The History
I was asked to do this and it should always be remembered that one should be very careful when asking for something because they just might get it. This is going to be a bit longer than I think was envisioned because Da Unofficial Formula F United States (DUFFUS) championship which recently became the Right Coast Formula F Series (RCFFS) has germinated from several influences.
Our Motivation and Goal
Our motivation for creating the Right Coast Formula F Series (RCFFS) was and remains pretty basic; it is enlightened self-interest. There are many of us in the Formula F community who have and continue to genuinely enjoy racing in large fields of the best class of race car ever created. Given a choice between a race group that contains everything from Indy Lights Formula S cars down to Formula Vs with Sports Racing cars thrown in or a group of FF/CF only cars; which would you choose? What follows sort of explains how we got here.
On a Hill at Lime Rock
A long, long time ago an aspiring young racer stood on the hill above the “essses” at Lime Rock park trying to decide what kind of race car he would like to begin racing with…………..after he robbed a bank, discovered a long lost wealthy relative, found a loan officer who was having an off-day. His inclination was to get a Spitfire, MG or Triumph production car, but on that day in 1969 his attention was drawn to the formula car race. Mixed in with some Formula B & C cars were a handful of this new type of formula car called a Formula Ford.
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Not being very bright, but somewhat self-aware, this fellow then embarked on a decision process that took about four years. After attending numerous races and wandering through race paddocks at Lime Rock, Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Thompson, Bryar Motorsports Park, he reached a decision. While it had been the Ferraris, Jaguars, MG’s, Triumphs, Cobras and for that matter Ford GT’s that had infected him with this illness known as “the desire to race”; it was the Formula Fords that were to be his choice.
Why, you might ask and bear in mind that this guy is willing to acknowledge a lack of intelligence, but he also does possess a sense of self awareness. To him the choice was simple. The drivers of the production based cars were constantly working on their cars particularly at the end of the day. On the other hand, the Formula Ford drivers were pouring fuel in their cars, checking tire pressures and then going off to have a beer or two. Perhaps not the most incisive of decisions, but for someone who realizes he is one of the laziest people on the planet, it made sense to him.
Why, you might ask and bear in mind that this guy is willing to acknowledge a lack of intelligence, but he also does possess a sense of self awareness. To him the choice was simple. The drivers of the production based cars were constantly working on their cars particularly at the end of the day. On the other hand, the Formula Ford drivers were pouring fuel in their cars, checking tire pressures and then going off to have a beer or two. Perhaps not the most incisive of decisions, but for someone who realizes he is one of the laziest people on the planet, it made sense to him.
Big Fields and Great Friends
That was in 1973 and I am pretty sure that many others who might be reading this might be able to relate. On another level, the fields of FF’s were large (25 to sometimes 50+ cars); quite a few Formula Ford drivers had graduated to higher levels of racing; the cars were evolving and beginning to look a lot like their larger, faster brethren in F5000, FA & FB. It was a bit intoxicating (even without any beverage assistance) to be part of FF and the racing was fun. It was, as Ted Wenz once remarked, “a bit gladiatorial”, but god it was fun!
The best part turned out to be the people you met. Many became lifelong friends and those who at the time were somewhat less favorably looked upon amazingly also eventually became friends. There were people who were willing to share their knowledge and teach you how to get better - Joe Stimola, Bruce MacInnes, Ted Wenz, Peter Marcovicci, Norm Marx and others.
The best part turned out to be the people you met. Many became lifelong friends and those who at the time were somewhat less favorably looked upon amazingly also eventually became friends. There were people who were willing to share their knowledge and teach you how to get better - Joe Stimola, Bruce MacInnes, Ted Wenz, Peter Marcovicci, Norm Marx and others.
