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.
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:
Team Competition Points Summary
Track: SR3 Road Course Straight
Date: Sep-02-2023 11:30Â Â Â Class: Viper V-SPEC SPEC RACER
Segment Length (laps): 10Â Â Â Descr:
Team Name:
Cat People
Points
Team Members:
Jerry Pearson
75
Shaylin Maddox(2)
64
Total Team Points =
139
Team Name:
FastTrackers
Points
Team Members:
Abe Maddox(2)
76
Eric Lane
67
Total Team Points =
143
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!
Team Competition Points Summary
Track: SR3 Road Course Straight
Date: Sep-02-2023 12:07Â Â Â Class: Viper V-SPEC SPEC RACER
Segment Length (laps): 10Â Â Â Descr:
Team Name:
Fastrackers
Points
Team Members:
Abe Maddox(2)
66
Eric Lane
62
Total Team Points =
128
Team Name:
Silly Pickles
Points
Team Members:
Steve Stewart
96
Grace Maddox(2)(2)
58
Total Team Points =
154
Team Race #3
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 12:54Â Â Â Class: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class
Segment Length (laps): 15Â Â Â 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.
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.
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.
Wow, what a barn-burner day. This was the final round of this long-running series and it sure wasn’t short on drama.
