The first round of the Summer 50/50 Series is in the books…
The cookbooks, that is. It was a blisteringly hot day, and the heat and beach traffic tolled the paddock and drivers.
In Round 1, we ran on both SR2 and SR3. The first two races were on SR3’s “Fast Esses” course, and the second two races were on SR2’s “Straight” Road Course.
Short Story and Points Standings After Round 1
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 434 | 233 | 2754.266 |
| 2 | Aaron Castro | 415 | 203 | 2698.972 |
| 3 | George Peters | 408 | 194 | 2696.241 |
| 4 | Jordan Walker | 302 | 133 | 2894.16 |
| 5 | Jerry Pearson | 229 | 106 | 1710.905 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 174 | 89 | 996.869 |
| 7 | Eric Lane | 209 | 76 | 1794.119 |
Only the top three completed the entire program of four races. Between the heat, late arrivals primarily due to beach traffic, and other drama, this round took its toll on the field.
Race 1: MegaG+ 1.7 “Modifieds”
We started off with our paper-bodied MG+ 1.7 Modified cars to get things rolling. Jerry Pearson was on fire in this race, with three second-place segments and one first-place segment. Nice driving, Jerry! Aaron Castro clicked off some blistering laps trying to overtake Jerry in the race’s final laps, tying Jerry on points and laps, but ended up with a slightly longer total runtime. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 118 | 58 | 907.571 |
| 2 | Jerry Pearson | 117 | 55 | 870.327 |
| 3 | Aaron Castro | 117 | 55 | 887.849 |
| 4 | George Peters | 105 | 42 | 874.183 |
| 5 | Eric Lane | 107 | 36 | 950.126 |
| 6 | Jordan Walker | 98 | 36 | 890.816 |
Race 2: Viper Super7 RTR NASCAR IROC Set
Again, Eric Lane graciously donated another 6-car IROC set to the program. This time, they were Viper-built Super 7 chassis with Tyco NASCAR hardbodies. These cars were close to full-punch at 15v (L10 traction mags) but often lost bodies when they came out of the slot. We’ll need to better secure the bodies and remove some of the stock glass.
George Peters was the fastest with these cars, setting the lap record at 5.203 in the Blue Lane. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 119 | 58 | 840.501 |
| 2 | Aaron Castro | 117 | 55 | 815.666 |
| 3 | Jerry Pearson | 112 | 51 | 840.578 |
| 4 | George Peters | 114 | 50 | 849.277 |
| 5 | Eric Lane | 102 | 40 | 843.993 |
| 6 | Jordan Walker | 93 | 28 | 859.448 |
Race 3: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan
After a couple of teams abandoned due to the heat, we moved things indoors and ran the last two races on SR2, in a much cooler environment.
As always, this race was a barn burner. Jordan Walker didn’t make the podium, but he set new lap records for this class and track on every lane, clocking a 2.982 lap in the Blue lane.
It was a heated battle between George Peters and Home Cook’n for the top podium spot. George would tie on points but came up 3-laps short. Newly upgraded Expert driver Kevin Webster would get his first podium as an Expert in Round 1, nice!! Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 97 | 53 | 524.294 |
| 2 | George Peters | 94 | 53 | 495.044 |
| 3 | Kevin Webster | 92 | 45 | 522.821 |
| 4 | Aaron Castro | 89 | 43 | 520.999 |
| 5 | Jordan Walker | 88 | 41 | 501.967 |
Race 4: Viper V-SPEC BOX STOCK Lexan (i) “Fast Lane” Set
To keep things fast and furious, we ran Eric’s previous contribution to the program, a set of Vipers with F1/Indy clip-on Lexan bodies from HCSlots. They are very nice cars, and the first time we’ve run them on SR2.
Before abandoning Round 1, Jordan Walker would click off the fastest lap and establish the SR2 Straight Road Course track record for this platform of 3.119 in the Blue lane. When Jordan’s on, he’s the fastest in the bunch. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 100 | 64 | 481.9 |
| 2 | Aaron Castro | 92 | 50 | 474.458 |
| 3 | George Peters | 95 | 49 | 477.737 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 82 | 44 | 474.048 |
| 5 | Jordan Walker | 23 | 28 | 641.929 |
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the video recording set up properly on either track, so we don’t have anything to share there.
Many of us were affected by the refueling bug on SR2. I’ll try to find time to film the issue and see if I can get help from the SlotTrak folks to resolve it. It only seems to occur when doing track calls without marshals. If we can’t fix it, we won’t do fuel races on SR2.
Round 2 is currently slated for July 20th; stay tuned for details. For sure, focus on your MG+ Modified and Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK cars. The other two “official” races will be IROC.
Thank you all for bearing the heat, traffic, and chaos of Round 1; it was hectic and grueling at times but a fun day of racing. Oh, and thanks to Eric “Fast” Lane for all he does to make our program more fun!
Okay, shut up and drive!
Well, so much for testing, driver development, and working on cars. We raced all day!