Race Report: 2024 Summer 50/50 Series, Round 1

The first round of the Summer 50/50 Series is in the books…

The cookbooks, that is. It was a blisteringly hot day, and the heat and beach traffic tolled the paddock and drivers.

In Round 1, we ran on both SR2 and SR3. The first two races were on SR3’s “Fast Esses” course, and the second two races were on SR2’s “Straight” Road Course.

Short Story and Points Standings After Round 1

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	434	233	2754.266
2	Aaron Castro	415	203	2698.972
3	George Peters	408	194	2696.241
4	Jordan Walker	302	133	2894.16
5	Jerry Pearson	229	106	1710.905
6	Kevin Webster	174	89	996.869
7	Eric Lane	209	76	1794.119

Only the top three completed the entire program of four races. Between the heat, late arrivals primarily due to beach traffic, and other drama, this round took its toll on the field.

Race 1: MegaG+ 1.7 “Modifieds”

We started off with our paper-bodied MG+ 1.7 Modified cars to get things rolling. Jerry Pearson was on fire in this race, with three second-place segments and one first-place segment. Nice driving, Jerry!  Aaron Castro clicked off some blistering laps trying to overtake Jerry in the race’s final laps, tying Jerry on points and laps, but ended up with a slightly longer total runtime. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	118	58	907.571
2	Jerry Pearson	117	55	870.327
3	Aaron Castro	117	55	887.849
4	George Peters	105	42	874.183
5	Eric Lane	107	36	950.126
6	Jordan Walker	98	36	890.816

Race 2: Viper Super7 RTR NASCAR IROC Set

Again, Eric Lane graciously donated another 6-car IROC set to the program. This time, they were Viper-built Super 7 chassis with Tyco NASCAR hardbodies. These cars were close to full-punch at 15v (L10 traction mags) but often lost bodies when they came out of the slot. We’ll need to better secure the bodies and remove some of the stock glass.

George Peters was the fastest with these cars, setting the lap record at 5.203 in the Blue Lane. Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	119	58	840.501
2	Aaron Castro	117	55	815.666
3	Jerry Pearson	112	51	840.578
4	George Peters	114	50	849.277
5	Eric Lane	102	40	843.993
6	Jordan Walker	93	28	859.448

Race 3: Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK Lexan

After a couple of teams abandoned due to the heat, we moved things indoors and ran the last two races on SR2, in a much cooler environment.

As always, this race was a barn burner. Jordan Walker didn’t make the podium, but he set new lap records for this class and track on every lane, clocking a 2.982 lap in the Blue lane.

It was a heated battle between George Peters and Home Cook’n for the top podium spot. George would tie on points but came up 3-laps short. Newly upgraded Expert driver Kevin Webster would get his first podium as an Expert in Round 1, nice!!  Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	97	53	524.294
2	George Peters	94	53	495.044
3	Kevin Webster	92	45	522.821
4	Aaron Castro	89	43	520.999
5	Jordan Walker	88	41	501.967

Race 4: Viper V-SPEC BOX STOCK Lexan (i) “Fast Lane” Set

To keep things fast and furious, we ran Eric’s previous contribution to the program, a set of Vipers with F1/Indy clip-on Lexan bodies from HCSlots. They are very nice cars, and the first time we’ve run them on SR2.

Before abandoning Round 1, Jordan Walker would click off the fastest lap and establish the SR2 Straight Road Course track record for this platform of 3.119 in the Blue lane. When Jordan’s on, he’s the fastest in the bunch.  Details

Place	Name	Laps	Points	Total Time
1	Steve Stewart	100	64	481.9
2	Aaron Castro	92	50	474.458
3	George Peters	95	49	477.737
4	Kevin Webster	82	44	474.048
5	Jordan Walker	23	28	641.929

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the video recording set up properly on either track, so we don’t have anything to share there.

Many of us were affected by the refueling bug on SR2. I’ll try to find time to film the issue and see if I can get help from the SlotTrak folks to resolve it. It only seems to occur when doing track calls without marshals. If we can’t fix it, we won’t do fuel races on SR2.

Round 2 is currently slated for July 20th; stay tuned for details. For sure, focus on your MG+ Modified and Viper V-SPEC SPEC STOCK cars. The other two “official” races will be IROC.

Thank you all for bearing the heat, traffic, and chaos of Round 1; it was hectic and grueling at times but a fun day of racing. Oh, and thanks to Eric “Fast”  Lane for all he does to make our program more fun!

Okay, shut up and drive!