MARC 2013 – 2014 Race #6 – Modelville Hobby

The Purple Mile - The pride of MVH's LenJet raceway

Speed Crazed Morons Hit The Track!

 

Ashland, Massachusetts, February 8, 2014 – The first race of the second half of MARC season found us at the LenJet Raceway (MVH).  The track selection for this event was the Purple Mile for MARC Spec Stock and the Viper for Compression Molded Polymer Modified (CMPM) – the two fastest tracks for our fastest classes.  Nineteen drivers showed up for the event so it was a full day of racing.  Great to see Durf and Erik Eckhardt back after an absence.  John Borge was back to race as was Don Hall, Tom Smith, and Mike Resnick.  Pete Medeiros attended his first MARC race.  Always great to see new

Newbie Pete Medeiros joining long absent John Borge in a triumphant return

faces and I think we’ll be seeing Pete a lot the rest of the season.  Lastly we had the triumphant return of Tom Gray who was sidelined for the last three races getting his eyes adjusted.  Always fun to have a big turnout.  Now down to the racing.

 First up was MARC Spec Stock on the Purple Mile.  After some discussion about how many lanes to run it was decided to use all eight.  They’re there and we were there to race so we used them all.  Practice showed you needed big motor down the main straight, handling to get though the fingers and the donut and good eyes to avoid the wrecks.   You needed to be in the low to mid 4 second range to reach the podium for this one.

 Nine amateurs stepped up to the track.  It was the first race on this track for many in the

Racing was a tad hectic at times...

field.  Carnage was predicted, but the amateurs showed they could keep the cars on the track and ran a very clean race.  Hot lap times were in the 4.2 – 4.3 range.  New guys John Borge and Pete Medeiros did fantastic for their first time out finishing 4th and 5th respectively and John set fasted lap with a 4.227 second lap.  Unfortunately Tom Smith lost the motor in his car and had to drop out with 2 heats left.  Local Track knowledge prevailed as Peter Lentros took the top spot with 479.11 laps.  Close behind was Mike Resnick with 468.08 laps.  Don Hall showed he can build them as well as drive them finishing third with 458.42 laps.  Close considering we ran all eight lanes; an excellent race by the amateur group.

 

Amateur Results:

Driver

Red

White

Green

Orange

Blue

Yellow

Purple

Gray

Best

Total

Peter Lentros

51

58

64

62

62

61

62

60

4.239

479.11

Mike Resnick

58

58

56

62

62

60

63

49

4.312

468.08

Don Hall

50

60

56

61

61

60

56

55

4.294

458.42

John Borge

48

54

55

62

62

62

55

45

4.227

440.09

Peter Medeiros

51

51

53

57

57

58

43

48

4.632

420.26

Jim Colligan

42

30

59

59

59

60

54

48

4.716

408.17

Durf Hyson

45

50

49

51

51

52

47

42

4.738

387.02

Eric Handel

40

38

45

47

48

46

50

42

4.702

356.29

Tom Smith

0

0

55

57

58

57

55

10

4.730

292.19

 

Next up was the Pro group which was bolstered with the return of Erik Eckhardt and Tom Gray.  Peter made the move up to bring the total number of racers to 11.  I don’t know what got into the Pros, but they did not run clean (understatement of the report – JR).  Things did settle down, but man, it was crazy out there for a while.  You needed to be under 4 seconds to get on the podium in this one. There was close racing throughout the

Pro Podium - Jonathan R 1st, Paul R 2nd, John R 3rd

field.  You can really fly on the middle lanes.  Red is just an exercise in patience.  Stay on and stay out of trouble.  Reimels Jr has been hogging the podium this year and this race was no exception.  Jonathan finished first with 524.41 laps convincingly covering the rest of the field.  He also had fasted lap with a 3.874 second lap.  Club Director Paul Ryer pulled a rabbit out his hat and finished second with 514.38 laps and Peter Lentros showed his move up was no fluke finishing third with 508.01 laps, an improvement on his earlier race lap total.  Stez had a great race and would have finished second, but post tech inspection found the arm in his car had been balanced which is not allowed in this class.  Check those arms!  Racing all eight lanes was a challenge, but also a blast and the way this track needs to be run.

  

Driver

Red

White

Green

Orange

Blue

Yellow

Purple

Gray

Best

Total

Jonathan Reimels

55

60

72

72

70

64

65

66

3.874

524.41

Paul Ryer

58

57

68

68

68

61

64

64

3.950

508.01

Peter Lentros

58

65

65

63

66

63

62

59

4.029

501.03

John Reimels

57

63

66

66

65

62

59

56

4.087

494.42

John Pileggi

59

60

62

67

61

60

63

57

4.065

489.30

Dave Muse

56

63

61

63

64

47

58

61

4.199

473.30

Rob Hayes

54

60

55

65

57

59

58

57

4.090

465.09

Erik Eckhardt

48

52

50

62

60

68

59

60

4.086

459.31

Tom Gray

51

52

60

57

58

61

52

49

4.341

440.10

Vince Tamburo

42

49

52

57

55

60

58

51

4.230

424.09

John Stezelecki

63

61

66

69

66

65

63

61

3.984

DQ

 

The Viper waiting for the action to begin

The second race of the day was CMPM on the wicked fast Brystal Viper track.  A 3 second or better lap time is where you wanted to be.  And, you had to be able to get through the esses.  The ones leading onto the straight with the lap counter proved to be especially tricky.  What you need for this track is practice and lots of it.  Also, people seem to be learning how to set these cars up since there were no burnt motors.

