Introducing the MegaG+ 1.7 “Modified” class of 2023.
Below are shots of all the Round 2Â bodies, which were picked from a batch prepared by Hammerschlagen Fabrication for the new Xtreme series. Drivers picked their bodies based on qualifying order in Round 2.
Most of these shots were taken with the bodies just sitting on a random chassis, not taped. (Right-click on image and open in a new browser tab to see full-res image)
Well, we didn’t have all of the usual suspects in the paddock but we clicked off three action packed races, all with the MegaG+ 1.7 platform.
The first event was qualifying. We had hoped to do a new style/format for qualifying but it didn’t work so we just did an Indy-style format but with 10-laps to get the best average lap time.
Young gun, Abe Maddox, of Team Maddox fame knocked first-up qualifier, Kevin Webster, of Webster Motorsport fame off the leaderboard with a blistering 10-lap average of 6.072 putting Abe on the pole until the last qualifier, George Peters, put in another blistering 10-lap performance with an average lap time of 6.026 and an average speed of 546-mph. Neither driver appeared to have suffered a crash during their 10-lap pole setting efforts.
| Track:Â SR3 Road Course Fast Esses (Chicane) | |||
| Date:Â Oct-21-2023 12:33 | |||
| Class: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class “Lites” | |||
| Descr: 10-Lap Qualifying Session | |||
| Name | Lap Time | Speed (Mph) | Place |
| George Peters | 6.026 | 546 | 1 |
| Abe Maddox | 6.072 | 542 | 2 |
| Kevin Webster | 6.433 | 512 | 3 |
| Jordan Walker | 6.56 | 502 | 4 |
| Shaylin Maddox | 6.742 | 488 | 5 |
| Steve Stewart | 7.489 | 440 | 6 |
| Grace Maddox | 8.269 | 398 | 7 |
These cars are fun but when you fit a super-light paper body on them, they get even more fun. The paper bodies are so light, the car handles like it doesn’t have a body at all.
George Peters pretty much dominated this event, but Team Maddox had one heat win and several second-place finishes with Shaylin Maddox winning the final segment handily while filling in for teammate, Grace Maddox. Shaylin completed all laps of the final segment and clicked of the best lap of the segment (5.954).
Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster, quietly bagged the final podium spot with one solid segment win and solid placings in his other segments. Detailed Results
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | George Peters | 98 | 56 | 889.721 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 97 | 52 | 816.236 |
| 3 | Kevin Webster | 89 | 47 | 898.078 |
| 4 | Jordan Walker | 83 | 47 | 740.99 |
| 5 | Grace Maddox | 82 | 45 | 716.313 |
| 6 | Abe Maddox | 81 | 42 | 789.937 |
| 7 | Shaylin Maddox | 88 | 40 | 870.364 |
These are our pretty much box-stock MegaG+ cars with very slight mods and hardbodies, typically F1/Indy or NASCAR stock car livery.
Kevin Webster very nearly won this event with outstanding driving, Kevin and Home Cook’n were neck and neck the whole event going into the final segment. Kevin would end up one lap down after a hard crash with just a few laps left in the final segment. The crash gave Home Cook’n a good gap and Kevin was unable to close it before the race ended.
George Peters came on very strong in the final segment placing second and on the same lap as the leader but struggled during the other heats due to distraction from erratic driving by teammate, Jordan Walker. Jordan put in some amazing laps during the race but lost his focus and would abandon after the third segment. Detailed Results
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 100 | 64 | 1446.079 |
| 2 | Kevin Webster | 99 | 50 | 1461.834 |
| 3 | George Peters | 92 | 46 | 1463.719 |
| 4 | Jordan Walker | 58 | 28 | 1472.685 |
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 197 | 116 | 2262.315 |
| 2 | George Peters | 190 | 102 | 2353.44 |
| 3 | Kevin Webster | 188 | 97 | 2359.912 |
| 4 | Jordan Walker | 141 | 75 | 2213.675 |
| 5 | Grace Maddox | 82 | 45 | 716.313 |
| 6 | Abe Maddox | 81 | 42 | 789.937 |
| 7 | Shaylin Maddox | 88 | 40 | 870.364 |
So, there you have it. Round 1 of the 2023 50/50 Xtreme Series is in the books. As always, you can miss one race in any series and still be in the hunt for a series win.
The MegaG+ platform has been an amazingly competitive platform and appears to be a keeper at Stewart Raceway. With the addition of the new “paper” bodies, we’re considering adding a “Modified” version of this car using the superlight paper body and maybe an independent front-end, and possibly N42 or even N52 traction magnets. Personally, I think just the paper body addition is quite the performance improvement, but some folks like to go even faster.
