News – Stewart Raceway

Memorial Day Double-Header: Team Maddox and Webster Motorsports Dominate

The first event on this glorious Memorial Day was a 200-lap road race on SR3’s Fast Esses course. Team Maddox put on a good showing and brought a new Junior driver, August Feinstein, who did exceptionally well in his first appearance at Stewart Raceway.Abe and August at the controls in the 200-lap event.

Event #1 Short Story

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Shaylin Maddox	195	54	3177.202
2	Steve Stewart	199	53	3180.055
3	Abe Maddox	198	49	3182.646
4	August Feinstein	159	32	3243.437

This race was run with just one marshal and the good ole “Track Call” honor system, which always has its share of trickery. Throughout the race, Team Maddox was always within striking distance of the overall victory, but also battled intensely among themselves. Shaylin and Abe had extremely close segment run-times for the first three segments, with Abe taking 2nd-place in the first 50-lap segment and 1st-place in the third segment. Going into the final segment, Shaylin was down five laps but just 4 points behind the race leader, Home Cook’n, and two points ahead of teammate, Abe Maddox.

In the end, both Abe and Shaylin had perfect 50-lap segments, with Shaylin taking the segment and overall race win, just one point ahead of Home Cook’n. Abe would finish in second place, just a bit over 1 second behind the winner, Shaylin Maddox.Race Director is setting things up as Abe and August anxiously await track power.

New Team Maddox driver, August Feinstein, had his best result in Segment 2, finishing one lap ahead of teammate, Abe Maddox, for 3rd place. August also bested the field in Segment 2 with a fastest lap of 4.922 and the fastest median lap time. Team Maddox had a pretty good day. Details

Event 2 Short Story

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Kevin Webster	238	114	2290.899
2	Dean Donaldson	232	94	2411.522
3	Steve Stewart	120	61	1374.996
4	Jeff Seltzer	116	51	1035.244
5	Bev Seltzer	110	28	1062.906

The second round of the double-header race day included two 120-lap fuel races, one IROC and one Builder class. Team Donaldson, Webster Motorsports, and Seltzer Speed/Marine started the event with a 120-lap MegaG+ Modifieds IROC set at 20v.

Race 1

Webster Motorsports Expert driver, Kevin Webster, dominated this first 120-lap fuel race with three segment wins, consistent driving, and a perfect 120-lap total. New Sportsman driver, Jeff Seltzer, appearing for his second time at Stewart Raceway, had a very good run. Jeff won one segment, finished 2nd in two others, and the fastest median lap time of segment 2. Teammate, Bev Seltzer, clicked off the fastest lap of segment in the Orange lane at 6.024 seconds.

Team Donaldson’s, Dean Donaldson, took the final podium spot with two 2nd places, two 3rds places, and 3rd overall. Dean also clicked off the fastest lap of the race with a 5.753 lap in the Orange lane. Dean only lost one lap throughout the race to Expert driver and winner, Kevin Webster.

Team Seltzer Speed & Marine had a pretty good night but had to cut things short before the final 120-lap race. Given their ever-decreasing lap times and success, I know this team is going to be back at Stewart Raceway. In fact, Bev was practicing pit stops during practice, demonstrating she’s serious about getting on the podium soon. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Kevin Webster	120	61	907.637
2	Jeff Seltzer	116	51	1035.244
3	Dean Donaldson	119	48	1022.595
4	Bev Seltzer	110	28	1062.906

Race 2

The second and final race of the night was, of course, the Builder’s Viper V-SPEC Lexan class. Sportsman, Dean Donaldson, was anxious to try out his new Viper and came out swinging in Segment 1 with the fastest lap and a 2nd place finish against two Expert drivers. In fact, Dean’s total runtime was just .01 seconds more than the segment winner. Unfortunately, Dean had Expert driver, Kevin Webster, breathing down his tailpipes on the last lap, and chose to bag the 2nd place segment points instead. Kevin, realizing he could refuel without losing points, wisely did so. The situation would result in Dean starting the second segment with little fuel, while the other to drivers would start with a full tank.

Dean would lose four laps due to pit stop problems in segment 2, while Kevin Webster clicked off a perfect 30 laps. Dean started segment 3 just four laps down, but tied in points with Kevin at 24. Dean needed a win.

