Race Report: 2023 50/50 Racing Series, Round 3 – A Day On The Oval

Round 3 was another fast and furious race day with a pretty well-rounded (no pun intended) group of slot heads, as well as several guest appearances, including veteran slot car racer, Shaun Lee, all the way from Roseville, CA.

Speaking of well-rounded. Between Eric’s delicious donuts, all the snacks, and Kathy’s awesome lunch spread of lasagne, salad, and garlic bread, some of us are definitely getting more round. And, don’t get used to the “free lunch” action. We usually do a sandwich run to the local deli but Kathy had a hectic day going on and decided she couldn’t be bothered to support a sandwich run for us. And, no, it wasn’t because Slot Car Star, Shaun, made the long trek down from Sac. Though maybe we should offer him some sort of appearance incentive going forward.

During practice, neighbors Cameron and his son, Ely, dropped by to see what Stewart Raceway was all about. Both Cameron and Ely cut a bunch of laps with the rest of us during practice and then hung out and watched the first race while helping with marshaling. Both Cameron and Ely seemed to have enjoyed the visit and actually took to driving the cars very quickly. Of course, we hope they return again and again, we can always use more drivers.

With the veteran driver, Shaun Lee, in the house, it was going to be a bit rougher for everybody involved. Shaun has been racing slot cars as long, if not longer, than any of the other veteran Expert drivers in attendance and is well-versed in oval track racing. In fact, Shaun owned and operated a 50ft lap length, 6-lane, tri-oval aptly named “Shaunadega Raceway” right here in the Bay Area before Shaun relocated to Roseville. As you can see in the results, Shaun did not disappoint, finishing on the podium, second overall in the Expert ranks.

Speedster Expert driver, George Peters, continues to dominate the series with very impressive results in all classes and in spite of Home Cookn’s “home-field” advantage.

In the Sportsman ranks, Jordan Walker has a very commanding lead in points over second place, Kevin Webster, while Eric Lane holds a slim lead over Jerry Pearson for third in the Sportsman points chase.

Round 3 Overall Results

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters	463	53	1413.081
2	Shaun Lee	466	51	1629.418
3	Steve Stewart	466	50	1550.843
4	Jordan Walker	414	29	1665.419
5	Eric Lane	408	25	1553.913
6	Jerry Pearson	213	12	790.741
7	Kevin Webster	192	12	799.48

Race 1: Retro Vipers “Maximum Leeway” Lexan (IROC) (12v)

Starting off a little wild with a loose but fast platform. Of course, we allowed everyone warm-up time to adjust to these very different cars. While the Experts duked it out, Eric “Fastlane” Lane, drove to victory in Segment 3, in the Blue lane! Eric followed that feat up with a second-place finish in Segment 4, in the Yellow lane! Very nice driving! (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters	118	16	464.645
2	Steve Stewart	116	13	543.294
3	Shaun Lee	113	11	554.904
4	Eric Lane	104	7	558.158
5	Jerry Pearson	102	6	474.532
6	Jordan Walker	100	5	548.069

Race 2: MegaG+ 1.7 BOX STOCK “Indy/F1 Bodies” (18v)

Special guest, Shaun Lee, didn’t waste much time establishing himself with a nice win in the new MegaG+ support class. This class provides some amazingly competitive racing. Expert, Shaun Lee, put on a show as he managed to best Hone Cook’n by a lap in the end. Not to be outdone by the Experts, Sportsman driver, Jordan Walker, put in a very impressive effort and very nearly overtook Expert, Home Cook’n, for the second spot on the podium. Nice close racing, for sure. Jordan showed why he’s the current Sportsman-class points leader with some very nice driving. (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Shaun Lee	120	16	313.83
2	Steve Stewart	119	13	305.733
3	Jordan Walker	119	11	329.762
4	Eric Lane	114	7	319.5
5	Jerry Pearson	111	6	316.209
6	George Peters	109	5	311.353

Race 3: Jag Hobbies NC-2 BOX STOCK “Merc Jalopy Bodies” (IROC) (15v)

