Coming off a big win by Shaylin Maddox in the Memorial Day Double-Header, Team Maddox dazzled the field in the final race with back-to-back segment wins by young gun, Abe Maddox, on Stewart Raceway’s SR3 Fast Esses road course Saturday. Abe loves Vipers, and in his last two rotations of the last race of the day, he demonstrated why. Abe didn’t have a shot at the overall win after the first two segments, but he got down to business in his final two segments and won them both. Abe finished fourth overall, just three points off the podium against four Experts. The future of slot car racing looks pretty good!
We tested out our new “Hot Yellow Flag” feature in all three of the day’s races. While we had enough marshals most of the day, we decided to test this new concept out anyway. Basically, “Hot Yellow” means that when a crash occurs, instead of hitting the space bar and shutting off power to all lanes, the new method lowers the lane power, and the slotted cars continue moving, albeit at a slower pace.
We learned two things very quickly: the yellow flag voltage will need to be a variable based on the type of car being raced. The current software sets the voltage to 9vdc, which we found to be a bit too low for most of the cars we ran. The second thing learned was that going green by changing the voltage from 9vdc to the race speed (15v or 18v) was too abrupt, since most of the cars required the driver to squeeze the trigger 100% to keep it moving at 9vdc. Of course, when the power was fully restored to race voltage, the car would often fly off the corner.
About half the drivers thought it was a cool concept; the other half thought it was horrible. We’ll make some changes to the “Hot Yellow” feature and give it another try soon. The biggest issue I see is that some cars roll faster than others during a hot yellow flag situation. I’m not sure this issue can be resolved with software.
Short Story
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Aaron Castro | 355 | 178 | 3300.945 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 354 | 172 | 3500.741 |
| 3 | Jerry Pearson | 331 | 150 | 3609.024 |
| 4 | Eric Lane | 298 | 122 | 3130.574 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 293 | 106 | 3316.590 |
| 6 | Abe Maddox | 208 | 86 | 2402.182 |
| 7 | Shaylin Maddox | 106 | 32 | 1216.177 |
Expert driver Aaron Castro stayed focused and smooth all day, taking close second-place finishes in the first two races and bagging first place in the day’s final race. Hairball Racing’s, Jerry Pearson completed the day’s podium with consistent segment results and good pit stop strategies.
Race 1: MegaG+ 1.7 “Lites”
We ran the “Lites” class because we were curious to see if the new Senna Lotus AFX/Racemasters hardbodies were faster than the previous Alpha F1 body livery. Unfortunately, none of the Lotus entries finished the race, so we still don’t have an answer to that question. Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 119 | 56 | 1069.301 |
| 2 | Aaron Castro | 117 | 56 | 1050.637 |
| 3 | Jerry Pearson | 116 | 55 | 1026.028 |
| 4 | Kevin Webster | 94 | 36 | 1052.285 |
| 5 | Eric Lane | 84 | 32 | 954.001 |
Race 2: Fast Lane Racing “Scooby Doo” Vans (IROC)
Aaron’s favorite cars and the results show why. Fast Lane Racing’s Eric Lane loves them too. Nice podium finish for Eric! Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Steve Stewart | 118 | 61 | 1283.580 |
| 2 | Aaron Castro | 118 | 61 | 1316.681 |
| 3 | Eric Lane | 105 | 50 | 1371.172 |
| 4 | Jerry Pearson | 100 | 42 | 1395.727 |
| 5 | Abe Maddox | 91 | 36 | 1353.724 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 92 | 32 | 1357.402 |
Race 3: Viper V-SPEC “SPEC STOCK” Lexan
Well, long story short: Aaron stayed focused and smooth through his entire rotation, winning three segments and not finishing worse than 2nd place. It was an uphill battle for the rest of us, but Abe Maddox pushed through and won the last two segments against severe pressure from Home Cook’n and Eric Lane. Abe held off a hard-charging Home Cook’n for three laps of green flag racing at the end, besting Home Cook’n by mere inches. Stay tuned for that video clip.
Hairball Racing’s Jerry Pearson took the final spot on the podium with a 1st, two 2nds, and a 3rd place segment finish. Very impressive driving by the 2023 “Most Improved Driver.” Details
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Aaron Castro | 120 | 61 | 933.627 |
| 2 | Steve Stewart | 117 | 55 | 1147.860 |
| 3 | Jerry Pearson | 115 | 53 | 1187.269 |
| 4 | Abe Maddox | 117 | 50 | 1048.458 |
| 5 | Eric Lane | 109 | 40 | 805.401 |
| 6 | Kevin Webster | 107 | 38 | 906.903 |
| 7 | Shaylin Maddox | 106 | 32 | 1216.177 |
Current 2025 Season Laps & Points Totals, as of June 7, 2025
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Home Cook’n | 2682 | 1500 | 21117.682 |
| 2 | George Peters | 1416 | 881 | 10229.500 |
| 3 | Abe Maddox | 1228 | 724 | 10298.983 |
| 4 | Aaron Castro | 1045 | 645 | 8507.542 |
| 5 | Kevin Webster | 1593 | 642 | 14620.899 |
| 6 | Coe Rowland | 879 | 538 | 78.713 |
| 7 | Dave Rowland | 815 | 515 | NA |
| 8 | Shaylin Maddox | 982 | 501 | 8267.585 |
| 9 | Arlo Roland | 812 | 479 | 313.022 |
| 10 | Dean Donaldson | 1038 | 407 | 7470.089 |
| 11 | Jerry Pearson | 678 | 367 | 6784.699 |
| 12 | Jared Johnson | 434 | 296 | 3445.410 |
| 13 | Eric Lane | 575 | 278 | 5579.060 |
| 14 | Lucille Rowland | 253 | 177 | 1958.340 |
| 15 | Joe Vargas | 300 | 118 | 1280.737 |
| 16 | Matthew Johnson | 186 | 102 | 2280.138 |
| 17 | Madeline Johnson | 173 | 84 | 1979.289 |
| 18 | Hillbilly Dave | 177 | 79 | 881.970 |
| 19 | Vic Peterson | 180 | 69 | 1082.443 |
| 20 | Bev Seltzer | 228 | 64 | 1164.846 |
| 21 | Jeff Seltzer | 116 | 51 | 1035.244 |
| 22 | Oxana Che | 197 | 44 | 837.067 |
| 23 | Kathy Stewart | 105 | 34 | 332.422 |
| 24 | August Feinstein | 159 | 32 | 3243.437 |
| 25 | Cameron Bill | 50 | 32 | 411.714 |
I’m available both Friday night and Saturday this coming weekend. Please let me know if you’re available for racing, and we’ll set it up. Online registration is here.