Stay tuned for details on Round 2 and our next track day.
Okay, shut up and drive!
Well, it was kind of a staggered day with Team Maddox showing up in the AM and doing a bunch of testing laps and one full rotation race. Shaylin Maddox won the only race we did, which I think is her first full race win–Way to go!
Abe Maddox seemed to be a bit distracted but wasn’t too far off. He also won a heat or two. Shaylin and Abe were both running Viper V-SPEC cars while I was running a bone-stock MegaG+ with a “paper” Whelen Modified body.
Normally, a V-SPEC Viper would blow the doors off a stock MegaG+ 1.7 car. However, with the paper body, the chassis is much faster and handles significantly better. Still working on the paper body design for the 1.7 MG+ but I am getting close to a simple and easy-to-install version. I’m focusing on a USAC Whelen Modified style first and will look at other designs once I sort out what works and what doesn’t.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Shaylin Maddox | 174 | 83 | 2428.881 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 178 | 81 | 2443.839 |
| 3 | Abe Maddox | 158 | 76 | 2452.908 |
Later in the day, Aaron Castro showed up to test some MegaG+ cars and got to meet most of Team Maddox as they were getting ready to roll towards home. Webster Motorsports showed up shortly after Aaron’s arrival.
Team Maddox departing was a bummer but they accomplished their goals and had a great track day. The good news was we still had three drivers on the track so we did a bunch of hot lapping and then clicked off one Viper V-SPEC rotation race. The racing was very close with Aaron bagging second place overall and Kevin Webster very, very close.
We decided to tech the cars to show Aaron the process. Both Kevin’s and Aaron’s cars were relatively close in both dyno numbers and downforce, while Home Cookn’s car was substantially better in both categories.
Turns out, both drivers were running out-of-the box V-SPEC chassis’ with only timing adjustments. Kevin’s car was actually running retarded timing, which is good for small home tracks and tight courses. Aaron’s car was running fairly neutral timing. Both cars had stock Razor front ends and stock PST rear tires.
Of course, advancing the end bell timing makes a big difference in off-the-corner and straightaway speeds, installing smaller profile rear tires increases downforce considerably, and an independent front-end improves corner speed.
All this made me realize that most of our Sportsman drivers are probably running bone-stock Viper V-SPEC cars, which can be very competitive but obviously inferior to a properly setup HOPRA SPEC RACER chassis, which are the only V-SPEC rules we run at Stewart Raceway right now.
Maybe we need to revive the HOPRA SPEC STOCK class. Pretty much the same rules as SPEC RACER but is restricted to hardbodies and no adjustable brush barrels. Independent front-ends are still allowed but that is not a big game changer.
Any other ideas out there? I think the SPEC RACER rules are pretty basic but it looks like we need to bring some parity to the Viper V-SPEC class racing.
Okay, shut up and drive!
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.
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Any interest in running these at some point?
RC Superstore has great prices.
While I’m not sure of the interest level in this class, several drivers have expressed interest in a slightly more advanced set of rules to enable more tuning and flexibility in building cars.
Our Super Stock class is based on the 2022 HOPRA SUPER STOCK rules but has two key differences:
Kevin Webster has a bunch of HOPRA-legal Super Stock cars, which he and I tested extensively. The general consensus was that the HOPRA car was not significantly different than our current Viper V-SPEC (SPEC-RACER) class and forcing interested drivers to purchase expensive ceramic-grade magnets for these platforms would be a burden to many of our drivers.
Due to the cost of dual-compound tires and the lack of interest in purchasing them, we decided against allowing dual-compound tires—for now. In our testing, dual-compound tires produced about a half-second faster lap times.
So, why setup and race a Super Stock car? Well, one reason is that there are a few more tuning options available in this class:
Bottom line, this class provides a bit more speed and tuning flexibility to those drivers interested in moving up a notch or two in tuning ability and options.
We’ll see where this class goes. Right now, only a couple of active drivers have these cars ready to race. That said, you can actually just run a good stock Viper V-SPEC and do fine on most tracks. The gearing options are pretty simple, all you need are a couple of spare rear axle assemblies with lower or higher gearing and swap them out to see what works best on the particular course you’re running on.
The other tuning options are a bit more nuanced but also very useful.
Feel free to comment on this new class here or on my Slot Car MeWe page here.
Okay, shut up and drive!
