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.
We finally managed to get Round 4 of this delayed series in the books. We completed Round 3 way back on March 18, 2003!
Yea, We’ve done some “distraction” events since then but that’s quite the gap between rounds, for sure. Throughout the layoff in official racing, we’ve had a number of open track days and quite a few junior/parents team races. Those races have been very successful in generating interest and skills in the hobby from both the parents and the kids.
One of our stand-out junior drivers, Abe Maddox, who has been winning a whole lot of Dash and Team races lately was invited to race Round 4 of the series. Not only has Abe been winning, but his Mom, Shaylin, has also had some very impressive results. Shaylin has steadfastly supported Abe’s slot car racing interest since he cut his first laps on SR3 and often does practice races with us. So, it was no stretch to invite both of them to “officially” race with us in Round 4 of the 50/50 Series.
Our 50/50 Series is always a split between individually-prepared cars and house-prepared IROC-style cars so we started the day with an IROC race.
Race 1: Jag Hobbies NC-2 Mercs (i)
Home Cook’n, Jordan Walker, Jerry Pearson
Team Maddox also brought along Shaylin’s Dad, Fred Ebert, from Chicago. Fred raced 1/24’s back in the day and quickly got back into his groove. Fred won his first segment in green, a second in orange, and then finished up his rotation with a third place in white. Fred also led the race through the first two segments–very nice driving!
Sportsman driver, Jordan Walker, started slow but ended up bagging two segment wins and took over the lead after segment 2 and held on to it until segment 7. In the end, Jordan Walker hung on to second place and Jerry Pearson edged out Expert driver, George Peters, for the final podium spot. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
120
64
919.592
2
Jordan Walker
114
52
1036.892
3
Jerry Pearson
111
51
1035.574
4
George Peters
111
50
955.726
5
Fred Ebert
106
47
1044.919
6
Kevin Webster
105
42
979.928
7
Shaylin Maddox
95
38
956.091
8
Abe Maddox
93
32
1052.479
Race 2: Viper V-SPEC “SPEC RACER” Lexan GTP
Because Team Maddox had to depart early, we decided to run the Viper “SPEC RACER” class early. Eric Lane had graciously provided a brand-new RaceMasters MegaG+ 454 Chevelle car to the winner of the MegaG+ support class, which was slated for the second race of the day. However, we decided to run the super-fast Viper V-SPEC race instead of the scheduled MegaG+ Support Class. The intent was to give Abe a shot at winning the prize MegaG+ car.
Abe didn’t waste any time getting down to business and took the checkers in the first segment of Race 2. Abe was on fire, setting the fastest lap of the segment, well over a second faster than his grandpa, Fred Ebert, with the second fastest lap. Abe would remain in the top three through the fastest race of the day until the end of the fifth segment. While Abe fought hard and stayed focused–even while sitting out for several rotations–he came up short in Segment 7 with only 14 laps. He fought hard in his final segment and was able to complete 22 of a possible 25 laps but came up short in terms of points and finished the race sixth overall, just 10 points shy of a podium spot.
To just report on this guy is inspiring. At 6 years old, he’s racing with some serious slot heads and does amazingly well! Not just winning heats or segments, he wins races!
Home Cook’n, Jordan Walker, George Peters
Yes, on this day the veteran drivers managed to fill the podium in a very hotly contested race. Jordan Walker drove superbly besting his Dad, Expert driver, George Peters, by just one point. Abe didn’t outright win the race but the podium finishers all agreed that the ‘Eric “Fast” Lane’ prize belonged to Abe Maddox. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
100
64
522.7
2
Jordan Walker
97
56
609.21
3
George Peters
100
55
522.464
4
Kevin Webster
97
50
599.636
5
Jerry Pearson
91
46
556.491
6
Abe Maddox
81
45
595.15
7
Fred Ebert
83
32
613.493
8
Shaylin Maddox
73
28
558.639
Race 3: Mega-G+ 1.7 Support Class
Hoe Cook’n, Kevin Webster, George Peters
With Team Maddox and Jerry Pearson vacating the premises after Race 2, we lost some serious competition and also corner marshals. The last two races were run with track call buttons, no marshals.
The MegaG+ 1.7 class has been an amazing addition to our program. The rules are HOPRA “BOX STOCK,” which is basically an out-of-the-package car with just tire changes allowed. This makes for some very close and competitive racing. This one did not disappoint.
