George Russell's

In race #3, there were twelve Fastrax regulars in attendance, ten representatives from Slot Car Raceway, and Bay Area "free lancers" Michael O'Donnell and Bill Heiser for a total of 24 racers.  This race had a total of 58 entries for five different races.  We've been successfully running this series with the 1/32 Plafit GTP class open to all driver levels, whereas the 4" NASCAR and GT-1 Lemans S16D classes are divided into "Sportsman" and "Expert" driver levels.  Driver levels have been established by the two track owners running the series, and it seems to be making for a good race series.

The race format continued as before with the Plafit class first followed by the NASCAR and GT-1 classes.  The raceway was opened at 8:00am with Dianne Beck at the helm.  Dianne treated us all to her awesome taco dip which kept all racers dipping constantly for several hours. Racers filed into the raceway early, and by 9:45am we were ready to tech the Plafit cars.  Plafit racing started right on time at the appointed 10:00am hour.  The schedule all day was not hurried, yet we got a lot of racing in.  There was a lunch break a little after 1:00pm, and all the racing was finished by 5pm.

1/32 Plafit GTP

There were a total of 16 entries for the 1/32 Plafit class, the best so far in the series, so there were two qualifying heats with eight racers each. This turned out to be a great way for all the racers to warm up for the rest of the day's racing.  In the first qualifier, the winner was Keith Eastmead with 192 laps, Mark Manion in second with 189, Vee in third with 187 and Alastair with fourth with 186 laps.  Those top four finishers proceeded to the main event.  Keith, Vee, Manion, Krash and NuMarc all finished the first heat with 24 laps.  Krash moved into the lead in heat #2, then Manion to the lead in heat #3.  Keith moved to orange in the fourth heat to move into a tie for the lead with Krash and Manion.  In the next heat, Krash dropped a lap behind the leaders.  In the sixth heat, Keith moved into the lead on red while Mark Manion dropped a lap behind on white.  Keith then extended his lead on green and blue finishing 3 laps ahead of Mark.  Krash crashed in the sixth heat, but did not give up and came back to finish with 175.  NuMarc ran really well through the first five heats, but wrecked while on black and DNFed.  JD Street ran a consistent fifth place car from beginning to end, but just missed the move up.  Alastair Alty ran a consistent fourth place all the way through, and was good enough to just make the main.  CK ran really well and consistent ending with 172 laps.

The second qualifier was won by O'D also with 192 laps, but short of Keith's sticker from the first qualifier.  Ron Southern ran a strong race ending with second with 191 laps.  Hopper took third with 188 and Jeff Thrower fourth with 187, and these top four went on to the main event.  The race started with a strong run by Jeff Thrower running 25 laps on blue.  Ron Southern moved into the lead in the second heat with 25 laps on orange whereas Jeff struggled to 22 laps on purple putting him into fourth place.  Hopper and O'D moved up to tie for second.  These top four pretty much swapped around places through the end of the race while the bottom four were led by Aaron Grigsby, Dan Babineaux, Maria Owen and Mr. Third Eye, Howard Smith.  This was Howard very first track experience on the Fastrax Kingleman, and he learned a lot very quickly!

The Main Event was preceded by the quote of the day, Alastair Alty to Dan Babineaux, "At least I qualified, you LOSER!"  Very tactful, Alastair!  The main started with a hot run of 37 laps by O'D on blue.  His car looked like it had taken steroids.  Vee and Hopper were one lap down followed by Manion at 35, Keith and Ron at 34, Alastair  at 33 and Jeff at 32.  O'D had another great run on purple of 35 laps, but Hopper made up one lap on blue to move on to the same lead lap.  The running order remained the same as above for the rest of the field.  O'D had a rough time of 34 laps on black whereas Hopper ran a strong 36 laps on purple, and Vee ran hard on white also for 36 laps moving him into second place behind the Hopster.  O'D gained two laps back on Hopper on yellow to tie up for the lead again in the 4th heat, and those two remained tied in the 5th heat also.  Disaster struck O'D on white turning only 31 laps and worst time of 14.98 secs, and Hopper romped on orange with 37.  This shifted Vee, Manion, and Southern past O'D to take the top four places.  In the final heat, it was clear that barring a huge wreck, Hopper had the race, but it came down to a tight battle for second between Mark and Ron with Mark eeking it out.  O'D managed to take 4th place on green  while Vee was stuck with black in the final heat.

4" NASCAR SPORTSMAN

We changed the order from our first race of the series making the second race of the day the Sportsman division of the 4" NASCAR, known locally at Fastrax as B Stock Car.  Twelve racers were signed up, and 12 racers finished.  As always with round robin racing, it is hard to tell where you stand during the race, and it is equally difficult to write up the race!  Perhaps the easiest way to put it is who did well be each heat!  So, Alastair won the first heat on green with 36 laps.  Miles won the next heat with 39 coming in on red, and JD ran hard on green with 38. Miles also won the 3rd heat with 38 laps with Aaron and JD second with 36 apiece. Krash came in on red and won the heat with 38 laps and Miles did well again with 37.  The 5th heat had lower lap counts with the top two at 35 laps, Krash and "O" Boy, and Aaron really struggling with only 21 laps.  Keith won the sixth heat with 36 laps.  After struggling with lower lap counts in the gutter, Miles came back on orange for a hot 39 laps.  JD had a strong run of 38 laps on red while Howard and Dan tied at 34, Tom and Krash at 35 laps, Keith at 36 and Spencer with 33.  Miles finished racing in the ninth heat with a 293 lap count which stood until the end of the race as the number to beat.  When it was over, Miles was the winner with JD 7 laps behind, and Krash rounding out the podium with 283 laps.  After the NASCAR Sportsman race, we took a 50 minute lunch break.

