After a grueling four-event racing series, on both road and oval courses, the best “drivers” have emerged.
IROC racing removes the advantage of a particular type or build of car and determines the best overall driver by pure driving and adapting abilities.
In IROC racing each driver has to drive a fixed car on each lane for a set number of laps or rotations. The driver is not allowed to change the car other than clean the tires and pickup shoes between each segment.
In the Stewart Raceway IROC series, all kinds of different cars, courses, and race formats were utilized to determine which drivers best adapted to the varied conditions and scored the most points in four different race day events.
Today, the following drivers were enshrined on the Stewart Raceway “Wall of Fame” for outstanding achievement in a very competitive racing series:
On a cold, windy, and rainy day in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the four top drivers in the series took the green flag for the final round of the 2022 IROC Champs Series.
The final round of the series for the Expert class was never really a question, George Peters came into the final round with an insurmountable lead in points. The big question was who was going to win the Sportsman class honors.
Kevin Webster came into the final round with a 23-point advantage over Rookie of the Year candidate, Jerry Pearson. With a maximum of 64 points and a minimum of 28 points available in this final round, Jerry had a reasonably good shot at overtaking Kevin for top honors and taking home the 2022 IROC Champs trophy.
Unfortunately, the bad weather and road conditions prevented Jerry from making the potentially hazardous trek to Stewart Raceway to compete in the finale. As a result, Kevin Webster didn’t even have to finish the final event to secure his place on the Stewart Raceway Wall of Fame.
Congratulations to Kevin Webster and George Peters, 2022 IROC Champions! And, congrats to 2021 Rookie of the Year, Brad Sandahl for winning the final round of this hard-fought series.
Short Story Summary
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Brad Sandahl
386
50
4668.871
2
George Peters
381
46
4671.36
3
Kevin Webster
354
28
4662.525
*
Steve Stewart
399
64
4557.734
Race 1: Wizzard Storm Extremes courtesy of Kevin Webster’s stable of fine cars. (15v)
These are actually pretty cool magnet cars and easy to drive. The race wasn’t all that eventful after the first segment, which was quite a dogfight between all drivers. The rest of the race was pretty much a broken record with no lead or place changes but a very close race between the top three expert drivers. (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Brad Sandahl
98
13
970.665
2
George Peters
97
11
983.099
3
Kevin Webster
90
7
968.232
*
Steve Stewart
100
16
926.601
Race 2: MegaG+ 1.7 Super Modifieds
Recently updated from zero-downforce cars to L42 magnet cars, the MTS 3D-printed Super Modifieds are quite a bit faster and much more stable on the road course. Brad Sandahl and Kevin Webster burst from the starting line in this race to take 1-2 in the first segment.
Home Cook’n would recapture the lead after the second segment while George Peters overtook Kevin Webster for 3rd place. Brad stayed very close to Home Cook’n throughout the race but had some bad luck in the final segment in the blue lane, which forced him to have to settle for runner-up spot but valuable points towards the overall. (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Brad Sandahl
96
13
1434.589
2
George Peters
93
11
1447.717
3
Kevin Webster
89
7
1435.581
*
Steve Stewart
99
16
1428.958
Race 3: Viper-Jet SPEC JET
The third race of the day was the VSR Viper-Jet utilizing a Maximum Leeway Lexan body. Brad Sandahl would suffer not only a flaky car in his first segment in the white lane but also a controller malfunction that forced him to replace it in the middle of the race. Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster, took advantage of the mayhem and secured a nice second-place finish in the second segment. George Peters stayed steady and smooth throughout the race and would secure the second podium spot while Brad Sandahl recovered nicely for the final podium spot. (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
George Peters
93
13
1320.942
2
Brad Sandahl
92
11
1345.123
3
Kevin Webster
89
7
1335.915
*
Steve Stewart
100
16
1308.07
Race 4: Jag Hobbies TR-3 Augorans (15v)
The final race of the series was the always fast and exciting Jag TR-3. These are slightly upgraded from the stock configuration so a bit faster but smoother to drive.
This one was yet another dogfight between the three expert drivers with Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster, letting it all hang out trying to hang with the trio in every segment. Brad Sandahl stayed focused and determined and finished the day with a nice placing just ahead of George Peters by two laps and winning the final segment. (Details)
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Brad Sandahl
100
13
918.494
2
George Peters
98
11
919.602
3
Kevin Webster
86
7
922.797
*
Steve Stewart
100
16
894.105
Kevin obviously pleased with his efforts this season.
