Old guys, young guys, new guys – Who are these masked men?

Ashland, Massachusetts   January 23, 2021   MARC once again shared the LenJet space with the East Coast Outlaw racers for a total of 5 events for the day, checkout the ECO website for the TJet racing results.

Open Weight

Racing on the Car Model

We had a few TJet racers join in the first MARC race of this year, open weighted on the orange Car Model track. This class of cars lap in the 3.5 second zone a few seconds a lap quicker than the GJets ran on it in December.  We ran the center 4 lanes so combined pro and sportsman drivers could take a step aside to space out some while running the 3 minutes per lane.

Top spot Ryan at 198, Peter Lentros 192, Pete Medeiros 3rd at 176, Dave

Open Weight Race Results

“TJet” Lockwood 4th 175, 6th Don Hall 174, Cody 164, Tom Gray also at 164 7th, Rick 8th 159, Paul Crosby, 9th, and coming in 10th with 151 a special welcome to newcomer to MARC, Bruce Olson who took time out of racing 1/24 to run HO for the first time since 1969!! Bruce fielded his own cars for the MARC events, ran all 5 of the day’s races very cleanly too! I saw him buying some parts and asking some questions, he will be back!

Spec Racer

Racing on the Purple Mile

Moving on to the spec racer event on the purple mile we want to thank Dave Lockwood for hanging out after the outlaws finished their day so we could hold ours. Dave had NO practice and had never raced the class before he picked up the awesome track quickly.

This race was interesting in that 5 different models of cars hit the track for the event. A Wizzard Fusion, a Storm, a Slottech T3, several Vipers and BSRT G3’s. It is neat to see various brands and models racing together.  Again, the center 4 lanes were used with 4 marshalls pro and sportsman combined.

Spec Racer Race Results

Taking down the win one of the “old guys”  Peter Lentros with 183 laps showing age and treachery outdrive youth (?) and enthusiasm besting Ryan in 2nd with 182, Cody (I did mention young guy) with a tough 1st lane in third at 176 (I have to say with one of the most fun side by side runs I’ve had in a long time, great racing Cody!)

Podium - Spec Racer

4th Fast Pete Medeiros with another awesome looking car, 5th Dave TJet Lockwood with a loaner T3 and no practice 156, Tom Gray with the wrong size rear tires 146 in 6th, 7th Rick with a Storm, 8th the new guy “I’ll be back” Bruce.

Lastly 

Special thanks to Rich Payne for updating the Lenjet computers and Paul Crosby for cleaning the rails on all the tracks along with giving them a full cleaning too! Oh and Peter Lentros as well for loving this hobby as much as the rest of us!

See you in February you masked racers whoever you are…

Ryan

Combined Club Racing???  Say WHAT!?!?!

  Ashland, Massachusetts   December 12, 2020    With many racers choosing not to attend due to the pandemic, the body count for the MARC and East Coast Outlaws racing series has been on low side. Both clubs had events scheduled for December, so the idea was brought forth to have both clubs run on same day to allow enough racers to run the events.  With face coverings and social distancing in place the ECO guys got racing started with their first event around 10:00 (check out the ECO website for race report)

F1 GJets on the Car Model

MARC racing was then underway with 9 racers (a couple ECO guys braved racing cars with the motors spinning on different axis) for F1 hard body GJets on the Car Model track. This track seems well suited to the class and it had been quite a while since MARC had raced on it.  The racing was once again pretty close as seems to be the norm for GJets. We ran sportsman and pro racers together in round robin 3-minute heats.

Sportsman GJets:

In Sportsman, John “1/24 racer” Weaver took the top spot at 172, Don Hall 167 earning 2^nd; Cody 3rd just a few sections ahead of Peter Medeiros in 4th both at 157; 5th Chris T;  6th Dave “TJet” Lockwood and 7th Joe E both wondering  if they could sneak a GJet into their outlaws grand national TJet bodies.

Pro GJets:

In the pro division Greg B took the top spot at 184; Ryan 2nd at 175; Paul Crosby 3rd 169; Peter Lentros 165 4^th; and Tom Gray 134 in 5th

Lunch break and two additional ECO races later MARC resumed at 4:00 on the Champion track for MARC super stock. If memory serves the last time MARC SS was run on the Champion was the 2018 Nats where a now MARC regular took home the gold in amateur ss action.

