Swan Song for the Danger Zone?

 

Yonkers, New York, October 11, 2014 – If you are looking for a house with a slot car track ready to go, talk to Benny, you might be able to make a deal.  In any case, 17 drivers showed up the always fast Danger Zone for what could be the last MARC event at this historic track. 

Along with some of the core MARC

 

drivers, members of the Tri-State H.O. Racing Club were in attendance.

  It’s always pleasure and a challenge to race with Tri-State; they’re fast and a tough group to beat.  Speaking of fast, earning the long distance award was Craig Reynolds and Clayton St. Clair up from Florida.  Hearing of the possible retirement of the Danger Zone, they flew in to make sure they got one more run in.  Normally at MARC races just about everyone is running a BSRT G3 or G3R chassis; this time around we had quite a few Slottech Thundercats and Wizzard Storms.  Let the thrashing begin!

First up was Super Stock.

Normally we run G-Jets or MARC Spec Stock to start the day,

 

but we wanted something common to all the groups in the area and you can’t go wrong with Super Stock.

  We added an extra half hour of practice to make sure the racers got the setup they were looking for.  Everyone got their cars dialed in or in some cases dialed in and then dialed out again – time to let the racing began.  First up were the amateurs.  Peter Mederios, Pete Mederios, and Tom Bussmann were running G3’s while “Quick” Nick Kanan was piloting a Thundercat.  In the first heat, Nick set the top heat lap total with 54 laps in the blue and didn’t stop there setting high lap totals in the rest of the lanes as well.  Nick finished with a total of 212 laps to take first and a lap total that would have landed him in the top 10 in the pro race.  Bussmann brought his ride home second with 193 laps closely followed by Peter Mederios in third with 186 laps.  Pete Mederios finished fourth with 163 laps.  Good run by the Mederios clan considering it was their first time running on the Danger Zone. 

 

 Amateur Results:

Driver	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total
Nick Kanan / Thundercat	51	54	55	52	212
Tom Bussmann / G3R	50	52	47	44	193
Peter Mederios / G3R	44	52	46	44	186
Pete Mederios /G3R	38	42	44	39	163

 

The Pros, joined by Nick took the track next. 

It was a large field with 14 drivers in the

 

field.

  You needed a 4.7 to 4.9 second lap time average to be in the top of this field.  At the top were the usual suspects, but also the duo from Florida.  Craig and Clayton showed they know how to set their Wizzard Storms up for fast laps on the Danger Zone.  Your humble narrator was schooled in the fast way around the Zone.  When all was said and done, TK drove his Thundercat to first place with a 233.24 lap total.  Pete Barclay was half a lap back in his G3 with a total of 232.66.  Clayton was just a lap back from there in third with 231.06 lap total on his Storm.  Craig rounded out the top four with 227.84 laps with his Storm.  Just 8 laps separated the top 5 and rest of the field was just as close.  A few less crashes would definitely elevate your finishing position.

 

 Pro Results:

Driver / chassis	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total
Tom Kanan / Thundercat	52	61	61	59	233.24
Pete Barclay / G3R	58	59	57	58	232.66
Clayton St. Clair / Storm	56	60	59	56	231.06
Craig Reynolds / Storm	53	61	59	54	227.84
Benny Leyro / G3R	54	59	56	56	225.41
John O’Brien / G3R	54	58	57	49	218.27
Bill Bonsma / G3R	53	59	54	51	217.50
Jerome Burwell / G3R	50	58	55	51	214.62
Don Counts / Thundercat	53	54	50	48	205.52
Paul Ryer / G3R	48	53	54	49	204.71
Nick Kanan / Thundercat	46	54	55	49	204.01
Dave Muse / G3R	52	54	50	46	202.54
Vince Tamburo / G3R	48	50	50	51	199.29
Tom Gray / Storm	43	51	48	50	192.02

 

 

As the Super race was finishing up the smell of a tasty lunch was wafting though the air.  As always an excellent lunch was provided and everyone dug in as they started prep for the CMPM race.  Looking at the results of the Super Stock race, you knew the CMPM racing was going to be fast.  Even I was feeling fast and I’ve been known to burn these cars up.  Tire selection was a smorgasbord with everything from slip ons to rocks out there. 

