Just a few drivers showed up for this one but we sure did a whole lot of racing. Our newest driver, Aaron Castro, braved the Beachcomber traffic and got to the track around 12:40. Webster MotoSports arrived around noon so we got to business by 1:00.
Kevin and I were dinking around with “paper” bodies for various chassis’ when Aaron arrived. Cheap but not without their own issues. Paper bodies have been around for years. The draw is the customization possible and almost zero weight. The plan is to come up with a simple template that anyone could use to make a body. Of course, paper bodies are primarily intended for a body-clip chassis, replacing heavy and expensive plastic or 3D-printed hard bodies.
Once we figure out a workable design we’ll move the material to some thin synthetic material, which will be obviously more durable and easier to secure to the chassis.
On To Racing Action
I won’t bore you all with details but we did seven (7) Dash races, all on the same lane assignment, and all 40 laps. Aaron won the first race running our MegaG+ Support Class cars and he won the last race running Wizzard Storm Extreme cars, courtesy of Webster Motorsports. As you can see, the racing was very close and the cars were all vastly different, from very loose Box Stock TFX cars to Wizzard Storm Extreme magnet cars, we did a lot of racing for a track day.
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
239
98
2932.967
2
Aaron Castro
236
82
2954.773
3
Kevin Webster
216
66
2950.298
A very fun track day in spite of the heat wave. We stayed on SR3 instead of going indoors and enjoying SR2 in an air-conditioned environment. Had the fans going and the doors wide open.
A few hours on the SR3 straight road course and a few races. Team Maddox, Pearson Racing, and Fast Lane Racing showed up to cut some laps and run a few Dash races.
Bottom line: Jerry Pearson dominated the Dash racing with two wins. However, Shaylin Maddox (Abe’s Mom) was so close in second that we needed to review the tapes.
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Jerry Pearson
75
46
1037.239
2
Shaylin Maddox
72
41
1040.78
3
Eric Lane
62
30
1088.66
4
Steve Stewart
56
20
1050.672
5
Abe Maddox
14
11
224.264
6
Grace Maddox
11
7
225.035
Jerry won two of the three but Shaylin won one and was extremely close (1000/sec) in the other two. Both drivers were running Team Fast Lane Vipers. Way close racing!
I’m hoping to get back to some formal racing next weekend. Stay tuned for details on that.
I’m sure some of you have seen these cars out there. RaceMasters has released a few new body styles for the MegaG+ 1.7 chassis. I really like those presented here.
I know buying a car for just the body is silly but these bodies are pretty cool. If you’re planning on purchasing additional MG+ platforms, I’d choose one or more of these. They come with a 1.7 chassis but the bodies are impressive also.
You can find these complete cars out there from $30 plus shipping.
Thank you for coming over and cutting some laps with me!
We had a smaller turnout than expected but the entire Team Maddox crew, Webster Motorsports, and a new driver to Stewart Raceway, Aaron Castro, showed up in force.
Just a bunch of Dash races and a few demo events to show Aaron some features of SlotTrak. But still filled the day with slot car action and went well into the night.
Aaron met Jerry a month ago to purchase a controller Jerry was selling on CL. Jerry must have done an excellent job of promoting Stewart Raceway because Aaron emailed me sometime later and expressed interest in a visit to the track to check things out.
Turns out, Aaron and I raced together way back in the mid to late 1970s in both northern and southern California. Neither one of us remembers each other but we frequented the same tracks during that period–a small world!
A much longer story to share here but the bottom line is that Aaron is all-in on HO slot car racing and could very well be a new venue for our club to expand to. A great guy, a great driver, and an excellent addition to our program. Thanks, Jerry!
Again, thank you all for making it a great day!
That’s all I’ve got for now. I owe Aaron some informational links on some other interesting tracks and info.
We tried something different and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it.
Just three races were preceded by a qualifying session, which paired up the fastest drivers with the slowest drivers for a subsequent team race-off.
Qualifying
Name
Lap Time
Speed (Mph)
Place
Steve Stewart
5.173
631
1
Abe Maddox
5.322
614
2
Jerry Pearson
5.643
579
3
Shaylin Maddox
6.035
541
4
Eric Lane
6.646
491
5
Grace Maddox
11.299
289
6
Kevin Webster
DNS
Junior driver, Abe Maddox was amazingly focused on his qualifying run. His 2nd fastest lap time shows just how much. Jerry Pearson, with the third-fastest time, actually clicked off a blistering 4.9-second lap during qualifying.
Team Race Race-Off
The SR3 road course in team racing action.
So the event format was to pair the fastest qualifiers with the slower qualifiers and set up two-driver teams with the goal of making team racing more challenging and competitive. By the looks of the first team race, the format was very successful.
Second fastest qualifier, Abe Maddox and fifth-fastest qualifier, Eric Lane, were pitted against third-fastest qualifier, Jerry Pearson, and fourth-fastest qualifier Shaylin Maddox in the first team race:
If the above results aren’t a good indicator of just how successful this racing format works, I’m not sure what is. Just 4-points decided the first team race, very close racing!
Team Race Finale
Grace Maddox was amazing in the penultimate team race!
After successfully winning the first team race in the bracket, the Fastrackers team was pitted against the fastest qualifier and the slowest qualifier in the finale.
The finale should have been much closer but junior driver, Grace Maddox, drove a superb race, bagging a second-place and a third-place segment finish and 46 total laps, only 7 laps less than the second-fastest qualifier and her big brother, Abe Maddox– awesome!
Not sure how we decided on the team structure for the last team race but we didn’t qualify. We only had four drivers after Team Maddox had to depart to tend to some other important things (picking up a couple of new kittens). We decided to change up the racing platform from Vipers to to MegaG+ F1 cars for the last race of the day.
This one was interesting with three drivers winning two segments each. However, the “Donuts” team won four total. Eric Lane stepped up at the right time, winning two segments and sealing the deal with 74 of the team’s 156 total points.
Team Competition Points Summary
Track: SR3 Road Course Straight
Date: Sep-02-2023 12:54 Class: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class
Segment Length (laps): 15 Descr:
Team Name:
Dollars
Points
Team Members:
Jerry Pearson(2)
66
Kevin Webster
60
Total Team Points =
126
Team Name:
Donuts
Points
Team Members:
Steve Stewart
82
Eric Lane
74
Total Team Points =
156
So, what did the individual results look like on the day?
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Eric Lane
183
203
1666.433
2
Steve Stewart
148
178
1159.493
3
Abe Maddox(2)
110
142
860.476
4
Jerry Pearson
57
75
449.013
5
Jerry Pearson(2)
82
66
812.677
6
Shaylin Maddox(2)
54
64
470.328
7
Kevin Webster
82
60
833.123
8
Grace Maddox(2)(2)
46
58
399.498
It pays to hang in there and run as many races as you can, way to go, Eric!
Something a little different and lots of fun. Thank you all for showing up and trying something new.
I’m sure some of you have seen these cars out there. RaceMasters has released a few new body styles for the MegaG+ 1.7 chassis. I really like those presented here.
