Round 4 at BWS!

Round 4 descended upon BWS Raceway on July 19th, 2025! 

BWS is well known for its incredibly high traction during the summer months. And... round 4 did not disappoint! Traction was at an all time high. Which resulted in close racing, unexpected finishers, drama, and a great F1 turnout. Thank you again to Brian Wright, BWS, for supporting our series. We are truly grateful for your hard work and effort into making BWS a great place. 

Track Prep: 

VHT:

For the first round in 2025, we experienced cooler temps and unfortunately had VHT issues. 

This was not true for Round 4! 

Temps were well into the 80's and provided plenty of ambient temperature for VHT to cure. Traction was incredibly high on race day. Brian Wright also slightly changed the VHT blend and this resulted in more consistent traction throughout the day. Everyone was super impressed with how fast the track grooved and then stayed fast. Not even wind gusts slowed the F1 cars down! 

Morning Practice:

Morning practice went very well. Checking in with drivers and everyone seemed to be happy with their cars. We had a few cars go out to practice very early in the session, before the VHT could cure, and they picked up some surface prep. After another 15 minutes of waiting, all surface prep was cured and no one had issues for the rest of the day. 

Bill Jeric and Raj both looked very quick for the morning practice sessions. 

Both turned laps in the high 12 second range. 

Most drivers are settling into the low 13 second range. Will this pace translate to racing?? 

Qualifying:

Qualifying had no real drama. The track was very quick, and ambient temps were still fairly low. 

We noticed some of the drivers were having trouble with the left side s-section. We attributed this to the late morning sunshine reflecting on the track surface. Qualifying's surprise of the day was Mark Goldwater sneaking into the A-main event! The top 5 qualifiers were the typical suspects. Mike Rydwell just edged out the pole position ahead of Raj, with Thad following 0.2 seconds behind after 3 laps. The top 10 qualifiers were all within 1.6 seconds!  [0.53 second average per lap]

F1 Rubber: 

Qualifying:

Pole: Mike Rydwell [39.019]

2nd: Raj Monterio [39.040]

3rd: Thad Garner [39.218]

4th: Bill Jeric [39.477]

5th: Panda [39.661]

6th: Carlos Duarte [40.137]

7th: Craig Cuda [40.189]

8th: Tony Phalen [40.387]

9th: Travis Koepfli [40.590]

10th: Mark Goldwater [40.661]

Race Results:

1st: Craig Cuda

2nd: Tony Phalen

3rd: Mike Rydwell

4th:  Thad Garner

5th: Mike Galaios

6th: Carlos Duarte

7th: Panda

8th: Raj Monteiro

9th: Mark Goldwater

10th: Lester Brooks

Fast Lap Bonus:

Raj Monteiro [12.885]

Concours:

Ed Bohon

Drive of the Day!

Drive of the day goes to our very own Cuda / Craig. 

Craig has been putting a lot of time into his program lately and it really shows. Craig has also started racing dirt oval. We wonder if this loose dirt environment is benefitting his F1 program?? 

Cuda is a longtime UF1 racer, past UF1 champion, and we are thrilled to see him on the top step once again. 

We were witness to our very own Fernando Alonso winning once again. Pure F1 magic! 

Round 5 will be back to BWS. 

Racers are happy that their setups will not need to change for the next round. 

Since the summer months are consistently hot at BWS, we do not expect any traction or surface changes to occur. Really looking forward to seeing everyone for Round 5! 

Also be on the lookout for a UF1 prep / practice day in the coming weeks :) 

F1 Open: [foam]

Qualifying:

Pole: Brad Toffelmire [37.030][

2nd:  Aaron Lane [38.677]

3rd: Mark Goldwater [40.881]

4th: Craig Cuda [41.081]

5th: Mark Lane [41.382]

Race Results:

1st: Brad Toffelmire

2nd: Aaron Lane

3rd: Mark Lane

4th: Mark Goldwater

5th: Craig Cuda

Round 2 at SCOR!

Round 2 was UF1's inaugural race at Southern California's newest facility, SCOR. 

Located at the Santa Ana River Lakes, this dedicated on-road track has an already impressive weekly following. We are incredibly fortunate that the team at SCOR is awesome and willing to open their facility for our series! 

Track Prep: 

Pancake Syrup:

Traditionally SCOR sprays the track with watered down pancake syrup. For slurry tracks, this type of prep does very well! In contrast, if a track surface is porous / rough, the pancake syrup can actually start to fill and polish the racing surface. Polished surfaces can be tough for F1 cars as it causes the front end to grab or cause inconsistent grip. It can also overexaggerate dust on the surface as the racing surface is completely polished / sealed. 

