23 replies to this topic

[Ron Hershman]

Tom Thumb Hobbies held their 3rd annual Retro Enduro race on August 8, 2010, in Columbus, OH. The racers on the eight teams provided a great time with lots of entertainment and humor at times and all had a great time... win or lose.

We all need to thank Mike and Cindy McMasters for putting on this year's race along with the two Retro enduro races in the past along and also providing a very delicious dinner after the race was concluded. Thanks to Rande Marshall for providing free hot dogs during the racing to everyone who wanted one or three.

So without further ado...

The teams:

MGB Bill Fulmer, Mike Patterson, Gary Brammell



Grizzly Butch Dunaway, Paul Martin, Jeff Smith



JPR Vince Del Viscio, Mike Denney, Jim Purdy



MCM Josh Crutchfield, Jessica McMasters... MIA Mike McMasters who had to scratch due to an off-track shoulder injury.



RPM 3 Jason Echelbarger, Earl Graybill, Gary Echelbarger



RPM 2 James Merriman, Chris Barnes, Terry Watson



RPM Rande Marshall, Ron Hershman, Dave Simerka



Goober Jacob Shiplet, Rick Maynard, Eric Baliki RPM "wanna-be's"



The cars...

RPM 3



RPM 2



Goober



Grizzly



RPM



JPR



MGB



MCM



There was another surprise for all of us... two love birds are engaged now... congrats to Gina and Dave!!!





Once tech was done... all of the teams extra tires and motors were teched and impounded and could only be touched when needed. All work on the cars were done with the racing power on and this year each driver had to run a 15 minute heat on each lane. The heats were 45 min long with driver changes every 15 minutes.





This years race was highly competitive. A few highlights... the top two teams didn't spend any extended time off the track for repairs... the third place team broke a lead wire and took lots of precious time making the repair, and the other teams had their fair share of problems throughout the race at times.

While it's hard to write a report for a six-hour race... we will let the lap sheets tell the story.



















More to follow...

[Ron Hershman]

The winners Team RPM 2



Second place Team Grizzly



Third place Team Goober... RPM Jr. Team



Congrats to James Merriman and Chris Barnes who drove all the way up from Atlanta to race with and also to their Indianapolis teammate Terry Watson. These guys lead from the start to the finish and head-ups driving and pit work kept them in front the entire race. The only problem they had was a broken rear axle in the LAST FIVE SECONDS of the race after a full hit rider into the deadman.

Team Grizzly had a outstanding race and also did some fast pit work and great driving to finish second and in contention the entire distance.

Team Goober had the broken lead wire in the third heat and without that problem... they were a contender.

The top three cars -

Team RPM 2 RPM-built chassis, JK fronts and rears, Fast Ones P-S motor, O/S Ferrari body



Team Grizzly Paul Martin-built chassis, Fast Ones P-S motor, JK Ti22 body



Team Goober Rick Maynard-built chassis, P-S motor, O/S Ferrari body



Congrats to all the teams and thanks for coming!!!

[Jacob Shiplet]

Thanks for the report, Ron. Thanks to Mike and Cindy. Had a blast. Good time hangin' out with friends.

[Cheater]

Congratulations to Chris, James, and Terry on the win!!

[Mad Mexican]

Amigos,

Congrats to all who had enter these Enduros can be grueling. A special congrat to Team Goober after early ribbing of Jacob's new speed secret they show they can rebound and made it interesting! Good luck to all for the up coming ORS season!


Adios

[Noose]

Wow..great guys! So what happened to RPM 1? Did Randy's hair get caught in the gears?

[Pappy]

Noose, I think they became a rider and got slammed into the wall.

This was a lot of fun. I think the Ohio Retro Series should just run a 6 hour endurance race each month.

[Chris Barnes]

James and I would like to thank all the Ohio RETRO guys for show us some "Southern" hospitality. We had a blast at the race, as we always do when we come to Tom Thumb. Mike and Cindy, thanks for making us feel at home. We will be back next year, to the R4/4, as well as the Enduro.
Thanks to Ron and Rande for the use of their car. It was flawless all day, never slowing down and handling like a dream. Wow, 3827 laps on one motor. I still can't believe we did that!

