January 3, 2019 | john A Tale of a new class and a lost car. Hingham Massachusetts, December 8, 2018 – Sixteen drivers made the trip to South Shore Speedway to for another fun filled day of racing the Elvis road course. Coffee and donuts greeted the drivers as they arrived and set up shop. The track was ready and so were the drivers. First up was the second race for the new Open Weighted class. The field was a mix of Practice underway at South Shore Speedway Viper and BSRT chassis. Most people were running 6-ohm arms, but there were a few 7-ohm BSRT arms out there. Lots of experimenting as people work to dial in the cars for this class. Fast lap times seem to be a half second or so faster than G-Jets. After an hour and a half of practice, we were ready to race. Sportsman and Pros run together in a Round-Robin for the first race of the day. All in all, the racing was clean with some of the Sportsman right behind the Pros. Race pace was fast with many drivers turning in lap times just over 4 seconds. The fast lap of 3.449 was set Weighted Podium - Hal Pierce 1st, Don Hall 2nd, Jimmy Colligan 3rd and Terry Ayer 4th by Ryan Archambault in the blue lane. The next closest driver was the host Paul Ryer with a 3.717 in blue as well. Ryan had a rocket ship, but it’s not always the fastest car that wins the race. Well, in this case it was. Ryan finished 27 laps ahead of second place. In the Sportsman group 3 laps covered the top three drivers. Hal Pierce has been having a great start to the season and he continued by taking down the win 2 laps ahead of Don Weighted Pro Podium - Paul Ryer 4th, Rob Hayes 3rd, John Reimels 2nd and Ryan Archambault 1st Hall in second. “Oh Jimmy” was just a lap back to finish in third and Terry Ayer rounded out the podium in forth. Sportsman Results Drivers Green Blue Yellow Red Total Hal Pierce 59 65 63 56 243 Don Hall 54 64 64 59 241 Jimmy Colligan 58 60 62 60 240 Terry Ayer 51 61 63 56 231 Paul Crosby 52 57 59 59 227 Tom Smith 46 53 55 54 208 As mentioned above, Ryan not only had a fast car, but had a fantastic drive to take down the win in the Pro group. John Reimels was second followed by new Telsa owner Rob Hayes (Rob is working on a way to power his car off the bus overheads in Cambridge, so watch out). Paul Ryer filled out the podium 4 laps behind Rob. Peter Lentros just missed the podium 2 laps behind Paul. Pro Results Drivers Green Blue Yellow Red Total Ryan Archambault 72 76 75 75 298 John Reimels 65 70 70 66 271 Rob Hayes 65 70 65 63 263 Paul Ryer 62 65 71 61 259 Peter Lentros 58 70 66 63 257 Tom Gray 56 66 67 53 242 Erik Eckhardt 55 62 63 58 238 Tom Jahl 52 57 59 59 227 Jim Macartney 51 58 59 53 221 Dave Muse 49 55 56 50 210 With the Open Weighted program wrapped up, it was time to start getting ready for Super Stock for the Sportsman and CMPM for the Pros. Peter, Don and Tom had other commitments leaving us with thirteen for the afternoon program. We alternated between Super Stock and CMPM practice sessions. John Reimels found an interesting hiding place for his car somewhere in the shelves. After some intense searching, it was abandoned to SS Sportsman Podium - Terry Ayer 2nd, Paul Crosby 3rd, Jimmy Colligan 1st and Hal Pierce 4th be found another day (Only took me an hour and half and dismantling of some storage to find it). After some lunch and two hours of practice most people were ready to race and the rest resigned themselves that they would have to make do with what they had. First up were the Sportsman who ran a very clean race. “Oh Jimmy” sent the fasted lap at 2.675 and mixed that with some very clean driving to take the top spot on the podium 16 laps ahead of second. Terry Ayer took second with Paul Crosby 4 laps back in 3rd. Hal Pierce rounded out the podium. Sportsman Results Drivers Green Blue Yellow Red Total Jimmy Colligan 83 94 95 92 364 Terry Ayer 80 89 94 85 348 Paul Crosby 77 94 88 85 344 Hal Pierce 73 87 92 81 333 Dave Muse 68 82 80 68 298 The Pros also ran a pretty clean race although there were still some heat issues. A melted CMPM Pro Podium - Paul Ryer 4th, Erik Eckhardt 3rd, John Reimels 2nd and Jim Macartney 1st pinion took Rob Hayes out of contention and gremlins plagued Ryan during the race. Quietly minding his own business Jim Macartney took the top spot with a great run. 12 laps back John Reimels was second followed by Erik Eckhardt in third and Paul Ryer in fourth. Pro Results Drivers Green Blue Yellow Red Total Jim Macartney 84 115 130 113 442 John Reimels 94 112 116 108 430 Erik Eckhardt 95 111 114 97 417 Paul Ryer 90 97 112 98 397 Tom Jahl 89 106 115 83 393 Rob Hayes 94 103 124 58 379.23 Tom Gray 94 80 110 95 379.07 Ryan Archambault 78 117 47 63 305 Ribbons were awarded, hands were shook and everyone packed up and headed out. Thank you to everyone who showed up for another great day of racing. See you at the next MARC race in January at Modelville/Lenjet where the classes will be MARC Spec Stock on the Purple Mile, Modified for the Sportsman on the Purple Mile and CMPM for the Pros on the Viper. The race report as recorded this day December 31, 2018 Douglas C. Neidermeyer Sergeant at Arms