Ultimately, Kevin would win segment 3, putting Dean out of contention. Still, Dean fought hard in the last two segments, only losing one more lap, but unable to overtake Kevin for 2nd place overall. Dean was less than a second behind Kevin in the final segment at the finish line. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	120	61	1374.996
2	Kevin Webster	118	53	1383.262
3	Dean Donaldson	113	46	1388.927

What a great of racing! Thank you all for participating and bringing all the goodies, snacks, dinner, and wine! Congratulations to Jeff Seltzer for his second-place (1st Sportsman) finish in the first 120-lap race. Also, congratulations to Shaylin Maddox for an incredible win in the 200-lap event! Some very fun and competitive racing, for sure.

Okay, shut up and drive!

Interesting Open Track Day

This one started as a small group of four and nearly doubled at Go time! Nine drivers showed up Sunday around noon for some track time.

It was unique because four juniors and five seniors showed up: one new driver to Stewart Raceway and two returning drivers.

Participating Teams:

- - Team Maddox
  - Donaldson Racing
  - Che-Vargas Racing
  - Team Johnson
  - Stewart Racing

The juniors quickly overtook SR3 and began hotlapping on four of the six lanes, leaving the rest of us with limited lane access. We could have set up a rotation, but we opted to fire up SR2 instead.

Jared took over Race Director duties on SR3 and ran a couple of Dash races with the juniors while the rest of us cleaned off SR2 and started to cut laps there. I think Jared might be Deputy Race Director soon.

SR2 was remarkably clean indoors and didn’t take many laps to clean off. We need to do more racing on SR2; it’s a bit hectic with Vipers and other magnet cars, but it’s a fun and challenging track.

So, what was expected to be a small group of drivers getting track time on the SR3 oval turned out to be quite a multifaceted track day.

Our newest driver, Dean Donaldson, once again brought out some engaging vintage HO-scale platforms to try out today. This rig is a Tyco Truck platform that ran well after some oiling and greasing. We need to get three more of these rigs for some IROC fun. Dean and Eric “Fast” Lane are definitely “Pickers.” They’ll get along very well.

We didn’t do much racing, but it was a fun Open Track day. The juniors cut a few laps, Donaldson Racing broke in his new MegaG+ 1.7 Alpha-Romeo F1 car, and Che-Vargas Racing cut some fast laps with Viper V-SPEC L4 cars on SR2.

There’s a back story with Che-Vargas Racing. Joe Vargas has procured the remnants of an SR2 clone track. The copy was created shortly after I designed the layout and had the original SR2 built by Viperscaleracing.com back in July 2018. Joe found the whole track and table somewhere in Sacramento, but they only wanted to sell the track pieces, not the whole table. Anyway, a longer story to tell here, but the bottom line is Joe is working on getting “SR2.2” operational again.

Aaron is also very near to procuring another cool 4-lane routed track. He’ll be driving down to the LA area later this month to check it out. There could be a nice revival of HO-scale racing in the Bay Area soon!

Okay, stay tuned for an email about resuming racing and completing the final round of our 50/50 series. It’ll be an oval event on SR3.

Okay, shut up and drive!

2025 50/50 Series, Round 3 — Not Quite 50/50, But a Fast Day Anyway

A shortened schedule, but some good fast racing.

Team Rowland debuted its new stable of MegaG+ 1.7 “F1/Indy” and Viper V-SPEC “Porche 917” cars in this series round. Judging by the smiles on their faces all day, they are enjoying their racing and eager to return to racing as soon as possible.

Race 1: Viper-Jet NAStruck Lexan (IROC)

Dave Rowland bagged the top Sportsman podium with a good run of 75 laps and 48 points. Team Maddox bagged the last two Sportsman podium spots, just one point and a few laps behind, despite both Abe and Shaylin each winning a segment outright. Unfortunately, an avoidable software glitch caused Expert’s George Peters and Aaron Castro to sit this race out. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart*	80	64	726.397
2	Dave Rowland	75	48	826.388
3	Shaylin Maddox	71	47	824.679
4	Abe Maddox	70	47	842.062
5	Coe Rowland	73	44	823.209
6	Arlo Roland	63	32	772.229

* Expert

Race 2: MegaG+ 1.7 Modified

A very close race in this class with Aaron winning a very close battle with George in the Expert ranks. Local Junior driver, Abe Maddox drove masterfully, taking 3rd overall and 1st in the Sportsman ranks. Dave Rowland just edged out Shaylin Maddox with a 1st in his final segment. A very close race in this one, as always. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Aaron Castro*	79	59	488.43
2	George Peters*	78	56	500.083
3	Abe Maddox	78	55	527.692
4	Steve Stewart*	79	53	531.205
5	Dave Rowland	74	45	548.616
6	Shaylin Maddox	75	38	546.348
7	Arlo Roland	62	38	517.27
8	Coe Rowland	68	32	568.431

