109 replies to this topic

[Matt Bruce]

Nice second place run, Tony P. Close racing just like back home. Congrats to James on the win and to Ralph for third.

[Cheater]

The SERRA™ #18 event was, by all accounts, one of the best racedays we've had since starting Southeast Retro Racing. And the racing was some of the tightest we've ever seen!

There were several racers making their first appearance at a SERRA™ event, including grizzled old pro TonyP, who made the trip up from FL with Marty Stanley. Noted chassis builder and wire-bender extraordinaire Rick Moore joined us from Tampa as did Micky Radford from Mobile, AL. SERRA™ stalwarts Pablo Wolcott and John Clow again made their long drives to join in the fun along with Ben Kernan from Charlotte. SERRA #18 saw racers from six states in attendance: GA, SC, NC, FL, AL, and MS!

Take a hard look at the qualifying times for the Can-Am class. The spread from TQ down to eighth place was an incredible 0.098 seconds! And two pairs of racers clocked identical times, causing their rankings to be determined by back-up laps. The Can-Am A Main ended up with second place one lap behind first and third one lap behind second. If super-close racing is your cup of tea, there was a whole potful of it for you at Slots of Fun!

Don and Karen Berni, as usual, showered the SERRA™ racers with first-class hospitality, including home-cooked food. TonyP probably paid Slots of Fun the greatest compliment when he said that it had the same atmosphere as the famous Nutley Raceway in NJ, which is high praise indeed!

Due to the holidays, there is no SERRA™ race in December, but January will find us at Cordle Model Speedway in Marietta, GA, for another fun day of Can-Am and Stock Car Retro racing. We hope a few of the SERRA™ regulars who for very good reasons were not able to join us this month (Tommy Flythe and Bobby Robinson in particular) will be able to grace us with their presence again then.

F1
Fourteen entries





1) Jay Guard - 305 laps, best lap of 4.339 secs in orange lane
2) James Merriman - 302, 4.437 in orange
3) Paul "Pablo" Wolcott - 289, 4.512 in black
4) TonyP - 288, 4.609 in green
5) Richard Sylvester - 286, 4.668 in red
6) Ralph Thorne - 284, 4.621 in green
7) Joe McIntosh - 283, 4.609 in purple
8) Chris Barnes - 281, 4.609 in white
9) Rick Moore - 278, 4.609 in red and green
10) John Clow - 265, 4.718 in yellow
11) Dan Parker - 261, 4.878 in red
12) Jim Beasley - 257, 4.777 in yellow
13) Marty Stanley - 255, 4.776 in black
14) Micky Radford - 215, 5.173 in white

[
L to R, James Merriman, Jay Guard, and Paul "Pablo" Wolcott




Paul "Pablo" Wolcott, 107.7 grams




James Merriman, 102.6 grams




Jay Guard, 105.6 grams

Concours

Best Appearing: Joe McIntosh



Most Realistic: Jay Guard




Can-Am
Sixteen entries





Qualifying

1) TonyP, 4.262 secs
2) James Merriman, 4.283
3) Joe McIntosh, 4.324
4) Ralph Thorne, 4.324
5) Chris Barnes, 4.354
6) Rick Moore, 4.354
7) John Clow, 4.359
8) Jay Guard, 4.360
9) Paul "Pablo" Wolcott, 4.541
10) Jim Beasley, 4.659
11) Joey Newbern, 4.701
12) Dan Parker, 4.722
13) Micky Radford, 4.768
14) Ben Kernan, 4.910
15) Marty Stanley, 4.954
16) Martin Cwiakala, 5.040

Can-Am B Main

1) Paul "Pablo" Wolcott - 379 laps, best lap of 4.722 secs in purple
2) Dan Parker - 371, 4.667 in green
3) Marty Stanley - 366, 4.781 in yellow
4) Joey Newbern - 356, 4.609 in white
5) Micky Radford - 352, 4.832 in yellow
6) Martin Cwiakala - 348, 4.891 in white
7) Jim Beasley - 334, 4.667 in yellow
8) Ben Kernan - 307, 4.890 in orange