Combined Sportsman and Pro SS:

Again we ran 3-minute Round Robin heats with sportsman and pro combined with a total of 8 racers. Top spot turned out to be the aforementioned national champion Greg B (pro) this time putting a Fusion in the winner circle with 211 laps; Ryan (pro) taking one of his Vipers out at the 11th hour using Greg’s tire setup from the Nats resulted in 2nd at 206; 3rd overall sportsman racer Cody Pare 184 (quite possibly next HOPRA Nats amateur

Well masked podium (but not so hot on the social distancing...)

super stock contender when the Nats return to Lenjet, this kid is fast!);  4th once again Peter Lentros 178; Tom Gray 5th 172; Rick Pare sportsman 6th 158; Peter Medeiros sportsman 7th 156; Paul Crosby (MARC sportsman for this division I believe ?) in 8th at 147 just not getting the right setup figured out today.  Come to think about it….what an amateur lineup team MARC could have at the next Nats. Cody, Pete Medeiros, Paul Crosby and Rick Pare ! I wouldn’t bet against any of them.

While we are lucky to be able to get some racing in the last couple months, here’s to a New Year which hopefully brings better days ahead for all!

Ryan

Who are those masked men?

Ashland Massachusetts, November 14, 2020 – Twelve drivers came out of their COVID bunkers masked and armed with hand sanitizer.  Everyone keep socially distanced

Spec Racer on the Purple Mile - An excellent for Social Distancing

as much as possible and once again the Terry Ayer Remote Driver’s Stations (TARDS) were employed to provide more separation for the drivers and marshals.  As in October, we only practiced on one track at a time.  The Spec Racer class was run first on four lanes of the Purple Mile and the Super Stock class was run on the Bear.  Heats were reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes to reduce the time the same people were in proximity of one another.  Lastly there was an IROC race on the Bear with the Viper Scale Racing Retro V cars provided by Ryan Archambault that were a blast to drive.

Sportsman Spec Racer Podium - Cody Pare 1st, Pete Medeiros 2nd, Mike Tiffany 3rd abd Tom Bussmann 4th

We saw a good mix of cars in Spec Racer with BSRT, Viper and Wizzard all represented.  The name of the game on the Purple Mile is speed, but you win or lose this race in the donut and fingers, so a good balance of downforce is needed.  People seemed to dial in their cars quickly and the racing commenced.  Peter Medeiros brough his friend Sean to join the fun.  Sean has run slot cars for fun but never raced.  Great to see a new face and we hope to see him back in the future.

Sportsman and Pros run together in a Round-Robin for the first race of the day.  Racing was fast and people seemed to have their cars well dialed in.  All in all, the racing was clean with some of the Sportsman finishing better than the Pros.  In fact, Cody Pare finished third overall! Spec Racer and the Purple Mile are two great things that go great together.

Cody Pare was the top Sportsman with a big lead over Peter Medeiros in second.  Mike Tiffany squeezed in one more lap for third over Tom Bussmann who kept all the parts in his car and the body in place to finish fourth.  Sean showed good car control in his first race and handled his marshalling like a veteran.  Nice Job!

Sportsman Results

Pro Spec Racer Podium - Ryan Archambault 1st, Greg Burstein 2nd, Rob Hayes 3rd and Peter Lentros 4th

Ryan put down an impressive total to take the top spot many laps ahead of Greg in second.  He also had fastest lap with a 3.304 second lap.  Rob finished third and the Mayor of LenJet, Peter Lentros finished fourth.  Some of us need to up our game or we’ll have our Pro status revoked!

 Pro Results

With the Spec Racer program wrapped up, it was time to start getting ready for Super Stock.  The sadistic Club Director decided to make things challenging and choose the Bear for this race.  Monster motors weren’t going to get you the win here.  Handling was key and a quick trigger finger.

Sportsman Super Stock Podium - Cody Pare 1st, Pete Medeiros 2nd, Hal Pierce 3rd and Terry Ayer 4th

Cody must have been practicing while we weren’t looking.  He took his second blue ribbon of the day and set fastest lap for the Sportsman and Pros!  Cody was first with a fast lap of 2.890 and was just 4 laps off the top Pro.  Peter Medeiros was second followed by Hal in third.  Terry rounded out the podium in fourth just a lap behind Hal.  Sean survived the Bear, and while he didn’t get a T-shirt for it, he showed he’s ready to race with MARC.  We hope he continues to race with the club.

