62 replies to this topic

[tonyp]

The Viper Pit in Thomasville was the host for round 4 of the 2011 GRRR IRRA™ Retro Racing Series. The venue was for F1 on the Engleman, Can-Am on the King, and Flexi GT on the orange.

The track opened Friday at noon and racers were already waiting outside to get in to start tuning for the big one. We always get a good turn out at the Pit as it is pretty much in the center for most of the MS, GA, FL, and SC racers.





The first event was for Flexi GT and this was run as a nine-man round robin event.





John Clow took Most Realistic concours while Ralph Thorne's Jobiwan-painted Chevron took Best Appearing.



John Chow was TQ over Ralph by .01 With a 3.431, John had problems and lost a rear tire a couple of times in the Main to negate his great TQ run.



The orange track makes for some fast racing and lots of action. After the dust settled it was Ralph Thorne by 2 laps over Terry Tawney, who was 5 up over Ken Stevens who made the 12 hour trip from Texas for the race..



1 Ralph Thorne, 372 laps
2 Terry Tawney 370
3 Ken Stevens 365
4 Doc Dougherty 360
5 John Bud Greene
6 Mike Shepard 346
7 John Clow 345
8 Ken Brown 334
9 Grant Goerner 334

[DOCinCanton]

Tony:

I love your titles...

[68Caddy]

Yeah, his quit funny! Great title, sure made me click on it and good story. Tony, is that your Vette?

Nesta

[tonyp]

Next up was Can-Am on the King. The King at the Pit has unique power and is one of those tracks where you can run as fast with an F7/TSR motor combination as you can with a Pro Slot. I managed to find a good combination running one of my old thin can Pro Slots from three or so years ago and got to screw with Ralph and James all through practice with a series of fast times which had them on the run. But by Saturday morning they were well dialed-in and fast.





The Can-Am field from the top











Can-Ams from the bottom.



My one-color paint job once again was Most Realistic while Jobiwan's Ferrari took Best Appearing.



TQ was Ralph Thorne with the only under five second lap with a 4.999. Second was James Merriman, I was third, Rick Moore fourth, Jobiwan fifth, and Mike Shepard took the sixth and final sit-out.



Terry Tawney took the B Main with John Clow 2nd for the final move-up and Doc Dougherty was third, just missing out.




Joey got walled in the third heat, bit the driver next to him, peed on the race directors leg, and then decided to sit out the rest of the race and refused to marshal the main.

1 Terry Tawney 251 laps
2 John Clow 250
3 Doc Dougherty 249
4 Grant Goerner 247
5 Ken Brown 242
6 Bernie Bernstein 236
7 Ken Stevens 236
8 John Bud Greene 235
9 Marty Stanley 234
10 Jim Smith 207
11 Joey Moore 94 DNF

The cars lined up for the start. Look out for the pink Ti22 as it took out most of the field braking for the deadman on the first lap. I won't tell who's car it was. LOL. Well, this gave a big lead to James Merriman who drove a perfect race to win over Rick Moore and myself.



Rick Moore 2nd, James 1st and me third.



1 James Merriman 264 laps
2 Rick Moore 262
3 tonyp 261
4 Ralph Thorne 259
5 Joe Jobiwan Mcintosh 250
6 Mike Shepard 236
7 Terry Tawney 197, Stripped gear
8 John Clow 52 DNF

Fastest of the fast, Fast Laps







James's winner, Merriman R-Geo chassis, JK Ti22, Proslot, JK fronts and rears, and Jay Gee controller, 109.7 grams.




Rick Moore's second place car, Moore CMFT1310 chassis, True Scale short Ti22, Pro Slot, Alpha rears, JK Fronts, Difalco controller. 107.3 grams.




I won practice with this car, but just did not have a good main... tonyp chassis, O/S Ti22, Pro Slot, Alpha rears, Chicagoland fronts, Difalco Genesis controller, 102.2 grams.

[John Miller]

Great report and great turn-out.

[tonyp]

F1 was the final event of the day, this time on the Engleman.



Bernie Bernstein took Best Appearing honors.



Marty Stanley won Most Realistic with his Noose-painted Lotus.





Ralph took his second TQ of the day with a blazing 5.128 over James Merriman, Terry Tawney was third, Bernie Bernstein fourth, I was fifth, and Ken Stevens took the last sit-out.



Rick Moore took the Semi followed by Marty Stanley who beat Doc Dougherty by an inch on a roll after the power went off!

1 Rick Moore 240 laps
2 Marty Stanley 233
3 Doc Dougherty 233
4 John Clow 231
5 Bud Green 225
6 Ken Brown 221
7 Grant Goerner 172 (Gear issues)
8 Jim Smith 50 DNF



Ralph Thorne pretty much stunk up the Main, he basically lead every lap, turned faster laps then he qualified at and won by twelve laps. Rick Moore was second once again and I wound up third.

1 Ralph Thorne 261 laps
2 Rick Moore 249
3 tonyp 243
4 Marty Stanley 239
5 Ken Stevens 237
6 Bernie Bernstein 230
7 Terry Tawney 216
8 James Merriman DNF




Ralph's rocket, Jobiwan chassis, O/S Lotus, Pro Slot, JK tires, Jay Gee Controller, 106.2 grams.


