HOPRA held their National Championships back in June. They had 0ver 100 drivers totaling over 500 entries in their various classes.
We run HOPRA rules at Stewart Raceway. We currently only run two platforms today that are almost always raced at the Nationals: the Viper V-SPEC Lexan car, aka: SPEC RACER; and the Viper-Jet Lexan car, aka: SPEC JET classes.
I suspect next year HOPRA will roll out OS3 TFX rules. No idea what those rules will look like. Hopefully, our TFX Modified class is in the ballpark.
HOPRA also runs a support race using the Mega G+ platforms at the NATS, employing BOX STOCK rules. We don’t run this car other than IROC but it’s a simple and good driving platform and one that all of us have a few of. Maybe we should consider adding it to our active platforms?
So much for the pool party component. The kids focused mostly on driving little cars. Probably because the temps were actually very nice and the pool just didn’t attract as much attention.
We didn’t have any trouble filling the lanes for this event. We actually had eight drivers and eight marshals at the start of the event and six drivers and three marshals for the start of the race. As you can imagine, we needed more than three marshals for this event. However, many of the parents were busy interacting with neighbors they hadn’t met yet or hadn’t seen for quite a while, and missed much of the action-packed, mayhem-filled race.
This little guy at the lower left is a slot car natural!
Regardless, we started the kid’s race with a full slate of six racers, ages 3.5 to 12 years. Surprisingly, the younger kids were amazingly focused and did remarkably well considering they’d never even heard of a slot car until their sudden immersion on Saturday.
How’d they do? Well, they didn’t complete the entire race (only 4 out of 6 segments) but it was amazingly close with the top driver completing a total of 48 laps and the bottom driver clicking off 34 laps. That’s actually pretty close considering the age gaps and all the distractions they dealt with.
After the race and dinner, the kids wanted to run some more laps. Check out the lap count in the orange lane–amazing!
Unfortunately, the Race Director failed to disable the track call buttons, and the kids who knew about them thoroughly abused them. This made for a much longer race but actually worked out okay since we didn’t quite have enough marshals to cover all the crash action.
Thank goodness SR3 supports independent lane voltages. This allowed us to throttle down the younger kid’s cars, which helped them tremendously. But it was a lot of work manually changing voltages as the drivers rotated from lane to lane.
I must say I was impressed with the focus and driving skills that these kids displayed. Most of them never lost focus and completed an amazing amount of laps. And they were way competitive, always wanting to know what place they were in (and when the race ended :).
I must also say that marshaling a kid’s race is hard work! Six active lanes and mostly only two marshals are definitely ingredients for a fatiguing day. I’ll need to adjust the rules and make all drivers have to commit at least one parent to be a turn marshal.
All that said, I’m all in on doing it again. These wonderful kids are the future of slot car racing and our world in general. I’m happy to provide them with a fun family environment and to spend time with their great parents and my neighbors. Way fun!
Thank you all for helping make this event happen. I hope everybody enjoyed the get-together and we do it again soon!
Yea, I know, nobody in our club has any kids that qualify for this event.
Our neighbor’s kids and our grandsons will fill the field, and hopefully, a few more neighborhood kids also.
Just 20-lap segments, one rotation, on the SR3 straight road course. All participants receive a medal and valuable track time on SR3. Oh, and they get to swim all afternoon and enjoy a BBQ.
Now I need to find a bomb-proof IROC set to pull this off with…
We lost Brad, George, Randy, Jared, and even Kevin could not commit by the 8:00 pm deadline. Sorry to Jerry, who was all-in on at least a few races. I’ll work on having an open track day soon.
Normally, I would have held the race with just three of us but my roofing tear-off uncovered a bunch of issues that need tending to. So I thought I’d better cancel this Saturday’s race and focus on that stuff. Hopefully done with the roof project by the next shot at Round 3.
While Round 2 was expected to see a full field of drivers, five were unable to appear for Saturday’s event.
The good news was four drivers rolled through the gates in time to start racing. Well, actually a couple strolled through the gates due to a landscaping crew blocking the entrance to Stewart Raceway.
Anyway, we got a bit of a late start but with only four drivers, the schedule would certainly get compressed. In fact, after the first race, we shut down the two gutter lanes and started racing with just four of the six lanes on SR3.
