Author: Race Director

Just an old slot car racer and Race Director at Stewart Raceway.

Race Report: 2023 50/50 Series Finale!

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:
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
* Steve Stewart 478 64 2056.569
1 George Peters 466 50 2181.169
2 Jordan Walker 452 40 2059.462
3 Kevin Webster 426 23 2101.951
4 Eric Lane 414 20 2087.702
5 Jerry Pearson 228 18 1107.964
6 Abe Maddox 214 13 1091.765
7 Shaylin Maddox 208 8 1190.751
Race 1: Viper V-SPEC Lexan (SPEC RACER) (15v)
Home Cook’n, George Peters, Jerry Pearson

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

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 120 16 501.24
2 George Peters 118 13 504.73
3 Jerry Pearson 115 11 500.258
4 Abe Maddox 107 7 493.01
5 Kevin Webster 107 6 506.64
6 Jordan Walker 103 5 499.299
7 Eric Lane 103 4 502.194
8 Shaylin Maddox 102 3 574.754
Race 2: Viper V-SPEC 1.7 Indy Lexan (IROC) (15v)
Home Cook’n, George Peters, Jordan Walker

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

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 120 16 475.604
2 George Peters 116 13 573.481
3 Jordan Walker 115 11 464.487
4 Jerry Pearson 113 7 607.706
5 Abe Maddox 107 6 598.755
6 Shaylin Maddox 106 5 615.997
7 Eric Lane 105 4 472.813
8 Kevin Webster 104 3 510.164
Race 3: MegaG+ 1.7 Indy/F1 Support Class (18v)
Home Cook’n, George Peters, Jordan Walker

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

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 119 16 580.522
2 George Peters 117 13 591.233
3 Jordan Walker 115 11 583.594
4 Kevin Webster 110 7 571.422
5 Eric Lane 104 6 608.389
Race 4: Wizzard Storms (IROC) (18v)
Home Cook’n, Jordan Walker, George Peters

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

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 119 16 499.203
2 Jordan Walker 119 13 512.082
3 George Peters 115 11 511.725
4 Kevin Webster 105 7 513.725
5 Eric Lane 102 6 504.306
2023 50/50 Racing Series Overall Results
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
* Steve Stewart 1999 489 13436.37
1 George Peters 1957 417 13210.23
2 Jordan Walker 1839 310 13702.08
3 Kevin Webster 1592 282 12982.72
4 Jerry Pearson 1075 164 7470.777
5 Abe Maddox 388 90 2739.394
6 Fred Ebert 189 79 1658.412
7 Shaylin Maddox 376 74 2705.481
8 Eric Lane 1101 71 6481.973
9 Shaun Lee 466 51 1629.418
10 Martha Elderon 411 29 4115.863
11 Tim Bisson 126 6 1366.187
12 Jake Bisson 89 4 1250.72

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!

GP Designs Bodies to Debut in 50/50 Series Finale

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Right-click on any image and open in new tab for a closer look.

George Peters created some very nice Lexan bodies for various drivers competing in the final round of the 2023 50/50 Series on July 8, 2023.

George had some time on his hands last weekend and instead of hanging with us for a track day, he cranked out these very sweet bodies at home in his paint shop.

Shaylin Maddox
Abe Maddox
George Peters
Jordan Walker
Jerry Pearson

GP Designs Has Been Busy…

Left to Right: Jerry’s, Abe’s, Shaylin’s, Georgie’s, Jordan’s. (Right-click and open in a new window for a larger image.)

Some new bodies George painted up for the Viper V-SPEC class. We’re working on trimming and pinning now. Should be ready for the Final round of our 2023 50/50 Series this weekend. Stay tuned for more pics.

Which one will win the Concourse prize?

Open Track Day Galore

Abe celebrating win two on the day.

What an amazing day of slot car action!

The plan was to run all day exclusively on the 4-lane SR2 track. We started on SR2’s straight road course and did a bunch of hot laps before the usual suspects wanted to do some racing.

This was the first time in almost two years that we were running anything on the SR2 table. It took quite a few laps to clean the rails and get the cobwebs off the track. Due to a technical issue, we ran both practice and the only race on SR2 using Race Coordinator software, which did the job but had a couple of issues. Regardless, we were able to click off a race of six 25-lap heats using Kevin Webster’s Wizzard Storm Extreme IROC set.

Finish Seed Driver Laps Score L1 L2 L3 L 4
1 1 Abe Maddox 87 18 7 11 16 16
2 4 Steve Stewart 94 18 11 16 13 13
3 3 Martha Elderon 91 18 7 7 16 16
4 5 Shaylin Maddox 88 17 11 7 13 16
5 2 Jerry Pearson 94 15 11 11 13 13
6 6 Kevin Webster 86 15 7 7 13 11

Just a fun race but it was very, very competitive. Abe won two heats and Martha Elderon won two heats. Only Kevin and I had experience on SR2 so it was quite impressive to see the new drivers do so well on the different course. Detailed Results

Abe’s Mom, Shaylin, wins the final heat of the Wizzard Storm race on SR2.

