Month: July 2022

Race Report: 2022 NASCAR MADness Series, Round 3

Round 3 was finally concluded on a warm sunny day on the SR3 road course. While attendance was lighter than usual, we were able to run a full program of six races and a Concourse d’Elegance competition, in which George Peter’s Mac Tools Viper V-SPEC NASTruck took top honors.

Short Story is George also dominated the Sportsman racing action by winning five of the six events.

Round 3 Overall Results
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 865 76 11448.21
2 Jordan Walker 784 50 11487.71
3 Kevin Webster 539 38 7013.408
4 Jerry Pearson 511 28 7020.205
5 Steve Stewart 898 96 11318.63
Race 1: OS3 TFX “BOX STOCK” Camaros (IROC)

Starting the day off with some slower but more difficult-to-drive cars was not a hit with this bunch.  With little to no marshal support, the stock TFX race was a drawn-out affair and most drivers could not wait to get to the faster magnet classes. Interestingly, new Sportsman driver, Jerry Pearson did very well with the TFX and ended up in the second spot on the podium in his first-ever TFX race. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 142 13 2463.631
2 Jerry Pearson 129 11 2425.434
3 Jordan Walker 119 7 2425.703
4 Steve Stewart 150 16 2378.29
Race #2: Tyco 440-X2 Wide-Pan NASCAR Bodies

George again dominated this race with one overall heat win and four second-place heat finishes. Jerry Pearson kept Jordan Walker at bay, collecting second-place Sportsman points yet again driving the Stewart Racing Chevy Lumina #7. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 144 13 1984.844
2 Jerry Pearson 132 11 1991.218
3 Jordan Walker 126 7 2018.757
4 Steve Stewart 149 16 1971.522
Race #3: Viper V-SPEC (SPEC RACER) Lexan NASCAR Bodies **Feature**

While his father, George Peters, took the top spot in the overall race, his son Jordan managed to win two segments and second-place overall in the 300-lap feature event. Jerry Pearson also bagged a heat win in segment 8–nice!  Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 288 13 2596.459
2 Jordan Walker 279 11 2596.428
3 Kevin Webster 258 7 2603.898
4 Jerry Pearson 250 6 2603.553
5 Steve Stewart 299 16 2585.393
Race #4: Jag Hobbies Augoran (IROC) 15v

George once again dominated the TR-3 IROC event, very nearly winning overall. Jordan had a very good race taking the second podium spot with Kevin Webster in a very close third position. Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
2 George Peters 97 13 1024.831
3 Jordan Walker 90 11 1028.456
4 Kevin Webster 88 7 1030.69
1 Steve Stewart 100 16 1016.167
Race #5: Jag Hobbies PR-5 “Lite” (BOX STOCK) NASCAR Bodies

Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster wins his first PR-5 event! As always, the PR-5 race was a hotly contested race with first and second only separated by two laps. Kevin had a great race, taking second in three of the segments and winning one overall. Very impressive! Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
2 Kevin Webster 96 13 1489.689
3 George Peters 94 11 1488.155
4 Jordan Walker 90 7 1495.846
1 Steve Stewart 100 16 1488.158
Race #6: Jag Hobbies NC-2 Lite (BOX STOCK) NASCAR Bodies

Another barn-burner race with George Peters finishing off an impressive day on SR3 with yet another Sportsman win and on the same lap in the overall race. Kevin Webster fought hard for another win in this final wild race of the day and came up just 3-laps short in the end. Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
2 George Peters 100 13 1890.287
3 Kevin Webster 97 11 1889.131
4 Jordan Walker 80 7 1922.515
1 Steve Stewart 100 16 1879.095
Concourse d`Elegance Competition

Since he didn’t have a horse in the race, Kevin Webster judged the CdE competition. Giving George Peters the nod for best looking Viper V-SPEC car on the day. These Viper V-SPEC cars were raced in the Feature 300-lap event.

Series Points Standings after Round 3:
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 2493 223 22298.42
2 Kevin Webster 1899 151 16994.23
3 Jordan Walker 1387 75 15205.31
4 Jerry Pearson 771 49 10508.17
5 Brad Sandahl ♦ 900 55 3561.313
6 Steve Stewart ♦ 2694 282 21772.77

♦ indicates Expert Class driver. Scored separately in series.

 

Race Report: 2022 Summer Kids Race & Pool Party

So much for the pool party component. The kids focused mostly on driving little cars. Probably because the temps were actually very nice and the pool just didn’t attract as much attention.

We didn’t have any trouble filling the lanes for this event. We actually had eight drivers and eight marshals at the start of the event and six drivers and three marshals for the start of the race. As you can imagine, we needed more than three marshals for this event. However, many of the parents were busy interacting with neighbors they hadn’t met yet or hadn’t seen for quite a while, and missed much of the action-packed, mayhem-filled race.

This little guy at the lower left is a slot car natural!

Regardless, we started the kid’s race with a full slate of six racers, ages 3.5 to 12 years.  Surprisingly, the younger kids were amazingly focused and did remarkably well considering they’d never even heard of a slot car until their sudden immersion on Saturday.

How’d they do? Well, they didn’t complete the entire race (only 4 out of 6 segments) but it was amazingly close with the top driver completing a total of 48 laps and the bottom driver clicking off 34 laps. That’s actually pretty close considering the age gaps and all the distractions they dealt with.

After the race and dinner, the kids wanted to run some more laps. Check out the lap count in the orange lane–amazing!

Unfortunately, the Race Director failed to disable the track call buttons, and the kids who knew about them thoroughly abused them. This made for a much longer race but actually worked out okay since we didn’t quite have enough marshals to cover all the crash action.

Thank goodness SR3 supports independent lane voltages. This allowed us to throttle down the younger kid’s cars, which helped them tremendously. But it was a lot of work manually changing voltages as the drivers rotated from lane to lane.

I must say I was impressed with the focus and driving skills that these kids displayed. Most of them never lost focus and completed an amazing amount of laps. And they were way competitive, always wanting to know what place they were in (and when the race ended :).

I must also say that marshaling a kid’s race is hard work! Six active lanes and mostly only two marshals are definitely ingredients for a fatiguing day. I’ll need to adjust the rules and make all drivers have to commit at least one parent to be a turn marshal.

All that said, I’m all in on doing it again. These wonderful kids are the future of slot car racing and our world in general. I’m happy to provide them with a fun family environment and to spend time with their great parents and my neighbors.  Way fun!

Thank you all for helping make this event happen. I hope everybody enjoyed the get-together and we do it again soon!

Okay, shut up and drive!