Author: Race Director

Wow, what a barn-burner day. This was the final round of this long-running series and it sure wasn’t short on drama.

Going into final round, Jordan Walker and Kevin Webster were separated by just 11 points in the Sportsman classification. Some big hardware was up for grabs by either driver for winning the series points chase so we all knew it was going to be a dogfight between those two drivers. The winner would not only take home a huge trophy but they would also advance from the Sportsman class to the Expert class ranks going forward.

Junior driver, Abe Maddox, had asked just prior to the first of the four races on the day whether he could win the series prize by winning the first race. No surprise there, since Abe had won many races leading up to the series finale. Sadly, I was the one that had to break the news that he could not secure enough points to take home the Mondo series trophy.

Abe took that bit of information in stride and clipped in for the first segment of the first race in the Yellow Lane, the very fast Viper SPEC RACER class.

Round 5 Short Story:

Race 1: Viper V-SPEC Lexan (SPEC RACER) (15v)

Abe didn’t seem to care that he couldn’t win the series. When the first segment went green, Abe quickly took the lead and would swap it with Expert driver, George Peters several times before winning segment 1. Abe also clicked off the fastest lap of the first segment. In fact, Team Maddox set the fastest laps of the race in both the Blue and Yellow lanes, with Mom, Shaylin, clicking off a blistering 3.178 in the Blue lane.

In the end, it was Home Cook’n just 2 laps ahead of George Peters with steadily improving Sportsman driver, Jerry Pearson, just behind and bagging the final podium spot in third. Abe amazingly finished in fourth overall. Kevin Webster bagged two 2nd place finishes but lost five laps in the red lane and would have to settle for fifth and just one point over Jordan Walker in sixth. Detailed Results

Race 2: Viper V-SPEC 1.7 Indy Lexan (IROC) (15v)

Since Abe and Shaylin had to bail out early on the day, we decided to stack the Viper races to give Abe a shot at a race win before he and his Mom had to leave. This IROC set of way fast cars is courtesy of Sportsman driver, Eric Lane, who donated this 6-car set of V-SPEC Vipers to Stewart Raceway earlier in the year. These are full-on Viper V-SPEC, Level 4 cars with 1.7 Lexan Indy bodies instead of the very fragile plastic Indy bodies that they usually ship with.

Abe Maddox came out swinging again in the second race of the day. He loves Vipers and these cars were very close to what he’s used to. Abe would end up with two 2nd-place finishes and a 3rd place–very impressive! Abe’s Mom, Shaylin finished just one lap behind Abe with one 2nd place finish and two 3rd place finishes plus the fastest lap of the race T 3.277 in the white lane–amazing!

Jordan Walker knew what he had to do and would finish Race #2 just behind 2nd place finisher and expert driver, George Peters, bagging 11 points and padding his lead over Kevin Webster who would only collect 3 much-needed points. Mr Consistent, Jerry Pearson, would collect the 4th place points just missing the last podium spot by 2 laps. Shaylin and Jordan both hold the current track records for this new class on SR2, Shaylin at 3.277 in white and Jordan at 3.346 in yellow. Detailed Results

Race 3: MegaG+ 1.7 Indy/F1 Support Class (18v)

As usual, this class is amazingly competitive. Even Home Cook’n couldn’t bag a perfect score and would lose one lap by overshooting the pits. Kevin Webster bounced back and gave Jordan a lot of pressure but did not come up with the points needed to thwart Jordan’s march to the series win. With Jerry Pearson and Team Maddox exiting the field halfway through the event, points would get a bit easier to collect. Jordan sealed the deal in in this one with a very nice 3rd place finish, just one position ahead of Kevin but secured four more points that would make it impossible for Kevin to overcome. The top three spots were very hotly contested with just 2 laps separating each driver in the end.

With Jordan and Kevin chasing each other and both on the verge of being Expert drivers, the effectively lone Sportsman driver in the field, Eric Lane, would find it more difficult than usual to work his way through the field. Eric did manage a 3rd-place segment finish with a best lap of 4.188 in blue, which showed he could put the hammer down. Jordan clicked off the fastest lap of the race at 3.899 also in the blue lane. Detailed Results

Race 4: Wizzard Storms (IROC) (18v)

This very cool IROC set was provided by Webster Motorsports and, while noisy, they are very fast and stick like glue to the rails. Even at 18v they are very nearly drone cars but not quite, as many of us found out the hard way.

This final race was a dog fight between Jordan Walker and Home Cook’n. Not sure why Jordan fought so hard but I think he was on a mission to solidify the fact that he was now an Expert class driver. I think George spent much of this last race cheering and coaching Jordan on.

In the end, the battle ended on the same lap with Jordan coming up just a few feet short of the win–close! George finished a few laps down but was very pleased with Jordan’s results on the day. When this kid focuses on the task at hand, he’s unstoppable—congrats to Jordan on winning the Sportsman points chase and advancing to the Expert ranks!

While Kevin Webster didn’t come out on top in the final race, he did manage to set a new lap record for this car in the blue lane with a 3.755—nice!
Detailed Results

2023 50/50 Racing Series Overall Results

That’s a wrap for this year’s 50/50 racing series. Jordan Walker advances to the Expert ranks for the next series, which means both classes should experience an increase in competition. I don’t think we ever determined who the 2022 season Rookie of the Year was but this season’s ROTY is still up for grabs while Abe Maddox pretty much has the Junior of the Year award all but in the bag.

Thank you all for supporting the racing program so far this season! Kathy and I really appreciate your support and interest!

Stay tuned for details on our next series and open track days coming up soon.

Okay, shut up and drive!