Sportsman Results

Pro Super Stock Podium - Greg Burstein 1st, Rob Hayes 2nd and Ryan Archambault 3rd

Greg Burstein took his Wizzard car to the top spot with a very clean run.  Nine laps back Rob Hayes took second.  The rest of the field was in another zip code with Ryan third and Peter squeaking into fourth by sections.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want another shot at Super Stock on the Bear.

Pro Results

Once again, Ryan provided us with a set of IROC cars.  This time it was a set of the new Viper Retro V cars.  These cars have almost no downforce making for an interesting driving experience.  We were running at 13v on the Bear. The top 6 drivers have had some

IROC Racing

Gravity racing experience as well as experience racing T-Jets.  Since it was the end of the day, we only gave everybody a minute and a half on one lane to set their controllers and get a feel for the cars. Even so, people started adjusting to them quickly. Rather good considering we had just finished racing Super Stock on the same track.   I’d recommend the car to anyone looking for a slower car but doesn’t want to go the T-Jet or Gravity route. Plus, they make for some close IROC racing.  Well done Viper Racing and thank you Ryan for providing the cars.

Retro V IROC Cars

Thank you to everyone who showed up for another great day of racing.  Next race we will be back at LenJet wearing our masks, etc.  We will be racing F1 G-Jet on the Car Model track and Super Stock on the Champion.  Hope to see you there!

The race report as recorded this day

November 29, 2020

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant at Arms

Testing the waters

Ashland Massachusetts, October 10, 2020 – Thirteen drivers came out of the Covid quarantine to see if racing would be possible when following the current recommended guidelines.  I think all the attendees would agree the answer is yes!  Everyone in attendance worn a mask properly covering their mouth and nose.  Everyone made an effort to keep socially distanced and to assist with these Terry Ayer provided some remote driver stations there were employed to provide more separation for the drivers and marshals.  To allow use of the driver stations, we only practiced on one track at a time.  The Open Weighted class was run first on the MaxTrax Pyton and the Super Stock class was run on the Viper Scale Racing Boomerang.  Heats were reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes and European rotation was used to reduce the time the same people were in proximity of one another.  Lastly there was an IROC race on the Boomerang with cars provided by Ryan Archambault.  Great to be back racing!

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 finishing better than the Pros.  In fact, Terry Ayer was fourth overall! Racing was fast and people seemed to have their cars pretty well dialed in.

Terry Ayer was the top Sportsman closely followed by Cody Pare in second, and Peter Medeiros in third.  Rick Pare rounded out the podium in fourth.  It was great to see Tom Bussmann and Peter Medeiros back at the track.  Hopefully they will be at future races.

Sportsman Results

Ryan put down an impressive total to take the top spot with Peter in second 6 laps behind. Rob finished third and the club director was a distant fourth.  Some rusty trigger fingers out there that need some practice!

Pro Results

With the Open Weighted program wrapped up, it was time to start getting ready for Super Stock.  The Boomerang was the site of the Pro Super Stock race the last time the HOPRA Nats were in town so some of the pros had a head start on the setup.  As with the Open Weighted race, there were Viper, BSRT and Wizzard Fusion cars on the track and Pros and Sportsman raced togehter.  Great to see a mix of manufactures out there.

Sportsman Super Stock Podium - Pete Medeiros 1st, Cody Pare 2nd, Terry Ayer 3rd and Hal Pierce 4th

Peter Medeiros showed he still has got the chops taking down the win just 6 laps ahead of Cody Pare in second and who was just a lap ahead of Terry Ayer in third.  Hal Pierce took the last spot on the podium.  Once again, some very close and clean racing from the Sportsman.  Tom Bussmann suffered the Bussmann curse.  A missing axle retaining pin and a loose body hurt his lap totals a bit.

Sportsman Results

Pro Super Stock Podium - Rob Hayes 1st, Peter Lentros 2nd, Greg Burstein 3rd and Tom Gray 4th

Very close racing for the Pros as well.  Greg Burstein showed up and joined in the racing.  Rob Hayes took the top spot closely followed by Peter in second, Greg Burstein in third and Tom Gray in fourth.  Ryan Archambault experienced some brush issues with his Fusion, but I’m sure he’ll get it sorted out.

