Robinson Motor Sports driver Mark Eaton became the first driver in a Formula Enterprises Van Diemen to win in the USF2000 series pro race in the national class.

On March 15th, Robinson Motor Sports entered 3 Formula Enterprises cars to compete in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Road To Indy Powered by Mazda race series.  This was the first race where the SCCA Formula Enterprises cars were eligible to compete in the series.  Mark Eaton, Paul Alspach and Eric Filgueiras drove the Robinson Motor Sports prepared cars in the event in front of an estimated crowd of 65,000 spectators.

Eaton qualifed 4th in class which also had 3 of the older Formula Continentals cars included.  Paul Alspach was 6th and Eric Filgueiras was 8th.

On the start, Eaton caught the front running FE driven by Scott Rettich where they had an epic battle back and forth for the lead.  Alspach moved to 4th in class and was running right with Eaton and Rettich with an FC car between them.  Filgueiras was taken out in a second lap caution lap incident, where he was hit from behind and damaged his rear suspension.

The finish had Eaton in the lead by 4 seconds when a full course caution came out.  The caution was long enough to have the race end under yellow.  Alspach had body work come loose and pitted when the caution came out, sending him back to 8th place.

A ton of work and effort went into getting the SCCA cars changed over to the Cooper Tires that the series races on.  Robinson Motor Sports did several days of testing to get the cars comfortable.  Eaton, Alspach and Filgueiras all did track time on the tires to get the FE adjusted to the new brand of tires.

Eaton thanked his sponsors for the race at the new conference after the race. " I need to thank www.deathtolionfish.org and Robinson Motor Sports for their help with this win.  We use Valvoline products in our cars which has helped a lot" Eaton stated.

Also helping with the win were Marque Engineering, Competition Data Systems and their Florida rep. Duane Neyer, Teddy Kempgens with suspension help, David from Cooper Tires and the RMS crew.  A job well done by all!

Other sponsors involved with the RMS cars were:  Bertil Roos Racing School and Pat Enzman with driver Paul Alspach while Eric Filgueiras had Jim Booth.   

USF2000 announced last week that the SCCA Formula Enterprises Van Diemen cars will now be legal to race in the Professional Series starting in 2012.  The cars will compete in the National Series part of the program.

"I am so excited to see this development" Mick Robinson owner of Robinson Motor Sports said.  "This is a great opportunity for the cars to get out in front of thousands of race fans and show then what these cars can do! There will be a lot of up and coming drivers getting into these cars now that there is a major Pro Series for the cars to race in" he continued.

The Formula Enterprises, commonly called the "FE", was designed by Van Diemen for SCCA Enterprises.  The car uses the Mazda 2.3 litre engine that is fuel injected and runs off a sealed engine management system with the parameters set by SCCA Enterprises.  The car uses a sequential shifting transmission with 5 speeds. The FE is a spec car with all of the engines sealed by SCCA Enterprises. All of the cars use the same brake pads, rotors, wheels, body parts and wings.  Suspension adjustments and wing angles can be made to set the car up for the driver.  In-car brake bias and front sway bar adjustments are available to fine tune the car during sessions if needed.

With the FE being a spec class, the cars are very equal.  The driver's ability is one of the main factors in winning, the other being car prep.  In the SCCA regional and national races where the cars have mostly raced, the field is not separated by more than a second or two.

The FE will be able to compete at a lower cost than the Championship cars in the series.  Due to the spec nature of the FE, the operating costs are lower than that of the Championship cars.  "It's a great way for younger drivers to learn the professional series in with an eye on moving up to the Championship cars in a year or two of racing" Mick states.  "The drivers can rent cars from teams, we have 2 cars available for the 2012 season, so the buy in is much cheaper than purchasing your own car if you are passing through on the way up the Mazda ladder race program.  We will provide the cars, equipment and crews for those that want to drive and leave the mechanics of the cars to us.  We offer great driver coaching, data and video accessories in the cars so the drivers can learn quickly" Mick continued.

