September 29, 2023 | john 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 Back at LenJet Raceway for the start of a new season 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 Sportsman SPec Racer Podium - Cedric Prevoe 4th, Hal Pierce 3rd, Terry Ayer 2nd and Bruce Olsen 1st 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 CMPM Pro Podium - John Pileggi 4th, Victor Feliciano 3rd, Ryan Archambault 2nd and Jonathan Feliciano 1st 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 14th. Hope to see you there! The race report faithfully submitted this day, September 17, 2023 Douglas C. Neidermeyer Sergeant At Arms