Rick Moore's Semi winner and second place chassis. I guess the camera was not on close-up when I took the semi winner's car pictures. Rick please post some good pictures. Moore CMF3 p305 chassis, True Scale Matra, Pro Slot, Alpha rears, JK fronts, Difalco controller, 101.1 grams.



My third place car, man I missed the set-up today... tonyp chassis, O/S Cooper, Pro Slot, Alpha rears, Chicagoland fronts, Difalco Genesis controller, 114 grams.

[tonyp]

Another crappy picture, Marty's great running F1 car...


Doc missed the move-up by an inch with his Dougherty built F1.

[tonyp]

Nests,

I wish that Vette was mine, I am poor I drive a Toyota x-box.

[slotcarone]

Great report, Tony!!! Looks like you wanted to take over "MY" third place spot!!! LOL.

[Duffy]

It's not such an alltime-great title. Where're the OLD men?

I'm coming 'round to suspect there's something about the CMF3 stable that somehow serves to bollix-up the camera's IR rangefinder. I also suspect Rick doesn't mind this at all.

And it's good to hear that Marty's getting his "Lizard Vision" working!! Good f' you, Winky.

Duffy

[tonyp]

Mike, believe me I do not want that. LOL... The Main was really bad... LOL, lots of wrecks... I tried that car at ASR today and it was absolutely hooked up...

[tonyp]

Duffy, they were taking pictures of the lap counter and I guess I never set it for close-up when I did the Semi shots. Since I shot Rick's car there I figured I had a good shot. Doesn't matter if the picture was clear the chassis would still not. Be so. LOL.... I think those frames are like Frank Zappa, when anyone took a picture of him it always came out weird-looking. LOL. Love you, Rick.

[Kim Lander]

Tony,

Thanks for the usual great report... you musta been a reporter in a previous life...

Looks like you guys had a fine time in Thomasville... just wish I could have been there... everyone's cars looked great.

Hope to see you all soon...

Kim

[Duffy]

think those frames are like Frank Zappa, when anyone took a picture of him it always came out weird-looking.

Dude, you totally gotta work the guy into a race poster. F' you don't, I will.

[Mopar Rob]

Geez, who's the owner of the 128 oz soft drink

BTW:

Nice race and race report.

[Rick Moore]

Here you go, Tony. It was probably the heat coming off all that wire after the B Main that caused atmospheric distortion on your camera (if you had taken one after the A Main, your lens would have warped!) It's finally cooled down…





Any reference to Frank Zappa with regards to my scratchbuilding is a compliment IMO! Thanks!!

And Joey says some backmarker took him out in the dead man; everyone got what they deserved! (FYI, he was running a Puppy Dog…)

[68Caddy]

Rick, your stuff rocks big time and CONGRATS to YA.

Zappa makes me laugh I live five minutes from where he went to high school! Well, don't eat the yellow snow! Click here

Nesta

[tonyp]

Zappa sure was a character. I like the early albums, Freak out, Absolutely Free, We're only on it for the Money, and of course Live at the Filmore with Flo & Eddie. Hilarious...

[Mr. Frank]

LONG LIVE... ZAPPA...

[Ralph Thorne]

While I'm a little too young to know anything about Zappa, I do know I want to thank everyone at The Viper Pit and GRRR for hosting another great weekend of racing. Tony, I love the race reports as always, and I'm sorry for taking you out in the deadman on lap one, LOL. It was good to meet and race against some of the GRRR regulars for the first time.

In Flexi GT I ran the world famous Jobiwan "Lucky 7s" Champion chassis, and once again it worked. John Clow had a fast car and it would have been an even tighter race if he didn't have a tire problem.

In Can-Am it was the first time I got to try my O/S Kirby Ti22 and it was fast! I was running the repaired version of my car that got destroyed in the R4 Can Am A-Main. However James led from the beginning and although he only one by a few laps it sure seemed like more.

Thanks to Jobiwan I had one of his "Rocket" chassis for F1. It was so good I think anyone could have raced it with their eyes closed and won, LOL. By the end of the race it was running 2 or 3 tenths faster than the TQ time.

So a final thanks to everyone and hopefully it won't be so long until next time we all get together at The Viper Pit!

[tonyp]

That F1 was unbelievable... Gonna have to copy it.

[rebel1960]

Young punk trigger fingers broken $20 each! LOL!!

[tonyp]

I'll pay $50, anyone under 40.

[Marty Stanley]

Geez, who's the owner of the 128 oz soft drink

Rob,

It's only 64 oz. Besides, I find that sipping cold water all day long works for me.

I just fill it up with ice at the motel and then fill it up with water from a gallon jug is all that I need to keep from getting dehydrated! Of course, you can't beat the price!

[Marty Stanley]

Ralph,

It was so good racing against y'all at The Viper Pit. That is one of the reasons I like that venue as much as I do. It gives all of us a chance to get together a couple of times each year at a neutral site and have some fun.

We get folks from Texax, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina to all come together and race.

The next race scheduled at The Viper Pit is Saturday, September 24! Mark your calendars and set aside the date!

It should be a blast.

Does anyone want to run Stock Cars in place of Flexi GT cars? Then move on to Can-Am and Formula 1?

What if we were to run all the races on the Engleman at the next gathering just to make it easier for everyone? Just a thought.