The detailed results show an utter dogfight between Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster and Expert driver, George Peters. Both drivers split the four segments with two 2nd-place finishes each. In the end, they tied in total points but Kevin edged George out by just one lap. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
100
64
1150.184
2
Kevin Webster
98
48
1166.924
3
George Peters
97
48
1162.137
4
Jordan Walker
90
28
1168.967
Race 4: Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy 1.7 (i) Lexan
Home Cook’n, George Peters, Jordan Walker
The final race was all “Eric Lane” Viper V-SPEC F1/Indy cars with Harden Creek Lexan bodies. We tried to run these cars, which originally had Viper F1/Indy hard bodies, which were simply just too fragile and broke like cheap glass at the slightest wall or Lexan barrier hit.
The Lexan tape-attached bodies had some adhesion issues but, for the most part, worked far better than the plastic bodies.
This final race of the day was actually one of the closest races. As always, George Peters, was way focused on besting Home Cook’n and Sportsman drivers, Kevin Webster and Jordan Walker were in a heated points battle for the Sportsman series win.
While George was putting massive pressure on Home Cook’n, Jordan and Kevin were duking it out for the remaining points. It was a fuel race, which adds an element of strategy and luck to the mix. George is a very clever driver when it comes to timing pit stops and calculating how to utilize the variable to his advantage.
None of that seemed to matter to Kevin and Jordan as they swapped 3rd and 4th place points every segment. In the end, Jordan would end up with the 3rd spot on the podium but did not increase his points lead over Kevin, both ending the race with 36 points. Detailed Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart
100
64
1284.906
2
George Peters
97
52
1294.554
3
Jordan Walker
91
36
1299.672
4
Kevin Webster
90
36
1301.433
The points gap between Sportsman drivers, Jordan and Kevin, is now only 11 points. Round 5 is going to be a barn burner between the two drivers. The winner gets a mondo trophy and advances to the Expert class.
Points Standings after Round 4:
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Steve Stewart*
1521
425
11379.8
2
George Peters*
1491
367
11029.06
3
Jordan Walker
1387
270
11642.62
4
Kevin Webster
1166
259
10880.77
5
Jerry Pearson
847
146
6362.813
6
Fred Ebert
189
79
1658.412
7
Abe Maddox
174
77
1647.629
8
Shaylin Maddox
168
66
1514.73
9
Eric Lane
687
51
4394.271
10
Shaun Lee*
466
51
1629.418
11
Martha Elderon
411
29
4115.863
12
Tim Bisson
126
6
1366.187
13
Jake Bisson
89
4
1250.72
It’s all about points. The last race is really between Jordan Walker and Kevin Webster. That is going to be an epic battle, for sure.
Team Maddox driver, Fred Ebert, is sitting in 6th place after only one visit to Stewart Raceway, which is very impressive. Not sure he’ll hang around town for the final round but he’s definitely a formidable slot head, no doubt.
Okay, next weekend is an open track day on Saturday. Kids and parents are welcome. Stay tuned for more details. Looks like the following weekend will work for the final round of the series.
Eric Lane showed up first in his family sedan, a Corvette C8, with some new Viper F1 hardbodies to test. Then Team Maddox showed up in full force and didn’t waste much time with open practice, they came to race!
As is becoming the norm, Abe quickly established himself with his favorite car (a Viper V-SPEC) and won the first four races handily.
Abe’s winning ways were only interrupted twice on the day by “Home Cook’n.” Though others came close and pressured him at times. Abe won five of the seven races and was pretty much on fire–as usual.
Abe’s Mom, Shaylin, was very close though and would finish 3rd overall on the day. Kevin Webster joined us for the last two races taking 3rd in Race #6 and 2nd place in Race #7.
We were doing Dash races (no rotations) with various fuel allocations to practice for fuel events. Abe is amazingly clever and very good at all aspects of slot car racing. Can’t wait to see how he does with qualifying.
Overall Results (7 Races)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Abe Maddox
291
110
3407.607
2
Steve Stewart
282
98
3404.726
3
Shaylin Maddox
253
69
3451.186
4
Kevin Webster
116
24
1543.379
5
Grace Maddox
50
21
688.851
Kevin figured out that Shaylin’s controller was acting sporadic, which may be why she didn’t do as well as she usually does. Pro Controller next time!