The third race was yet another hotly contested battle between both the Experts and the Sportsman drivers. This IROC set was comprised of four brand new “box stock” Jag Hobbies NC-2 platforms with Georgie’s classic Mercury sedan hard bodies. The NC-2 is a magnet car but with these bodies installed and utilizing only the four inside lanes of the oval course, they can be really challenging to drive. George Peters proved he’s the real deal with a convincing win, besting Home Cook’n yet again by two laps while Shaun Lee pressured for the second podium spot the whole race. The Sportsman class was also very close with Jordan Walker besting Eric Lane by only two laps with Kevin Webster only one lap down. That’s competitive racing, folks! (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters	116	16	387.879
2	Steve Stewart	114	13	386.638
3	Shaun Lee	114	11	397.977
4	Jordan Walker	97	7	397.009
5	Eric Lane	95	6	366.854
6	Kevin Webster	94	5	431.149

Race 4: Viper V-SPEC “SPEC RACER” Lexan GTP

The final race of the day and the feature event was the venerable Viper V-SPEC class. Shaun Lee clearly had a well-prepared car and seemed to have a slight top-speed edge. In fact, Shaun set a new V-SPEC lap record on the day with a 1.658-second lap in the tight Yellow lane. In spite of Shaun’s speed advantage, George Peters took advantage of his fuel management skills and bagged the win by just one lap over the hard-charging Shaun Lee in second.

Once again, the Sportsman racing was exceptionally close with Kevin Webster and Jordan Walker finishing on the same lap and Eric Lane just three laps down. (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters	120	16	249.204
2	Shaun Lee	119	13	362.707
3	Steve Stewart	117	11	315.178
4	Kevin Webster	98	7	368.331
5	Jordan Walker	98	6	390.579
6	Eric Lane	95	5	309.401

Sportsman Points Standings After Round 3

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Jordan Walker	995	98	7527.875
2	Kevin Webster	776	83	6832.854
3	Eric Lane	687	51	4394.271
4	Jerry Pearson	645	49	4770.748
5	Martha Elderon	411	29	4115.863
6	Tim Bisson	126	6	1366.187
7	Jake Bisson	89	4	1250.72

Expert Standings After Round 3

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters	1086	162	7094.179
2	Shaun Lee	466	51	1629.418
3	Steve Stewart	1101	169	7502.416

“Unofficial” IROC Race 5

After all the official racing had concluded, another neighbor, Michael Hutchinson, popped in with his 12-year old daughter to show her what slot car racing was all about. Michael, being a former elite road cyclist and skier, is no stranger to competitive activities and neither is his daughter, Harper. Both of them did some hot lapping and didn’t hesitate for a second to join us in another race. We decided to introduce them to slot car racing with a magnet car and chose a house set of 1.7 MegaG+ cars with winged 3D-printed Super Modified bodies running at 18v.

Shaun Lee hadn’t gotten his fill of oval racing yet and managed to win two segments and the overall with a huge four-lap gap ahead of George Peters in second. Kevin Webster bagged his first heat win of the day in Segment 5 in the Green lane.

Michael and Harper naturally didn’t have much of a chance against this bunch. However, they had a serious battle going on between father and daughter with Michael besting Harper by just two laps in the end. I’d say that’s pretty close competition between two first-time slot car racers. Hope both drivers join us again soon. (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Shaun Lee	120	16	406.881
2	George Peters	116	13	405.09
3	Steve Stewart	110	11	411.49
4	Kevin Webster	109	7	430.352
5	Jordan Walker	105	6	410.886
6	Michael Hutchinson	81	5	419.616
7	Harper Hutchinson	79	4	431.199

Hutchinson Challenge

Harper was not pleased with losing to her Dad in her first-ever slot car race. So she challenged Dad to a race-off, winner takes all the marbles; two drivers, two lanes, and 60 total laps. We decided to use another magnet car for this epic challenge race. Two cars were selected from the house Jag Hobbies TR-3 “Augoran” fleet for this match-up.

Short, sweet, and with plenty of carnage and arbitrage, Michael came out on top—again—by just two laps. Harper wasn’t happy but she seemed to really enjoy the race-off and pressuring Dad the whole time. Way fun stuff! (Details)

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Michael Hutchinson	60	16	243.092
2	Harper Hutchinson	58	13	254.293

Okay, shut up and drive!