Paul "Pablo" Wolcott, 123.0 grams




Dan Parker, 112.9 grams



[
Marty Stanley, 112.8 grams

Can-Am A Main

1) James Merriman - 418 laps, best lap of 4.382 secs in yellow
2) TonyP - 417, 4.335 in green
3) Ralph Thorne - 416, 4.383 in white
4) Jay Guard - 410, 4.389 in green
5) Chris Barnes - 408, 4.339 in green
6) Joe McIntosh - 401, 4.390 in orange
7) Rick Moore - 396, 4.499 in black
8) John Clow - 389, 4.448 in white


L to R, TonyP, James Merriman, and Ralph Thorne




James Merriman, 109.3 grams




TonyP, 110.5 grams




Ralph Thorne, 119.3 grams

Concours

Best Appearing: Joe McIntosh


Most Realistic: Dan Parker

[Pappy]

Congratulations to the winners. Looks like a great turn-out and a great day of racing.

[Marty Stanley]

Pappy,

I've not been to a lot of retro races, but I'll say this... the Abbeville race has been a whole lot of fun both times I've made it.

Don Berni and the whole gang up there is just a great bunch of guys. I totally enjoy myself each time I go up there.

It's hard to imagine the racing being more competitive, the host better and the entire weekend being as much fun as it was this past weekend.

More later. TonyP and I got lost and drove through the beginning of the "Great Flood" most of the day to get home. I'll post more tomorrow.

[Kim Lander]

Congratulations to all the winners... looks like there was a great turn-out for the race.

Kim

[Rick Moore]

Just like to say what a pleasure it was to meet everyone. A special thanks to Don Berni, who is a great host. Had a ton o' fun, and ate a ton o' food, too.

I recommend this trip to everyone. Y'all gotta go if ya get the chance.

Rick

[Zippity]

So where are the photos?

Man, that old Cheater is sloooooooooooooow...

This message will self destruct once some photographs have been posted.

[Cheater]

Oh, brother...

And just how long did it take you to build a T-Flex to the tome's specs after I'd sent it to you? You're in no position to be calling me slow! LOL!!!

[Pablo]

The silent gear mesh award goes to Dan Parker. He was cleaning my clock (silently) on the straightaway.

I had the most fun racing Marty Stanley!

[Zippity]

Great photographs and well worth the wait.

Nice to see that a McLaren 'won' something.

What tome?

[Marty Stanley]

Well, I just learned another thing in life... don't lie down 'for a nap' after a long ride home. I went out immediately and awoke bright-eyed at about 4 AM!

Let me say this about Abbebille... I really do not see how anyone can run a better race then what Greg Wells and Jay Guard arranged for and Don Berni made happen. We had the run of the house from about 3 PM on Friday all the way through all the races on Saturday. Pablo and his Mississippi Gang got there a bit later, but we still had a ball. We had our own little Jail Door race and it was so much fun! Both cars were so close that after about 25 laps, there was the same 15 inches difference between them. About the only time anyone could gain an advantage was during braking into the deadman turn. We just raced, laughed, and had everyone watching what we were doing. Those cars are a real blast. If you have never driven one, you must try it. After that, we kind of had a 'run what'cha brung' kind of racing fun. Everyone seemed to dig into their pitbox and drag out all sorts of cars. Formula 1, 1/32, BRM, Dirt Late Model, NASCAR, GTP, Flexi-GT, NASTRUCK, etc. If you had one, you were in the race. I was really surprised at all the different cars that we pulled along with us and just enjoyed. Then it was back to the 100 foot tri-oval for some Retro Stock Car, Womp, and just about anything else you could think of action. We were like little kids in a candy store just having FUN and loving life!

Unfortunately the day was getting late, lots of folks were tired after lots of driving, so we packed it in and headed to the hotel for the night after stopping and getting something to eat.

TonyP and I arrived at "Slots of FUN" around 7:30 AM on raceday. Don Berni had the coffee pot on overdrive and kept it WFO all day long. There were lots of goodies sitting there, but I didn't fall for that trap as I knew Don Weaver promised some of those fantastic little sausage rolls that his wife Brenda works her magic on. Just imagine a mini cheese danish, but with sausage embedded in it rather then cheese. They are just scrumptious.

During the race, the local pizza shop owner DONATED some food for the racers. He carried over Three large pizzas. One was a cheese, the second a pepperoni and the third one a "Manpizza / Cholesterol Special". He had a release to be signed by your cardiologist prior to eating a slice! It was fantastic! With this kind of treatment, it's hard NOT to have a grand time.

