Yeah, we thought we had enough to make it official but a couple of teams didn’t make the start. Nevertheless, four of us (and later three) made the best of the ready-to-go SR3 “Fast Esses” road course and clicked off seven “unofficial” races on the day!
I won’t bore you with the details but we stuck to magnet cars and had a blast racing until just after 7:00 PM.
Jag NC-2’s with AW Mustang bodies – Home Cook’n, Jerry Pearson, Aaron Castro (IROC) MG+ 1.7 Modifieds – Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Jerry Pearson Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Jerry Pearson – Viper V-SPEC “SPEC STOCK” LexanWizzard Storm P3’s – Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Kevin WebsterLate Model Dirt Cars (440X2 wide-pans) – Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Kevin WebsterThe venerable MG 1.5 with GT-40 hardbodies – Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Kevin WebsterWebster Motorsports MG+ 1.7 1970 Camaros – Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, Kevin Webster
All of these cars were awesome to race and only Kevin had a bad heat because of car/controller issues. Racing was very close in all events and the two Sportsman drivers certainly gave Home Cook’n a run for his money all day.
Okay, I finally updated the driver stats on the site. A few interesting metrics are available at the moment:
Driver average placing for both races and heats/segments, and driver’s total laps, for each track and layout.
Driver total race wins.
Driver total heat/segment wins.
I think I have a good system for doing this now so I should be able to keep this data updated going forward. Please let me know in the comments section below if you can think of any other interesting metrics to report. I’m no SQL guru but I love dinking around with this stuff.
So who’s the most prolific driver in our group? If you exclude our expert drivers, junior driver, Abe Maddox has the most race and segment wins.
The one race of the day podium: Jared Johnson, Abe Maddox, Madeline Johnson
For a holiday weekend, there sure wasn’t a shortage of racers available. Team Johnson showed up first and got in a bunch of laps before Team Maddox arrived to heat things even more.
Mostly hotlapping and practice with Madeline Johnson having the most laps in practice. As expected, the practice and hotlapping got a little boring and many wanted to do some actual racing. So we setup a race with all six drivers, full rotation, no fueling, and 20-lap heats.
With juniors and adults in this one, it was going to be a team race between Team Johnson and Team Maddox. Racing with juniors is always interesting, especially with this bunch. Team Johnson had two junior drivers, Team Maddox had two junior drivers. So, one adult driver and two junior drivers for each team.
To make it fairer, we set the max lane voltage to 12v instead of 15v. The juniors could decide what voltage they wanted to run. The younger juniors settled on 9 or 10v. It was an IROC race using Jag Hobbies Augoran TR-3 cars, only slightly modified cars but fast and stuck.
With only one marshal to support the whole track, we had quite a few yellow flag situations but it worked out pretty well and everybody finished!
Superstar Junior driver, Abe Maddox bursted into the lead early on, leading the race for the first two heats with Jared Johnson a very close second. In the third of six heats, Jared took over the lead in the race and kept it from then on. In the fifth heat, Abe seemed to have trouble and would lose six laps to Jared. After the first two heats it looked like the boys were going to dominate things with Abe, Jared, and Mathew Johnson comfortably in the top three spots.
Shaylin Maddox was having none of that and fought hard to get into third place through heats 3 and 5 and looked like she was certain to hang on to the final podium spot. In an amazing performance, Madeline Johnson would win the fifth and the final sixth heat, catapulting her ahead of Shaylin and bagging the final podium spot in a very hard-fought and chaotic race.
Wow! A very impressive performance by everyone. Very cool to see the junior drivers focus so well and take advantage of opportunities to improve their results.
In the end, even though he would finish the race with the hardest car and one of the hardest lanes (red), Jared remained focused on the task at hand and held onto his solid lead, taking the checkered flag ahead of hard-charging junior, Abe Maddox. Shaylin Maddox narrowly missed the podium by just one lap and one point.