4" NASCAR EXPERT

The Expert Division was run as a nine car round robin as Lee the Flea was a little late to get into his Sportsman Division race, so he decided to run with the experts for fun.  However, the Flea ran quickly especially at the beginning of the race.  Hopper started the race on white and ran high lap count of 39.  Wayne, Vee and Lee ran for 38 laps.  Jeff, Russ, Ron and NuMarc took the lower four spots.  By the way, it was pointed out to this writer that Marc Graessle and NuMarc are one in the same person!  So, all the standings are revised to consolidate the two names into "NuMarc" in this issue of the IBSR newsletter.  Lee the Flea ran like a........Flea in the 2nd heat with an impressive 41 laps.  Some racers were grumbling, "ringer, ringer...."  This put Vee in 2nd on the board 3 laps down, and Wayne 4 laps down.  Although Lee and Ron ran fast with 40 laps in the 3rd heat, Hopper came back in on red with 41 laps.  From here to the end of the race it was pretty much Hopper with high lap count.  Lee the Flea had his trials on the black lane with a lot of body snipping and eventually finding out that his interior was tangling with the tires!  In the 7th heat, Russ and Ron had high laps of 40 while Hopper ran the gutter with 37.  Lee the Flea was the first to finish in the 8th heat with 300 laps, 7 more than the Sportsman winner Miles.  Hopper finished the race on orange with 42 laps and fast time of 4.120.Ron Southern was top finisher for the Santa Rosa contingent with 2nd place at 307 laps.  Russ had a strong 3rd place, and Vee finished a lap ahead of The Flea.  Wayne finished just below the 300 mark  Mark Manion, Jeff Thrower and NuMarc rounded out the top nine with pretty respectable lap counts.  Looking at this race, it was clear that the inside lanes really bit just about everyone.  All racers were capable of running 39 or 40 laps per heat, but various disasters occurred on black.

GT-1 Lemans Sportsman

The Super 16D powered GT-1 Sportsman race was run as a 13 heat round robin race.  Keith and Tom Palmer ran really hard in the first heat with 41 laps apiece, and "O" Boy was quick too with 40.  "O" Boy and Lee the Flea ran 42 laps in the 2nd heat. with Aaron, Keith and Tom running 40 laps.  Aaron turned things up one more notch in the 3rd with 43 laps!  Then in the 4th, Krash went further with a high of 44 laps on green, followed in the next heat by 44 again!  We were happy to see former Fastrax and Slotcars Unlimited employee and Sacramento resident Bob Heiser racing well with good lap counts every heat.  Dan Babineaux pulled out in the 5th heat with a wicked accident.  Howard was getting the hang of the Kingleman in this race running pretty consistent 35 lap range.  Also in the 5th heat, Aaron ran a very good 42 laps on purple, one of the harder lanes with the wide donut turn.  After a rocky beginning to his race, JD Street turned good laps on yellow with 41 and followed up on orange also with 41.  Krash ran 44 laps on green, and then another 44 laps the next heat on blue.  Jeff Thrower came in on red in the 5th heat and ran consistent 40-42 lap counts as he moved down the drivers panel, but got nailed on black with only 34 laps.  He came back strong moving back up though, good for 5th place eventually.  It wasn't until the ninth heat that the eventual winner of the race came back in on red with 44 laps.  Keith ran 44, 44, 43, 41 and 40 laps through the end of the race.  Krash certainly had the best lap counts each heat except for the fact that his first heat on red was a horrible 29 laps which put him in 4th place.  Lee the Flea and Aaron ran very consistent 40 laps per heat range to finish 2nd and 3rd.  Howard Smith took top honors for the Santa Rosa Sportsman contingent with 8th place followed by CK, Bad Brad, then Bob Heiser and finally "O" Boy who pulled out in the 11th heat with 7 laps on the board.

GT-1 Lemans Expert

The final race of the day was run as a perfect eight!  It was a fitting finale to a wonderful day of slotcar racing.  All racers from winner to 8th place ran very, very good races with all cars capable of running under 4 second laps.  The race for the lead was mostly between Hopper and Russ with Hopper leading the first few heats, then Russ taking a 3 lap lead from heats 4-6.  Hopper made up one lap in the 7th heat.  Going into the final heat, Russ was stuck with the dreaded black lane and Hopper had red and a two lap deficit.  Russ managed 39 laps with a 9.007 lap somewhere, but Hopper charged with a 45 lap run to take the race by 4 laps.  Vee and O'D swapped 3rd and 4th place back and forth throughout.  In the early going, NuMarc was bogged down in 5th place, slicing and dicing with Ron Southern.  But, in the 7th heat, NuMarc had a remarkable run on blue with 45 laps that catapulted him permanently into 3rd place.  Great run, Marc!  Wayne kind of struggled throughout the race with various turn marshalls killing him, and ended up in 7th, 7 laps ahead of Mark Manion.

Thanks to everyone who continue to support this great race series, and many thanks to the staff of Slot Car Raceway and Fastrax Raceway for their hospitality and  use of racing facilities.  Mark and George will contact you for the date and location of the fourth and final race of the IBSR.  See ya then!

- George Russell