Wow! We had a total of nine (9) drivers show up for this track day event.
It was quite a mix of all the various skill levels but we decided to do a couple of open races with Experts, Sportsman, and juniors participating.
The big story was awarding Kevin Webster (Webster Motorsports) his 2023 Sportsman Championship trophy. Kevin had five (5) race wins during the season and managed to make an appearance at most of the races, which collected valuable points towards the 2023 championship.
Kevin has yet another plaque on the Stewart Raceway Wall of Fame. With an average placing of 3.5, Kevin is a player in not only the Sportsman class but also a frequent podium finisher against Expert-class drivers. Congrats, Kevin!
So back to the racing. We were supposed to work on some skill-building for Sportsman and Junior drivers but everybody wanted to race. What better way to develop skills than just flat-out racing each other?
The first race was way fun. We utilized Eric “Fast” Lane’s Ford Econoline and Dodge Tradesman IROC Vans with MegaG+ 1.7 chassis’. These cars are fairly quick and very top-heavy, which made for some driving challenges for all of us.
In the end, George Peters won the race with some superb driving against the hard-charging Sportsman driver, Jerry Pearson, and home-track favorite, Home Cook’n. Everybody had a blast driving Eric’s Vans despite a few issues with body retention and a couple of cars that were quite a handful to drive.
The highlight of the first race was Eric Lane and Kevin Webster battling it out in the final segment. Both drivers finished the final segment on the same lap (25) and just an inch or so apart as they crossed the finish line in 1st and 2nd. Amazing!
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | George Peters | 143 | 77 | 1478.292 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 144 | 74 | 1447.122 |
| 3 | Jerry Pearson | 137 | 67 | 1453.532 |
| 4 | Eric Lane | 132 | 65 | 1513.803 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 138 | 64 | 1538.08 |
| 6 | Matthew Johnson | 121 | 49 | 1539.587 |
| 7 | Madeline Johnson | 120 | 44 | 1498.206 |
| 8 | Shaylin Maddox | 125 | 42 | 1482.958 |
| 9 | Abe Maddox | 123 | 40 | 1563.437 |
Again, we didn’t get much mentoring or skills-building done in between races and went right into the final race of the day. This time, we decided to use a set of house 440-X2 wide-pan chassis’ with late-model sportsman Lexan bodies. These cars have seen a lot of laps with guest and junior drivers this season and were not in the best shape for competitive IROC racing.
Despite a couple of issues, we forged ahead and completed another IROC race. This time it was Home Cook’n who came out on top by just two laps over George Peters in second. As usual, Kevin Webster bagged the last podium step only nine laps down on the top two finishers.
The notable result of this race was Junior driver, Abe Maddox, besting Sportsman driver, Jerry Pearson, by just one point in fourth place. In fact, other than Madeline Johnson spending more time practicing fuel stops instead of racing, the last race was incredibly close with just 10 laps separating the field.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 100 | 64 | 754.995 |
| 2 | George Peters | 98 | 61 | 702.631 |
| 3 | Kevin Webster | 91 | 48 | 763.299 |
| 4 | Abe Maddox | 86 | 45 | 778.729 |
| 5 | Jerry Pearson | 98 | 44 | 839.809 |
| 6 | Shaylin Maddox | 87 | 44 | 728.629 |
| 7 | Eric Lane | 90 | 36 | 802.219 |
| 8 | Madeline Johnson | 77 | 34 | 724.444 |
What a great day of fun racing and hanging out with a great bunch of slot car racers. We’ll try to do at least one more track day before we kick-off the 2024 racing season. Stay tuned for details.
Okay, shut up and drive!