Soda enters the chat:

UF1 had the curiosity to use soda instead of pancake syrup. Soda, a traditional parking lot prep, is much thinner and is not able to seal the racing surface. With approval from the track crew, we sprayed soda on Friday night for testing.  This prep seemed really promising on Friday night. We decided to use this method for the following race day. 

Morning Practice:

Traction was off the charts! We were seeing lap-times over a second faster than the week before! 

Many felt that the grip was similar to carpet or BWS when prepping with VHT. 

Qualifying and Round 1:

Traction was great and very consistent. We actually saw some cars traction rolling at the end of the long sweeper. Both rubber and open F1 drivers were very happy. The soda absolutely changed and improved the racing surface. 

Round 2: 

We had some heavy wind gusts blow through and bring a LOT of dust over to the on-road track. In an effort to keep the track clean, we dragged the racing surface. Dragging the track involves wetting a large carpet with water, and dragging it behind you as you walk around the track. This really cleans off any dust and debris. Unfortunately, it also took off all the soda! :( This was my fault as we should have blown the track off instead of drag. Round 2 for the rubber cars was less than ideal. Grip was very very low.... again... completely my fault

Round 3:

After a devastating round 2, we put 2 heavy coats of soda down and opened the track for practice. While traction came back, it was not quite as high as earlier rounds. I attribute this to also removing rubber sitting on top of the original soda. For Rubber F1, lap-times slowed down 0.4 seconds between round 1 and round 3. For Open F1, lap-times slowed down 0.2 seconds between round 1 and round 3.

Thank you to SCOR for trusting us to bring our own track prep! I would definitely like to keep experimenting with the soda, as I think it can really help bring more F1 cars to our track :) 

F1 Rubber: 

Qualifying:

Pole: Mike Rydwell []

2nd: Thad Garner []

3rd: Bill Jeric []

4th: Tyree Phillips []

5th: Panda []

6th: Brad Toffelmire []

7th: Cuda []

8th: Zach Pillow []

9th: Brian Ruvalcaba []

10th: Victor Garcia []

Race Results:

1st: Mike Rydwell

2nd: Thad Garner

3rd: Bill Jeric

4th: Zach Pillow

5th: Tony Phalen

6th: Cuda

7th: Panda

8th: Carlos Duarte

9th: Tyree Phillips

10th: Sean Park

Drive of the Day!

Drive of the day goes to Bill Jeric! We are super happy to have both Bill and Tyree back racing UF1 again. While neither have raced UF1 in several seasons, their skills are polished and evident from all the Mini-Z racing. Bill's X-ray X1 was hooked up and incredibly consistent over the last several weeks. The UF1 field is very competitive and to qualify third and finish third is incredibly impressive. We hope to do a chassis focus with Bill's X-ray in the very near future. 

F1 Open: [foam]

Qualifying:

Pole: Brian Ruvalcaba []

2nd: Lee Passehl []

3rd: Phillip Enriquez []

4th: Aaron Lane []

5th: Brad Toffelmire []

6th: Mark Lane []

7th: Mark G []

8th: Cuda []

9th: Carlos Duarte []

10th: Bill Christiansen []

Race Results:

1st: Aaron Lane

2nd: Lee Passehl

3rd: Phillip Enriquez

4th: Brad Toffelmire

5th: Brian Ruvalcaba

6th: Mark Lane

7th: Mark G

8th: Carlos Duarte

9th: Cuda

10th: Bill Christiansen

Drive of the Day!

Drive of the day goes to one of our Arizona racers, Brad Toffelmire. 

Brad finished 4th overall in Open F1. He was the highest finisher who ran both F1 classes, and secured fast lap bonus points in Open F1. Racing both classes and finishing within the top 5 is incredibly impressive. Brad has experience racing 12th scale and foam, open F1 seems like the perfect fit for his knowledge and experience. Looking forward to seeing Brad out at more races this season. 

Round 1 at BWS!

Welcome back everyone! We were very excited to see everyone back out and racing for Round 1 at BWS. 

Cold Temps and High Moisture: 

The morning didn't exactly start out as expected... the low ambient temps and high moisture made it a challenge for the VHT surface prep to fully cure. This created a TON of tire pickup. The rubber cars were especially hit hard with picking up debris and sticking to the tires. Luckily, VHT is dissolvable in water, and eased some of the tire cleaning between sessions.  

As we ran morning practice sessions, the tire pickup became less and less, but was still not at a place where we could start qualifying. 

VHT needs at least 70 degrees to fully cure, and we were not projected to hit that temperature until after lunchtime. 

As frustrations grew, the difficult decision was made to change the format for Round 1. We ran the races shorter and gave every racer who signed up equal points [90 points per round].  This means everyone would tie for the day, and allowed racers to leave if they did not wish to continue. This was not the overall result we wanted, but we understood waiting for the track temp to increase was not what everyone wanted either.