2022 IROC Championship Spoils

Left to right: Expert Champ trophy, Sportsman Champ trophy.

Sportsman and Expert trophies await their rightful owners. Will the series be decided this Saturday, December 10? Or will the expected weather and real-life stuff force us to reschedule the finale and just do a track day?

George Peters has the Expert class championship pretty much locked up, while the Sportsman class is still very close between the top three drivers; Kevin Webster, Jerry Pearson, and Eric Lane.

We’ll see who shows up and what the consensus is. In any case, we’re going to do some racing tomorrow and see what this “squeeze” lane section does to the action.

Okay, shut up and drive (safely)!

 

 

Slot Car Racing Video Is Nice!

Still pursuing video recording of races at Stewart Raceway. The initial goal was to display the whole SR2 track on-screen, which was possible using inexpensive cameras. The next goal was to get the Race Management screens/windows in the recordings so viewers could see what the heck is going on.

Thanks to Open Source software developers, and just plain incredible talent in that realm, displaying the race management computer’s screen is possible. In fact, you can even display windows and areas of another remote or local computer’s screen–way cool!

So this video is a 10-lap segment race, utilizing fuel and tire allocation settings of SlotTrak’s RMS. SlotTrak is an amazing race management system.

YouTube player

Let me know your thoughts on this addition to the raceway. We can also do live streaming of race events with this setup. However, we have limits to how much data we can push to the Internet right now. That said, we could certainly live stream special events if warranted.

Okay, shut up and drive!

Video Might Be Nice

Well, I’ve had the equipment for well over a year now so I decided to play around with video recording races. At the moment, I’m trying it out on SR2, which is easier and more comfortable to test and dink around with this stuff.

I’m using cheap CCP 4K cameras, which are not ever going to produce professional looking video, but they are cheap. Right now I’m just focusing on capturing the whole track for the duration of a race. The issue with video is storage, just one heat of a short race can be as much as 10GB of data, depending on the length of the race.

H.O. scale racing adds another complexity in that the cars are the smallest and require the best possible capture resolution, which adds to the storage and video quality problems.

Anyway, this is my first crack at it. I need to work with my lighting director and improve in that area but it looks like–with a bit more tweaking–we can record a full race and be able to replay it, not only for posterity, but for entertainment and forensic evaluation afterwards.

YouTube player

Theoretically, I could also include the RMS screen (SlotTrak or RC) in the video, that would be way cool. I’ll work on the that soon.  After that, it’s going higher frame rates and producing good slo-mo action of crashes, starts, and finishes.

Please let me know what you think and any ideas you may have to make this more beneficial to us and our massive race fans.

Okay, shut up and drive!

George Peters Earns Spot On Stewart Raceway Wall Of Fame

The veteran Sportsman driver took home top honors in the final round of the NASCAR MADness Series on August 6, 2022. George not only won the five-race series, but he also won the Concours d’ Elegance competition as well.

George led the series from the end of the very first round and maintained a commanding lead in the points going into the final round. The only thing that could have stopped George from winning the series was his “real job” or a Shark’s game. Neither scenario played out, and George took the checkers in the final segment of the series well ahead of his closest rivals. Welcome to the Stewart Raceway Wall of Fame, George.

George’s Texaco Star Concours winner.

Congrats to George for winning his first series at Stewart Raceway and taking home the prestigious Concours d’ Elegance trophy. It is certainly rare when a driver not only wins races but also wins them in style. George produced a number of beautiful cars that were judged by both peers and independent judges to be the best detailed and crafted cars entered in several events throughout the series.

George’s MAC Tools NASTruck Concours winner.

The good news for Sportsman drivers is that George now has an average placing score that elevates him to an Expert driver classification. The bad news is that Expert drivers have yet another formidable driver to contend with on race day.

Okay, shut up and drive!

 

 

 

 

Race Report: 2022 NASCAR MADness Series, Round 4

Despite a bunch of drivers out of town and one canceling due to illness, we managed to pull off Round 4 on the SR3 oval.

