Season Ends with a BANG!
Ashland, Massachusetts May 13, 2017 With 24 racers in attendance, the season
The Purple Mile and Spec Racers... Awesome
ended with our largest turnout of the year. While I haven’t run the numbers yet, I believe our average attendance for this season will be the highest we’ve had since I’ve been keeping the records. We had a number of guests join us the event, Hal Pierce and Terry Ayer joined us again as did Gerd Wolny. While he’s made a few G-Jet events, Greg Burstein of T-Jet fame joined us for his first taste of real magnet car racing. Helping to round out the attendance was Nick Kanan accompanying his father TK for his first appearance of the season (better late than never).
Sports Racers
Sportsman
Sports Racers on the Purple Mile has really become a favorite at LenJet Raceway, they’re
Sportsman Spec Racer Podium - Gerd Wolny 1st, Pete Medeiros Jr 2nd, Donny Hall 3rd and Phil Hilgert 4th
truly a match made in heaven. While the MARC members have run this combination a few times over the past couple of years, it was first time Purple Miler Gerd Wolny, who showed the field around the track. Pete Medeiros Jr tried really hard to overcome his disastrous run in the white lane but he fell two laps shy of eclipsing Gerd’s lap total. Donny Hall had a good run finishing third followed by Phil Hilgert making his last MARC event has a New Englander, Phil is headed to Florida in the near future. The Tom twins finished 5th and 6th, Jahl beating Smith to the line by only 16 sections (which on the Purple Mile isn’t that much!).
Pro
Pro Spec Racer Podium - Gerg Burstein 4th, John Reimels 3rd, John Pileggi 2nd and Ryan Archambault
Ryan Archambault simply dominated the Pro race taking first place with a 15 lap cushion over second place finisher John Pileggi. Other than orange, Ryan set high lap total on every lane with a stunning 82 lap run in Blue. John Reimels came home 3rd, 3 laps behind Dr Pileggi followed by magnet car newbie Greg Burstein. Following Greg were Rob Hayes in 5th, John Stezelecki in 6th, Tom Kanan in 7th and Sportsman move up, Gerd Wolny in 8th.
Modifieds / CMPM
Sportsman
Getting a handle on the Boomerang is tough when running the fast stuff, especially in the
Sportsman Modified Podium - Pete Medeiros Jr 1st, Gerd Wolny 2nd, Tom Jahl 3rd and Terry Ayer 4th
yellow lane. Master yellow and the rest is easy. Pete Medeiros clearly hit the set-up in the Modified class, he ran away with the event building up a 16 lap lead over Gerd Wolny by the end of the event. Tom Jahl add a lonely run to 3rd, 9 laps off second place but nearly 30 laps up on 4th place finisher Terry Ayer. This was Terry first podium finish in his relatively short stint running with MARC but I’m sure it won’t be his last. Fifth was Phil Hilgert followed by Donny Hall, Hal Pierce, Matt Patrick and Vince Tamburo, who was also running his last MARC event as a New Englander. Vince is moving to Delaware in June, he’ll be missed.
Pro
With the day running long, the Pros decided to forego the main event and put everything
Pro CMPM Podium John Pileggi 1st, Ryan Archambault 2nd, Nick Kanan 3rd and Tom Kanan 4th
on the line during the 5 minute round robin. During practice, it was clear that Ryan A, John P and Nick K had the speed to win the event. The rest of us were left scratching our heads about what they were doing right and what we were doing wrong. In the race, Nick fell off the pace in the red lane leaving the battle for the top between Ryan and Dr P. Ryan had a disastrous run in yellow after bending an axle but came roaring back in white, red and blue putting up a whooping 96 lap run in white but it just wasn’t enough to catch Dr P. With rumors of John cutting back on his racing next year, he was bound and determined to go out in a blaze of glory, doing so by beating Ryan to the finish by less than a lap. Tom Kanan finished 4th followed by Rob Hayes, John Reimels, Tom Gray, Paul Ryer and Jim Macartney.
Vince Tamburo working hard at what could be his last MARC event due to his move to Delaware over the summer
Thanks go to Peter for hosting the event and Dave Muse for running the computer for most of the day. Our next MARC event will be the rules meeting sometime in late July / August – I’ll send out a note when the date is finalized.
NEXT EVENT:
On June 3rd, Peter is hosting a GRoNE event at LenJet raceway. Doors will open at 8:00 with loaner cars available for those wanting to try their hand at gravity racing.
John Reimels
MARC Communication Director