GRoNEing about the cold…

Cambridge, Massachusetts  February 2, 2019 – With the polar vortex in full swing, 6 brave and hearty racers made their way to Cambridge, Massachusetts to join Rob Hayes at

Practice underway at Catfish International Speedway

his awesome Catfish International Speedway for our GRoNE-Hogs Day event.  Tom Smith was débuting his new build, a very clean looking center-hinge anglewinder.  The car went well until the motor went poof in practice so Tom borrowed one of my M10 motored sidewinders – while it’s lacking a little in top speed, it really is a sweet handling car.  It was also the maiden voyage for a new car from Paul Ryer’s stable – a more traditional rail chassis with the rails necked in at the front to increase chassis flex.  After a quick discussion with the group, we decided to run two gravity races sandwiched around a T-Jet race.

Gravity Race 1

Rob’s Catfish International Speedway layout is a sweet track for the gravity cars; no

Gravity Race 1 Podium - John Reimels 1st, Rob Hayes 2nd, Paul Ryer 3rd and Dave Muse 4th

squiggles, lots of fast sweepers and a long front straight to really wring out the speed.  With only three marshals, one key to success was not falling off where there was no marshal – much easier said than done – patience was the order of the day.  Rob won the last two GRoNE events held at his track setting lap totals of 80 laps back in April of 2017 followed by an 86 lap total in November of 2017 – a great target to shoot for.  The racing was tight throughout the field but when it was all done, John Reimels was able to beat Rob to the finish line by 2 laps followed by Paul Ryer and Dave Muse .

Yellow

Blue

White

Red

Total

Fastest Lap

John Reimels

20

21

20

22

83

7.784

Rob Hayes

21

20

20

20

81

8.032

Paul Ryer

19

21

19

19

78

8.042

Dave Muse

19

20

18

19

76

8.432

Tom Gray

18

16

19

17

70

8.852

Tom Smith

17

18

17

17

69

8.740

Jim Macartney

17

17

16

16

66

8.538

 

T-Jet Race

With the track all warmed up after the Gravity race, it was time to break out the T-Jets.

T-Jet Podium - Rob Hayes 1st, John Reimels 2nd, Paul Ryer 3rd and Dave Muse 4th

Rob was trashing away on his car all the time mumbling that it wasn’t fast enough.  I’m not sure what he was thinking, the car certainly seemed plenty fast to the rest of us based on the lap times be was running during practice.  What makes the Catfish layout for great for Gravity cars, makes it slightly less so for T-Jets unless you have a rocket of a car – then it’s awesome!

Yellow

Blue

White

Red

Total

Fastest Lap

Rob Hayes

19

18

18

20

75

8.716

John Reimels

18

20

18

17

73

8.964

Paul Ryer

18

19

18

17

72

9.003

Dave Muse

16

19

19

16

70

9.377

Tom Gray

17

15

16

16

64.42

9.734

Jim Macartney

15

17

16

16

64.20

9.353

Tom Smith

16

15

16

14

61

10.438

 

Gravity Race 2

After devouring a few pizzas for lunch, it was off to the races for the last event of the day,

2nd Gravity Race Podium - John Reimels 1st, Tommy Gray 2nd, Rob Hayes 3rd and Paul Ryer 4th

another Gravity race.  Work was done on Tommy Gray’s car over the lunch break, new tires were installed to help fix the extreme tail wagging it displayed in the first race.  Jim Macartney also swapped the resister pack in his trusty DiFalco controller to get a better handle on the power band of these M20 motors.  Both of these changes seemed to help judging by the lap times they were running in practice.  I changed cars and broke out the car I ran at the 2017 Nats held at Lucky Bob’s.  Tom Smith borrowed my other M10 motored sidewinder for a change of pace.  The others stuck with what they ran in the first race.  Maybe it was the track conditions or the fact that we all had full

Same as above but this time showing the naughty bits

stomachs, but the lap totals saw a significant jump up.  Despite running a much older version of my car, I was able to take down the win beating my first race total by 3 laps.  Tommy Gray had an awesome race taking down 2nd beating his first race lap total by 13 laps!  I think he likes the new tires…  Rob Hayes finished third followed by a real tight battle for fourth with Paul Ryer beating Jim Macartney by 8 sections.  Jim also increased his first race lap total by 13 laps.

Yellow

Blue

White

Red

Total

Fastest Lap

John Reimels

21

22

22

21

86

7.902

Tom Gray

21

21

21

20

83

7.869

Rob Hayes

21

21

20

20

82

7.939

Paul Ryer

19

20

20

20

79.39

7.842

Jim Macartney

21

20

19

19

79.31

7.900

Dave Muse

17

20

19

19

75

8.730

Tom Smith

17

17

17

18

69

9.563

 

All in all it was a very relaxing day doing what we love to do with a bunch of good friends – can’t ask for much more than that.  Thanks to Rob for hosting and to all the participants for braving the cold weather.

Next up will be racing at Paul Ryer’s on April 6th at his South Shore Speedway.  The calendar in March is just filled to the brim with MARC and MAHOPRA events making a GRoNE event in March unreasonable.

 

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Advocate