The 40th Annual Florida Region Winter National was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway the weekend of January 11-13. The new twist to the event this year was that it was a Double sanctioned event. Two races for the price of one tow. The race group this weekend was F500-FF-FV. The grid for the F500 field was that same entrants as at Sebring the prior weekend. The Dolphin Motorsports stable consisted of Bob Berman and Jim Elder. Sidewinder was represented by Chris Hite. Jack Walbran had is Scorpion in from St.Louis, and yours truly with the ex Dolphin Motorsports QRE Invader. Chris was the lone Rotax 494 entered, the rest having Rotax 493's. The Saturday race was grided with Bob and Jim well into the FF segment of the field with Bob girded 3rd overall. The rest of the F500 field was grided between the Fords and the Vee's. At the start Chris pulled a banzi outside move and was 3rd F500 into turn 2, however, Chris did not have the straight line speed to hold the position and was 5th F500 at the completion of the 1st lap. Yours truly held 3rd position with mirrors filled with Red Scorpion at every opportunity until the overtaking of the FV's began when I caught the Vee's 'right' and Jack caught the Vee's wrong and the gap opened to a 'comfortable' margin of 2 to 3 seconds and was held to the finish...Finish Order 1. Bob Berman 2. Jim Elder 3. Chuck McAbee 4. Jack Walbran 5. Chris Hite The Sunday race had virtually the same grid locations for the F500's, however, in the Saturday Race Chris Hite had the Engine-Clutch driveshaft break. and without a spare Chris packed up Saturday afternoon and towed home. The race was uneventful until midway on the leaders 14th lap when Jack Walbran and I came together under braking in Turn 5, unfortunately them bumping caused the drive chain on Jack's Scorpion to be thrown off the sprocket and Jack retired at the edge of the track at the exit of Turn 5 bringing out a Full Course Yellow to remove Jack's car from a dangerous location. On the re-start, all HE double hockey sticks broke out in the FV area of the field and 1st and 2nd Vee's took each other out and caused the race to get an early Checker after only 18 laps. The finish order was - 1. Bob Berman 2. Jim Elder 3. Chuck McAbee 4. Jack Walbran. The Southeast Division has now completed 3 National events and it's not even the middle of January.
Chuck McAbee SEDIV #16 ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