 Pro Results

New to Marc for the 2020 season is the addition of an IROC race (Thanks Ryan for the cars and writeup!).  For this race on the Boomerang we ran 4 Harden Creek prepared BDR cars. The BDR chassis comes from the UK’s Slotcarsdirect and is based off the Tomy srt/turbo with some improvements over the original. The cars as equipped ran 6 ohm arms with ceramic magnet motors, level 10 traction magnets and slip on tires.  16 volts seems to be a good voltage for these cars. The 908 Porsche hard bodies came from DB racing (Mike King) in an appropriately themed “COVID 19 Pandemanium” paint scheme.  Drivers took to the track for 3-minute round robin action.  Some very close racing occurred for many laps with racers able to really run side by side.  When the checkered flag fell it was Greg Burstein taking the win with 121 laps,  Cody Pare, Mike Tiffany, and Ryan Archambault in that order all on same lap of 113 separated by mere sections, Pete Mederios at 112, Tom Gray and Peter Lentros at 111 with Tom a few sections ahead, followed by Tom Bussmann, Hal Peirce, Terry Ayer, and Rick Pare.  Fun was had by all and some Pandemanium IROC race awardsprovided by DB Racing were handed out.  Discussion of next month IROC race with the Viper Scale Racing Retro C anti-gravity cars began.  Who will come out on top?  Stay tuned till November 14!

Thank you to everyone who showed up for another great day of racing.  Next race we will be back at LenJet wearing our masks, etc.  We will be racing Spec Racer on the Purple Mile and Super Stock on the Bear.  Hope to see you there!

The race report as recorded this day

October 23, 2020

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant at Arms

The Last Race, for now anyway

Suffield CT, March 14, 2020 – 17 drivers made the last race before everything shutdown.  Special guests Paul Kniffen and Roger Porcelli were on hand for the MARC race and the 6-hour Enduro to be held Sunday.  Bill Bonsma and his son William were back to join the fun.  That’s two months in a row.  Perhaps we’ll be seeing more of the Bonsmas in the future.  Victor Feliciano also made the trip for some CMPM racing on Dan’s Scorpion.  A new addition to the Taj MaHO is the swoopy Nuvolari track that formally resided at John Stezlecki’s Nantasket Beach Raceway.  The track has been successfully moved, leveled, strengthen, and spiffed up by the always fastidious Dan DeCosmo.  Dan re-ordered the driver stations so you just ‘move down the line’ for European Rotation.  Donuts and coffee greeted the drivers as they arrived for a full day of racing.

Sportsman Spec Racer Podium - Mike Tiffany 1st, Cody Pare 2nd, O'Jimmy Colligan 3rd and Rick Pare 4th

First up was Spec Racer on the Nuvolari.  We have run Spec Racer on this track before when it was at Stez’s.  They ran just as good on the track in its new location although some people were still searching for the right compound and tire size to give traction in the bank and to get through the squiggles cleanly.  Personally, I found the Viper medium compound tires worked well.

Sportsman and Pros run together in a Round-Robin for the first race of the day.  All in all, the racing was clean with, although there was some mayhem in the bank with cars sliding wide.  In the end, Dan took his rocket ship to the top of the podium with 471 laps, 12 laps over second place.

 Sportsman Results

Mike Tiffany quietly cycled through the lanes not attracting any attention and in doing so ended up at the top of the podium for the Sportsman.  With 447 laps, Mike was just a few laps behind the pack of Pros in the 450s.  Cody Pare struggled a bit in Yellow and Blue and then found his groove finishing second.  Oh Jimmy struggled a bit as well but pushed on to finish third.  Rick Pare took the last ribbon and William did well his first time out on the very fast Nuvolari track.

Pro Results

Pro Spec Racer Podium - Dan Decosmo 1st, Erik Eckhardt 2nd, Rob Hayes 3rd and Paul Kniffen 4th

 Dan was unstoppable as he drove to the top spot on the podium.  Behind Dan, things got tight.  Erik took second with 459 laps and then the finishing positions for the next four drives was determined by sections since all had 454 laps.  Once final calculations were done, Rob Hayes was third and Paul Kniffen (Don’t let Paul fool you, his focus today may be T-Jets, but he can drive the fast stuff just as well) took home the 4^th place ribbon.  Dr. Pileggi missed the podium by 1 section, but he would get his revenge in the CMPM race.

With the Spec Racer program wrapped up, it was time to start getting ready for Modified for the Sportsman and CMPM for the Pros.  This was the second time this class has been run on Dan’s new MaxTrax Scorpion.  The track is very fast and very smooth.  A real blast to race on.  With some drives leaving and some drivers joining, we had four Sportsman for Modified and ten Pros for CMPM.

