An absolutely beautiful day in the mountains blessed a relatively small group of drivers on the huge SR3 oval, which made for some fierce competition, amazing crashes, interesting refueling tactics, and some drama.
We raced almost entirely with IROC sets, which clearly favored Home Cookin’, since most of this group had never driven any of the chosen cars. Pretty much all of the cars were “drift,” or otherwise low-downforce setups. Setting up what turned out to be a super-fun day on the oval and lots of racing!
With the exception of Race 7, all races were 20-lap segments with a 35-lap fuel allocation. Race 7 was the only high-downforce race, using Viper V-SPEC “SPECSTOCK” Lexan cars with 30-lap segments and again 35-lap fuel allocation.
Short Story
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 590 | 105 | 2628.234 |
| 2 | Dean Donaldson | 562 | 85 | 2673.109 |
| 3 | Dustin Jolley | 577 | 83 | 2661.793 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 483 | 35 | 2762.813 |
Race 1: Fray T-jets Slip-on (IROC) (o)
Dustin Jolley clicked off the fastest lap in this one with a 3.461 in the Orange lane. Dustin didn’t win it, but his total runtime was nearly identical to Home Cookin’s time, and he won the final segment in the White lane.
Kevin Webster, 2023 Sportsman Points Champion, joined us after a long layoff and, while not having his best day on the oval, was jazzed to get back to racing. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 79 | 14 | 389.883 |
| 2 | Dean Donaldson | 78 | 13 | 396.947 |
| 3 | Dustin Jolley | 79 | 12 | 389.831 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 71 | 5 | 401.155 |
Race 2: OS3 TFX Austin Martin (IROC) (o)
Home Cookin’ clicked off the fastest lap with this cool set of 16-ohm OS3 TFX cars with a 3.186 in the Green lane. Dean Donaldson bagged the last podium spot and second-fastest lap of 3.256 in the White lane. (18v) Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 77 | 16 | 418.147 |
| 2 | Dustin Jolley | 79 | 14 | 425.497 |
| 3 | Dean Donaldson | 71 | 8 | 421.028 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 68 | 6 | 444.871 |
Race 3: MegaG 1.7 Whelen/SK Modifieds (IROC)
This one was quite the battle between all three podium finishers, with Dean Donaldson taking his first race win on the SR3 oval and two segment wins! The fastest lap was a 3.338 by Home Cookin’ in the Green lane. These cars have the rear traction magnets removed and run hard-compound Super Tires. (18v) Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Dean Donaldson | 76 | 14 | 378.412 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 78 | 13 | 381.041 |
| 3 | Dustin Jolley | 77 | 11 | 396.755 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 65 | 6 | 401.303 |
Race 4: MG+ 1.5 Midgets (IROC)
Dustin Jolley bagged his first SR3 Oval win with these very difficult-to-drive “drift” cars without traction magnets. He also almost had the fastest lap of the race with a 4.060 in the Orange lane. Home Cookin’ narrowly edged him out with a 4.057 in the White lane. (18v) Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Dustin Jolley | 77 | 16 | 466.268 |
| 2 | Dean Donaldson | 75 | 12 | 493.520 |
| 3 | Steve Stewart | 76 | 11 | 477.562 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 65 | 5 | 499.186 |
Race 5: Retro-Viper Maximum Leeway (IROC)
Proving he’s finally made the transition from a ‘Magnet Car” bigot, to a full-fledged multi-dimensional slothead, Dean clicked off three of the fastest lane laps in this one! Two of those fast laps are official track records for this way cool “drift” car. The new lap record for this car on the oval is a 2.952 in the Blue lane! (15v) Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 80 | 18 | 385.268 |
| 2 | Dean Donaldson | 75 | 12 | 415.281 |
| 3 | Dustin Jolley | 73 | 10 | 403.432 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 57 | 4 | 419.897 |
Race 6: NAStruck Viper-Jets (IROC)
Dean Donaldson and Dustin Jolley were neck-and-neck in most of the day’s races, but this one was a barn-burner. Both drivers were tied in points going into the final segment, with Dustin having just a one-lap advantage. Dustin would edge out Dean for the second podium step by just two tenths of a second in the final segment. To his credit, Dean–again–set three of the four fastest laps of the race and a new SR3 Oval track record of 2.295 in the Blue lane. (15v)Â Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 80 | 20 | 276.085 |
| 2 | Dustin Jolley | 75 | 10 | 294.847 |
| 3 | Dean Donaldson | 74 | 9 | 286.525 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 68 | 5 | 292.477 |
Race 7: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan (o)
This one was a bit of a head-scratcher with some controversy thrown in for good measure. Dean Donaldson absolutely dominated this race, taking three segment wins, three of the four fastest laps (his fastest was 1.777 in the White lane), and winning the overall race. Dean had a perfect lap count of 30 in all but one segment (Green lane) and very nearly captured the SR3 Oval track record in the process (Shaylin Maddox has the fastest lap with this car at 1.654 in the White lane).
The head-scratcher part was that Home Cookin’ couldn’t figure out why he was two laps ahead of Dean in two segments and lost the wins. Turns out, Home Cookin’ miscalculated that he could refuel a bit before finishing those two segments. Not realizing that, due to the 1-second delay before fuel flows and the blistering sub-two-second average lap times, even the quickest pit visit would allow another driver less than two laps behind to cross the line first. Which is exactly what happened. Doh!
The controversial part was in the technical inspection after the blisteringly fast Viper V-SPEC race. While Dean is a very fast Viper pilot, his car seemed to be a bit faster than all the others; however, the primary reason for the technical inspection was to check out Dustin’s new “Custom-built” Viper, which isn’t really in the spirit of “SPECSTOCK” rules. I wanted to see just how different a “Blueprinted” build might be in terms of downforce and RPM. Dustin’s new car actually passed our technical inspection with flying colors. In fact, it was surprisingly average.
Dean’s car, on the other hand, was at the upper end of our typical numbers, but not extraordinary. However, the car did have an aftermarket crown gear, which is not in line with the spirit of the “SPECSTOCK” rules. These cars are supposed to be stock, out-of-the-box, V-SPEC L4 cars. With a couple of minor exceptions, the only mods allowed are different-sized rear silicon tires. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Dean Donaldson | 113 | 17 | 281.396 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 120 | 13 | 300.248 |
| 3 | Dustin Jolley | 117 | 10 | 285.163 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 89 | 4 | 303.924 |
Wow! Seven races and some very competitive races they were. Expert driver Dean Donaldson and Sportsman driver Dustin Jolley demonstrated outstanding and very diverse driving skills with cars that were quite different and difficult to handle. Dean won two of the seven races in convincing fashion, while Dustin won one by two laps. Both drivers had a very good day on the SR3 oval.
This Wednesday night and Saturday are looking good right now for more slot car action at Stewart Raceway.
Okay, shut up and drive!