We skipped the Concourse d’Elegance competition in favor of running four races before Jerry Pearson had to bail out. In total, we ran the usual six races, including a couple of fuel races.

Short story, George Peters—again—dominated. However, this time, George dominated the Sportsman and Expert classes overall!

Round 4 Overall Results
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 695 90 4912.85
2 Jordan Walker 597 62 4973.59
3 Jerry Pearson 404 32 3717.331
2 Steve Stewart ♦ 695 84 4915.27
Race 1: Tyco 440-X2 Wide-Pan NASCAR Bodies

These cars are fast and fun to drive. Basically a Tomahawk with a NASCAR-style hardbody instead of Lexan, these things rip. Georgie started out the day winning three of four segments in this first race on points and by one lap to second place. Jerry Pearson drove well as Georgie and Home Cook’n battled and pushed each other to three new oval lap records. In fact, Jerry set a new lap record in the green lane with a 2.393-second lap!  Detailed Results

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 100 16 963.01
2 Steve Stewart 99 13 965.633
3 Jerry Pearson 92 11 996.669
4 Jordan Walker 79 7 990.532
Race #2: Jag NC-2 Lite NASCAR Bodies (BOX STOCK)
Georgie actually won this race with car #4!

Close racing by all and action-packed. Georgie won two segments and in the end, stole the show by approximately 8-seconds in total run time for the win. Jordan and Jerry also had a barn-burner race going on for the final podium spot with Jordan besting Jerry by just two laps, their run times were almost identical. Details 

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 100 16 446.763
2 Steve Stewart 100 13 455.275
3 Jordan Walker 84 11 454.147
4 Jerry Pearson 82 7 454.661
Race #3: VSR Viper V-SPEC (SPEC RACER) **Feature**

Another amazingly competitive race. While George and Home Cook’n were busy trying to seal the deal, Jordan Walker slyly won the final two heats of this double-rotation feature event.  Jerry got a good feel for what it’s like racing the fastest car we run. But always an uphill battle when the veterans are pushing each other so hard. He hung in there and, hopefully, gained some valuable experience in our premier class. Jordan showed how much he likes the V-SPEC car with brilliant driving in the last two segments of the feature event. Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 199 16 885.022
2 George Peters 199 13 885.74
3 Jordan Walker 188 11 888.635
4 Jerry Pearson 162 7 889.773
Race #4: Jag PR-5 Lite (BOX STOCK)

Georgie and Home Cook’n battled it out again in the PR-5 race with Home Cook’n besting Georgie by just four laps. Pretty much carbon copy segments in this one. Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 100 16 1357.812
2 George Peters 96 13 1368.245
3 Jordan Walker 78 11 1369.561
4 Jerry Pearson 68 7 1376.228
Race #5: GP Designs AFX M/T “Mercs” IROC

Georgie’s venerable Merc Jalopies. Fast and loose cars and very fun to drive.  Georgie dominated this one also, winning two of the four segments and the overall by one lap.  Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 100 16 580.288
2 Steve Stewart 99 13 574.904
3 Jordan Walker 87 11 595.221
Race #6: OS3 TFX “Lites”

Georgie completely dominated the final race of the day, winning all four segments and overall by two laps.  Details

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 100 16 668.804
2 Steve Stewart 98 13 676.624
3 Jordan Walker 81 11 675.494

All in all, a very good day of racing and a bunch of new oval lap records. Congrats to George for a very productive Round 4!

Series Points Standings after Round 4:
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 3088 297 26542.46
2 Jordan Walker 1903 126 19503.4
3 Kevin Webster 1899 151 16994.23
4 Jerry Pearson 1175 81 14225.5
1 Brad Sandahl ♦ 900 55 3561.313
2 Steve Stewart ♦ 3291 353 26011.41

♦ indicates Expert Class driver. Scored separately in series.

The Round 5 Finale is Saturday, August 6!

Okay, shut up and drive!