As seems to be the trend these days, Abe won on points and Martha bagged the final podium spot just three laps down on Home Cook’n. Not to be outdone by Abe, his Mom, Shaylin won the final heat with a perfect score of 25 laps.

Matthew Johnson didn’t race but he sure did a bunch of laps.

Abe was eager to get back to the SR3 course and let his Viper car rip. After a bunch of laps on SR3 with a whole new slew of drivers, Abe continued his dominance on the day by winning the second race on SR3. It wasn’t exactly a level playing field since Abe was running a Viper V-SPEC rig against mostly less capable cars. But Abe remained focused as ever and managed to edge out his schoolmate, Dax Schwartz, by just two laps. Madeline Johnson was just three laps behind Dax. Dax’s brother, Julian Schwartz, was just one lap behind Madeline. Extremely close racing by our neighborhood junior drivers!

Visiting adult driver, Andrew Noske, from Australia, did very well in his first-ever slot car race posting the second-fastest lap of the race! Thanks for joining us, Andrew!  Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Abe Maddox 40 17 364.271
2 Dax Schwartz 38 13 369.306
3 Madeline Johnson 35 11 370.117
4 Julian Schwartz 34 7 372.34
5 Andrew Noske 32 6 369.146

Okay, there it is. A beautiful day in the mountains, with a fantastic group of slotheads, and some seriously competitive and fun racing.

The juniors picking up their Hot Wheels hardware and medals.

Next weekend is the final round of the 2023 50/50 Series. Sportsman drivers, Jordan Walker and Kevin Webster are just eleven points apart in the series. Round 5 should decide which driver wins the series and moves on to the Expert ranks of our hobby. Best of luck to both drivers! The final round will be run on SR2 and will include at least two fuel races.

Okay, shut up and drive!

Race Report: 2023 50/50 Racing Series, Round 4 — Finally!

We finally managed to get Round 4 of this delayed series in the books. We completed Round 3 way back on March 18, 2003!

Yea, We’ve done some “distraction” events since then but that’s quite the gap between rounds, for sure. Throughout the layoff in official racing, we’ve had a number of open track days and quite a few junior/parents team races. Those races have been very successful in generating interest and skills in the hobby from both the parents and the kids.

One of our stand-out junior drivers, Abe Maddox, who has been winning a whole lot of Dash and Team races lately was invited to race Round 4 of the series. Not only has Abe been winning, but his Mom, Shaylin, has also had some very impressive results. Shaylin has steadfastly supported Abe’s slot car racing interest since he cut his first laps on SR3 and often does practice races with us. So, it was no stretch to invite both of them to “officially” race with us in Round 4 of the 50/50 Series.

Our 50/50 Series is always a split between individually-prepared cars and house-prepared IROC-style cars so we started the day with an IROC race.

Race 1: Jag Hobbies NC-2 Mercs (i)

Home Cook’n, Jordan Walker, Jerry Pearson

Team Maddox also brought along Shaylin’s Dad, Fred Ebert, from Chicago. Fred raced 1/24’s back in the day and quickly got back into his groove. Fred won his first segment in green, a second in orange, and then finished up his rotation with a third place in white. Fred also led the race through the first two segments–very nice driving!

Sportsman driver, Jordan Walker, started slow but ended up bagging two segment wins and took over the lead after segment 2 and held on to it until segment 7. In the end, Jordan Walker hung on to second place and Jerry Pearson edged out Expert driver, George Peters, for the final podium spot. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 120 64 919.592
2 Jordan Walker 114 52 1036.892
3 Jerry Pearson 111 51 1035.574
4 George Peters 111 50 955.726
5 Fred Ebert 106 47 1044.919
6 Kevin Webster 105 42 979.928
7 Shaylin Maddox 95 38 956.091
8 Abe Maddox 93 32 1052.479
Race 2: Viper V-SPEC “SPEC RACER” Lexan GTP

Because Team Maddox had to depart early, we decided to run the Viper “SPEC RACER” class early. Eric Lane had graciously provided a brand-new RaceMasters MegaG+ 454 Chevelle car to the winner of the MegaG+ support class, which was slated for the second race of the day.  However, we decided to run the super-fast Viper V-SPEC race instead of the scheduled MegaG+ Support Class. The intent was to give Abe a shot at winning the prize MegaG+ car.