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Jared Johnson
115
85
1038.928
2
Abe Maddox
110
72
1049.459
3
Madeline Johnson
93
60
1055.91
4
Shaylin Maddox
92
59
1060.096
5
Matthew Johnson
61
38
1144.309
6
Grace Maddox
69
34
1073.986
Awesome track day! Thank you all for supporting Stewart Raceway, especially on a holiday weekend!
Next Saturday is round 4 of the 2023 50/50 Xtreme Series. Right now I don’t have enough confirmed RSVPs for round 5, so round 4 could be the finale, we’ll see what happens.
Abe Maddox pointing out his 1161 laps in practice before round 3.
Race 1: Johnny Lightning “Shaunadega” Vintage NASCAR (IROC) 18v
JL “Shaunadega” NASCAR podium: Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, George Peters
George Peter’s dragged these cool cars out of his archives to run on the SR3 oval. They did not disappoint anybody. These cars are a hoot to drive, fast, and loose, but very predictable. The venerable pancake motor with vintage NASCAR bodies is a blast to race on an oval. The main battle in this one was between Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, and George Peters, with Aaron finishing a close second and on the same lap as the winner. A secondary battle was going on between Sportsman drivers, Kevin Webster and Shaylin Maddox. Shaylin had never driven the SR3 oval course nor had she ever driven a Johnny Lightning “Shaunadega” car. In the end, Shaylin managed to take third in the final two segments, besting Kevin by four laps and just four points. Great driving! Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
156
59
702.416
2
Aaron Castro
156
55
681.966
3
George Peters*
152
53
697.333
4
Shaylin Maddox
126
36
704.308
5
Kevin Webster
122
32
714.1
Race 2: MegaG+ 1.7 “Modified” 18v
MG+ Modified podium: Hone Cook’n, Aaron Castro, George Peters
This relatively new class has been very interesting and competitive. The “paper” bodies transform the MG+ chassis into a real speedster by virtue of less weight and overall mass, making the MG+ 1.7 platform much more exciting to drive. Unfortunately, Team Maddox had to abandon racing after the first event due to their younger drivers favoring other interests. That would leave just four of us to complete round 3 but it was still hot and heavy racing from then on. Race was yet another barn burner with Aaron Castro putting in a fierce effort to win Race 2. In the end, each segment of the race was identical in terms of finishing order with Aaron finishing on the same lap as the leader again! Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
158
56
405.562
2
Aaron Castro
158
55
405.935
3
George Peters*
154
49
405.545
4
Kevin Webster
141
28
406.317
Race 3: OS3 TFX “Box Stock” 1968 and 70 Camaro Hard Bodies (IROC) 18v
TFX Podium: Aaron Castro, Home Cook’n, George Peters
In the spirit of the Aurora ThunderJet, these cars are completely stock TFX chassis’. Very challenging to drive, even on an oval. Sportsman driver, Aaron Castro, dominated Race 3 winning three of the four segments and clearly demonstrating his diverse driving skills with these fast but loose cars. Expert driver and veteran T-Jet driver, George Peters, fought hard for the win in this one but Aaron clicked off four perfect 40-lap segments and sealed the deal with a convincing win in the final segment. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Aaron Castro
160
61
1029.151
2
Steve Stewart*
155
55
1028.422
3
George Peters*
146
44
1037.697
4
Kevin Webster
120
28
1042.492
Race 4: Viper V-SPEC “SPEC STOCK” Lexan GTP 15v
Viper V-SPEC Podium: Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, George Peters
