Ringing in the New Year with a GRoNE at Fast Five Raceway
Southampton, MA January 2, 2017 – With eleven racers in attendance for the first Gravity Racing of New England event of the year, it’s apparent that interest in these types of cars is continuing to grow in New England. We had Bill Bonsma join us for his first brass car race and judging by his enthusiasm afterwards, I don’t think it’ll be his last. We also had Greg Burstein, Dave Bryden and Bob Farnsworth back with us again, hopefully we’ll be seeing more T-Jetters as we continue to flourish. Given the enthusiasm for brass cars displayed at this race, we’ll be hosting races every other month rather than once a quarter. A big thank you to all involved!
Gravity Race
Ryan had his Snake Bite track in awesome shape for us when we arrived, he said he spent
over 3 hours cleaning the track and judging by the results, I believe him. No need for double back tape – the track had great grip all day long. After a 2-hour practice session for the Gravity Cars where lots of car swapping occurred, the field was set to race. We had an interesting array of cars – 2 Sidewinders (based on Joel Pennington’s awesome design), 2 Scott Terry Anglewinders, 2 John Reimels Anglewinders, 2 Doug Morris AFX cars (non-lowered), 1 John Reimels AFX car (non-lowered) and 1 John Reimels lowered AFX car. While Snake Bite’s long straights and fast sweepers seemed to favor the mini-motored cars, there were enough tight bits for the
AFX cars to be competitive. At the end of the 10 heat round robin, Bill Bonsma’s sidewinder beat John Reimels’ anglewinder to the finish by less than a lap – this could help explain Bill’s enthusiasm for the class! Ryan finished 3 laps back in third using his AFX car followed by Greg Burstein one lap further in arears using the other Doug Morris AFX car. Enthusiast Mike Tiffany finished fifth in the other sidewinder followed by Paul Ryer using the ill-fated lowered AFX car that suffered from some teething issues (which is the polite way of saying the builder screwed up and didn’t tighten the nut for the guide pin sufficiently – JR); the car was fast based on the lap times but too many offs occurred before the lose guide pin was diagnosed – maybe next time it’ll show it’s true potential.
Driver |
Red |
Wht |
Grn |
Org |
Blu |
Yel |
Total |
|
1 | Bill Bonsma |
26 |
28 |
28 |
26 |
28 |
28 |
164.70 |
2 | John Reimels |
27 |
28 |
27 |
27 |
27 |
28 |
164.20 |
3 | Ryan Archambault |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
28 |
27 |
161 |
4 | Greg Burstein |
26 |
26 |
26 |
28 |
26 |
28 |
160 |
5 | Mike Tiffany |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
22 |
25 |
149 |
6 | Paul Ryer |
25 |
27 |
24 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
148 |
7 | Tom Smith |
23 |
22 |
23 |
23 |
22 |
23 |
136 |
8 | Jim Macartney |
21 |
22 |
22 |
23 |
23 |
22 |
133 |
9 | Dave Bryden |
21 |
22 |
23 |
22 |
21 |
21 |
130 |
10 | Tom Bussmann |
20 |
23 |
20 |
22 |
21 |
23 |
129 |
BRASCAR IROC
Next up was an IROC race using the original BRASCAR in-lines built over 6 years ago by yours truly. Little has been done to these cars over the years, let’s just say they’ve seen a
lot of racing in their time – same motors, same bodies, with no major rebuilds required! Greg Burstein dominated the race setting or equaling the high lap total on each lane. Battling for second were Bill Bonsma and John Reimels, Bill beating John to the line once again by less than a lap. Track owner Ryan finished 4th beating Paul Ryer to the finish by sections. With the exception of Greg’s win, racing was tight throughout the field with four pairs of drivers getting the same lap total – only three drivers finished not tied with someone – amazingly close racing!
Driver |
Red |
Wht |
Grn |
Org |
Blu |
Yel |
Total |
|
1 | Greg Burstein |
25 |
25 |
26 |
28 |
24 |
26 |
154 |
2 | Bill Bonsma |
23 |
25 |
25 |
24 |
24 |
26 |
147.60 |
3 | John Reimels |
22 |
25 |
25 |
26 |
23 |
26 |
147.25 |
4 | Ryan Archambault |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
22 |
25 |
145.40 |
5 | Paul Ryer |
24 |
25 |
24 |
26 |
24 |
22 |
145.15 |
6 | Mike Tiffany |
22 |
24 |
24 |
24 |
22 |
23 |
139 |
7 | Tom Bussmann |
22 |
23 |
25 |
22 |
19 |
22 |
133.52 |
8 | Tom Smith |
21 |
21 |
22 |
24 |
23 |
22 |
133.07 |
9 | Dave Bryden |
20 |
22 |
25 |
24 |
26 |
23 |
130 |
10 | Bob Farnsworth |
21 |
19 |
23 |
23 |
18 |
19 |
123.32 |
11 | Jim Macartney |
19 |
20 |
23 |
21 |
19 |
21 |
123.18 |
ECHORR Super Stocks
Last up were T-Jets (ECHORR Super Stocks) on Ryan’s Harley track. Once again the track
was in amazing shape thanks to Ryan’s cleaning efforts the night before. T-Jetter Greg Burstein showed the field he knows how to drive and build these cars dominating the race with a car he finished building days before the race. Ryan finished second followed by Paul Ryer in third. John Reimels finally beat Bill Bonsma, the two finishing 4th and 5th respectively.
Driver |
Red |
Wht |
Blu |
Yel |
Total |
|
1 | Greg Burstein |
34 |
35 |
34 |
34 |
137 |
2 | Ryan Archambault |
34 |
32 |
33 |
33 |
132 |
3 | Paul Ryer |
32 |
33 |
32 |
33 |
130 |
4 | John Reimels |
31 |
32 |
30 |
33 |
126 |
5 | Bill Bonsma |
29 |
31 |
31 |
32 |
123 |
6 | Tom Bussmann |
29 |
30 |
31 |
30 |
120 |
7 | Bob Farnsworth |
28 |
29 |
29 |
30 |
116 |
8 | Mike Tiffany |
29 |
28 |
27 |
29 |
113 |
9 | Jim Macartney |
28 |
29 |
28 |
27 |
112 |
10 | Dave Bryden |
26 |
26 |
27 |
27 |
106 |
Special tanks go to Ryan Archambault and his family for letting us invade their home on the last day of the holidays. And a BIG thank you to all the attendees, without your dedicated support, we wouldn’t be able to host any races!
Next on the GRoNE schedule will be a race hosted by Peter Lentros at his LenJet facility on Saturday, February 25th where we’ll be racing Gravity Cars on the Boomerang. I’ll announce the support races at a later date. Please mark your calendars accordingly; let’s go for a new attendance record.
John Reimels
Brass Car Advocate