Two

 

hours of tuning and practice went by quickly and it was time to race; once again the amateurs starting things off.

  Hard to call them amateurs, they ran a very clean fast race. Fast lap times were in the 3.9 to 4.2 range.  This time Tom Bussmann took the win by just four laps over Nick.  Peter Mederios was close behind, 5 laps behind Nick.  The top three were in a 9 laps range.  Great racing guys.  Tom was off to serve coffee and donuts with the Boy Scouts to weary travelers (we would have stopped Tom, but Vince was on a Mission From God to get home), so Nick took the move up.

 

 Amateur Results:

Driver	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total
Tom Bussmann / G3R	60	64	63	62	249
Nick Kanan / Storm	67	48	65	65	245
Peter Mederios / G3R	53	60	66	61	240
Pete Mederios /G3R	47	57	58	51	213

 

Once again the Pros took to the track. 

First up would be a 5 minute heat round robin and

 

then 3 minute heat Main for the top 4 drivers to determine final finishing order.

  CMPM cars and the Danger Zone are a match made in heaven when you have the setup right and an exercise in patience when you don’t.  Luckily just about everyone was dialed in and the racing was smooth.  Fast lap times were in the 3.5 to 3.9 second range.  Once again racing was close throughout the field, but Clayton had speed, and control that could not be matched finishing with a 290.82 lap total over second place TK who had 287.81 laps.  Pete Barclay was third with 284.44 laps.  Bill Bonsma took the last spot in the main with 280.02 laps.  It seems the Danger Zone brings out the fast in Bill.  He won the CMPM race last year.

 

 Pro Results:

Driver / chassis	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total
Clayton St. Clair / Storm	74	77	75	64	290.82
Tom Kanan / Thundercat	69	76	74	68	287.81
Pete Barclay / G3R	70	80	75	60	284.44
Bill Bonsma / G3R	62	76	71	71	280.02
Craig Reynolds / Storm	64	72	67	71	274.29
Benny Leyro / G3R	68	71	70	62	271.81
Paul Ryer / G3R	64	73	68	63	268.83
John O’Brien / G3R	59	68	71	63	261.08
Nick Kanan / Storm	64	69	64	63	260.54
Tom Gray / G3R	60	62	68	62	252.68
Jerome Burwell / Thundercat	58	67	64	59	248.54
Vince Tamburo / G3R	55	65	53	59	232.64
Don Counts / G3R	61	68	63	27	219.01
Dave Muse / G3R	1	0	0	0	1

 With the completion of the Round Robin, the drivers for the main were set.  Lane choice was based on finishing order and the drivers had 10 minutes to freshen up their cars.   Finishing order in the main would determine the order for the top four in the pro race.  As before, the racing was fast with lap times in the 3.6 to 3.9 range.  After a quick race Clayton showed his top finish was not a fluke and took the win with 177 laps.  Pete Barclay moved up a spot to take second while TK dropped to third.  Bill kept his fourth place spot.

 Pro Main Results:

Driver	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total
Clayton St. Clair / Storm	44	46	47	40	177
Pete Barclay / G3R	42	45	47	41	175
Tom Kanan / Thundercat	42	43	43	42	170
Bill Bonsma / G3 R	37	42	43	41	163

 Ribbons were awarded, hands were shook and everyone packed up for what might be the last race at the Danger Zone.  As in the past it was an outstanding event with competitive racing.  Thanks to Benny for hosting us and thank you all for attending.  See you at the next MARC race in November at Stez’s Nantasket Beach Raceway.

 The race report as recorded this day

October 16, 2014

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant at Arms