I overheard Rick Moore make the statement, "This is a big picnic more so than a slot car race. It's a super thing and I'm having a ball!"

After the Formula 1 race Don Berni's fantastic and way more better half, brought some of the best home made bar-b-que, baked beans and three-bean salad down for lunch. With this gang, we really did not need all the bean assistance and Don thoughtfully left the doors open to keep the raceway nice and fresh with cool air.

There must have been a reenactment going on as there were constantly folks dressed in Civil War period clothing walking by the raceway. We had some tourists from Europe drop by to watch the racing and check out all the cars and such. There were a bunch of motorcylists that were riding by, stopped, came in and checked out the slot car racing action.
The race was just a very eclectic happening for all senses to enjoy! If you did not enjoy yourself this weekend, you really need to evaluate life!

Once again, my trip to Abbeville this year was just as good, if not better then it was last year. Don Berni just is one super special kind of host and puts on a fantastic event. I challenge anyone to come down to Abbeville, SC, for the fall race in 2010 and leave without having some of the best FUN you have ever had while slot car racing!

About the only thing I saw that was a problem was that the event ended and we had to leave Abbeville for home!

Well, there's always next year!

[John Gorski]

Congrats to Tony P on TQ and a close second in Can-Am, a good showing for the new Aero 2!

Congrats to Jay Guard and James Merriman F1 and Can-Am win. Thanks for supporting Retro down there.

[One_Track_Mind]

Great race report as always, Greg!... I did get a chance to take a quick look at the action through the webcam and gotta say the image quality was darn near perfect here in Ohio, the audio was just a little tough to make out, but all in all you could have never had this “Back in the Day”. Thank you!

Onto my comments... Congratulations to James M. using a JK Spec car in the F1 against a couple of the “Pablo” built machines. There’s no mistaking these cars' build.

James M., must have had some good birthday karma going on in the Can-Am race also. Congrats on the win and Happy belated Birthday!

Great job everyone! You-all played nice, and sounds like you had a really good time.

WTG, Pablo!... on the B Main win!

[Dominator]

Greg,

I didn't see the new chassis you were working on in the line. Is it still in the jig?

[John Streisguth]

Congrats to all... a nice turn-out, and very very competitive! Looks like you guys have a good program going on.

[tonyp]

Just want to say I had a great time and what a super raceway it was. I want to thank all the SERRA guys for making me welcome...

It was good for my head to get to run the cars again I love. It has been way too long. I want to especially thank Marty for talking me into going.

[tonyp]

Matt, John, Thanks....

You guys have to come down. Jay and Greg are going to try to put together a King track race right on the GA/FL border.

[Chris Barnes]

Tony,

It was great to see you again. When you talk about it being too long, well it has been tooooo long! It was fun talking about stuff from the '70s!

I had a blast racing, as it has been over three months for me.

The idea of a race at Thomasville, GA, is super. It would be great if we could get a race there. Especially in the winter, as the guys up north could come to nicer weather.

[Cheater]

I overheard Rick Moore make the statement, "This is a big picnic more so than a slot car race. It's a super thing and I'm having a ball!"

Marty,

Thanks for this quote. Rick's feeling is exactly what Jay and I are trying to deliver at the SERRA™ events. For us, it's all about having fun with great people while racing slot cars, not about winning at all costs.

Since I overslept a little (that late Guard character is a bad influence on me...) and thus got to the raceway about half an hour later than we had planned, and since Don Berni and I were doing the webcam thing for the first time, we were a little behind the curve early on but I think we got things humming pretty good as the day went on.

Jay and I have already done our post-race postmortem, and reviewed the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our goal is to make every SERRA™ event better than the one before, if we possibly can.

Thanks to all the racers who drove long distance to come be a part of the fun at Slots of Fun.

[Noose]

Hey... that ain't Tony P... he's too skinny.

Congrats James, Tony, Jay, Ralph, and everyone for what looked like a great day on a great-looking track.

[Victor Poulin]

FYI:

It was just as much fun for us to be able to watch on webcam. Joe and I watched all day Sat while eating pizza.

Thank you to Greg and Don for taking the time to set this up for us.

[tonyp]

Did the camera make my a** look fat?

[Marty Stanley]

Jersey John said it did!

[tonyp]

I hope his car has a remote starter...

[Ron Hershman]

Did the camera make my a** look fat?

No, but your hat did.