Abe didn’t waste any time getting down to business and took the checkers in the first segment of Race 2. Abe was on fire, setting the fastest lap of the segment, well over a second faster than his grandpa, Fred Ebert, with the second fastest lap. Abe would remain in the top three through the fastest race of the day until the end of the fifth segment. While Abe fought hard and stayed focused–even while sitting out for several rotations–he came up short in Segment 7 with only 14 laps. He fought hard in his final segment and was able to complete 22 of a possible 25 laps but came up short in terms of points and finished the race sixth overall, just 10 points shy of a podium spot.

To just report on this guy is inspiring. At 6 years old, he’s racing with some serious slot heads and does amazingly well! Not just winning heats or segments, he wins races!

Home Cook’n, Jordan Walker, George Peters

Yes, on this day the veteran drivers managed to fill the podium in a very hotly contested race. Jordan Walker drove superbly besting his Dad, Expert driver, George Peters, by just one point. Abe didn’t outright win the race but the podium finishers all agreed that the ‘Eric “Fast” Lane’ prize belonged to Abe Maddox. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 100 64 522.7
2 Jordan Walker 97 56 609.21
3 George Peters 100 55 522.464
4 Kevin Webster 97 50 599.636
5 Jerry Pearson 91 46 556.491
6 Abe Maddox 81 45 595.15
7 Fred Ebert 83 32 613.493
8 Shaylin Maddox 73 28 558.639
Race 3: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class

Hoe Cook’n, Kevin Webster, George Peters

With Team Maddox and Jerry Pearson vacating the premises after Race 2, we lost some serious competition and also corner marshals. The last two races were run with track call buttons, no marshals.

The MegaG+ 1.7 class has been an amazing addition to our program. The rules are HOPRA “BOX STOCK,” which is basically an out-of-the-package car with just tire changes allowed. This makes for some very close and competitive racing. This one did not disappoint.

The detailed results show an utter dogfight between Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster and Expert driver, George Peters. Both drivers split the four segments with two 2nd-place finishes each. In the end, they tied in total points but Kevin edged George out by just one lap. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 100 64 1150.184
2 Kevin Webster 98 48 1166.924
3 George Peters 97 48 1162.137
4 Jordan Walker 90 28 1168.967
Race 4: Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy 1.7 (i) Lexan

Home Cook’n, George Peters, Jordan Walker

The final race was all “Eric Lane” Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy cars with Harden Creek Lexan bodies. We tried to run these cars, which originally had Viper F1/Indy hard bodies, which were simply just too fragile and broke like cheap glass at the slightest wall or Lexan barrier hit.

The Lexan tape-attached bodies had some adhesion issues but, for the most part, worked far better than the plastic bodies.

This final race of the day was actually one of the closest races. As always, George Peters, was way focused on besting Home Cook’n and Sportsman drivers, Kevin Webster and Jordan Walker were in a heated points battle for the Sportsman series win.

While George was putting massive pressure on Home Cook’n, Jordan and Kevin were duking it out for the remaining points. It was a fuel race, which adds an element of strategy and luck to the mix. George is a very clever driver when it comes to timing pit stops and calculating how to utilize the variable to his advantage.

None of that seemed to matter to Kevin and Jordan as they swapped 3rd and 4th place points every segment. In the end, Jordan would end up with the 3rd spot on the podium but did not increase his points lead over Kevin, both ending the race with 36 points. Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 100 64 1284.906
2 George Peters 97 52 1294.554
3 Jordan Walker 91 36 1299.672
4 Kevin Webster 90 36 1301.433

The points gap between Sportsman drivers, Jordan and Kevin, is now only 11 points. Round 5 is going to be a barn burner between the two drivers. The winner gets a mondo trophy and advances to the Expert class.

Points Standings after Round 4:
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart* 1521 425 11379.8
2 George Peters* 1491 367 11029.06
3 Jordan Walker 1387 270 11642.62
4 Kevin Webster 1166 259 10880.77
5 Jerry Pearson 847 146 6362.813
6 Fred Ebert 189 79 1658.412
7 Abe Maddox 174 77 1647.629
8 Shaylin Maddox 168 66 1514.73
9 Eric Lane 687 51 4394.271
10 Shaun Lee* 466 51 1629.418
11 Martha Elderon 411 29 4115.863
12 Tim Bisson 126 6 1366.187
13 Jake Bisson 89 4 1250.72

It’s all about points. The last race is really between Jordan Walker and Kevin Webster. That is going to be an epic battle, for sure.

Team Maddox driver, Fred Ebert, is sitting in 6th place after only one visit to Stewart Raceway, which is very impressive. Not sure he’ll hang around town for the final round but he’s definitely a formidable slot head, no doubt.

Okay, next weekend is an open track day on Saturday. Kids and parents are welcome. Stay tuned for more details. Looks like the following weekend will work for the final round of the series.

Okay, shut up and drive!