Can-Am on the Aristocrat – 12/28/23
We had ten racers show up to run Can-Am on the American Model Raceways Aristocrat this week, but before the race began one driver was called home to deal with a refrigerator emergency. Thus, we went to tech with nine cars. Ten would have resulted in running the middle six lanes with four marshals. Nine meant running four on and five off, outside lanes then inside lanes, in a total of eighteen heats, making for a long evening.
Nine Can-Am Cars (one with a Coupe body) in Tech:
As racing got under way, the evening got even longer as Bob “Woody” Hazelwood suffered an early guide failure, Bob Blanchette bent an axle, and Rob Hayes’ chassis kept wanting to wrap the body around its rear wheels. After several pauses to repair their various problems we eventually managed to get to the changeover to the inside lanes.
After 143 laps, Dave Panich held a two lap lead over Woody while Peter Lentros was running third with 140 laps. Paul Ryer and Rob Hayes were running almost even with Paul’s 138 laps giving him a slim one-lap lead over Rob. Rolly Lapierre Jr. and Richard Payne were tied for sixth place, both with 134 laps on the counter while Bob Blanchette and John Esposito closed out the field.
Woody, driving his new Dominator Jackal Extreme in its first race, sorted his guide problems out and started piling up the laps while Dave struggled with the blue lane and Peter was steady. When time ran out, Woody took the win by one lap over Peter with Dave sliding back to third, one lap behind Pete.
In fourth place, Paul opened his slight lead over Rob (who finished the race driving a loaner due to a chassis failure on his car) to take fourth by almost three laps. The tie between Rolly and Richard was settled in Richard’s favor, as he claimed sixth place by just over two laps. Bobby picked up his pace in the second half but couldn’t catch Rolly, settling for eighth place. John closed out the field as his GT Coupe couldn’t match the pace of the Can-Am cars.
Dave, also driving a Jackal Extreme it its first race, posted the fastest lap of the evening with a 4.239 on purple. Five racers had fast laps in the 4.3s, with Woody being the best with a 4.310 on purple while Pete was as close as one can get with a 4.311 on black.
Overall Finishing order, laps completed, best lap time, best lap lane:
- Woody Hazelwood 298/2 4.310 PU
- Peter Lentros 297/5 4.311 BK
- Dave Panich 296/4 4.239 PU
- Paul Ryer 290/0 4.331 YL
- Rob Hayes 287/2 4.321 BK
- Richard Payne 280/14 4.337 BK
- Rolly Lapierre Jr. 278/5 4.512 BK
- Bob Blanchette 274/23 4.652 PU
- John Esposito 218/11 4.949 PU
UPCOMING EVENTS:
MVH Tuesday Night “All Can-Am” Retro Schedule for December:
Dec 5 Can-Am on the Figure 8
Dec 12 Can-Am on the King
Dec 19 Can-Am on the Royal
Dec 26 Can-Am back on the Aristocrat
NERR Race No. 4 is scheduled for Saturday, January 6th, 2024 at 1010 Raceway in Bristol, CT.
Racing will include Stock Cars on the Oval and Can-Am on the King.
Podium: (L to R): 2nd Place – Peter Lentros, 1st Place – Woody Hazelwood, 3rd Place – Dave Panich
Woody’s 1st Place Chassis:
Peter’s 2nd Place Chassis:
Dave’s 3rd Place Chassis:
