GRoNE – New Year’s Day – December 28, 2019

A New Year’s GRoNE 

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

Racing T-Jets on the Bear

starting our 5th 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

A pack of 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

Racng Gravity cars on the Champion

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

The winning cars - Rob Hayes 1st, Peter Lentros 2nd, John Reimels 3rd and Mike Tiffany 4th

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 4th 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 2nd 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 2nd date – not the Patriots).

 

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Advocate

 

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