Celebrating the New Year with a GRoNE

 Ashland Massachusetts  December 29, 2018 – With 4 – 5 of the gravity stalwarts unable to make the event, we were lucky to have a total of 9 participants join us on

December 29^th for our first gravity event since the 2018 Nats – some folks had to leave early, some arrived late so we only had 7 to 8 entrees per race but the field was large enough to successfully conduct the event.  Thanks go to the long-distance travelers who made the event, namely Tom Bussmann, Mike Tiffany and Tommy Gray – without you guys, we might have had to cancel the event!  Peter Lentros had his LenJet facility all set for the affair; in addition to coffee and Danish, the Viper and the Bear tracks were ready for the Gravity races and the Shamrock Glen was all prepped for the T-Jet race.  Awesome.

 

First up were the Gravity cars on Peter’s latest track acquisition, the Bear, purchased from Steve Medanic about six months ago.  We were concerned that the layout may not be suitable for gravity cars, boy were we wrong; the cars handled the track with no issues.  The wide sweeper onto the front straight was key to getting a fast lap, hang the tail out just a bit and nail it approaching the straight – the only place on the entire track to use full throttle.  For the rest of the track, handling was key – especially in the esses.   Everyone seemed to really enjoy running these cars on this immaculate track, all it took was a bit of patience, a lot of practice and a car that handled well.  After 90 minutes of open practice folks were anxious to get the show on the road.

 

We had 7 participants for the first race, all using various vintages of my anglewinder design.  I was hoping that someone would try an AFX based car, they might be the ticket on this tight track.  The battle for the podium was tight with Mike Resnick in third pushing Donny Hall hard for second with me in front by only 4 laps for first.

		Red	White	Blue	Yellow	TOTAL
1	John Reimels	27	27	28	29	111
2	Donny Hall	25	27	28	27	107
3	Mike Resnick	26	27	26	26	105
4	Peter Lentros	24	27	24	23	98
5	Mike Tiffany	25	25	24	23	97
6	Tom Gray	22	23	24	23	92
7	Dave Muse	23	24	23	21	91

 

 

Next up was T-Jets on the Shamrock Glen.  Tom Bussmann made the trek up from Danbury CT in time to join us for this race.  The Glen is a great track for T-Jets, long

enough straights and fast sweepers so horsepower is required with enough tight turns and esses so handling is important.  Once again, racing was tight throughout the field, no more than 3 laps separated any finishing position.  Donny Hall proved he had the right stuff by taking down the win by 3 laps over me in second.  Dave Muse beat Peter Lentros by 2 sections to take down third.

		Red	White	Blue	Yellow	TOTAL
1	Donny Hall	22	23	24	23	92
2	John Reimels	21	23	23	22	89
3	Dave Muse	22	21	21	22	86
4	Peter Lentros	21	22	21	22	86
5	Mike Resnick	22	22	21	20	85
6	Tom Gray	21	22	21	20	84
7	Tom Bussmann	19	22	21	20	82
8	Mike Tiffany	20	22	18	19	79

 

After the T-Jet race, we all walked over to Town Pizza for sandwiches.  The food there is always great, especially the roast beef.  With Mike Resnick having afternoon obligations,

we were down to seven racers for the last race on the six lane Viper track.  We decided to run the center four lanes leaving only three folks to marshal.  Turns out we made a good choice, the carnage was much less than expected and the three marshals easily handled the offs.  What a difference between the Bear and the Viper, the Viper is fast, fast, fast – the cars were a blast to drive on it.  No more tip-toeing around tight bends, it was flat out fun.  Half way through the first heat, Peter’s car gave up the ghost (the wiper brush was done wiping…) so we had a track call and I lent him one of my cars.  Good thing Peter lost a few laps before the track call or he might have won the race!  As it turns out, I beat Peter for the win by 3 laps (he claims he lost 4 laps before the

track call, I think it was only 2…).  Mike Tiffany drove an awesome race finishing in third, one lap behind Peter (he wishes we had waited another lap before calling track for Peter…).  Dave Muse ran a very smooth and consistent race to finish 4^th, one lap behind Mike.

 

		White	Green	Orange	Blue	TOTAL
1	John Reimels	22	22	23	22	89
2	Peter Lentros	19	23	22	22	86
3	Mike Tiffany	21	21	22	21	85
4	Dave Muse	20	21	21	22	84
5	Tom Gray	20	17	22	21	80
6	Donny Hall	20	20	19	17	76
7	Tom Bussmann	15	21	20	19	75

 

I would like to thank everyone involved for making the day a success.  I would also like to thank Peter Lentros for hosting the event, LenJet is simply a fantastic place to race, we’re truly spoiled…

I also would like to apologize to the entire group for waiting so long to schedule this event – six months between gravity races is WAY TOO LONG.  It won’t happen again.

Rob Hayes will be hosting our GRoNE-hog Day event on Saturday, February 2^nd at his awesome Catfish International Speedway.  I’ll send out a reminder in a few weeks but mark your calendars NOW.  Who’d like to host our Saint Patrick’s Day event in mid-March?

 

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Advocate