The final round of the 2022 Formula “e” Series is in the books. This series was unique in that it featured one class of car in a 400-lap, endur0-thon race at each event. We’ve all done 12-hour, 24-hour, six-hour race days. This feature race is a 50-lap/segment race where each driver does two rotations in each lane to complete 400 laps. Combine this with five other 20 or 30-lap races and you get a very stressful day of adrenaline-pumping action.
Round 5 was held on the SR2 straight road course and got underway a bit later than usual.
We ran a full program of six races, including the traditional Formula “e” Tyco-Jet IROC cars.
Two of the races would include Concourse d’ Elegance judging of all cars entered in each race. Going into the final round, Ian Douglass and George Peters were tied in Concourse points. At the end of the day, they would be tied again, with Ian winning the Viper Formula V competition and George winning the Jag Hobbies PR-5 Indy/F1 competition. Both cars were incredibly detailed and beautiful works of craftsmanship and art. 2021 Rookie of the Year, Brad Sandahl, presided as CdE judge. Since Ian’s car suffered some serious damage in the Formula V race, and he’d already taken home the CdE trophy for the 2021 50/50 Series, he graciously conceded victory to George to settle the tie. (Sorry, our “senior moment” race director failed to get a pic–again!)
Race 1: Tyco-Jet IROC(12.5v)
As always, the Tyco-Jet race was very competitive with Ian Douglass taking the win by just two laps to Home Cook’n. Greg Kondrek would take the last podium spot. There was only one lap between second place and sixth place.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 80 | 16 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 78 | 13 |
| 3 | Greg Kondrek | 77 | 11 |
| 4 | Brad Sandahl | 76 | 7 |
| 5 | George Peters | 76 | 6 |
| 6 | Russ Toy | 76 | 5 |
| 7 | Jordan Walker | 74 | 4 |
| 8 | Kevin Webster | 64 | 3 |
Race 2: Jag Hobbies TR-3 “Lites” (15v)
We hadn’t ever raced the TR-3 in an individual race, only IROC. This race was also hotly contested with Greg Kondrek taking the win (in a borrowed Sprint car) over Russ Toy by just two laps. Brad Sandhal would bag the final podium spot. Russ seems to like the TR-3 as much as he likes the NC-2, winning two heats and second overall. Kevin Webster had a great run in this one, just missing a podium spot by one lap. These Jag platforms are producing some very competitive racing, again with second through sixth each separated by just one lap at the finish–amazing!
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Greg Kondrek | 79 | 16 | 414.275 |
| 2 | Russ Toy | 77 | 13 | 388.949 |
| 3 | Brad Sandahl | 76 | 11 | 391.95 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 75 | 7 | 417.383 |
| 5 | Steve Stewart | 74 | 6 | 427.721 |
| 6 | Ian Douglass | 73 | 5 | 417.663 |
| 7 | George Peters | 69 | 4 | 420.891 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 66 | 3 | 450.937 |
Race 3: OS3 TFX “Lites” (18v)
We tried to field TFX “Modified” cars for this race but just didn’t have enough cars to go around. In the end, Home Cook’n took the win just one lap ahead of Ian Douglass. The big story in this race was Kevin Webster again fighting very hard and well on his way to a podium finish when the ugly “Pit-In” bug reared its head, not once but twice. Kevin came in second in two heats and was looking like he might just land on the podium in this one before the bug hosed him. T-Jet “ace,” George Peters would round out the podium in his Concourse d’ Elegance winning Caddilac.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 80 | 16 | 624.439 |
| 2 | Ian Douglass | 79 | 13 | 633.107 |
| 3 | George Peters | 77 | 11 | 624.483 |
| 4 | Brad Sandahl | 77 | 7 | 630.741 |
| 5 | Russ Toy | 75 | 6 | 637.139 |
| 6 | Greg Kondrek | 71 | 5 | 654.764 |
| 7 | Kevin Webster | 71 | 4 | 655.182 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 70 | 3 | 672.171 |
Race 4: Viper Formula “V” (12.5v)
Our newest class and the second time we’ve run these. This car is just a Viper-Jet chassis with a long wheelbase and hard F1/Indy style body. Ian Douglass dominated this one with three heat wins and a perfect score.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 80 | 16 | 441.911 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 79 | 13 | 504.712 |
| 3 | Greg Kondrek | 78 | 11 | 510.372 |
| 4 | Brad Sandahl | 72 | 7 | 476.453 |
| 5 | George Peters | 70 | 6 | 486.183 |
| 6 | Russ Toy | 66 | 5 | 452.364 |
| 7 | Kevin Webster | 64 | 4 | 498.191 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 58 | 3 | 501.578 |
Race 5: Jag Hobbies NC-2 GT-40 “Lites” (15v)
As usual, the NC-2 race was hot and heavy and extremely competitive with a multitude of different drivers winning heats. Expected favorite, NC-2 “Ace” Russ Toy, did not have a great run in this one and was only able to win one heat. In the end, Ian Douglass came out on the top with 79-laps. 2021 Rookie of the Year, Brad Sandahl, took second with current series points leader, Greg Kondrek landing the final podium spot.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 79 | 16 | 362.047 |
| 2 | Brad Sandahl | 78 | 13 | 369.208 |
| 3 | Greg Kondrek | 76 | 11 | 368.741 |
| 4 | George Peters | 76 | 7 | 397.2 |
| 5 | Steve Stewart | 75 | 6 | 382.036 |
| 6 | Russ Toy | 73 | 5 | 384.532 |
| 7 | Kevin Webster | 63 | 4 | 379.436 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 58 | 3 | 395.694 |
Race 6:Â Jag Hobbies PR-5 F1/Indy “Lites” 400-Laps (16.5v)
The Formula-e “Feature” race was saved for last this time based on input from drivers that felt it was way intense and should be the final race of the day. Don’t think many would argue that point. The Jag Hobbies PR-5 platform is very fast and a bit more difficult to drive due to the characteristics of the car that the “Box Stock” rules create.
