Death to Pumpkin Spice!

Ashland, MA, September 9, 2023 – Once again we start to transition into the Fall season even though it was hot. Damn hot.  Luckily our host Peter Lentros had the LenJet

Facility nice and cool like an early Fall day.  15 drivers entered the building with nary a scent of pumpkin spice.  Gotta avoid that stuff, it makes you slow and crave for attending fall festivals that eat the funds intended for slot car racing, but I digress.  Every proceed to knock the dust off their equipment and the rust off their driving skills as we dove into practice.  We could have started out with slower classes, but we dove into the speed with Spec Racer on the Purple Mile and CMPM for the Pros and Modified for the Sportsmen on the Boomerang.

You gotta have rhythm.  The Purple Mile like it’s 1/24 scale big brother is all about establishing a driving rhythm to match the track.  Do so and you can crank the laps out.  Don’t and it’s going to be a long race.  We ran the Sportsman and Pro groups together.

Sportsman Spec Racer –   Some of these guys are getting quick and finished in front of some of the Pros.  Dave Muse encountered a mechanical issue that forced an extended pitstop while he was in the Blue lane and greatly impacted his lap total.  Meanwhile at the top of the field Bruce Olsen quietly cranked out 405 laps to take the top spot over Terry Ayer.  Hal Pierce followed Terry home to take third and Cedric Prevoe took the last podium spot coming home fourth.

Sportsman Results
Drivers	White	Green	Orange	Blue	Yellow	Purple	Total	Avg	Best Lap
Bruce Olsen	66	68	67	72	68	64	405.09	67.5	3.865 Blue
Terry Ayer	66	63	73	73	63	63	401.3	66.8	3.685 Blue
Hal Pierce	59	56	71	69	66	62	383.3	63.8	3.725 Blue
Cedric Prevoe	57	61	63	65	60	56	362.8	60.3	3.921 Blue
Dave Muse	55	58	58	10	53	53	287.25	47.8	4.575 Orange

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro Spec Racer – Hakim Harris’ Pro debut started a bit shaking but then Hakim got in the groove in the middle lanes.  I’m sure we’ll see Hakim at the top of the field soon.  Ryan Archambault picked up where he left off last season taking the top spot followed by John Pileggi 4 laps back in second.  Victor Feliciano made the trip up from New York by taking the third spot on the podium.  Jim Macartney showed he’s got the speed and took the fourth spot on the podium just 4 laps behind Vic.

Pro Results
Drivers	White	Green	Orange	Blue	Yellow	Purple	Total	Avg	Best Lap
Ryan Archambault	79	80	80	72	75	73	459.30	76.5	3.400 Orange
John Pileggi	73	76	79	79	72	74	45323	75.5	3.450 Blue
Victor Feliciano*	75	71	79	78	71	70	444.41	74	3.446 Orange
Jim Macartney	71	71	77	76	75	70	440.33	73.3	3.512 Blue
Jonathan Feliciano*	69	72	73	76	74	73	437.34	72.8	3.626 Blue
Peter Lentros	68	76	76	77	73	66	436.33	72.7	3.627 Orange
Tom Jahl	70	70	75	67	71	63	416.24	69.3	3.616 Blue
Paul Ryer	66	69	67	71	68	68	409.30	68.2	3.711 Orange
Tom Gray	63	60	73	67	70	62	395.7	65.8	3.650 Blue
Hakim Harris	42	59	72	70	70	60	373.34	62.2	3.701 Yellow

*Not MARC Members

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch and some practice on the Boomerang it was time to race.  Once again Sportsman and Pros would run together.  We have found there is not a significant speed difference between CMPM and Modified so the classes were run together.  Trackmate wasn’t happy and we had to restart after the first heat.  After that, it still wasn’t happy, and the file saved with best laps was unusable.  The author has determined that the fast guys are still fast.

 

Sportsman Modified – Four drivers participated in the Sportsman race, so everybody was on the podium and the racing was close.  Unfortunately, Cedic suffered a mechanical in Red that hurt his total.  It was all Bruce all day as he took his second podium.  Hal was hot on his heels in second with Terry just behind him in third.  Cedric took the last spot on the podium.

 

Sportsman Results
Drivers	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total	Avg
Bruce Olsen	61	65	67	70	263.77	65.8
Hal Pierce	58	65	69	60	252.16	63.0
Terry Ayer	56	66	65	62	249.6	62.2
Cedric Prevoe	53	66	61	23	203.1	50.8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro CMPM – The back of the field was a war of attrition with Jim, Hakim, and Paul fighting mechanical issues.  At the top of the field Jonathan Feliciano showed his need for speed by taking down the top spot.  Ryan kept it from being a Feliciano one, two, by taking second closely followed by Vic.  John Pileggi rounded out the podium in fourth.

 

Pro Results
Drivers	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	Total	Avg
Jonathan Feliciano*	89	98	97	95	379	94.8
Ryan Archambault	81	92	94	83	350	87.5
Victor Feliciano*	77	85	92	86	340	85
John Pileggi	74	86	74	82	316	79
Tom Gray	59	64	86	80	289	72.2
Tom Jahl	67	70	73	68	278	69.5
Paul Ryer	75	75	47	80	277	69.2
Hakim Harris	55	75	78	68	276	69.0
Jim Macartney	63	65	69	60	257	64.2

*Not MARC Members

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone who made it to the kickoff event for the MARC 2023 – 2024 season.  As always, it was a great day of racing and I look forward to a fun competitive season.  Next up, we will be at Fiddlehead Raceway racing Open Weighted and Super Stock on October 14^th.  Hope to see you there!

The race report faithfully submitted this day,

September 17, 2023

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant At Arms