Overall Series and Concourse de Elegance Winner, Ian Douglass.
Despite missing one race of the five race series, Ian Douglass went into the final round 20-points ahead of second in points, George Peters, which meant that it was going to be tough for anyone to keep Ian from winning the overall prize.
Of course, winning any racing series rarely comes easy and this one was no exception. While George was laser-focused on besting Ian for the top podium spot, Rookie of the Year candidate, Brad Sandhahl, had other plans for the finale.
Brad, who started the series late, went into Round 5 just slightly behind George in 3rd place. Given all drivers could only use points from four of the five rounds, George would lose 45-points from Round 2. This meant that Brad was really only 10-points behind George in the overall standings going into the final round.
While George fought hard and landed on the podium in two of the six official races, Brad managed six podium visits on the day and won the Round 5 overall. Quite impressive driving for a newcomer to the Bay Area H.O. racing scene.
Ian Douglass, meanwhile, finished Round 5 solidly in second place with 67.75 points, three podium visits, and a convincing win in the Viper-Jet race. Easily topping the series field in points and taking home the prestigious 2021 50/50 Racing Series winner’s trophy and Concourse de Elegance award.
Round 4 took us back to the road course and the usual 50/50 racing program. We ran three IROC races and one Builder’s Class race prior to a delayed lunch break. All races featured 20-lap heats and 25-lap fuel allocation.
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The big story of the day was Russ Toy’s winning of the “inaugural” Jag Hobbies NC-2 “Lite” race. Yes, we finally raced one of the new car platforms in the series and everyone seemed to enjoy driving the NC-2, especially Russ, of course.
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The NC-2 race was very competitive with Russ besting “Rookie of the Year” candidate, Brad Sandahl, by just one lap, finishing with a 78-lap total. Home Cook’n was not too far off with 75-laps, and Ian Douglass rounded out the top three podium spots with 73-laps in third place.
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In the end, Ian Douglass took the overall race-day victory by just one point! Brad Sandahl finished the day in 2nd place overall with 60 points, and the Gravity Master, George Peters, rounded out the podium in third with 50 points.Â
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Overall Results Round 4:
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Ian Douglass
458
81
2779.278
2
Steve Stewart
467
80
2731.469
3
Brad Sandahl
444
60
2844.253
4
George Peters
438
50
2815.976
5
Russ Toy
412
43
2801.712
6
Kevin Webster
396
34
2786.317
All in all, it was a hotly contested race day and a fun—but very fast—group of drivers.Â
Race 1 was an IROC set from George Peter’s IROC stable, OS3 TFX “Lites.” These cars started the day out relatively slow but hectic as everybody got a taste for what this exciting new class of car has to offer. The TFX Lite car is basically an out-of-the-box OS3 TFX car with OS3 Black Dragon magnets in place of the stock Gray Dragon magnets. This minor upgrade gives the car a bit more downforce and a whole lot more drivability.
Race 2 was another challenging “gravity” car, the Viper Scale Racing’s Retro-V. This car is a hoot to drive at 12 or 15-volts. We opted for 12v and Ian Douglass quickly redeemed himself for accidentally missing Round 3 and handily won the race with 79-laps. George took the final podium spot with a nice run at 76-laps.
Race 3 was another exciting and very competitive race with Ian continuing to his redemption tour. This race only had at most a 3-lap spread between each finisher–way close racing! Thanks, Kevin for the great IROC set!
Race 4 the very first Jag Hobbies NC-2 “Lite” event of the season. As mentioned, Russ Toy cemented his place in slot car history by besting Brad Sandahl by just one lap in this hotly contested inaugural race. The consensus was that the NC-2 is a keeper car and showed great promise for continued interest and even a Modified class at some point. Nice driving, Russ!
Race 5 was another Builder’s class race utilizing the venerable Viper Scale Racing’s Viper-Jet. Home Cook’n may have stole some valuable points in this one but the rest of the field battled fiercely for the last two podium spots with Kevin Webster very narrowly missing his first podium visit of the series. Great driving guys!