Sportsman Results

Sportsman Modified Podium - Cody Pare 2nd, William Bonsma 4th, Bill Bonsma 1st and O'Jimmy Colligan 3rd

Bill Bonsma joined the Sportsman for the Modified race claiming lack of equipment and skill to deal with the faster CMPM cars.  We’ll let you get away with that this time Bill, but we know you’ve got the skill.  Bill drove to the top of the podium with 404 laps.  Cody Pare had issues in Yellow that most likely knocked him off the top spot, but he stuck with it and brought home second.  Oh Jimmy looked pretty consistence and finished third and William had another good showing for his first time on the track and first time driving a Modified.

Pro Results

Pro CMPM Podium - John Pileggi 1st, Roger Porcelli 2nd, Dan Decosmo 3rd and Victor Feliciano 4th

Roger and Victor joined the crowd for the CMPM race.  Uncharacteristically, Rob Hayes struggled with equipment problems that keep in the back of the pack.  Everyone else seems to deal ok with the downforce of the MaxTrax and no smoke was released during the race.  John Pileggi reminded everyone why he is one of the top drivers in MARC by blasting out 510 laps to take the win with a 24 lead over second place Roger who had a very stout run for his first appearance on Dan’s Scorpion.  Dan took the third-place spot followed by Victor who had a great run for his first time on the Scorpion to take fourth.

Ribbons were awarded, hands were not shaking (fist bumps, elbow bumps, etc. were the greeting of the day) and everyone packed up and headed out.  Thank you to everyone who showed up for another great day of racing in some trying times.  I’m not sure when the next race will be as we wait for this pandemic to run its course, but I can’t wait.  It’s always a good day at a MARC race and I’m missing the competition and comradery when we get together.  Stay safe and tune those cars up.  We’ll see you on the track as soon as we can.

The race report as recorded this day

March 29, 2020

Douglas C. Neidermeyer

Sergeant at Arms

High Speed on Fast Five Raceway

 Southampton, MA  February 08, 2020   Fourteen racers headed to Fast Five (well 13 as

Racing underway at Fast Five Raceway

Ryan’s wife still lets him live here despite his slot car addiction) to run on Snakebite Raceway.  While Rob Hayes charged his Tesla, the raceway still managed enough power to propel a days’ worth of racing.

Spec Racer:

Sportsman Spec Racer Podium - Bill Bonsma 1st, Mike Tiffany 2nd, Tery Ayer 3rd and O'Jimmy Colligan 4th

Starting the day Pros and Sportsman ran together for Spec Racer as is the norm for MARC. After more track calls than any of us care to admit (6 lanes – what more needs to be said) Greg Burstein took the win with a brand-new Fusion. The Fusion is proving to be a formidable car in Spec Racer. Three laps down was Ryan using a well proven Viper.  Paul Ryer put up some good clean segments, but traffic and track calls kept him back a few laps in 3^rd.  Making a rare appearance in 4th was Bill Bonsma

Pro Spec Racer Podium - Greg Burstein 1st, Ryan Archambault 2nd, Paul Ryer 3rd and Tommy Gray 4th

(running as a sportsman).  The rest of the field had fierce battles all the way to position 14.  Wait, the racer in position 14 is 2 years younger than his finishing position!  It was also his first official HO slot car race – William Bonsma, age 12 was showing he can race these little cars as well as his RC cars and was later heard he can’t wait to race again!  I think he’s hooked!  And totally welcome to come race with us any time. Can’t wait for him to be beating his dad and the rest of us! Great job racing and marshaling too William.

Sportsman Super Stock: 

Sportsman Super Stock Podium - Bill Bonsma 1st, O'Jimmy Colligan 2nd, Terry Ayer 3rd and William Bonsma 4th

After some Lasagna and salad for lunch (thanks Luann) and some practice, the time for super stock sportsman was up.  Taking down the Sportsman SS win after a fairly clean 6 lanes of racing was “Bill my kid can’t beat me Bonsma” followed by Jim Colligan, Terry Ayer, and William Bonsma (in 4^th!).  Followed by Hal Pierce in 5th, Mike Tiffany in 6th and John Schoenfeld in 7th. Nice race guys, you always run clean on Snakebite

Pro CMPM:

Pro CMPM Podium - Ryan Archambault 1st, Rob Hayes 2nd, Jim Macartney 3rd and Tom Jahl 4th

