUST might have a chance.

It’s going to be exciting!

Spec LMP
With the changes to the Spec LMP class (mainly the spec TC-01 chassis), we only had 4 drivers in attendance. While light, it allowed the field to have some breathing room on track for a pretty relaxed drive. All 4 drivers loved the chance to pilot their TC-01 cars around the track with a couple mentioning how well they worked.

Qualifying
Ed Bohon would take advantage of an open track and put his LMP in the P1 position for the main. His car looked really good in the 3-minute qualifier and, actually, seemed quite bored with the un-eventful run (that’s usually a good thing!). Phillip Enriquez would line up behind him with Carlos Duarte and Jerermy Dee in tow.

Here are the qualifying results for the Spec LMP class.!

Mains
It was an epic weekend for Phillip Enriquez, not only in F1 but also Spec LMP. He drove the wheels off of his ride to put 300 points on the board – a perfect score! This pushes him up into P1 in the Championship, 4 points ahead of Ed Bohon (the next Spec LMP car). Ed, ironically, finished in 2nd with 296 points for the day, taking the place with a P3 and a pair of P2s. I’m sure Ed would have liked a higher finish after his stellar TQ, but you can’t complain about a 2nd place.

Rounding out the Top 3 was Jerermy Dee, ending the day with 293 points. He actually tied with Carlos Duarte who, unfortunately, had an unfixable break in M2 and had to take last place points in the last 2 races. With the tie breaker, Jerermy comes out on top and earned the final spot on the end-of-day podium.

This looks like a really fun class and, we’re hoping, more drivers will come out with their cars to beef up the class. We’re already working on next Season’s line up, something that will be available for everyone, a correct body and a really fun support class. Stay tuned.

Final Thoughts
Whew, what a day. Started out early, ended late. Lots of cold. Lots of wind. Lots of dust. And lots of racing.

First off, sorry for some of the delays. I’m not well-versed on the LiveTime program (like I probably should be) and not really sure how to set things up. It might be time to invest in the $500 charge for the year, however I have to get permission to fund that (I am married…). I know it was a long day and a long drive for some, but I truly appreciate your understanding.

It’s always a challenge at a new track – understanding our format, making changes to the software to accommodate it, etc – and it’s harder when I don’t have my Ken Gerberding around to simply make it happen. He’s been notified he can’t miss any more races, so, yeah, nice and smooth from here on out.

Anyway, a big thanks to everyone for coming out, BWS and Brian Wright for hosting the event, long-time bud Mike Romero for working the mic (Mike on the mic) and, of course, the sponsors for the Series. I appreciate every single one of you.

Thanks to the following sponsors for this year’s UF1 Series:
• 1up Racing
• CompetitionX
• Exotek Racing
• Hitec
• ProTek RC
• PROTOform
• Reedy
• Tamiya
• TrackStar RC

Photo Gallery: Gallery 71 – Round 3 – UF1 2022/2023 Series