Anniversaries and 200 Formula Fords
So now lets fast forward to 1994 and the 25th Anniversary of Formula Ford at Lime Rock Park. Mike Rand, an SCCA National Champion, who at that time was the track manager of Lime Rock Park had been racing in Formula Ford/Club Ford for quite some time. Mike’s love for real competition had drawn him to Formula Ford and he felt a need to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the class in the US.
Using his extensive contacts Mike put together a superb event with Formula Ford (FF), Formula Club F aka Club Ford (CF), Historic Formula Ford (HF), Formula Continental (FF2000 cars), Sports 2000/Spec Racer Ford and a celebrity race for racing journalists in Skip Barber Racing School cars. It was magnificent and it was a concept that stayed with that now somewhat less young racer. This was repeated again in 2004 for the 35th Anniversary of Formula Ford and as happens with all good movies, the sequel in 2005 was presented as the “Second Annual 35th Anniversary of Formula Ford”.
In between the 25th & double 35th Anniversary events, Steve Beeler, a racer from Michigan, had started a FF/CF series in the Central Division of the SCCA. Steve had organized a series called the East West Challenge Series (EWC) for FF/CF. It was a series of races held at tracks in the Central Division such as Road America in Wisconsin, Blackhawk Farms in Illinois, Grattan and GingerMan Raceways in Michigan. The series was quite successful with large fields of FF and CF cars and in its early version it had one particularly unique feature; all the cars (FF and CF) raced on Hoosier R-60 compound slicks. The racing was terrific. The races were staged as a part of regular SCCA regional races and featured extended race distances and an FF/CF only race group.
The aging East Coast racer made several trips to attend EWC races at Road America, Blackhawk Farms and Grattan Raceway. It was at those races that he met and made friends with Steve Beeler and along with other EWC drivers, two drivers named Dave Harmison and Phil Kingham.
Then Mr. Beeler and Mr. Rand got together and organized the 40th Anniversary of Formula Ford in 2009 at Road America in Wisconsin. The event was phenomenally successful with more than 200 Formula Fords showing up to race. The first practice session for FF/CF saw 104 cars on track at one time! A few sentences are hardly appropriate to describe the success of that event, but suffice to say that what happened at Elkhart Lake and the events listed above were the influences that led to DUFFUS/RCFFS.
Using his extensive contacts Mike put together a superb event with Formula Ford (FF), Formula Club F aka Club Ford (CF), Historic Formula Ford (HF), Formula Continental (FF2000 cars), Sports 2000/Spec Racer Ford and a celebrity race for racing journalists in Skip Barber Racing School cars. It was magnificent and it was a concept that stayed with that now somewhat less young racer. This was repeated again in 2004 for the 35th Anniversary of Formula Ford and as happens with all good movies, the sequel in 2005 was presented as the “Second Annual 35th Anniversary of Formula Ford”.
In between the 25th & double 35th Anniversary events, Steve Beeler, a racer from Michigan, had started a FF/CF series in the Central Division of the SCCA. Steve had organized a series called the East West Challenge Series (EWC) for FF/CF. It was a series of races held at tracks in the Central Division such as Road America in Wisconsin, Blackhawk Farms in Illinois, Grattan and GingerMan Raceways in Michigan. The series was quite successful with large fields of FF and CF cars and in its early version it had one particularly unique feature; all the cars (FF and CF) raced on Hoosier R-60 compound slicks. The racing was terrific. The races were staged as a part of regular SCCA regional races and featured extended race distances and an FF/CF only race group.
The aging East Coast racer made several trips to attend EWC races at Road America, Blackhawk Farms and Grattan Raceway. It was at those races that he met and made friends with Steve Beeler and along with other EWC drivers, two drivers named Dave Harmison and Phil Kingham.
Then Mr. Beeler and Mr. Rand got together and organized the 40th Anniversary of Formula Ford in 2009 at Road America in Wisconsin. The event was phenomenally successful with more than 200 Formula Fords showing up to race. The first practice session for FF/CF saw 104 cars on track at one time! A few sentences are hardly appropriate to describe the success of that event, but suffice to say that what happened at Elkhart Lake and the events listed above were the influences that led to DUFFUS/RCFFS.
