Wow, another mostly “racing” track day! We did about 300 laps of practice before the usual racing action broke out. So much for mentoring and driver development, this bunch just wants to race!
We also had a couple of new folks show up to check things out. Turns out Kevin (Webster Motorsports) ran into one of them at a hobby shop in San Leandro sometime last year as he was trying to fulfill his annual recruitment quota (just kidding). Anyway, he gave Joe our contact info and Joe finally touched base and wanted to swing by and scope things out.
Joe brought along his girlfriend, Oxana, who may not have been looking forward to driving a HO car for a couple of hours as they passed through the Santa Cruz Mountains. But they both jumped right into hot lapping and drove many of the various cars we run during practice. Before long, some wanted to race and both Joe and Oxana were all good with that.
We started with an IROC set of MegaG+ 1.7 cars with “Paper” Whelen Modified bodies, which Joe and Oxana adapted to very quickly since they had run the same class during their practice sessions. Joe finished third in his very first segment in the Orange lane, which was very impressive. Oxana, however, would stun the paddock with a full six-lane rotation and only one segment finishing worse than 4th place. Oxana finished four segments in the top 3–amazing!
The good news is both Oxana and Joe had a great time. The bad news is that if Joe decides to get more into HO slot car racing, he’s going to need a box big enough to haul both his own AND Oxana’s equipment. The pair appear to be destined to dominate slot car racing very soon. Oxana and Joe didn’t have all day to play with little cars and had to depart shortly after our first race.
The other three races were pretty much the usual fast-and-furious events. The highlight of the day for me was the three female drivers in the mix. Oxana was amazing in her very first slot car race but we also had Aaron’s girlfriend, Olga Rosetta, and Team Johnson’s star Junior driver, Madeline Johnson in the mix. Olga and Madeline had a bunch of top 3 heat finishes throughout the day’s racing.
Not that I think there are any differences between male and female drivers when it comes to slot car racing, nevertheless I’m amazed at the caliber of female drivers we have participating in our program–way cool!
Next weekend will likely be another track day. Hopefully, Joe and Oxana will return for more driving experience and fun. The 2024 racing season will likely kick off on February 3rd with some sort of NASCAR series and an oval course event or two, we may even do more racing on SR2 this season. We’re upgrading the power control on SR2 to be the same as SR3.
Okay, shut up and drive!
Wow! We had a total of nine (9) drivers show up for this track day event.
Kevin has yet another plaque on the Stewart Raceway Wall of Fame. With an average placing of 3.5, Kevin is a player in not only the Sportsman class but also a frequent podium finisher against Expert-class drivers. Congrats, Kevin!
The first race was way fun. We utilized Eric “Fast” Lane’s Ford Econoline and Dodge Tradesman IROC Vans with MegaG+ 1.7 chassis’. These cars are fairly quick and very top-heavy, which made for some driving challenges for all of us.
Despite a couple of issues, we forged ahead and completed another IROC race. This time it was Home Cook’n who came out on top by just two laps over George Peters in second. As usual, Kevin Webster bagged the last podium step only nine laps down on the top two finishers.