* Expert

Race 3: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan

It’s another always-close race. The Experts duked it out in this one, with George Peters bagging the top Expert podium with three segment wins. Abe Maddox had another great race, winning one segment outright and steadily placing well in each rotation, finishing 4th overall and 1st in the Sportsman class. Teammate Shaylin Maddox edged out hard-charging Dave Rowland for the second Sportsman podium spot. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	George Peters*	100	61	631.616
2	Steve Stewart*	99	59	579.94
3	Aaron Castro*	99	55	604.705
4	Abe Maddox	93	47	633.921
5	Shaylin Maddox	89	42	639.329
6	Dave Rowland	83	42	626.293
7	Coe Rowland	77	38	687.817
8	Arlo Roland	69	32	674.541

All in all, it was a good day of racing and a lot of fun. Thank you all for supporting our racing program and bringing some wonderful snacks to share with everyone. We’ll have to get Shaylin to bring some of her wonderful deviled eggs again, but this time, only share with Kathy if she does a race with us.

NOTE:
In Race 1's Viper-Jet NAStruck race, a new lap record was set in the White lane by Shaylin Maddox, with a blistering 5.626 lap and 2nd overall in the segment. Junior driver Coe Rowland clicked off a new lap record for this car in the Green lane with a 7.374 lap.

Series Points Standings after Round 3:

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
Sportsman
3	Abe Maddox	443	325	1335.726
4	Dave Rowland	410	299	NA
5	Coe Rowland	465	297	NA
6	Arlo Roland	432	275	NA
8	Shaylin Maddox	347	221	751.357
9	Jared Johnson	169	142	1292.315
11	Lucille Rowland	76	47	544.134
12	Matthew Johnson	67	42	518.012
13	Eric Lane	66	40	498.861
14	Cameron Bill	50	32	411.714
15	Madeline Johnson	54	28	507.557
Expert
1	Steve Stewart	427	366	1620.116
2	George Peters	416	349	2777.139
7	Aaron Castro	317	234	1961.979
10	Jerry Pearson	79	58	496.859

Hopefully, we can pull off Round 4 next weekend; we’ll see what happens. Round 5 will likely be an oval race on SR2 or SR3.

Okay, shut up and drive!

A Blast From The Past

A neighbor brought over a couple of rare finds from an estate sale he recently attended. These are very old, early Aurora Model Motoring cars. They were manufactured sometime in 1960 and were unopened in their original factory packaging.

A Mercedes Benz and a Ford Thunderbird.The original foam packaging inserts were way deteriorated and falling apart, and the plastic yellowing, but the cars were in remarkably good shape and both ran and took a bunch of laps on SR3.While they are similar to their younger sibling, the Aurora Thunderjet later manufactured in 1962, they are very different. I think these cars were called “Vibrators,” hence the strange drum and noise mechanism.

These cars wouldn’t have had much success in racing circles since they were pretty much throw-away once you wore out the pickup shoes or motor brushes. Cool little cars ran a lot like the original 1962 Aurora ThunderJet, probably a bit slower since the motor appeared to be a bit different, and they have some sort of noise-making mechanism, which probably reduces overall speed and power output. My neighbor plans to sell them on eBay soon and likely didn’t want me tearing into them, so I didn’t. I am curious how much different the motor box is from the later Thunderjet platform. If I ever see them again, I’ll ask him if I can remove the top plate to look closer. Maybe he’ll come across a couple more, and we could all do some IROC racing with them. They are so slow that you have to try hard to crash them.

Thanks for sharing, Dean!

2024 Racing Season Ends Without Drama

Our final “official” race day of the season ended with just three races but not the drama expected.

Team Maddox: Abe and new Junior driver, Arlo Roland.

With the Junior and Sportsman categories pretty much settled going into the final race, the only points contest still up in the air was the Expert category. Aaron Castro and George Peters were just eight (8) points apart going into the final day of racing.

Unfortunately, George would come down with a cold after a grueling and crowded week at work and would make the right call to skip the final race. Of course, that left the Expert points leader, Aaron Castro, with a much less stressful day.