Terry - great teammate. Our communication was good all day long. The team functioned well in every aspect. Thanks for everything.

[Ron Hershman]

Wow..great guys! So what happened to RPM 1? Did Randy's hair get caught in the gears?

That would have been the least of our problems....LOL

I drove the car out of my lane coming on the straight, got a love tap from another car into blue lane and off she went wide open into the deadman. No one's fault but my own. I was amazed that nothing broke on the car and that the motor and guide flag was still on it after that hit.

Mike Denney felt bad about it, but it was not his fault.... if I hadn't drove it off, then it would have never got walled. Racing deal plain and simple.

It was by far the most competitive Enduro race we have had yet. While the wall shot was a minor set-back in the early going, we had to change the motor in the second heat after it slowed. Not sure why it slowed, but it could have had something to do with the wall shot. It seemed to run ok after the wall blast, yea the car was off a bit, but the motor still felt ok. It was running good on yellow until we changed tires then it slowed for no reason and Rande did a pretty good and quick job of changing motors as we only lost about 25 laps while he changed the motor.

After that it was a uphill battle trying to catch up and that was not going to happen unless the top teams ran into trouble, which they didn't and that's what is all about.

I was very happy to see Chris, James and Terry win and I know it was special for Chris after getting some bad news from home while he was at the race. He had a major issue on his mind during the race and long drive back to Atlanta. But the news did get better for Chris as the day went on.... and hope it continues to get better for Chris.

It was also good to see Paul, Butch and retro new comer Jeff Smith finish in second. Paul and Butch have always run good in the past two enduro's, but had a bad luck monkey on their backs and maybe now the monkey is elsewhere.

The rest of the teams had their up and down moments along the way, but everyone was smiling when it was all over.

[The Number of]

More pics at

No captions,no time.

[The Number of]

If the above post is playing a slideshow of the pics,I have absolutley no idea how that happened.

[brnursebmt]

Congrats to Chris and James. I wouldn't mind running a race like that myself. Your team mate must be a fine racer as well.

Bobby

[911GT3]

Ron, thank you for the report, pictures and captions.

Bill, thank you for taking all the pictures and posting them.

Rick and Jacob, the other two thirds of Team Goober, thanks for providing such an amazing car, great driving, fast pit work and encouragement.

Dave, Gina, Ron and Rande, glad you have a great sense of humor. By the way the coloring did wash out.

Mike and Cindy, THANK YOU for putting on another well organized and incredibly fun event. The food was great. (Thanks for the hotdogs, Rande.)

[Tom Thumb Hobbies]

Thanks to Ron H for posting the race results for me. Whatever I did to my shoulder last Saturday has left me in intense pain and unable to type ( thank God for the Apple iPad and touch screens), use a mouse, or pretty much do anything else. Not only could I not have posted anything but I spent most of the race hiding up front and heavily medicated

Once again the Columbus Classic was a very competitive event and a real BLAST to run in. Cindy and I would like to thank all the racers that came, we hope you all had a great time, and enjoyed the food afterwards.

I was extremely happy to see new faces on the podium. Chris, James, and Terry are some of the nicest racers in Retro. GREAT JOB. Pappy and Paul finally, along with Jeff, got the result they have deserved in the enduro. CONGRATS. And what can I say about team Goober? Few people work harder than Rick M. At their racing program and along with the excellent driving of Eric and (despite Jacob) LOL they finished out the top three. Actually Jacob is turning out to be a pretty good racer himself. He is just sometimes challenged by pinion gears and guide spacers LOL.

I apologize to my team members ( my daughter Jessica and Josh C) for backing out but I just couldn' t hold a controller. You both did great having to do double-duty.

My biggest thank you, however, goes out to my wonderful wife Cindy. I have been unable to do almost nothing all week and she stepped in, did both her jobs and mine, and did them very well. Preparing for a major race is never easy. Add in cooking all the food and it is difficult for two people to do. Yet she managed it all herself without killing me in the process. THANK YOU HONEY!

Now, back to my heating pad and pain killers.........

['Slots of Fun']

WOW! Great racing Chris, James, and Terry. Congrats!

