Current Top 10 Drivers for 2023 Season

Abe and Mom getting in some practice on SR3.

Below is a summary of ALL races ran to date in 2023, this includes kids races, dash races, official series races, and any other “unofficial” race completed throughout the season. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily reflect merit since some drivers show up much more than others, and some (me) show up for every event.

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 6041 2590 59631.24
2 Kevin Webster 4649 1546 51604.85
3 Aaron Castro 2711 1043 27476.9
4 George Peters 3066 860 21576.99
5 Abe Maddox 1272 765 14974.65
6 Jerry Pearson 1943 702 21632.81
7 Shaylin Maddox 1258 611 15360.7
8 Eric Lane 1456 502 15520.8
9 Jordan Walker 1633 351 14267.18
10 Grace Maddox 335 214 5017.043
Some of our junior drivers getting ready to race.

A few things to note from the 2023 season so far:

      1. The latest entry into our group, Aaron Castro is not long for the Sportsman ranks and will likely be the 2023 Rookie Driver of the Year and advance to the Expert ranks very soon.
      2. Abe Maddox is clearly the 2023 Junior Driver of the Year and can race with the “Big Kids” anytime.
      3. While I don’t believe there should be any distinction between male and female drivers in slot car racing, Abe’s Mom, Shaylin Maddox, is definitely our most active and possibly our best female driver in the group. It’s truly way cool to have women interested in racing and we have two adult women, Shaylin and Martha Elderon, who are very good slot car jockeys, for sure.

With just one more month remaining in the 2023 season, this summary isn’t likely to change much. We have two more “official” races to complete before the end of 2023. Hopefully, we can conclude them before the end of the year and give out some of these well-deserved awards.

Stay tuned for a complete summary of the “official” races of the 2023 season…

Prototype “Paper” SK Modified Body

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My first iteration of a “super-light” paper body for our MegaG+ Support Class cars. This one is made out of premium glossy photo paper and is mounted on a 1.7 MegaG+ chassis using 8 mil clear double-sided tape I got from George.

Kevin worked up this body using some sort of drafting paper and then laminated it with some other material.

Both bodies are pretty cool. Haven’t tested them on the track yet but I did run a regular paper prototype last Saturday on a Jag DR-1 chassis and it held up pretty well. These bodies are way light and the car feels and handles like it has no body at all.

Design ideas are limitless and very appealing. We’ll see how durable they are. I’m looking forward to coming up with a Midget car design and upgrading my SWB MegaG+ IROC set. Once you get the design set and printed, it takes about the same time to trim and mount as a typical Lexan body. And way, way cheaper than even a clear Lexan body.

 

New MegaG+ Editions

I’m sure some of you have seen these cars out there. RaceMasters has released a few new body styles for the MegaG+ 1.7 chassis. I really like those presented here.

I know buying a car for just the body is silly but these bodies are pretty cool. If you’re planning on purchasing additional MG+ platforms, I’d choose one or more of these. They come with a 1.7 chassis but the bodies are impressive also.

You can find these complete cars out there from $30 plus shipping.

 

 

Any interest in running these at some point?

RC Superstore has great prices.

Round 4 of the 2023 50/50 Racing Series Postponed Again

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Yep, could not get the minimum driver/team registrations so ended up with a casual track day instead. Just four drivers but we did make history…

Kevin Webster, Jerry Pearson, and Martha Elderon showed up on a beautiful day in the Santa Cruz mountains to race but were not disappointed. We ended up racing our newest additions to the track’s IROC fleet.

Race 1 was the new AutoWorld Super III NASCAR cars running on the inside four lines of SR3. Jerry Pearson was on fire in both races. We decided on 16v for these cars as 18v seemed a bit too much for the longer NASCAR body wheelbase bodies.

AutoWorld Super III 1.7 chassis’ with NASCAR bodies. With a few easy mods, they run pretty good.

Jerry dominated the first-ever Super III race held on SR3 with a convincing win in the first segment followed by a second, third, and a first in the final segment, edging out Home Cook’n by just one point overall.  He didn’t set any lap records in the process but he garnered the most points and took the top spot on the first-ever Super III podium at Stewart Raceway. Way to go, Jerry!  (Details)

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Jerry Pearson 78 56 1297.84
2 Steve Stewart 80 55 1250.01
3 Kevin Webster 76 45 1286.333
4 Martha Elderon 72 32 1302.092

Jerry wasn’t quite done with his stellar driving on the day. Next up was the Eric”Fastlane” Lane Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy cars. Eric gifted a brand-new set of four of these cars to the track recently and, boy, are they a hoot to drive. Smooth, very fast, and just a pleasure to drive.

Jerry, again, had a great race, winning two heats and only missed the top podium spot by two points. Jerry matched Home Cook’n lap for lap except for Segment 2, where he lost a lap and finished third. Had Jerry finished second or better in Segment 2, he might have secured the top podium spot in both races. Great driving by all, especially Martha, she doesn’t think so but she’s cutting exceptionally fast laps for somebody who has never owned a single slot car. Nice driving, Martha! (Details)

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 80 58 988.626
2 Jerry Pearson 79 56 1026.13
3 Kevin Webster 76 42 1015.468
4 Martha Elderon 67 32 1011.375

So, all in all, the two new IROC sets are very nice additions to the raceway fleet. The Super III cars took some work to get dialed in equal enough for fun IROC racing. Kevin Webster spent some extra time after the races and got all six running great for next time. As usual, the Viper V-SPEC cars were all very close in performance and very, very fast out of the box.

A fun day and great to flush out the new IROC sets before the next round of the 50/50 Series.

Okay, shut up and drive!

New Website Features

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While I’ve been “self-quarantined” I’ve been hacking on the Stewart Raceway website even more than previously announced.

Last week I added a new Forums service with a bit of a different twist. The new Forum is also available to the larger slot car community. We’ll see how that goes but anybody can create an account and post to the forums. Currently, Roseville Raceway and Thunder Road Raceway have their own forum categories, which they can manage. We’ll see if there is any interest from these track owners in taking advantage of forums to communicate with their communities. Their members/subscribers can also use most of the services available to Stewart Raceway members.

Native Private Messaging service. This is the primary and recommended PM service to use.

In addition to the forum features, I also added Private Messaging, Group Messaging, and Member/Subscriber Profile capabilities to the site. The basic idea behind these services is to allow members/subscribers to message each other directly or in a group fashion, and keep their member profiles updated with the most current info.

Yea, so what? I know, most of you could care less about these features. But one very useful aspect of profiles is having Stewart Raceway member profile information accessible to the Race Director. Right now the profile is pretty basic, consisting of contact info, scale interests, and classes currently competing in. The profile also includes driver availability for racing and/or track events. All of this helps track owners plan and organize racing and track events.

So, for now, the CALL TO ACTION is to simply log in to the site when you get a chance. This will automatically register you to the new profile and messaging features. All of these features, including the Forums, are only available to logged-in users.

Standalone PM service. Still evaluating but feel free to try it out and compare to the standard PM service. I may restrict this one to Race Director use-only, we’ll see.

Feel free to edit/update your profile while you’re logged in, only takes a few minutes.

NOTE: Right now there are two Private Messaging services. One is an integral component of your site account, which is accessible on your account/profile page after log in. The other is a stand-alone private messaging app accessible from the Member Resources page. Both are fine to use but each has its own interface and functionality.  

If there seems to be interest in these new services, I’ll post additional user information and maybe a video or two on how to use them, we’ll see.

Open Track Day next Saturday! Register now!

Round 1 of the new 2023 50/50 Series goes green February 3, 2023. Register Now!

Okay, shut up and drive!