Any interested and properly funded driver should contact Mick through the "contact us" link on the Robinson Motor Sports web site.  We will be able to send information on the series and the cost to rent one of our winning FE's for the 2012 season.  We will be able to offer one off weekends with the cars if the full season is not in the driver's plans.

Four races, four wins!!

Mark Eaton driving his SCCA Spec Racer Ford for the second time this year at Sebring International Raceway, qualified on the pole and won both races.  His margin of victory in the Saturday race was 30 seconds in a 20 minute race!  His margin of 17 seconds on Sunday was done on some old tires.  "I drove as hard as I could when I saw Rich Stanley in the second place car was only a few car lengths behind me but I got the tires hot and the car started to slide around quite a bit.  Got the lap times pretty close to where I want them, but it was all the tires had.  I saw Rich fall back some when his tires got hot but I kept driving hard to open the margin" Eaton said after the race. 

New comer Paul Alspach, who had never sat in an FE much less driven one, arrived at Sebring being the 2011 Bertile Roos Driving School champion.  He wanted to try an FE in a step up from the Bertil cars.  He was very good his first few sessions in the car, learning the sequential gear box, large wings and the Hoosier slick tires.  After 3 sessions in the car and with some driving help from Mark Eaton, Paul got right on the times of the other competitors at the event.

Paul qualified 4th in class, but only 1 second off the FE pole time of 2:15.6.  In the Saturday race, Paul had to work his way past 2 other compeitiors and on the last lap of the race, passed leader and fellow RMS driver Joel Janco for the win.  Beaming from ear to ear, Paul was pretty satisfied with his win.  His mother was there and she was even more happy!!  A great race with the RMS prepared cars 1 - 2.

Sunday had the cars grid in the same starting position as the Saturday race and it only took Paul 5 laps to take the lead and pull away to a 15 second win margin.  "The car is great and Mark has really helped with the data and video work" Paul stated after the second win.  "These cars have a lot more power than the Bertil cars, and are just a blast to drive!"

The RMS crew did a great job of having the cars ready when the arrived at the track.  All the cars ran all weekend with out any major problems for the 3 days of track time.  " I made one small adjustment to Joel's car on Friday, but other than that the cars were spot on all weekend" Mark said.

Robinson Motor Sports rents both the SCCA Spec Racer and the SCCA Formula Enterprise cars.  Contact us for rental info.  If you own your car, we also do the prep and trackside work for owner cars.  Again, please contact us for additional info and rates.

Matthew Inge returned to driving his Robinson Motor Sports prepared FE at Wakins Glen after a 2 month break.

Inhe was immediately comfortable in the car.  For the Friday morning qualifying session, he was on the pole by a second over the next car.  In the Saturday national points race, Inge pulled out a 1.2 second lead after the first lap and then continued to pull away from the field eventually winning by a 27 second gap!  He set a new Formula Enterprises class track record that was held by another RMS driver, Matthew Mair.

The Sunday race he again qualified on the pole but this time the competition was much closer, he had the pole by .4 seconds.  The race started and he was caught among traffic from the other classes that were running with the FE's and his competition was only a second behind for the first 3 laps.  After working his way by a couple of FC car's, Matthew began to open the lead again. There was a full course caution that bunched the field up after Matthew had a 7 second lead.  On the green, he again opened up a sizeable lead to win by 8 seconds!

"It feels great to be back in the car again, and winning both races of this event really gives me a positive feeling heading into the Runoffs" a very pleased Inge said in post race impound. "The RMS (Robinson Motor Sports) crew did a great job and Mark made the necessary changes that I needed to get all that I could out of the car".

The next event Matthew refered to is the SCCA National Championship races to be held at Road America at Elkhart Lake Wisconsin on Sept 23, 2011.

Mathew Inge and the rest of the RMS cars run with Valvoline products in the cars.