From almost the very beginning, this race was a battle between Ian Douglass and Brad Sandahl. Both drivers won plenty of heats but both drivers also had a few less than perfect heats and came up short in total laps, which isn’t unusual for this race format. Of course, other drivers were still in the hunt and putting pressure on both of them. Greg Kondrek, Kevin Webster, Home Cook’n, and George Peters were all very much in the hunt until about segment 13 of 16. Ian finished his rotation by winning the heat with a perfect score, putting him and Brad in first and second with 395-laps for Ian and 393-laps for Brad. Nobody could better those numbers going into the final two segments. Ian would win the feature event by just two laps over Brad Sandahl, and 17-laps over Home Cook’n in third place. The 400-lap event is all about fuel management dynamics and racing the track, not other drivers.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 395 | 16 | 1752.973 |
| 2 | Brad Sandahl | 393 | 13 | 1797.759 |
| 3 | Steve Stewart | 378 | 11 | 1852.765 |
| 4 | Greg Kondrek | 374 | 7 | 1781.567 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 368 | 6 | 1869.674 |
| 6 | George Peters | 361 | 5 | 1836.832 |
| 7 | Russ Toy | 331 | 4 | 1796.964 |
| 8 | Jordan Walker | 296 | 3 | 1891.188 |
Round 5 Overall Results
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Ian Douglass | 786 | 82 | 4218.739 |
| 2 | Greg Kondrek | 755 | 61 | 4359.381 |
| 3 | Brad Sandahl | 772 | 58 | 4280.082 |
| 4 | George Peters | 729 | 39 | 4402.595 |
| 5 | Russ Toy | 698 | 38 | 4309.972 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 705 | 28 | 4438.711 |
| 7 | Jordan Walker | 622 | 19 | 4552.32 |
Hat’s off to Ian Douglass. He needed a little help to have a shot at displacing Greg Kondrek’s points lead in the series. Greg fought hard, including two spectacular performances with borrowed cars. Brad Sandahl, having missed three of the five races, and most of Round 1, came back to racing in Round 5 and showed that he’s the “real deal,” placing third overall.
Okay, so who the heck won the 2022 Formula “e” Series? Well, we didn’t know for sure on Saturday after the race due to the complexity of the points system. But now we do…
| Driver | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | ** | Total | Out of 4 |
| Ian Douglas | 71.75 | 0 | 86 | 85 | 83.25 | 4 | 330 | 330 |
| Greg Kondrek | 79.25 | 82 | 70.5 | 64.5 | 64 | 5 | 365.25 | 301.25 |
| George Peters | 53.25 | 64 | 44 | 62.75 | 46 | 5 | 275 | 231 |
| Russ Toy | 41.5 | 52 | 53.5 | 0 | 44.25 | 4 | 195.25 | 199.25 |
| Kevin Webster | 31 | 0 | 37 | 42 | 34.25 | 4 | 148.25 | 152.25 |
| Jordan Walker | 16 | 0 | 33.25 | 30 | 20 | 4 | 103.25 | 107.25 |
| Brad Sandahl | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 63.25 | 2 | 80.25 | 82.25 |
** Appearance points
Wow! Another great series and very competitive racing. Congratulations to Ian for winning his second straight Stewart Raceway series and supporting our racing program. Ian is a class act and an extremely talented and accomplished slot car racer/builder. He also has an incredible talent for tuning and campaigning some of the best performing and nicest-looking cars we’ve seen since Ted Essy abandoned us for Sac…just saying.
Also, hats off to our 2021 “Junior of the Year” driver, Jordan Walker, for putting up with all of us “old school” guys and showing up every other weekend to race little cars with us. He’s constantly improving and has clearly demonstrated that he’s got what it takes to win races.
We’ll have a “lavish” awards ceremony the next time we formally meet, including medals to the second and third-place finishers, Greg Kondrek and George Peters. Very impressive driving by all!
Okay, shut up and drive!
💪 😎 💪 Thank you, Steve! Awesome day of racing as always and appreciate the kind words!