The 2026 Crossflow Cup, titled the Neil Porter Farewell Tour, kicked off with the SCCA at thunderHill raceway March 28th and 29th. The weekend started on Friday the 27th with a test day run by the track. We had 32 cars entered for the weekend, we lost one before we even got to the track. Turns out his new Rhino cased gear box didn’t quite fit back into the hole where the old box came out. We also lost one car during the test day. A loose oil fitting left his fluids lubricating the track instead of the vital engine components it was intended for. Good reminder to double check your fittings and make sure your oil filter is wire tied. All in all testing went well, we had six 20 minute sessions and 30 cars to start off the weekend.
Friday night we had the Neil Porter Farewell Tour banquet sponsored by Porter Racing. The dinner was in the SCCA club house and catered by Thunderhill Grill. The food was fantastic and the company great. Mitch Roth shared a rough cut of a short film about formula ford that he is working on. It starts out with James Hunt talking about how he started out in Formula Ford. The film moves on to interviews with Neil Porter and Tony Jimenez then features great archival footage intermixed with current vintage Fords. At one point there is shot of a line of fords at speed passing an ambulance on track. If you missed it or just want to see it again, Mitch has generously made what he has so far available.
Saturday’s qualifying saw Adam White and Danny Baker battling it out for Pole with Adam taking it by more than a second with a 1:58.041. Danny was the first Historic Ford at 1:59.159. Kelly Heil was next followed by John Plavan Jr., Greg Hoff and Denny Renfrow. The grid was set.
Saturday’s race got off to a good start, but going into turn 4 John Ballantyne and Skip Streets came together. As a result John’s rear mounted oil tank was forcibly put into cleaning and inspection mode. About the top of turn 9, John realized he was down on pressure, shut the engine off, and coasted to the exit of 12 bringing out a full course yellow and the pace car. After the track was cleared, racing resumed but not for long. The track workers never realized that 5 plus quarts of oil were left on the track from turn 5 to 9. The leaders found out the first time through at speed. JP got a view of Kelly Heil’s broadside and initiated a two car synchronized pirouette with Ed VanTassel. Amazingly there was no carnage but it did bring out another full course yellow. We took our first checkered flag of the season behind the pace car under yellow. Adam white for the overall win; Dany baker, Denny Renfrow and Gregg Hoff were next for the Historic Ford podium and Kelly Heil and Neil Porter finished out the Club Ford spots. The Masters podium included Jay Streets, Brian Forester and Alex Dodd.
Thanks to our sponsors, we gave away more stuff then ever before at Saturday night's award ceremony. Trophy’s were thanks to Jonathan Kitchen and Twisting Turns wine. The raffle prizes started off with T shirts and finished off with sets of tires from Hoosier and Avon. Recognizing that we brought a strong grid of entries, we were able to provide an entry rebate from the SCCA.
Porter Racing T shirts: Jay Streets & Robert Kozinski
Panasport Wheels T shits: Kelly Heil & Malon Brown
Dezzani Digital Art: Ian Sweeny
Break Pads from Porter racing: Allen Dezzani & Dave Sandlin
Scott Young Certificate: Greg Hoff
Ivy Engine Certificate: Brian Forester
Panasport Wheels Certificate: Elvis Lieban
Avon tires: Adam White
Hoosier Tires: Sam McCord
SCCA Entry Rebate: Danny Baker
The Crossflow Cup would like to thank all our sponsors for making our raffle “The Event” within the event. We can’t all stand on the podium but your generous support provides all the competitors an equal chance at being a raffle winner.
Sundays qualifying grid was set by Saturdays race results so as to put the fast cars out first. Adam White went even faster to set pole at 1:57.905 over Danny Baker followed by Denny Renfrow, JP, Kelly Heil and Greg Hoff.
The race started off fast at the green flag. Kelly Heil went off at the exit of turn 1, leaving him at the back of the pack and having to fight his way back through the grid to place 13th overall. Jay Streets got a good start moving from 8th to 5th by but he was unable to hold onto the leaders and went off on the exit of 8. Coming back on track, only at 180 degrees to the racing direction, he had to wait for all the cars to clear before continuing on. Denny Renfrow and Danny Baker had a good fight on track that unfortunately led to ‘not enough pavement’ at the exit of turn 1 and Danny taking to the dirt to avoid contact. Club Ford saw Adam White with the win Glen Woloski second and Brian Swanson third. Historic Ford saw Denny in first place followed by Danny and JP. The Masters podium was Ed VanTassel, Greg Hoff and Neil Porter.
The Next race is with CSRG at Sonoma April 17th - 19th. online entry deadline is April 10th, we hope to see you all there.
