4 replies to this topic

[sledman]

Formula 1 on the King – 3/25/25

 

A larger-than-usual field of eleven racers headed to the Gerding King with their F-1 cars in the MVH Tuesday Night Retro Series this week. It was great to see a long-time Tuesday night regular, Rich Girvin, return after not racing since the start of the pandemic. Plus, another blast-from-the-past, Jason Kessel, is back in the fold as he is returning to the area after spending the past several years on the Connecticut coast and is hot to run retro again! With not quite enough racers to run all eight lanes and too many racers to run in the 4/4 format, the race was on the middle six lanes over eleven heats.   

 

Cars in Tech:

 

The race for the podium was as close as it could be as the top four finishers were all within one lap and a fifth racer would have been in contention had it not been for a crash that put him off his pace. Additionally, there was close competition throughout the field.

 

When the checkered flag flew, Rob “Pedro Podium” Hayes squeaked by Cody Pare to take the win by three track sections. The race for third was equally close, as Richard Payne, running twenty-one track sections behind Cody, edged Dave Panich for the position by 10 track sections (the 155’ King has a total of 31 track sections with each section being approximately five feet in length). In fifth place, Gil Aubin was competitive, but didn’t quite have the pace, ending up four laps behind the leaders, but well ahead of sixth place finisher Bob “Woody” Hazelwood.

 

After some bad luck and switching to a back-up car, Rolly Lapierre Jr., who was running with the leaders early in the race, fell off the pace and had to settle for seventh. An equally fast but somewhat less consistent John Mills trailed by just a half lap in eighth place. Once John gets used to the lack of downforce (F-1 isn’t a wing car) he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. The race for ninth place between Jason Kessel and George Samuels went to George by a seven track section margin while Rich Girvin closed out the field.  

 

Race winner Pedro had the fastest lap of the night with a 4.088 on blue while Dave was logging the second fastest lap of the night on white with a 4.105. John Mills’ 4.155 put him at third fastest on the evening.  

 

Overall Finishing order, laps completed, best lap time, best lap lane:

1. Rob Hayes                249/5       4.088     BL
2. Cody Pare                 249/2       4.204     BL
3. Richard Payne          248/14     4.189     OR
4. Dave Panich             248/4       4.105     WT
5. Gil Aubin                   244/14     4.184     WT
6. Woody Hazelwood    233/2       4.282     OR
7. Rolly Lapierre Jr.       229/1       4.188     YL
8. John Mills                  228/16     4.155     GN
9. George Samuels       206/9       4.613     GN
10. Jason Kessel            206/2       4.564     GN
11. Rich Girvin                202/19     5.050     GN

UPCOMING EVENTS:

 

          MVH Tuesday Night Retro Race Schedule for April:

                4/1   Can-Am on the Sovereign

                4/8   Coupes on the Figure 8

              4/15   Can-Am on the Aristocrat

              4/22   Stock Cars on the Royal

              4/29   F-1 on the King

 

          The MVH Retro Marathon will be held April 10^th through April 13th:

              4/10   IROC Retro Race on the Figure 8

              4/11   Stock Cars on the Royal

              4/12   Coupes on the Aristocrat and Can-Am on the Sovereign

              4/13   F-1 on the King

 

          NERR Season 12 - Race No. 9 will be the Saturday races in the MVH Retro Marathon:

4/12   Coupes on the Aristocrat

          Can-Am on the Sovereign  

              

Podium: (L to R):

2nd Place–Cody Pare, 1st Place– Rob Hayes, 3rd Place–Richard Payne

 

Rob’s 1^st Place Chassis:

 

Cody’s 2^nd Place Chassis:

 

Richard’s 3^rd Place Chassis:

[Modelville Guy]

Well maybe there is something to that short braid for speed.

 

Maybe I should have cut them short instead of wearing them out.

 

It was a fun night and the six lane format made it a shorter night.

 

Thank you guys for coming.

[John Luongo]

drag racers have been running short braids for years.they seem to be less likely to get tangled up upon a de-slot and the guide can be adjusted a bit deeper. however i still use my braid for finite chassis ride height adjustment, depending on the track. sometimes using a thicker braid on the outside for oval tracks.

[Gil Aubin]

It was a real pleasure racing with this group of guys, everyone drove with their heads and not over them!

[Gil Aubin]

Well maybe there is something to that short braid for speed.

 

Maybe I should have cut them short instead of wearing them out.

 

It was a fun night and the six lane format made it a shorter night.

 

Thank you guys for coming.

 

Back in the day, we did some testing using a wing car on a banked King - in other words it was full punch.  As we cut the braids shorter, 1/8 inch at a time, the lap times got faster.  Eventually we reached the point of diminishing returns where the times got slower, but as I recall it was VERY short when that happened.