One of our faster classes, these cars are essentially “box stock” Viper V-SPEC chassis’ with a Lexan body. No other mods are allowed. The fastest cars we ran in Round 3 and probably the most adrenaline-producing of the bunch. The final “official” race of the day was probably the most competitive of all with four very fast V-SPEC cars duking it out on the oval. The big story of the day was the Sportsman points battle between Kevin Webster and Aaron Castro. Kevin was leading the points chase by 21 over Aaron going into Round 3. Kevin knew he wasn’t having his best day going into the final race and was clearly on a mission to salvage the day with a win. Kevin came out of the gate with guns blazing and very fast laps, clinging onto second place until segment 3, when he had a disastrous run in the Blue lane only completing 34 laps. George Peters was in a solid third position until segment 3 when Aaron Castro came out of nowhere and won the segment with a perfect 40 laps completed. That would set the stage for an epic battle in the final segment. In the end, Home Cook’n managed to hold onto a slim 2-lap lead to take the win. The final segment was very close with Aaron and George putting in a perfect 40-laps and Kevin only losing one lap but with the best median lap time of the segment. That’s some very competitive racing, folks. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
158
61
501.295
2
Aaron Castro
156
47
503.668
3
George Peters*
154
40
505.022
4
Kevin Webster
151
40
505.363
Overall Results for Round 3
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
627
231
2637.695
2
Aaron Castro
630
218
2620.72
3
George Peters*
606
186
2645.597
4
Kevin Webster
534
128
2668.272
5
Shaylin Maddox
126
36
704.308
So cool to have Shaylin in the mix. She’s getting better and better each race and adapts amazingly well to every car, layout, and race format we throw at her. Way to go, Shaylin!
2023 50/50 Xtreme Series Points Standings after Round 3
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
1477
686
15573.7
2
Aaron Castro
1456
604
15715.95
3
Kevin Webster
1256
398
16165.68
4
Jerry Pearson
541
190
8600.651
5
George Peters*
606
186
2645.597
6
Eric Lane
339
112
6219.998
7
Martha Elderon
180
60
2304.775
8
Shaylin Maddox
126
36
704.308
By winning one race and coming in a close second in the other three events, Aaron Castro has rocketed into the lead in the Sportsman standings. With two more rounds to go, Kevin Webster is going to need a lot of luck and some very good driving to get back into a series-win position.
Vintage Fray T-Jets podium: Home Cook’n, Aaron Castro, George Peters
We actually didn’t stop racing after the four “official” races. The four of us clicked off four more fuel races, ending with a Fray T-Jet “slip-on” IROC race! Surprisingly, Aaron finished just two laps down on the leader having never raced a Fray car before.
Stay tuned for details on our next events at Stewart Raceway. Next weekend will be an open track and, hopefully, some junior racing. Round 4 of the series will return to the SR3 “Fast Esses” road course.
Well, for just being a track day, we sure did a lot of racing Saturday. Team Pearson, Webster Motorsports, and Castro Racing all showed up to test the new MegaG+ 1.7 “paper” Modified bodies, which by all indications, seem to have been very successful.
The paper bodies make the platform handle much better and most drivers agreed, as did their lap times. Martha Elderon had a fantastic day with the MG+ Modified platform (Jerry’s car), putting in the fastest, best average, and best median lap of the first-ever race for this class. Martha was on fire and finished the race on the podium in third place!
Check out Martha’s lap times with the MegaG+ 1.7 “paper” Modified platform.
While we had enough drivers early on, Team Pearson would exit the paddock shortly after the MG+ Modified race, which left us with just three drivers.
The remaining three of us decided to keep on racing and clicked off four IROC races: TFX “Box Stock” Camaros; Jag TR-3 “Modified” Augorans; Jag “NC-2 “Lites” with George’s old Buick hardbodies; and ended the night with Kevin’s cool Wizzard Storm Extreme set.
Jag Hobbies TR-3 “Modified” with Jag Augoran bodies.
Way fun day and night! Thank you all for supporting the program and making it a very enjoyable event!
We’ll try again next week to complete Round 3 of the 50/50 Xtreme Series, which is expected to be ran on the SR3 oval course.
Okay, shut up and drive!
Typically replies within minutes when available...
Driver average placing for both races and heats/segments, and driver’s total laps, for each track and layout.
