"Volunteers are not paid, not because they are worthless but because they are priceless." - Anonymous

"The New England Challenge Series is designed to attract a significant field of Formula Fords at each of the tracks throughout the Northeast Division (NEDiv) of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), offering close competition and the chance for social interactions. The New England Challenge Series is hooked up with E-Formula Car News as part of their umbrella program "FormulaCar Magazine Challenge Series Program" for a number of regional formula car series.

2008 New England Challenge Series

For more information, please contact Bob Lutz or Steve Roux

The schedule for the 2008 New England Challenge (NEC) series for Formula Ford has been set with 8 race events over 6 weekends. The 2008 NEC schedule is:

April 26/27 - Summit Point - WDC Regional

May 10/11 - Pocono - NNJ Double Regional

June 20/21 - Lime Rock Park - NER Regional

July 19/20 - NJ Motorsports Park - SJ Regional

August 23-24 - New Hampshire - NER Regional

September 13/14 - Watkins Glen - FLR Double Regional

The 2008 schedule contains one major change from 2007. For 2008, the new venue at New Jersey Motorsports Park has been added to the schedule. Continuing from last year, both days of the Double Regionals at Pocono and Watkins Glen count as points events for the NEC championship and a maximum of six races for a driver will be counted toward the championship.

Defending 2007 NEC Champion in FF, Bill Valet, is likely to be back in 2008 to battle for the FF championship. Rod Kendall, the reigning CF champ, is rumored to be moving on to and is not likely to be back in 2008 to defend his title. Perennial CF podium finishers J. D King, Steve Roux, Mike Rand and Todd Bardwell in CF will be back in 2008 to challenge for the series championship. In FF, Charles Foster, Ross DeVoe, and Bob Lutz in FF will provide tough competition. But these are not the only strong competitors - every year there are a few surprises that occur on the road to the championship with so many quality drivers in the NEDiv FF/CF ranks.

Bob Lutz and Steve Roux, the NEC coordinators, look at 2008 as a year to continue the momentum year for the previous two years. Entering its 6th year, the New England Challenge is established as a series in the Northeast Division of SCCA and more FF and CF drivers are planning their season around the NEC schedule. Last year we had an average participation of 15 entries per event and a peak count of 33 cars at the “Fun One” at the Glen in September. While the entries were generally down for most regional events in 2007, the NEC numbers showed an increase from previous years. With the support of the NEDiv FF community, we can make a difference.

The 2008 New England Challenge series is part of the FormulaCar Magazine Challenge Series Program. The series is also counting on continuing sponsorship from our previous year’s sponsors in 2008.

Further details for the NEC series can be found at http://www.eformulacarnews.com/ or on the NEC website at http://www.nescca.com/.

The 2007 business and operating plan explains exactly what you need to know and do for this exciting contest.

Now to get started, see what the 2007 rules say.

New England Challenge Series 2007 Finale at Watkins Glen

The final two rounds of the 2007 New England Challenge series were contested at Watkins Glen during the Finger Lakes Region's Fun One regional event. In all 33 Formula Fords and Club Fords were entered for the event which would decide the 2007 Championships. Saturday's event was contested on the traditional long course while the shorter NASCAR course was used for Sunday's event.

Saturday's qualifying was on a wet track and when no green flag laps could be logged before the time limit, the grid was set by the luck of the draw with most of the faster cars buried deep in the field. Most of the faster cars made it toward the front during the 10-lap race which was made more interesting because it was a 67 car field that was shared with the F500's and Vees. Mike Agnifilo took the win in FF followed by Steve Maxwell, Bill Valet, Doug Hobby and Bob Lutz. Todd Bardwell ran as a Club Ford on normal tires and finished third overall while setting a new track record for that class. The spec tire Club Ford class was won by Mike Rand, followed by Steve Roux and Peter Klein.

Sunday qualifying was hampered by the large number of cars on the 2.45-mile short course and the starting grid was again a bit scrambled as it was difficult to find space to lay down a clean lap. Due to the large number of cars, the chief steward allowed the Formula Fords and Club Fords to have their own race although shortened in order to maintain the overall schedule for the day. So the stage was set for an eight-lap shootout, which was shortened to seven laps by a wave-off on the start. The first three rows had Agnifilo, Bardwell, Morin, Valet, Raber and Maxwell. The running order quickly resorted to Agnifilo and Maxwell trading the lead with Morin and Valet putting plenty of pressure on the leaders. In a gesture of sportsmanship, Bardwell dropped to the end of the lead four to let them settle the Formula Ford battle. The position swapping at the front slowed the leaders enough to let Hobby and Lutz, who were gridded in mid-pack to join the fray and those six took the checkered flag less than 1.5 seconds apart with Lutz setting a new lap record for the short course. Bardwell was an easy winner in unlimited tire Club Ford class, also with a new track record. In the Club Ford/Spec tire class, Kendall got around Mike Rand early in the race and pulled away to a 6 second victory with Rick Pocock taking the final podium position.

The 2007 New England Challenge Series Champions are Bill Valet in Formula Ford and Rod Kendall in Club Ford. Congratulations to all of those who took part in the series throughout the 2007 campaign.

* 2008 Standings *

Last updated 7/18/08.