The Roots of DUFFUS/RCFFS
Dave Harmison, Phil Kingham, Doug Fisher (another FF friend from a long time ago) and I had very often talked about perhaps trying to find a way to get a really large group of cars together for a race or two each season. To this end, for a couple of years we tried to get our fellow FF/CF drivers to attend the American Road Race of Champions at Road Atlanta. We would get a few drivers to make to the trip to Atlanta in November, but the number of entrants never really approached the levels we were hoping for.
Then, in 2013 some officials from the Washington DC Region (WDCR) of the SCCA approached me and asked if I thought it would be possible organize a special regional race where formula cars would be featured. I explained that I thought it would be difficult, but that I might be able to get a group of Formula Ford/Club Ford drivers to attend. I got in touch with Dave, Phil, Doug and quite a few other FF/CF drivers. In October of 2013 the WDCR staged the Formula Fest regional as part of the Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series finale and we had 20 drivers enter and race. During the race weekend, we met with all the drivers and asked if they would be willing to support a short series of perhaps 3 to 5 races if we could arrange for a FF/CF run group and some increased level of track time each weekend.
Bill Valet in a Swift DB-6 Honda took FF and Phil Kingham in a Zink Z-10 Ford took CF in the final race of the weekend and were the first drivers to earn the infamous horse hind quarters trophy which is our way of reminding ourselves that we are doing this for the fun of it.
Based upon the success of that 2013 Summit Point Formula Fest, we set off to organize a very short series of races. We wanted to make sure that everyone who was participating would be aware that we were simply doing this for fun. No points championship, no requirements for special tires or equipment; just races with a FF/CF only race group. I had always admired people who could make fun of themselves AND demonstrate some competence so with tongue firmly planted in cheek, we decided to call the series Da Unofficial Formula Ford United States championship or DUFFUS. We had and still have but one legitimate and serious goal; to have as much fun as we did at the original Summit Point Formula Fest.
The 2014 DUFFUS season was scheduled to be a three race weekends series. The series was and still is endeavoring to race at tracks that drivers really like and with sufficient time between the races so drivers have time to do other races or things. The Washington DC Region was very pleased with the turnout at the Formula Fest weekend and invited us to come back in October of 2014. Mike Rand (that name just keeps coming up doesn’t it?) and his partners at Formula Race Promotions (FRP) were and still are conducting a very successful SCCA sanctioned Pro Racing series for F1600, F2000 and Formula Atlantic. Mike had heard about DUFFUS and was the first one to offer us a spot on their calendar to support the pro series. We agreed to race in support of FRP at Mid Ohio and Pittsburgh International Race Complex (PIRC) events.
We raced at Mid Ohio on the Fourth of July weekend. It was at this very first DUFFUS event that a YouTube video from Wes Allen went viral and actually made it to every single national news program showing “drivers cheating death” or some other nonsense headline. The video was spectacular showing Dave Harmison’s Royale, leap frogging over Wes’ Merlyn clipping Wes’ mirror which was very quickly and calmly re-adjusted so Wes could continue racing ………… just another day at the Formula F races.
Then, in 2013 some officials from the Washington DC Region (WDCR) of the SCCA approached me and asked if I thought it would be possible organize a special regional race where formula cars would be featured. I explained that I thought it would be difficult, but that I might be able to get a group of Formula Ford/Club Ford drivers to attend. I got in touch with Dave, Phil, Doug and quite a few other FF/CF drivers. In October of 2013 the WDCR staged the Formula Fest regional as part of the Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series finale and we had 20 drivers enter and race. During the race weekend, we met with all the drivers and asked if they would be willing to support a short series of perhaps 3 to 5 races if we could arrange for a FF/CF run group and some increased level of track time each weekend.