Race 1: MegaG+ Modifieds

We had also expected a fierce battle between Team Maddox driver, Shaylin Maddox and Team Fast Lane’s, Eric Lane. That battle seemed to get off to a roaring start in the day’s first race. Shaylin bested Eric by just four points in the MegaG+ Modified class, 40 points to Eric’s 36 points. Abe Maddox would finish the race with three 3rd place segment finishes and a win in the final segment, just ahead of a hard-charging Expert driver, Jerry Pearson. With that success, Team Maddox decided to pack in for the day and would not continue. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Aaron Castro	80	61	607.119
2	Jerry Pearson	79	58	513.648
3	Steve Stewart	76	58	607.263
4	Abe Maddox	72	49	523.955
5	Kevin Webster	74	46	645.044
6	Shaylin Maddox	69	40	619.259
7	Eric Lane	61	36	530.198
8	Arlo Roland	58	28	534.319

Abe Maddox had a fantastic race, winning the final segment and placing 4th overall! Abe’s good friend, Arlo Roland, showed up with Team Maddox and got in an hour or so of practice just before the day’s first race. Arlo took to the various cars and racing quite quickly. Unfortunately, due to the rotation mix, Arlo only got to race directly against Abe in the final segment. Abe came in for his final rotation on the White lane and Arlo finished his rotation in the Blue lane. Arlo’s fastest lap was a 6.129 in the Orange lane. Based on his ear-to-ear grin during and after the race, we expect him to return to Stewart Raceway soon.

Race 2: Viper Super 7 GT40’s Team Forza IROC Set

With Team Maddox accomplishing their team objectives and calling it a day, the rest of us continued the program and started Race 2.

With all the points chases settled, it was all about just having fun and enjoying the always competitive racing with pretty much out-of-the-box cars.

These particular cars are fascinating. They drive like an L4 Viper V-SPEC but have L10 traction magnets. Everything feels great until they release the rails and hit things very hard. You have to know your limits and not go too far over. The RaceMasters GT40 hardbodies are beautiful!

Eric Lane blew out of the starting grid, clicked off two 3rds and a 2nd place finish in this one, and was constantly in the rearview mirrors of all who led the race. Ultimately, the Experts were fortunate to stay ahead of the hard-charging Sportsman driver. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	80	61	520.077
2	Aaron Castro	80	53	522.537
3	Jerry Pearson	77	51	521.222
4	Eric Lane	71	42	530.944
5	Kevin Webster	67	28	527.117

Race 3: Viper V-SPEC “SPECSTOCK” Lexan

The final race of the day! This one was quite the barnburner. Every driver moved into 2nd place during this one, and all set some very high-speed laps.

Home Cook’n clicked off the fastest lap of the race at 4.720 in the White lane, Aaron Castro clicked off the next fastest lap at 4.787 in the Blue lane, and speedster Jerry Pearson clicked off a 4.804 in the White lane. Amazingly, no new track records were set. I’m sure things would have been different if George Peters had been in the mix. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	80	64	476.556
2	Aaron Castro	78	53	482.049
3	Jerry Pearson	76	48	490.225
4	Eric Lane	68	38	476.035
5	Kevin Webster	67	32	487.768

Eric Lane hung in there against the Experts, finishing just off the podium in 4th against some seriously fast competition. Eric and Expert driver Kevin Webster were duking it out in the final segment for the 4th place position. Eric’s fastest lap was 5.277 to Kevin’s 5.252 fastest lap. Unfortunately, Kevin ran out of fuel, and Eric got enough points and laps to drop Kevin to the bottom of the leaderboard. Eric looks to be the dominate Sportsman driver going into the 2025 racing season.

Overall, it was a great day of racing and just hanging out. Thanks to everyone who brought things to share, especially Fast Lane Racing. The leaded and unleaded egg nog was excellent!

That’s it for the official 2024 racing season at Stewart Raceway. To close out the 2024 season (or open the 2025 season), we hope to open the tracks soon for a casual track day, a Potluck, and an end-of-season awards presentation. Stay tuned for a quick survey on the best Saturday to do it.

2024 Final Points Standings

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
Junior
1	Abe Maddox	726	292	4941.803
2	Matthew Johnson	387	124	2051.404
3	Madeline Johnson	233	113	2139.46
4	Arlo Roland	58	28	534.319
Sportsman
1	Eric Lane	1795	625	11500.96
2	Shaylin Maddox	610	237	3756.218
3	Jared Johnson	440	136	2057.271
4	Olga Rossetta	328	107	2805.608
5	Dave Feber	107	45	808.723
6	William Mansfield	112	42	830.412
7	Pam Ebert	77	32	695.404
Expert
1	Aaron Castro	4109	1868	26048.36
2	George Peters	3345	1581	23406.74
3	Kevin Webster	2778	1184	21778.82
4	Jerry Pearson	2466	1052	15666.05
5	Jordan Walker	1242	415	8073.09
	Steve Stewart	4384	2137	27791.13