Race 6 capped off Round 4 with Viper Scale Racing’s V-Spec Lexan cars. We gradually ratcheted up the speed so we were all ready for these speedsters. This race was scorching battle for the top spot on the final podium of the day. Ian Douglass was intent on finishing his Redemption Tour on top but Home Cook’n had other intentions. In the end, the two drivers tied on laps but Ian’s Total Runtime was 3-seconds less, cementing his overall victory in Round 4. Equally impressive was Brad Sandahl’s fourth visit to the podium with a solid 3rd place!
Viper V-Spec Lexan
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Ian Douglass
79
16
291.218
2
Steve Stewart
79
13
294.242
3
Brad Sandahl
75
11
299.378
4
George Peters
72
7
309.227
5
Kevin Webster
65
6
306.121
6
Russ Toy
64
5
289.077
VRS Viper V-Spec Lexan
Thank you all for supporting Stewart Raceway and spending your Saturday racing little cars with me. Stay tuned for “Official” Series Standings after Round 4.
Round 5 is currently slated for November 20, 2021 and will feature the road course but maybe with a chicane added to the inside straightaway, we’ll see.
Up third was another IROC race using box-stock MegaG+ 1.7 chassis’ with Tomy F1/Indy bodies from Kevin Webster’s stable of IROC cars. Everybody enjoyed this set a lot.
The fourth race of the day was yet another IROC set of box-stock MegaG+ 1.7 chassis’ but this time with 1970-ish Camaro hard bodies. Again, from Kevin Webster’s stable of way cool IROC cars.
Race 5 was yet another IROC set of house Jag Hobbies TR-3 chassis’ with un-kitted Augoran hard bodies. Jordan Walker landed a 3rd-place podium spot in this hard fought race.
The last “official” series of the day employed another IROC set of Wizzard Storm gravity cars with dual-compound rear tires courtesy of Kevin Webster. Very exciting cars but unpredictable offs due to the choice of rear tires.
The last race of the day was a fiercely competitive finale using the house Tyco-Jet IROC set. This was a very close one with George Peters besting Brad Sandahl by just three laps and Kevin Webster pipping Jordan Walker by the same number of laps.
First off, thank you for coming out to the sticks to play with little cars Saturday! I think everyone had a great time and the race format seems to be in pretty good shape. The general consensus was that fuel racing is a great feature to employ and most feel we should keep that element in the mix. Of course, we don’t always have to run fuel races but this race series will always have at least 50% fuel racing. The other prevailing idea was that we should increase the lap count for the road course. We’ll need to discuss how many laps but it sounds like 25 might just be the ticket. The fuel setup we had at 20-laps seemed to work well but may have to be tweaked for 25-laps, we’ll see. The full results and points standings are posted on my web server. The file names have the dates and a description of the contents. Also: the points system, race results summary, and the points standings are also posted. The big story of the day was G-Man arriving late and missing the first race. Then the Race Director screwed up and didn’t get him in the line-up for the second race. Sucks being late but G-Man finally got down to business in the third race, finishing fourth and then handily winning the final three races of the day!
Looking at the results, it is clear that every driver had some very good results and certainly drove hard the whole day.Â
Remember:
I’m (Home-Cooking) not in the running for the series awards so all I do is waste points that otherwise could be useful to other drivers.Â
Every finishing position after third get extra points for each driver they finish ahead of in each race. This adds up, so keep racing for every position available!
For you time-challenged folks, here’s the current series standings:Â
Ian Douglas ………Â 68.25
George Peters ……60 Greg Kondrek …….57.75
Mike Andrews …….56
Russ Toy …………..36.5
Kevin Webster …….34.75
Jordan Walker …….28.25
Not likely to have another race at Stewart Raceway until the second week of September. Hopefully, Randy will do something while I’m on vacation. If not, hang in there! We’ll get back to racing here ASAP!