Bill Valet in a Swift DB-6 Honda took FF and Phil Kingham in a Zink Z-10 Ford took CF in the final race of the weekend and were the first drivers to earn the infamous horse hind quarters trophy which is our way of reminding ourselves that we are doing this for the fun of it.
Based upon the success of that 2013 Summit Point Formula Fest, we set off to organize a very short series of races. We wanted to make sure that everyone who was participating would be aware that we were simply doing this for fun. No points championship, no requirements for special tires or equipment; just races with a FF/CF only race group. I had always admired people who could make fun of themselves AND demonstrate some competence so with tongue firmly planted in cheek, we decided to call the series Da Unofficial Formula Ford United States championship or DUFFUS. We had and still have but one legitimate and serious goal; to have as much fun as we did at the original Summit Point Formula Fest.
The 2014 DUFFUS season was scheduled to be a three race weekends series. The series was and still is endeavoring to race at tracks that drivers really like and with sufficient time between the races so drivers have time to do other races or things. The Washington DC Region was very pleased with the turnout at the Formula Fest weekend and invited us to come back in October of 2014. Mike Rand (that name just keeps coming up doesn’t it?) and his partners at Formula Race Promotions (FRP) were and still are conducting a very successful SCCA sanctioned Pro Racing series for F1600, F2000 and Formula Atlantic. Mike had heard about DUFFUS and was the first one to offer us a spot on their calendar to support the pro series. We agreed to race in support of FRP at Mid Ohio and Pittsburgh International Race Complex (PIRC) events.
We raced at Mid Ohio on the Fourth of July weekend. It was at this very first DUFFUS event that a YouTube video from Wes Allen went viral and actually made it to every single national news program showing “drivers cheating death” or some other nonsense headline. The video was spectacular showing Dave Harmison’s Royale, leap frogging over Wes’ Merlyn clipping Wes’ mirror which was very quickly and calmly re-adjusted so Wes could continue racing ………… just another day at the Formula F races.
Five weeks later we raced at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Phil Kingham in a Kent powered Zink Z10 went back and forth with Andy Brumbaugh in his dad’s Honda powered Crossle’ 35F; some really great racing. But perhaps the most ringing endorsement of the series was to be been in the paddock. 5 or 6 drivers helping Wayne Nicolete put his Lola T340 back together while Wayne drove halfway back to Maryland to meet up with a friend to hand over some needed spare parts. A steering rack being straightened in one of the Pro team trailers........ It isn’t just the cars or the racing; it’s the people that make this so much fun!
The final event of the 2014 DUFFUS series was at Summit Point where 19 cars turned out and put on another really impressive show of FF racing. |
In 2015, we put together a schedule with four events. The first race weekend was in May on the Thunderbolt circuit at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) as a support race for the ARCA Stock Cars (yup, the guys that run at Daytona, Talledega, etc. with the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars!). Again terrific racing happened. One memorable event was oil dry completing covering Turn 1 – you know somethings up when they give you two pace laps to check out the condition of the track. There was also great back and forth racing among the competitors.
The second event was one of our “flash mob” type events and was held on the track at the National Corvette Museum. While the number of FF & CF cars was smaller; the racing between Phil Kingham, Reilly Harris and Dave Harmison was really close and hard fought.
The third race of DUFFUS 2015 was at Summit Point Motorsports Park in August. The entry looked to be 24 strong, but unfortunately 9 cars dropped out within 10 days of the event due to damage at other races and some engine difficulties. However, the 15 cars that did race put on a terrific show. One of the most remarkable things that could be seen was a late model Honda powered Van Dieman, a state of the art Honda powered Citation and Ford powered Zink Z-10 and Lola T340 all nose to tail for the first third of most of the races. We had cars on soft compound bias ply Hoosiers, Hoosier Pro F1600 radials and Hoosier bias play R60 compound slicks all racing wheel to wheel for large portions of all the races. It was amazing………….. Mike Rand took the win in FF in his Crossle’ 35F Honda on R35 Hoosiers and Phil Kingham in his Zink Z-10 Ford took CF honors in the final race of that weekend.