Last but not least was CMPM for the MARC pros.  With 6 pros we decided to run the center 4 lanes to allow for adequate number of Marshals and hopefully a little less hectic race. CMPM cars on this track are blindingly quick!  About 2 minutes into the first segment on the track Ryan’s Viper lost a guide pin, it pulled out in a backwards slide!  A quick dash to the pits (another home track advantage) and a new pin was installed leaving Ryan down about 24 laps…looked pretty hopeless to come back out on top.  Rob Hayes in the meantime was battling with Jim Mac for top position. Tom Jahl was looking pretty stout meanwhile Paul Ryer was having havoc with traffic and Tom Gray seemed to have some issues of some kind.  Ryan pressed on with every lap being a 110% effort putting up 458 lap total.  With two more heats to go Ryan could only watch as Rob and Jim rotated back into the race to try and take top honors. It wasn’t to be as Ryan’s total was enough to fend off Rob at 442, Jim at 439, Tom Jahl at 435, Paul at 432 and Tom Gray in 6th at 414. Ryan said his CMPM car was going into hibernation for this year’s Nats

Thanks to everyone that attended and hope to see back here next year.

Fast Five Raceway – Home of Snakebite Speedway

2^nd Annual GRoNE Hog’s Day Event

 Ashland, MA  February 01, 2020    We had 12 participants at our second annual GRoNE

Racing on the Tubbie - Such memories...

Hog’s Day event hosted by Peter Lentros at his awesome LenJet Raceway.  LenJet tends to draw the crowd, in part because it’s centrally located within New England but also because it’s just an awesome place to race.  We dusted off Peter’s 5-lane Tubbie track for the T-Jet race (we really need to use this track more often, it’s so much fun to drive – JR) followed by an IROC Dire Wolf race and the Gravity race on Peter’s fast Viper track.

T-Jet Race:

T-Jet Podium - Rob Hayes 1st, Paul Ryer 2nd, Peter Lentros 3rd and John Reimels 4th

As usual at a GRoNE event, the first race of the day was the T-Jets, this time on Peter’s Tubbie.  Peter’s Tubbie is a bit unique in that it’s surfaced with a 5 lane track made by Brad Bowman, the 5 lane configuration increases the lane spacing allowing for some nice side-by-side racing.   Rob Hayes once again showed his T-Jet prowess by beating Paul Ryer to the finish by 3 laps.  Track owner Peter Lentros finished third followed by John Reimels in fourth.  Racing T-Jets on this track brings back memories of Friday nights at the commercial raceway in Quincy, MA; 48 years later, the rhythm is still the same, but the cars are just so much faster.

T-Jets Results

IROC Race:

Nice looking Dire Wolves

We’re getting close to creating our third class for GRoNE events, Dire Wolves.  Most members have taken advantage of Peter’s efforts to kick off this class and purchased the kits he bought from RPMS.  By our next event, we should have enough cars so most racers can run their own car or borrow one from folks that have built more than one.   For this race, we ran the event IROC style with three cars built with the N20 motor out of an AFX Mega G+ car, the 4^th car using an M20 motor.  Racing was extremely close with the top eight finishing within three laps – now that’s racing!  Peter Lentros took down the victory followed in close succession by Donny Hall, Dave Muse, John Reimels, Tommy Gray, Paul Ryer, Mike Tiffany and Rob Hayes.  I really look forward to growing this class as an easy way for folks to experience the wonderful world of gravity racing.

Dire Wolf IROC Results

Gravity Race:

Gravity Podium - Donny Hall 1st, Paul Ryer 2nd, Tommy Gray 3rd and Dave Muse 4th

Saving the best for last, Gravity cars were up next on the Viper track.  With Rob opting out of the event, we were down to 11 racers, but still enough to run all six lanes.  Donny Hall ran a masterful race beating the field to the finish by 4 laps.  Paul Ryer finished second in a tight scrap with Tom Gray.  Dave Muse finished a very clean fourth.  It’s GREAT to see Donny, Tom and Dave at the top of the field, they’ve been solid members of the GRoNE graviteers since the

Gravity Podium - Dave Muse 4th, Tommy Gray 3rd, Paul Ryer 2nd and Donny Hall 1st

group’s inception; for all three to be on the podium is just awesome – racing is getting tighter, as we all get a handle on Gravity Racing.  Mike Tiffany nipped John Reimels for 5^th with track owner Peter Lentros in 7^th.

