Turned out to be a good date for our 2022 season kick-off. A cold but sunny day with everyone stuffed into the paddock area with not much space for tearing into cars, if needed. I don’t think many of us have ever raced little cars on New Year’s Day before but it worked out pretty well.
Of course, the first order of business was presenting 2021 driver awards to Brad Sandahl and Jordan Walker. Brad took 2021 Rookie of the Year honors while Jordan earned Junior of the Year honors. Brad’s first-year 2021 season was nothing short of spectacular with many race wins and an overall event victory in the 50/50 Series season finale back in November. Jordan has been racing with us for several years now but he’s definitely the top junior driver at Stewart Raceway right now.
The last time Stewart Raceway hosted a Formula-E event was way back in late December of 2019. Six drivers showed up for that inaugural race with well-prepared Tyco 440-X2 narrow-chassis cars with brass weights replacing the traction magnets and brass independent front-ends, aka a Tyco-Jet. So it was only fitting that we kick off our 2022 Formula-E Series with a Tyco-Jet IROC race.
Race 1: Tyco-Jet IROC
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 80 | 16 | 582.406 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 79 | 13 | 574.761 |
| 3 | Greg Kondrek | 78 | 11 | 619.206 |
| 4 | Brad Sandahl | 78 | 7 | 630.554 |
| 5 | George Peters | 75 | 6 | 607.322 |
| 6 | Russ Toy | 69 | 5 | 598.027 |
| 7 | Kevin Webster | 66 | 4 | 625.232 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 65 | 3 | 647.373 |
Ian didn’t waste any time re-establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with at SR2. The Tyco-Jets clearly suited Ian’s driving style but it was still a very close race.
Race 2: OS3 TFX (Lite)
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 80 | 16 | 589.896 |
| 2 | Greg Kondrek | 80 | 13 | 599.084 |
| 3 | George Peters | 74 | 11 | 597.952 |
| 4 | Ian Douglass | 72 | 7 | 591.499 |
| 5 | Russ Toy | 72 | 6 | 608.772 |
| 6 | Brad Sandahl | 71 | 5 | 610.538 |
| 7 | Jordan Walker | 67 | 4 | 598.134 |
| 8 | Kevin Webster | 65 | 3 | 609.071 |
This was our first-ever OS3 TFX “Builders” race, featuring some very cool T-Jet and Fray-style bodies and livery. We’ve raced the TFX plenty of times prior but only IROC sets. The G-Man (Greg Kondrek) even arrived on time and ready to start the 2022 season much stronger than he ended his 2021 season. Home Cook`n edged out Greg by just 10-seconds in total run-time break the tie.
Race 3: U-Build Viper V-Spec Lexan Bodies
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 78 | 16 | 287.385 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 75 | 13 | 293.657 |
| 3 | Russ Toy | 74 | 11 | 304.048 |
| 4 | George Peters | 71 | 7 | 305.575 |
| 5 | Greg Kondrek | 69 | 6 | 281.316 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 67 | 5 | 298.125 |
| 7 | Jordan Walker | 66 | 4 | 298.053 |
Ian Douglass and Greg Kondrek showed up with some serious speed in the Viper V-Spec class. Ian easily won the very fast race after Kondrek experienced refueling issues, which cost him a whole bunch of laps. Most of us benefited from Kondrek’s misfortune and Russ Toy took full advantage of the situation bagging the final podium spot in this fast & furious race. ROTY-winner, Brad Sandahl, unfortunately, had family commitments and was unable to continue racing after Race 3.
Race 4: Jag Hobbies PR-5 “Indy/F1” (Feature Race)
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Greg Kondrek | 399 | 16 | 1655.972 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 390 | 13 | 1706.066 |
| 3 | Ian Douglass | 380 | 11 | 1668.836 |
| 4 | Russ Toy | 380 | 7 | 1691.526 |
| 5 | George Peters | 350 | 6 | 1741.148 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 322 | 5 | 1672.853 |
| 7 | Jordan Walker | 245 | 4 | 1753.366 |
The feature race had a couple of tweaks to the program. The rotations were left over from previous 600-lap Formula-E races, which Ian quickly pointed out. So we switched from the slated 300-lap race to a 400-lap race with the correct number of rotations. Don’t remember the fuel allocation but it was too much!
We also discovered in the first heat that many drivers had PR-5 cars with hop-up magnets installed, which are not allowed by PR-5 “Lite” rules. In fact, Russ Toy had a 5-lap lead on the field before we discovered the discrepancy. Nobody was deliberately cheating but we had to stop the race and sort things out.
Since there seemed to be more “illegal” cars, we decided the inaugural PR-5 race would be run with “Modified” cars instead of “Lite” cars. Several of us borrowed PR-5’s with the hop-up magnets and we continued with the race.
Russ actually maintained his dominance of the race all the way through his first three-segment rotation, going out with a perfect 150 laps and winning all three heats. George Peters, Home Cook`n, and Greg Kondrek had brief stints as race leaders until Russ Toy came back in and clicked-off three more consecutive heat wins!
Meanwhile, Greg Kondrek threw off the bad luck that plagued him in the previous race and quietly stormed through the field during his final rotation and bagged the win with 399 laps, nine laps ahead of the second-place finisher, and 19 laps ahead of Ian Douglass, third-place. Long-time race leader, Russ Toy would end the race in fourth.
Race 5: Jag Hobbies NC-2 “Lites” (15v)
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Greg Kondrek | 120 | 16 | 557.841 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 120 | 13 | 578.72 |
| 3 | George Peters | 112 | 11 | 559.841 |
| 4 | Russ Toy | 109 | 7 | 565.805 |
| 5 | Ian Douglass | 106 | 6 | 558.375 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 94 | 5 | 541.85 |
G-Man continued his “storm” in Race 5, with a fairly convincing win of ~ 20-seconds over Home Cook`n. George Peters capped off the podium with a nice third-place finish. We lost Jordan to fatigue (and too many of “my” cookies) after Race 5.
Race 6: Viper-Jet Lexan (12.1v)
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Greg Kondrek | 80 | 16 | 424.323 |
| 2 | Ian Douglass | 79 | 13 | 418.663 |
| 3 | Steve Stewart | 75 | 11 | 405.402 |
| 4 | George Peters | 68 | 7 | 431.998 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 61 | 6 | 439.669 |
The final race was a Kondrek-Douglass slugfest with the G-Man edging out Ian by just one lap.
Overall Formula-E Round 1 Results
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Greg Kondrek | 826 | 78 | 4137.742 |
| 2 | Ian Douglass | 795 | 69 | 4107.164 |
| 3 | George Peters | 750 | 48 | 4243.836 |
| 4 | Russ Toy | 704 | 36 | 3768.178 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 675 | 28 | 4186.8 |
| 6 | Jordan Walker | 443 | 15 | 3296.926 |
| 7 | Brad Sandahl | 149 | 12 | 1241.092 |
After all the racing it seemed like either the New Year celebrations or the hot & heavy day of racing had taken its toll on the drivers. Everybody seemed pretty tired and we called it quits after six races. Even Kondrek didn’t hang out for hot-laps or testing, he left exhausted—but victorious!
Round 2 of the 2022 Formula-E Series is slated for January 15. Stay tuned for details.
Please share comments, suggestions, and ideas on this page or in the forums. I’d like some feedback on the race formats and overall program before the next event, please.
Okay, shut-up and drive!
