2025 Racing Season Year End Bash

The 2025 Stewart Raceway racing season ends with four races, good pizza, great eggnog, and the following well-deserved award presentations:

• • • Junior Champion: Abe Maddox
      Abe only did 18 races in 2025, but his three overall race wins, multiple lap records, and a 3.1 placing average earned him his second consecutive Junior championship.
    • Sportsman Champion: Dean Donaldson
      In his very first season at Stewart Raceway, Dean completed a whopping 64 races in 2025 and finished with a 2.4 placing average, 10 lap records (SR2 & SR3), and six overall race wins. Dean joins the Expert driver ranks for the 2026 racing season.
      
    • Rookie of the Year: Dustin Jolley
      Dustin didn’t discover Stewart Raceway until October, but quickly established himself as a very talented and versatile slot car racer. Dustin completed 19 races with a 2.3 average placing, four race wins, and seven lap records in a variety of lanes and cars. Dustin is expected to upgrade to the Expert ranks early in the 2026 season.
    • Most Improved Driver: Jared Johnson
      Jared doesn’t get to race much (only six races in 2025), but when he does race, he’s typically on or near the podium. In their third season at Stewart Raceway, Team Johnson has been a force in both the Junior ranks and now the Sportsman ranks. Team Manager, Jared, invested in a Viper V-SPEC car and two MG+ 1.7 F1 cars during the 2025 season. Team Johnson also invested in a new development driver with the birth of his third child, Luke. I’m sure we’ll see Luke in the paddock in 2026 and beyond.
    • Team of the Year: Team Maddox
      We didn’t do much organized team racing in 2025, but the Team Maddox duo of Abe and Shaylin is clearly a force in any racing at Stewart Raceway. With Abe being our top Junior driver and Mom, Shaylin, holding nearly 20 lap records, and bagging two overall race wins in 2025, they easily won the Team of the Year honors.
    • Promoter of the Year (recruiter): Dean Donaldson
      We’ve always shown great appreciation for drivers who bring new drivers into the fold. Dean has set a very high bar for this recognition going forward. Dean introduced nine (9) new drivers to our program in 2025.  With that level of recruiting, we can now typically run a weekly program with enough drivers and marshals to support an official race day/night easily. Dean is also very active each week, chasing down RSVPs and urging drivers to attend events—hat tip to Dean for outstanding contributions to our hobby/sport.
    • Best Eggnog of the Year: Kathy Stewart
      Well, surprisingly, there wasn’t very much competition for this award. Kathy cleaned out Safeway’s stock of a delicious Eggnog brand that Eric Lane introduced to us at our end-of-season bash in 2024. This stuff is good!

Racing Short Story

The important thing to note here is that Team Maddox took over for Home Cook’n in Race 3, starting in segment 4 of 6. Both Shaylin and Abe switched off in the final three segments, which very likely kept Home Cook’n in the hunt for the Expert overall. Abe bagged a second-place finish in segment 5, which netted 13 points.

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	338	210	3055.293
2	Dean Donaldson	338	194	3901.942
3	Jeff Seltzer	310	141	2964.951
4	Bev Seltzer	242	80	2520.254
5	Mike Langell	190	79	2238.219
6	Dustin Jolley	146	68	1795.775

Race 1: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan

Dean Donaldson cements his Sportsman Championship win and advancement to the Expert ranks with a win in the fastest race of the day.  Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Dean Donaldson	99	58	601.807
2	Steve Stewart	98	58	639.526
3	Jeff Seltzer	90	40	617.176
4	Bev Seltzer	79	32	632.561

Race 2: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan (Dash Race)

Bev Seltzer, getting back to racing after a long layoff, shows her stuff with a nice podium finish in a hard-fought Dash race with the fastest car we run. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	40	16	254.780
2	Bev Seltzer	40	14	113.362
3	Dean Donaldson	38	11	259.974
4	Jeff Seltzer	34	7	103.923

Race 3: Tyco 440-X2 Wide-Pan Porsche 935 Hardbody

This one was a great example of why less lanes and more marshals is better. We had six drivers, so we decided to run six lanes. Which left us with just a race director at the keyboard and one marshal, making this a very long race due to many crashes forcing yellow flags. Home Cook’n led this one at the halfway mark, but handed over the reins to Team Maddox. Thanks to Abe’s and Shaylin’s driving, the team was able to secure a nice podium position. The detailed results show Dustin winning this one on laps. However, when sorted by points, then laps, which is our typical method of scoring, Dean came out the winner with Dustin bagging the final podium spot. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Dean Donaldson	143	73	2650.090
2	Shaylin Maddox, Abe Maddox, S. Stewart	140	72	1787.480
3	Dustin Jolley	146	68	1795.775
4	Jeff Seltzer	132	54	1819.615
5	Mike Langell	137	47	1830.633
6	Bev Seltzer	123	34	1774.331

Race 4: Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy 1.7 (i) Lexan Eric Lane Set

This bunch loves Vipers, so we pulled out Eric “Fast” Lane’s coveted set of Formula V Lexan IROC cars and went racing again. The results below are deceiving; this race was short, very intense, and each segment ended the same. Jeff Seltzer bagged the final podium spot over Mike Langell, largely due to his best segment run in the more difficult Blue lane with the second fastest median lap time of 5.398.  Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	60	64	373.507
2	Dean Donaldson	58	52	390.071
3	Jeff Seltzer	54	40	424.237
4	Mike Langell	53	32	407.586

Other than the painfully long Race 3, it was a great day and evening of racing, good food, and a great bunch to hang out with. A big thanks from Kathy and me to all who showed up and made it a great and fun event!

That’s a wrap for our 2025 racing season. Thank you all for your continued support of our racing program. Kathy and I wish you all a very Happy New Year, and look forward to an even better 2026 season.