The short story is George Peters remains the series points leader after two rounds. While the summary results tell a different story, the battle for this round was a lot closer. In fact, several races were lost on the final lap or final corner. That’s exciting racing!
Overall Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
George Peters
565
78
6145.547
2
Kevin Webster
521
66
6182.358
3
Jerry Pearson
260
21
3487.966
4
Steve Stewart
589
96
6017.514
Round 2 was NASCAR racing on the SR3 road course, which meant slightly shorter segments but still six races, including a feature race of 150-laps with Jag Hobbies NC-2 cars with NASCAR livery.
Race 1: Tyco 440-X2 “Wide-Pan” Stock Cars (15v)
Home Cook’n, George Peters, Kevin Webster
Jerry Pearson started out his racing debut with a solid second-place finish in the first heat and a very close Run Time to the winner of the heat. The number 7 Lumina body was lowered by GP Designs (George) and worked quite well. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
120
16
1131.07
2
George Peters
111
13
1162.899
3
Kevin Webster
102
11
1160.71
4
Jerry Pearson
95
7
1224.1
Race 2: OS3 TFX “Lites” NASCAR Bodies (18v)
This was Jerry’s first crack at a “gravity car” race but he actually did pretty well, staying very close in total laps for many heats and increasing his lap times throughout the race. George–again– was very close and he had the best median lap time. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
120
16
1497.009
2
George Peters
111
13
1537.096
3
Kevin Webster
106
11
1532.322
4
Jerry Pearson
99
7
1545.817
Race 3: Jag Hobbies TR-3 Augorans (IROC) (15v)
This was another hotly contested race with George and Kevin Webster both winning heats and Jerry besting Kevin by one lap in the final segment. The TR-3’s used are slightly hopped-up with Jag IFE fronts and DF rear wheels. Details
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
79
16
710.183
2
George Peters
79
13
720.339
3
Kevin Webster
71
11
759.035
4
Jerry Pearson
66
7
718.049
Race 4: Jag Hobbies NC-2 “Lites” NASCAR Livery (15v)
The”Feature”race was another barn-burner with plenty of drama and controversy. We lost Jerry after the lone IROC race but the three remaining drivers soldiered on through the rest of the schedule using only three lanes and Call Buttons to manage the racing.
Home Cook’n clearly had the better car in the feature race thanks to the use of a Johnny Lightning Thunderjet500 “Pull-Back” snap-on body. We use some of their screw-on bodies for the TFX cars. They make two versions: one for T-Jet screw-on bodies; and one for snap-on AFX bodies. There was some discussion after the races about this body not being commercially available but clearly, it is. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
150
16
1388.062
2
George Peters
144
13
1422.24
3
Kevin Webster
137
11
1413.449
Race 5: Jag Hobbies PR-5 “Lites” NASCAR Livery (15v)
Yet another hotly contested race with George Peters very narrowly losing this one to Home Cook’n again. Kevin Webster kept up the good fight, only losing a couple of laps per segment, but first and second were both neck and neck on total laps and just two seconds separating them at the finish–that’s close!! Details
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
60
16
697.351
2
George Peters
60
13
699.638
3
Kevin Webster
53
11
709.432
Race 6: Viper-Jet (SPEC JET) NASCAR Livery (12v)Â
The final race of the day was nearly a repeat of Race 5, with only tenths of a second separating George Peters and Home Cook’n in the final two segments. Kevin Webster remained focused but didn’t have a Lexan body prepared and was forced to run a hardbody, which is obviously a disadvantage in this class.
This was also a “Concourse” race, in which George easily bagged those style points with a nicely prepared Lexan Lumina (middle). Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
60
16
593.839
2
George Peters
60
13
603.335
3
Kevin Webster
52
11
607.41
Again, thank all of you who braved the heat and beach traffic to come out in the sticks and race little cars with us. Round 3 of the NASCAR MADness Series is slated for June 25, 2022. Stay tuned for details.
So much for the pool party component. The kids focused mostly on driving little cars. Probably because the temps were actually very nice and the pool just didn’t attract as much attention.
Yea, I know, nobody in our club has any kids that qualify for this event.
While Round 2 was expected to see a full field of drivers, five were unable to appear for Saturday’s event.
This was also a “Concourse” race, in which George easily bagged those style points with a nicely prepared Lexan Lumina (middle).Â