We had thirteen participants show up on a rainy day in the mountains. Yes, thirteen drivers cut a bunch of laps on SR3. Not all ended up racing, but all did a lot of laps on the Fast Esses road course during practice.
I was expecting several juniors since Team Maddox and Team Johnson indicated they would appear. Team Maddox, however, blew through their advocacy goals and invited six new drivers to the event, which pretty much made practice, racing, and marshaling a breeze!
I think most of the fun was in open practice where all the new drivers got to experience a little hot lapping and the thrill of racing without any pressure. It was way fun to watch everyone get so excited besting each other and just having fun dicing with one another.
We only did one Dash race and one Team Race, which I’m sure was probably more than most new drivers expected. Still, I think everyone had fun and, hopefully, will return for more slot car action soon.
As usual, our 2023 Junior Champ, Abe Maddox, accumulated the most laps in practice (507). Abe also won the Dash race just ahead of Madeline Johnson in a close second. New junior driver, Makana Haglund, finished in third, just two laps behind Madeline.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Abe Maddox | 25 | 16 | 197.444 |
| 2 | Madeline Johnson | 23 | 13 | 203.566 |
| 3 | Makana Haglund | 21 | 12 | 193.704 |
| 4 | Lucy Abramyan | 20 | 7 | 197.478 |
| 5 | Morag Macleod | 19 | 6 | 197.49 |
| 6 | Jenny Haglund | 16 | 5 | 203.923 |
The final race was a team race between Team Johnson/Abramyan and Team Haglund in a full-rotation race with 10 lap segments in all six lanes. Madeline Johnson would be the dominant driver against a field of all first-time slot car drivers, winning three of the six segments and finishing three points ahead of her Mom, Lucy Abramyan, in second. Another Mom, Jenny Haglund (Team Haglund) finished third, just three points behind Lucy. That’s pretty competitive racing, for sure.
| Place | Name | Laps | Points | Total Time |
| 1 | Madeline Johnson | 57 | 83 | 684.106 |
| 2 | Lucy Abramyan | 58 | 80 | 675.083 |
| 3 | Jenny Haglund | 54 | 77 | 677.665 |
| 4 | Malia Haglund | 39 | 42 | 734.276 |
Very cool to see a bunch of new racers show up and check out Stewart Raceway. Hope everyone had a good time and we didn’t over-expose you to our addiction. It can be very discouraging for new drivers to run with more experienced drivers but today showed that here in the mountains, we have a whole lot of very capable slot car racers.
Thank you all for braving the wet weather and coming over to drive little cars and hang out. We have a large contingent of junior and parent racers in the area, which calls for more of this kind of fun soon. Stay tuned for details on our next Open Track day.
Okay, shut up and drive!
Thanks Steve!
Thank you for bringing the whole Johnson/Abramyan team over! Hope Lucy enjoyed it, I know Madeline did.