V/R,
Don

[68Caddy]

Ron thanks for the race report I sure enjoyed it and it looks like you guys where tearing up the track? Also I want to congratulate all the podium guys and all the other guys as well for giving them a run up to the podium.
To bad that we are so far away as a interest group of slot car racers.
Looking forward for more race reports in the future.


Nesta

[Jacob Shiplet]

Has anyone checked the brushes or bearing/bushing on their motors. Anyone have anything wrong with their motor that they have seen yet? Just wondering. We turned over 4k laps on our motor and will still able to turn a 5.109 in the last 30 seconds of the race. Not to bad for only oiling every 40 minutes or so and never cooling it down. Rick will have to chime in on the motor as I havent seen it yet.

[Lucky Me]

Has anyone checked the brushes or bearing/bushing on their motors. Anyone have anything wrong with their motor that they have seen yet? Just wondering. We turned over 4k laps on our motor and will still able to turn a 5.109 in the last 30 seconds of the race. Not to bad for only oiling every 40 minutes or so and never cooling it down. Rick will have to chime in on the motor as I havent seen it yet.

After finally resting and sleeping most of the day Sunday and going to bed early on Monday I finally had a chance to inspect the car and motor.

The car did sustain some damage in the way of a bent bite bar, bent up corner of the nose piece, rt. frt axle was loose from a failed solder joint , chunks missing from left frt tire, and 90% of the left pan hanging low due to the bent bite bar and partially detatched frt hinge wire, other than that, the car is in great shape !

The motor was/is in great shape, brushes are worn appx. 20-25% if that,,,The most impressive thing though was the can bushing, I have seen new motors have more play in the can bushing than our motor does, truely unbelievable! it is like NEW. hard to believe but true.... The secret sauce is by far the best I have ever seen, and it works equally well for braid juice. The motor was just as fast at the end as it was in the beginning, it's a good one for sure.

The Irony of this is that it's the same motor someone soldered the pinion on the "less than correct" side of the motor. Maybe this is what it takes to make the can bushing last the way it did

Thats a rap ....

Rick M.

[911GT3]

We're getting better. Last year you had to practically rebuild the car and replace the motor. We get to look forward to next year's race.

[Terry]

Thank you to Rande "RPM" Marshal for the awesome car and all that you do. I can't find the words to describe how much I appreciate all that you've done for me over the years.

Thank you to Ron Hershman for the horsepower and the race report/results.

Thank you to my great teammates Chris and James. For 5 hours 59 minutes and 55 seconds, we pretty much had an uneventful race....

Thank you to Cindy and Mike McMasters for putting on a great race and for the awesome feast afterwords. You always make everyone feel right at home.

Thank you to Bill Fulmer for all the great pictures and for always being the first one to jump in and help out whenever/whever it's needed.


Terry
RPM Race Cars / Team Fastones / Outisight

[Pappy]

What did you guys think of the format for this race? I liked it better than the other two. The only thing I'd change is make the time between segments 1 1/2 minutes, I don't think you need two minutes but 1 minute is a little hectic. I told Mike this and he said it's an endurance race and it's suppose to be hectic. What he doesn't realize is at my age just hooking the controller up right is hectic enough.

[Ron Hershman]

I felt before hand and afterward this format made the race more competitive as each racer had to drive every lane on the track.

This format also gave each racer some extended racing time on each lane which will help them in future races.

[Jacob Shiplet]

I felt before hand and afterward this format made the race more competitive as each racer had to drive every lane on the track.

This format also gave each racer some extended racing time on each lane which will help them in future races.

I didnt race in the previous enduros, but I truely felt like being able to race on extended time on each lane really helped me. As for the 1 minute changes, I was ok with it. I am not sure 1.5 minutes would have made a difference for me so I cant speak for the older folk. Regardless, I had an absolute BLAST and am looking forward to the next enduro.

[911GT3]

I didn't mind any of the formats. 15 minutes per driver, per lane seemed to work out very well. Much better than one driver on a lane for 45 minutes. 22-1/2 minutes per lane and twice around the rotation seemed like it was two races in one. I prefered the 15 minutes per each of the three drivers on a lane. Maybe Mike will come up with another idea to really drive us nuts.