The second event was one of our “flash mob” type events and was held on the track at the National Corvette Museum. While the number of FF & CF cars was smaller; the racing between Phil Kingham, Reilly Harris and Dave Harmison was really close and hard fought.
The third race of DUFFUS 2015 was at Summit Point Motorsports Park in August. The entry looked to be 24 strong, but unfortunately 9 cars dropped out within 10 days of the event due to damage at other races and some engine difficulties. However, the 15 cars that did race put on a terrific show. One of the most remarkable things that could be seen was a late model Honda powered Van Dieman, a state of the art Honda powered Citation and Ford powered Zink Z-10 and Lola T340 all nose to tail for the first third of most of the races. We had cars on soft compound bias ply Hoosiers, Hoosier Pro F1600 radials and Hoosier bias play R60 compound slicks all racing wheel to wheel for large portions of all the races. It was amazing………….. Mike Rand took the win in FF in his Crossle’ 35F Honda on R35 Hoosiers and Phil Kingham in his Zink Z-10 Ford took CF honors in the final race of that weekend.
The final race for 2015 was at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in October in support of the Formula Race Promotions Pro F1600/F2000/Formula Atlantic series. It was on a cold, somewhat wet and SNOWY weekend. There was actually accumulating snow in mid-October. The weather was unbelievable and miserable, BUT the racing was the same as always; really competitive.
RCFFS is Born!
Over the winter of 2015 into 2016 we had two important changes. The first was the addition of Mike Rand to our team. It is hard to explain or measure the amount of credibility that Mike brings in his participation in every aspect of planning and executing the series. The second was to change the name of the series. To be honest, some people (not many, but we do listen when the drivers speak as we are for the drivers and by the drivers) didn’t like the name “DUFFUS”. So, we did some brainstorming and came up with Right Coast Formula F Series (RCFFS). Our series is located primarily on the East Coast of the US. There are some people who commonly refer to California, Oregon & Washington as the Left Coast. Actually, the entire name of the series is the Right Coast Formula F Series for the DUFFUS Cup, but we haven’t yet figured out what that cup is going to look like.
We are keeping several things from the DUFFUS series. We are still going to hand out “kill stickers” to each of the podium finishers in each class for each race during the weekend. We usually race three times each weekend. We are keeping the horse’s hind quarters trophies because we still want to remind ourselves that we are doing this for fun and racing for $7 trophies. AND, we sticking with our original philosophy of FF/CF only race groups; multiple races each weekend; all FF/CF cars being welcomed regardless of engine or tire choice. We will take care of getting the results sheets sorted out.
We have been very fortunate in finding partners who will put us on their race schedules. Now we just need to keep coming out as drivers to race so we can keep doing this. There are more stories to be lived and told; and more history to be made. So, if what we are offering interests you, please join as at an upcoming event. We look forward to seeing you and making history come alive.
We are keeping several things from the DUFFUS series. We are still going to hand out “kill stickers” to each of the podium finishers in each class for each race during the weekend. We usually race three times each weekend. We are keeping the horse’s hind quarters trophies because we still want to remind ourselves that we are doing this for fun and racing for $7 trophies. AND, we sticking with our original philosophy of FF/CF only race groups; multiple races each weekend; all FF/CF cars being welcomed regardless of engine or tire choice. We will take care of getting the results sheets sorted out.
We have been very fortunate in finding partners who will put us on their race schedules. Now we just need to keep coming out as drivers to race so we can keep doing this. There are more stories to be lived and told; and more history to be made. So, if what we are offering interests you, please join as at an upcoming event. We look forward to seeing you and making history come alive.
Your fellow racer, Joe Marcinski - Club Ford #04