Gravity Results

Thanks to Peter Lentros for hosting and thanks to all participants for spending their Saturday racing brass cars.  I’ll put out feelers for a race the end of March / early April – anyone interested in hosting, let me know.

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Enthusiast

A Full Day of Racing on a Warm Summer’s Day in January

Ashland, Massachusetts   January 11, 2020   With 22 racers in attendance, MARC had

Practicing on the Bear

its biggest crowd of the season; but LenJet usually does draw in the participants.  This despite the super warm weather that hit the New England area over the weekend.  All 22 racers ran together for the Open Weight class on the Bear but, for the second race, the Sportsman ran Super Stocks on the Purple Mile whilst the Pros ran CMPM on the Viper.

Open Weight:

Sportsman Open Weight Podium - Hal Pierce 1st, Donny Hall 2nd, Terry Ayer 3rd and O'Jimmy Colligan 4th

Rob Hayes has been on a wicked winning streak as of late, and the Open Weight race was no different.  Rob set high lap count on all four lanes winning the race by a huge 11 lap margin.  The dynamic duo of Ryan Archambault and Dan Decosmo, both running cars out of the Archambault pit box, just couldn’t match Rob’s pace and finished 3^rd and 2^nd respectively. Host, Peter Lentros, finished 4^th, followed by the “Johns” – Reimels 5^th and Stezelecki 6^th.  Top Sportsman, Hal Pierce finished 7^th

Pro Open Weight Podium - Rob Hayes 1st, Dan Decosmo 2nd, Ryan Archambault 3rd and Peter Lentros 4th

overall beating fellow Sportsman, Donny Hall by sections to take the top spot for that division.  Terry Ayer grabbed third beating O’Jimmy Colligan and John Schoenfeld by a few laps in a tight battle for the Sportsman podium.

Sportsman – Super Stocks:

Sportsman running Super Stocks on the Purple Mile

With Tom Smith and John Schoenfeld taking the afternoon off to enjoy the warm weather, we had 9 Sportsman battling on the Purple Mile with Super Stocks.  With the Pros off running their own race, the group decided to run only the four center lanes so there would be enough marshals to conduct the race.  Cody Pare, a local youngster that’s been making a name for himself at Modelville Hobby, borrowed a car from Ryan Archambault and put on quite the show.   Laps on the Purple Mile are long, so winning the race by 24 laps is simply amazing.  If Cody ever decides to run the entire MARC circuit, he will be a force to be reckoned with.   Finishing second was Donny Hall followed by O’Jimmy Colligan and Terry Ayer.  The Sportsman division has been a real hotbed thus far this season, the competition has been close throughout the field.

Pro – CMPM:

Pros running CMPM on the Viper

It was great to be running fast cars on the Viper again, when you hit the right set-up, racing on the track is breath-taking (and exhausting).  And clearly Ryan Archambault hit the right set-up.  Since we were running just the center four lanes, it’s tough to compare lap totals from previous races however, the center four lane total from John Pileggi’s record run last year was 391 laps, Ryan’s lap total on the same four lanes this year was 427 laps!  Amazing.  Coming home second was John Reimels with 404 laps followed by Peter Lentros in third with a 395 lap total all beating John Pileggi’s center four lane total of last year.   Maybe there was less carnage because there were only four cars running but clearly the track was fast – very fast.  Coming home in fourth was Rob Hayes followed by Dan Decosmo in fifth.

For the event, Ryan’s stable finished 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th in CMPM, 1^st in the Sportsman SS race and 2^nd and 3^rd in the open weight class – not a bad day for Team Ryan.

Next Up:

Speaking of Ryan, we’ll be at his Fast Five Raceway on February 8^th where we’ll all be racing the Spec Racers class for the 1^st race followed by Super Stocks for the Sportsman and CMPM for the Pros.  All races will be held on Ryan’s fast Snake Bite track.

The GRoNE group will be back at Peter’s LenJet facility on February 1^st for our 2^nd Annual GRoNE Hog’s Day event racing T-Jets on the Tubbie, Gravity cars on the Viper and Dire Wolves on either the Tubbie or the Viper (we’ll decide race morning).

John Reimels

A New Year’s GRoNE 

Ashland, Massachusetts  December 28, 2019    For our 4^thannual 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 5^th 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.

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.

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 4^th in a non-center hinged car.

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 2^nd 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 2^nd date – not the Patriots).

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Advocate