 Once again the amateurs had a very clean race.  Very impressive considering this was the first MARC race on this track and we running our fastest class and for a couple of the guys this was their first CMPM race.  Mike

The Amateur Podium - Mike Resnick, Peter Lentros, Durf Hyson and Eric Handel

Resnick was a machine, consistently running 75 laps in each lane except for red and yellow.  As a result he finished first with 442.03 laps which was almost 50 laps ahead of second.  Speaking of second, Peter Lentros rolled into second with 395.37 laps.  Breathing down Peter’s neck was Durf Hyson who had a great run to third with 394.30 and fastest lap of 3.119.  One less off and Durf  would have had Peter for second.  Eric Handel found his happy place (my mind runs wild… – JR) with a smooth drive to fourth.  Pete Medeiros and John Borge had a good battle going on with Pete showing John what a bit more motor can do for you.  Great race by the amateurs, we need to get the pros driving this smooth.

 Amateur Results:

Driver

Red

White

Green

Orange

Blue

Yellow

Total

Laps

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Mike Resnick

74

3.600

75

3.628

75

3.654

75

3.683

75

3.600

68

3.811

442.03

Peter Lentros

60

4.098

64

3.531

73

3.592

67

3.794

69

3.507

62

4.063

395.37

Durf Hyson

59

3.119

61

4.249

72

3.700

70

3.886

68

3.966

64

4.080

394.30

Eric Handel

59

3.885

67

3.486

71

3.534

67

3.564

63

3.595

61

3.706

388.37

Pete Medeiros

62

3.972

68

3.692

68

3.709

72

3.513

58

4.286

48

4.156

376.02

John Borge

59

4.017

65

3.977

68

3.166

60

3.599

55

3.349

46

4.434

353.19

Jim Colligan

52

4.472

65

3.982

66

4.017

67

3.881

43

4.051

50

4.246

343.18

 

Last race of the day was Pro CMPM.  Mike Resnick took the move up so there were nine drivers.  The Pro race was a bit wild.  Cars were flying but staying on the table for the most

The Pro Podium - John Pileggi, Tom Gray, Rob Hayes, Erik Eckhardt

part.  I think they gave Tom Gray some bionic eyes.  He, Dr. Pileggi (top lap total with 92 in orange), and Rob Hayes were in a tight battle the whole race.  Once the drivers settled down, there was some tight racing though out the pack.  John Reimels had fast lap with a 2.706 lap.  Mike Resnick bettered his earlier lap total by 20 laps.  When all was said and done, John Pileggi took the top spot with 514.05 laps.  Was it the eye surgery?  Was it the joy of being back on the track?  Who knows but Tom Gray took a well-earned second place with 496.31 laps.  Rob Hayes finished third with 488.24 laps.  Director Ryer finished fourth, but post-race tech found the axle setup he switched to in yellow was too wide.  So, what did I learn?  First, don’t second guess yourself.  The car drove better with the original setup and probably would have given me a better lap total in yellow.  Second, use the tech block in your pit box dummy.  About the only thing you can get DQ’ed for in this class is width and I did.  Overall the racing was a blast.  Fast and Furious.  Great race on the wicked fast Viper.

Pro Results:

Driver

Red

White

Green

Orange

Blue

Yellow

Total

Laps

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

Laps

Best

John Pileggi

82

3.162

84

3.090

88

3.063

92

2.835

84

3.194

84

3.267

514.05

Tom Gray

81

3.422

84

3.264

88

3.113

79

3.215

89

3.062

75

3.342

496.31

Rob Hayes

76

3.426

84

3.205

85

3.051

85

3.071

80

3.211

78

3.451

488.24

Erik Eckhardt

74

3.524

76

3.328

87

3.152

82

3.169

79

3.225

69

3.360

467.34

Mike Resnick

76

3.312

77

3.518

78

3.366

80

3.441

79

3.437

73

3.577

463.31

Jon Reimels

71

3.646

79

3.363

77

3.341

81

3.228

75

3.314

70

3.452

453.33

John Reimels

73

3.641

79

2.706

75

3.220

80

2.843

76

3.402

65

3.562

448.31

Vince Tamburo

57

3.205

65

3.609

72

3.380

71

3.227

62

3.304

56

3.632

383.26

Paul Ryer

69

3.048

83

2.915

86

2.927

93

2.962

80

3.024

72

3.094

DQ

 

It was a great turn out and an outstanding day of racing.  Hopefully every enjoyed the track choices for this event.  It was very encouraging seeing the guys who had been under the weather back at the track.  Hopefully this trend continues.  Next up will be Tom Bussmann’s Schlitzerland Raceway on March 8th.  We will run Super Stock and G-Jets.  The body choice for G-Jets will be Trans-Am and IMSA GTO/GTU bodies up to 1989.  Same requirements that we used at South Shore Speedway.  See you at the next thing!

 The race report as recorded this day

February 19th, 2014

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant at Arms

 

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