After Team Maddox finished their press briefing and left the facilities, Team Johnson showed up in force. Dad, Jared, pulled in with their transporter and Matthew and Madeline got straight to business cutting laps. Jared cut some very respectable laps with a 440-X2 Narrow car and Madeline put down the most laps in the session with 516 laps! Matthew is our youngest junior driver but he managed to cut a bunch of laps also.
What a day! I’m digging the neighborhood interest in this cool hobby and am very pleased to see everyone progressing in skill and enjoying themselves. Thank you all for supporting Stewart Raceway!
Abe celebrating his top-step podium after winning eight of nine races on the day. Classic!
No “official” racing this weekend at Stewart Raceway but a few of us were heading up to Roseville to participate in a reasonably rare Saturday race at Roseville Raceway.
The track is owned and operated by Shaun Lee, the owner of another famous track called Shaunadega that once resided here in the Bay Area.
Friday’s open track session was mostly intended for those of us heading to Roseville to race to prepare cars for Saturday’s race. But Team Maddox had other goals for the day.
Abe Maddox, showed up first with his sister, Grace, and Mom, Shaylin. All of whom have raced here before and wanted to get some track time and have some fun. As usual, after a bunch of practice laps, Abe wanted to race. And Mom and Grace were not hard to convince to join in.
Grace and Abe, up-and-coming junior racers!
So we ended up doing nine races, two of which Shaylin and I sat out to marshal for Grace and Abe. In the end, Abe dominated the day with eight wins! Grace won one of the races, besting Abe by just one lap, and Shaylin and me by 5 and 7 respectively.
Overall Results
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Abe Maddox
170
133
1992.64
2
Grace Maddox
127
84
1915.915
3
Shaylin Maddox
105
72
1651.848
4
Steve Stewart
93
52
1590.944
Now it wasn’t exactly a level playing field since Abe was running a Viper V-SPEC, Level 4 car, and Shaylin and Grace were running AFX SuperG+ cars.
The amazing thing about it was that the kids wanted to race and they stayed extremely focused in each of the ~25-lap Dash races. Some we did with fuel, which is also amazing for such young kids to manage successfully. Yes, they’d run out of fuel and overshoot the pits now and then, but then so did Shaylin and I.
Getting smoked by juniors didn’t do much for my confidence going into the next day’s Roseville race but it was very cool to see our neighborhood junior drivers and parents enjoying this old hobby of ours so much.
The plan was just open track for the big kids but hot-shoe junior driver, Abe Maddox, showed up with his awesome Mom, Shaylin, sister Grace, and some delicious snacks to cut some laps with us.
Grace did a bunch of laps with Abe while Shaylin marshaled the practice session. Jerry Pearson, always interested in more track time, shared the track with Abe and Grace while the rest of us worked on cars.
As usual, after Grace got bored with hot lapping, Abe wanted to do some racing. Abe is a guy who likes fast cars so he wanted to race Level 4 Vipers.
Well, nobody objected, so we clicked off three Dash format races and one team race.
Abe didn’t podium any of the races on the day but he did cut several of the fastest laps and was never very far off the pace. Abe is only 6 years old so it’s pretty amazing that he remains focused and competitive with the big kids at that age. In fact, Abe does fuel races also and manages to stay in the hunt every race.
The bigger story on this day, however, was his Mom, Shaylin, who raced three of the four races, including the final team race. We can see why Abe is so talented, his Mom is too!
Shaylin won one of the team race heats and was only two laps off the leader’s pace in the end. Abe was also amazing, only six laps down on the leader.
What an awesome day and a spectacular showing by Team Maddox. In fact, Shaylin and Kevin Webster won the team race, 149 laps to 133 for Abe and I.
Very fun day and cool to see the young guns racing and their parents enjoying the same. Seems to me, Abe and Shaylin are very capable slot car racers and are welcome to race with the big kids anytime.
The SR3 track is open this Friday from 11:00 to ~3:45 for open practice.
We finally managed to get Round 4 of this delayed series in the books. We completed Round 3 way back on March 18, 2003!
Eric Lane showed up first in his family sedan, a Corvette C8, with some new Viper F1 hardbodies to test. Then Team Maddox showed up in full force and didn’t waste much time with open practice, they came to race!
Getting smoked by juniors didn’t do much for my confidence going into the next day’s Roseville race but it was very cool to see our neighborhood junior drivers and parents enjoying this old hobby of ours so much.
Shaylin won one of the team race heats and was only two laps off the leader’s pace in the end. Abe was also amazing, only six laps down on the leader.