All in all, it was a great day of racing. Kevin secured his Sportsman IROC Champs victory by finishing well in all the races and hanging tough with a field of ALL expert drivers battling each other every lap in the finale.
George Peters secured his IROC Champs victory by showing up for all the races and garnering the lion’s share of points, as he typically does every chance he gets to race.
Georgie claims he doesn’t have room for all the hardware he’s amassed this season. I think he took it home anyway.
Hats off to Brad Sandahl today, he’s in only his second year of slot car racing and is clearly a force to be reckoned with, both now and well into the future.
So how did the “Squeeze Lane” section change work out? Well, I think we only had a couple of incidences that resulted in crashes. We’ll leave that addition in the road course for a while and see what it yields.
2022 IROC Champs Overall Final Standings
Place
Name
Class
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
George Peters
Exp
1415
199
12128.93
2
Kevin Webster
Sport
1315
126
12274.78
3
Brad Sandahl
Exp
746
92
8000.819
4
Jerry Pearson
Sport
641
75
5416.834
5
Eric Lane
Sport
915
69
7651.906
6
Jordan Walker
Sport
372
29
1608.379
7
Martha Elderon
Sport
204
9
1020.019
*
Steve Stewart
Exp
1463
253
11894.73
Sportsman Class
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
Kevin Webster
1315
126
12274.78
2
Jerry Pearson
641
75
5416.834
3
Eric Lane
915
69
7651.906
4
Jordan Walker
372
29
1608.379
5
Martha Elderon
204
9
1020.019
Expert Class
Place
Name
Laps
Points
Total Time
1
George Peters
1415
199
12128.93
2
Brad Sandahl
746
92
8000.819
*
Steve Stewart
1463
253
11894.73
* Home Cook’n results are not factored in the series points. Owning the track means enjoying a massive advantage. And even more so when you build and/or maintain many of the IROC cars being contested.
Stay tuned for details on a possible open track day before the end of the 2022 season. This race likely concludes our “official” racing season for 2022. Stay tuned for season points standings, rookie of the year, and other accolades.
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.
Added a couple more statistics tables and updated track records from the last race, which were many since we haven’t raced some of the cars on the oval before.
The new Driver stats are total Race wins and total Race Segment wins by track and layout. Sadly, SlotTrak doesn’t allow driver class distinction. I’d have to do some time-consuming database management stuff to break things down by Expert and Sportsman ranking. I’ll try to work on that at some point, sorry.
Much more to add, for sure. The next stats will likely be driver rankings by points. Could also go by season and possibly by series.
If you can think of any other metrics you’d like to see, please let me know.
The series finale is almost upon us and the trophies are being prepared now.
Round 4 will be run on the SR3 road course but with a surprise “twist” to add some more complexity to the already challenging series for the drivers.
The final round is slated for Saturday, November 26, 2022 but may be delayed until after Thanksgiving, depending on the availability of drivers over the holiday weekend, of course.
The schedule is in the works and will be announced soon. Please PM the Race Director if you have a conflict or otherwise can’t make this final round date.
IROC Championship Series Points Standings After Round 3:
Today, the following drivers were enshrined on the Stewart Raceway “Wall of Fame” for outstanding achievement in a very competitive racing series:
On a cold, windy, and rainy day in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the four top drivers in the series took the green flag for the final round of the 2022 IROC Champs Series.
These are actually pretty cool magnet cars and easy to drive. The race wasn’t all that eventful after the first segment, which was quite a dogfight between all drivers. The rest of the race was pretty much a broken record with no lead or place changes but a very close race between the top three expert drivers. (
Recently updated from zero-downforce cars to L42 magnet cars, the MTS 3D-printed Super Modifieds are quite a bit faster and much more stable on the road course. Brad Sandahl and Kevin Webster burst from the starting line in this race to take 1-2 in the first segment.
The third race of the day was the VSR Viper-Jet utilizing a Maximum Leeway Lexan body. Brad Sandahl would suffer not only a flaky car in his first segment in the white lane but also a controller malfunction that forced him to replace it in the middle of the race. Sportsman driver, Kevin Webster, took advantage of the mayhem and secured a nice second-place finish in the second segment. George Peters stayed steady and smooth throughout the race and would secure the second podium spot while Brad Sandahl recovered nicely for the final podium spot. (
The final race of the series was the always fast and exciting Jag TR-3. These are slightly upgraded from the stock configuration so a bit faster but smoother to drive.
Added a couple more statistics tables and updated track records from the last race, which were many since we haven’t raced some of the cars on the oval before.
The series finale is almost upon us and the trophies are being prepared now.