Stewart Raceway III – Page 11

Track Day Report, October 14, 2023

Well, it was kind of a staggered day with Team Maddox showing up in the AM and doing a bunch of testing laps and one full rotation race. Shaylin Maddox won the only race we did, which I think is her first full race win–Way to go!

Abe Maddox seemed to be a bit distracted but wasn’t too far off. He also won a heat or two. Shaylin and Abe were both running Viper V-SPEC cars while I was running a bone-stock MegaG+ with a “paper” Whelen Modified body.

Normally, a V-SPEC Viper would blow the doors off a stock MegaG+ 1.7 car. However, with the paper body, the chassis is much faster and handles significantly better. Still working on the paper body design for the 1.7 MG+ but I am getting close to a simple and easy-to-install version. I’m focusing on a USAC Whelen Modified style first and will look at other designs once I sort out what works and what doesn’t.

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Shaylin Maddox	174	83	2428.881
2	Steve Stewart	178	81	2443.839
3	Abe Maddox	158	76	2452.908

Later in the day, Aaron Castro showed up to test some MegaG+ cars and got to meet most of Team Maddox as they were getting ready to roll towards home. Webster Motorsports showed up shortly after Aaron’s arrival.

Team Maddox departing was a bummer but they accomplished their goals and had a great track day. The good news was we still had three drivers on the track so we did a bunch of hot lapping and then clicked off one Viper V-SPEC rotation race. The racing was very close with Aaron bagging second place overall and Kevin Webster very, very close.

We decided to tech the cars to show Aaron the process. Both Kevin’s and Aaron’s cars were relatively close in both dyno numbers and downforce, while Home Cookn’s car was substantially better in both categories.

Turns out, both drivers were running out-of-the box V-SPEC chassis’ with only timing adjustments. Kevin’s car was actually running retarded timing, which is good for small home tracks and tight courses. Aaron’s car was running fairly neutral timing. Both cars had stock Razor front ends and stock PST rear tires.

Of course, advancing the end bell timing makes a big difference in off-the-corner and straightaway speeds, installing smaller profile rear tires increases downforce considerably, and an independent front-end improves corner speed.

All this made me realize that most of our Sportsman drivers are probably running bone-stock Viper V-SPEC cars, which can be very competitive but obviously inferior to a properly setup HOPRA SPEC RACER chassis, which are the only V-SPEC rules we run at Stewart Raceway right now.

Maybe we need to revive the HOPRA SPEC STOCK class. Pretty much the same rules as SPEC RACER but is restricted to hardbodies and no adjustable brush barrels. Independent front-ends are still allowed but that is not a big game changer.

Any other ideas out there? I think the SPEC RACER rules are pretty basic but it looks like we need to bring some parity to the Viper V-SPEC class racing.

Okay, shut up and drive!

A Track Day Racing Fest

Just a few drivers showed up for this one but we sure did a whole lot of racing. Our newest driver, Aaron Castro, braved the Beachcomber traffic and got to the track around 12:40. Webster MotoSports arrived around noon so we got to business by 1:00.

Kevin and I were dinking around with “paper” bodies for various chassis’ when Aaron arrived. Cheap but not without their own issues. Paper bodies have been around for years. The draw is the customization possible and almost zero weight. The plan is to come up with a simple template that anyone could use to make a body. Of course, paper bodies are primarily intended for a body-clip chassis, replacing heavy and expensive plastic or 3D-printed hard bodies.

Once we figure out a workable design we’ll move the material to some thin synthetic material, which will be obviously more durable and easier to secure to the chassis.

On To Racing Action

I won’t bore you all with details but we did seven (7) Dash races, all on the same lane assignment, and all 40 laps. Aaron won the first race running our MegaG+ Support Class cars and he won the last race running Wizzard Storm Extreme cars, courtesy of Webster Motorsports. As you can see, the racing was very close and the cars were all vastly different, from very loose Box Stock TFX cars to Wizzard Storm Extreme magnet cars, we did a lot of racing for a track day.

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	239	98	2932.967
2	Aaron Castro	236	82	2954.773
3	Kevin Webster	216	66	2950.298

A very fun track day in spite of the heat wave. We stayed on SR3 instead of going indoors and enjoying SR2 in an air-conditioned environment. Had the fans going and the doors wide open.

Thanks for showing up, guys!

Track Day Report

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.

Okay, shut up and drive.

Track Day Report: Team Racing

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 11:30 Class: Viper V-SPEC SPEC RACER
Segment Length (laps): 10 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 12:07 Class: Viper V-SPEC SPEC RACER
Segment Length (laps): 10 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 12:54 Class: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class
Segment Length (laps): 15 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.

Okay, shut up and drive!

Open Track Day Galore

What an amazing day of slot car action!

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.

Okay, shut up and drive!