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Old 28 Oct 2009, 13:28 (Ref:2571415)   #1
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Jim Russell Championship Series, FIA F2, musings on the future of F3

Autosport are reporting that a US series by the name of Jim Russell Championship Series is going to offer a prize of a seat in the 2011 FIAF2 series. Having heard absolutely nothing about it, I then had a look at it. From a search it appears that it's also been under radar of this forum.

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I have to type this or my brain will explode!

As one may well pick up from my postings, I dislike the cornucopia of different single seater series - a simple cost-effective Formula Junior, Formula 3 (but with rule changes), Formula 2 (not like Super Palmer Audi, a GT3-style balanced series with different chassis and engines) leading to F1 would be logical.

No other sport would have such a system of so many different formulea with different rules. It would be impractical for all levels of single seaters to use one set of rules but the structure needs to be streamlined to about three formulae below F1. My analogy is that it's like League One football playing with thirteen players, a basketball style foul count and ice hockey goals and Serie C using rugby posts, seven a side and in quarters.

Thanks for reading, you've been a wonderful audience. Don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress. We now return you to the topic


Interesting that 2011 FIAF2 is the prize series - will 2011 be the last year of it, bearing in mind that's how long the tender is for?

And the final point - the car for this series is an old Lola F3 car (B06-30). Obviously as the trend is now FPA style single team racing, this may skew the costs. But perhaps there needs to be some new ideas in F3? This series will be running 300hp 2000cc turbos ripped out of Evos - perhaps that is the direction F3 could go in, more power less grip meaning that aero rules could be made extremely tight?

A final thought - one crazy idea is running all the races at one track - Sears Point. Is that good for drivers having to learn different circuits? Or will just varying whether they run little lumpy bits used for bikes et al make the difference?

Ramblings over - discuss.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 13:39 (Ref:2571424)   #2
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The Jim Russell Championship Series has been running for two seasons now with the F3-based Lola. The series doesn't seem to be terribly well supported though - biggest grids this year were 8 cars.

http://www.jimrussellusa.com/program...s/race-results

2008 champ was Brett Smrz, who competes with an artificial lower left leg. He finished 4th in the FF Kent Festival final this year.

Oh and if anyone has the final 2008 JRCS point standings please post them!
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 15:16 (Ref:2571499)   #3
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The Jim Russell Championship Series has been running for two seasons now with the F3-based Lola. The series doesn't seem to be terribly well supported though - biggest grids this year were 8 cars.

http://www.jimrussellusa.com/program...s/race-results

2008 champ was Brett Smrz, who competes with an artificial lower left leg. He finished 4th in the FF Kent Festival final this year.

Oh and if anyone has the final 2008 JRCS point standings please post them!
I think it's partly the economy and second the fact that the series is very pricey for a school based training formula. They use an interesting car but most people really can't afford it at that level.

And in addition, like in Europe now, there is a lot of competition on the lower rungs of the single seater ladder. There are no shortage of series to compete in.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 16:06 (Ref:2571538)   #4
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It would be interesting to compare lap times of this car with F3 and GP3 Series machinery, perhaps they are aiming this at the wrong market, maybe it ought to be a somewhat higher up series with a 2006-spec F3 car with a more powerful engine. F3 itself needs some fresh ideas in the rules to stop the aero brains getting them.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 16:32 (Ref:2571545)   #5
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I think the JR car was on display at this years Autosport show IIRC
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 18:05 (Ref:2571594)   #6
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Could anyone who was there say if it was impressive or not?
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 19:59 (Ref:2571648)   #7
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i think the series in like $86,000 US
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 20:11 (Ref:2571655)   #8
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Sounds like a low budget ($103,000 USD is the cost of an FPA season using current rate VAT and dollar rate) - less than FPA! Then again this series doesn't move and there may be significant differences about what is included.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 21:02 (Ref:2571673)   #9
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It would be interesting to compare lap times of this car with F3 and GP3 Series machinery, perhaps they are aiming this at the wrong market, maybe it ought to be a somewhat higher up series with a 2006-spec F3 car with a more powerful engine. F3 itself needs some fresh ideas in the rules to stop the aero brains getting them.
Don't quote me on it, but I don't believe the times were too far off a F3 car.

However they can adjust the power settings for the school and series. I think for the first days of the school they turn the power down to 160 hp, but again don't quote me on it.

I think with this school they were going the whole hog to have all the bells and whistles, however there is only a small market that can afford that, especially in this era.

Skip Barber has run racing series for a long time, but at a way lower price point. They have a mix of customers though, young guns, old timers, middle aged professionals and gen x gen y semi pro drivers that make up the business mix of revenue to keep all that going.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 21:03 (Ref:2571674)   #10
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Sounds like a low budget ($103,000 USD is the cost of an FPA season using current rate VAT and dollar rate) - less than FPA! Then again this series doesn't move and there may be significant differences about what is included.
Last I checked FPA ran on a mix of tracks with some tv time and other goodies.
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Old 28 Oct 2009, 22:27 (Ref:2571715)   #11
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Last I checked FPA ran on a mix of tracks with some tv time and other goodies.
I've already alluded to that - FPA has raced on the continent some times at places like Spa, Monza and Dijon. This year it's been Silverstone, Brands and Snetterton twice each and Oulton Park once. Presumably this one doesn't get any media coverage, which isn't a good thing. Is it on the undercard of the big races there or is it just done in front of empty stands?

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Don't quote me on it, but I don't believe the times were too far off a F3 car.

However they can adjust the power settings for the school and series. I think for the first days of the school they turn the power down to 160 hp, but again don't quote me on it.
That sounds impressive - then again benchmarking might be an issue, as if I remember correctly the US hasn't had an F3 series for a good few years now. On paper it certainly sounds fast.

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I think with this school they were going the whole hog to have all the bells and whistles, however there is only a small market that can afford that, especially in this era.

Skip Barber has run racing series for a long time, but at a way lower price point. They have a mix of customers though, young guns, old timers, middle aged professionals and gen x gen y semi pro drivers that make up the business mix of revenue to keep all that going.
I know about Formula Skip Barber, it sounds like a reasonably sound concept for those that want an arrive and drive series at such a price point. The aesthetics of the car aren't perfect, but that's a minor quibble.

FPA has had it's fair share of pay drivers IIRC, at one point including none other than Paul Drayson himself.
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