A New Year’s GRoNE 

Ashland, Massachusetts  December 28, 2019    For our 4^thannual New Year’s GRoNE race we had 11 participants at Peter Lentros’ LenJet Raceway.  It’s hard to believe we’re

starting our 5^th season of gravity car racing in New England, and for that I thank all the die-hard graviteers who’ve helped gravity racing take root in the crowded New England race calendar.  Special thanks go to the two long haulers of the day, Mike Tiffany and Tom Bussmann making the trek up from the New York border.

 

 

T-Jets

First up were T-Jets on Peter’s Bear track.  In what is usually a tight race, Rob Hayes had a run-away victory beating Peter Lentros to the finish line by a whopping 5 laps.   It’s interesting to note that Rob’s victory was due entirely to his performance in the two gutter lanes where he bettered the field by two laps in the red land and three laps in the yellow lane.  Paul Ryer finished third followed closely by Donny Hall in fourth.

	Driver	Red	White	Blue	Yellow	Total
1	Rob Hayes	27	26	26	28	107
2	Peter Lentros	25	26	26	25	102
3	Paul Ryer	24	26	25	24	99
4	Donny Hall	23	25	25	25	98
5	Tom Gray	22	24	24	24	94
6	O’Jimmy Colligan	22	23	24	22	91.40
7	Jim Macartney	22	22	24	23	91.21
8	Mike Tiffany	22	23	24	21	90.49
9	John Reimels	20	21	22	22	90.40
10	Tom Bussmann	22	21	22	22	87

 

 

IROC Dire Wolves

After a very successful outing in November, we once again ran a set of Dire Wolves in IROC fashion with the desire to land on a configuration so we can add the class to our future events.  We used Roger’s latest v2 chassis, two cars with the M20 motor and 2 with N20 motors from the latest AFX cars.  At the conclusion of the event, we decided to go with the AFX N20 motor in the v2 chassis; controllers do not need choke and the motor should last forever – two important factors for an entry level class – oh, yeah, in addition,  they’re a blast to drive!   Peter will be ordering kits from Roger, once we get them, we’ll start running this class at our future events.

The race itself was closely fought with only 1 lap separating the top three positions.  But, as is usually the case, raw talent was the deciding factor (as author of the report, I get to write history – JR) as John Reimels took down the win by 7 sections over Paul Ryer with Peter Lentros one lap behind in third.  Rob Hayes and Donny Hall had quite a battle for fourth with Donny beating Rob by sections for the last spot on the podium.

 

	Driver	Red	White	Blue	Yellow	Total
1	John Reimels	26	28	27	27	108.29
2	Paul Ryer	27	26	28	27	108.22
3	Peter Lentros	25	27	27	28	107
4	Donny Hall	25	26	27	25	103.39
5	Rob Hayes	26	25	26	26	103.23
6	O’Jimmy Colligan	25	24	26	24	99
7	Jim Macartney	23	25	26	24	98
8	Tom Gray	21	27	26	22	96
9	Mike Tiffany	21	24	25	25	95
10	Tom Bussmann	14	23	25	23	85.36
11	Dave Muse	18	23	22	22	85.34

 

Gravity Race

Now for the class that all the graviteers were waiting for, the Gravity Race.   We had nine entrees, all M20 motored anglewinders of various sorts – seven with center hinges and two with more traditional main rails necked in at the front plate to allow more chassis flex; two used pick-up shoes with the remaining cars using wipers.  Gutter lane extraordinaire Rob Hayes won the event with a heavily modified Scott Terry pick-up shoe design, Rob adding the center hinge.  Rob’s mastery of the

gutter lanes once again helped him to victory.  Peter Lentros took second in an Al Thurman center-hinge anglewinder followed by John Reimels (I guess raw talent just wasn’t enough… -JR) in one of his anglewinders for third.  Mike Tiffany made his long trip worthwhile taking down 4^th in a non-center hinged car.

 

	Driver	Red	White	Blue	Yellow	Total
1	Rob Hayes	30	32	30	31	123
2	Peter Lentros	30	30	32	29	121
3	John Reimels	29	32	30	29	120
4	Mike Tiffany	27	30	29	29	115
5	Tom Gray	28	30	28	28	114
6	Paul Ryer	29	24	29	29	111
7	Tom Bussmann	27	29	28	25	109
8	Don Hall	25	29	26	28	108
9	Jim Macartney	25	25	27	25	102

 

Thanks go to Peter Lentros for hosting the event and to all the folks for attending in this busy holiday season.

Ideally, I’m trying to schedule an event in February, if the Patriots lose in the early rounds of the playoffs, I’m thinking Sunday, February 2^nd might work (Super Bowl Sunday).  We’ll keep the day relatively short so we can still be home to watch the Patriot-less Super Bowl.  Of course, if the Pats do make it to the Super Bowl, we’ll find an alternative date (we’ll be in full party mode all day long – this stuff never gets old).  Let me know what you think (about the February 2^nd date – not the Patriots).

 

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Advocate