21 replies to this topic

[Grant G.]

28 racers came together at 'The Viper Pit' in Thomasville, Ga for one of the largest retro racing events  the southern United States has witnessed. 

 

1.18.13

 

Aaron Scott and his crew opened at 8am on Friday for practice. Tony P and I arrived shortly after 12 and already the prime pit areas were starting to fill up. The tracks were freshly glued and traction was good. Many people continued to show up into the early evening. A few people voted to have a warm up race, but it seemed like most were content with tweaking their cars for the following day and just enjoyed being able to test cars and shoot the breeze with friends. 

 

1.19.13

 

Once again the raceway opened at 8am and by 9:45 cars for Gt Coupe were rolling into tech. 21 cars entered the race. James Merriman did a great job teching the field of Gts.  

 

 

Ed Hoffman's True Scale Gt 40

 

Pablos O/S Chevron

 

Pablo and Ed

 

 

Qualifying - Results sheet was left at the Viper Pit. I will fill in the info later. 

 

Danny Zona was top qualifier with I believe a 4.84.

 

We had enough racers to run an A, B, and C main.  The top two finishers in the C and B main were bumped up to the next main. 

 

The start of the C main. 

 

C Main - Gt Coupe Results

 

1) JC Martin 244 laps

2) Bobby Robinson 242

3) Bud Greene 241

4) Grant Goerner 236

5) Paul Wolcott (Pablo) 236

6) Greg Walker 223

7) Ed Hoffman 211

8) Jim Smith 203

9) Wayne Thomas 196

 

C main podium. Bobby Robinson 2nd, JC Martin 1st, Bud Greene 3rd

 

B Main drivers stand. Left to right. Bobby, Ralph, Brian, Terry, Greg G, JC, John, Rick

 

 

B Main - Race Results

 

1) Ralph Thorne 263 laps

2) Greg Gilbert 257

3) Brian Ambrose 255

4) Rick Moore 255

5) Bobby Robinson 252

6) John Clow 249

7) Terry Tawney 247

8) JC Martin 31

 

B Podium. Greg 2nd, Ralph 1st, Brian 3rd

 

A main drivers stand. Left to right. Ralph, James, Roger, Jay, Tommy, Greg, Danny, Biscuit not it photo

 

A Main - Results

 

1) Danny Zona 275 laps

2) Mike (Biscuit) Bresett 262

3) Greg Gilbert 258

4) James Merriman 254

5) Jay Guard 253

6) Ralph Thorne 253

7) Roger Whobrey 249

8) Tommy Flythe 248

 

Biscuit 2rd, Danny 1st, Greg 3rd

[Pop's boys]

Congrats Danny! You are truly one of the Big Fish in slotcar racing. Glad you got into Retro, we hope to race with you again soon.

[redbackspyder]

Good Job Danny !  Had a talk with Terry K last night, he says you were really flying....   Keep up those Kelly wins !!!

[Biscuit]

my first retro race definitely wont be my last!! when i got there friday i was amazed how many people were already there and it only got better. great turnout, great atmosphere i know i had a blast!! DZ dominated the day his hard work payed off he was untouchable. gotta thank him and marty for all the help getting my car ready, i think anyone in the building could have driven it to a couple 2nds im very fortunate it was that good. gonna try to make a couple fl races if i can and i cant wait till the next showdown race!

[tonyp]

Biscuit, you only beat your grandfather by 1/2 a lap. LOL..... It was fun having you guys there.

[Danny Zona]

Good Job Danny !  Had a talk with Terry K last night, he says you were really flying....   Keep up those Kelly wins !!!

Good Job Danny !  Had a talk with Terry K last night, he says you were really flying....   Keep up those Kelly wins !!!

Thank you very much. The motivation I had for all 3 races were for my friend Terry Kelly that's for sure!

[Grant G.]

F1

 

21 entries for F1

 

Tony P's Noose painted Parma Matra took home both concours awards

 

 

 

 

C Main Drivers Stand, L to R, Greg, Ivan, Bernie, Ed, Wayne, Jim, Bud

 

 

F1 C Main Results

1. Keith Bernstein 248
2. Grant Goerner 247
3. Pablo 244
4. Ed Hoffman 244
5. Jim Smith 219
6. Wayne Thomas 218
7. Greg Walker 193
8. Ivan E. 121
9. Bud Greene 76

 

Sorry, did not get a podium shot.

 

F1 B Main Results

1. JC Martin 262
2. Rick Moore 261
3. Greg Gilbert 260
4. Tommy Flythe 258
5. Bobby Robinson 256
6. Keith Bernstein 254
7. John Clow 66
8. Grant Goerner 3
 

Greg 3rd, JC 1st, Rick, 2nd

 

A Main Drivers Stand, L to R, Ralph, James, Rick, Jay, Tony, JC, Danny, Biscuit

 

F1 / A Main 
1. Danny Zona 274
2. James Merriman 273
3. Ralph Thorne 269
4. Jay Guard 266
5. JC Martin 266
6. Mike Bresett 263
7. Tony P 260
8. Rick Moore 252

 

James 3rd, Danny 1st, Biscuit 3rd

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MSwiss]

Nice turnout.

 

Quite a few of the entrants weren't afraid to put some gear into those F1's.

[Ralph Thorne]

Nice turnout.

 

Quite a few of the entrants weren't afraid to put some gear into those F1's.

 

 It was a tough crowd, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

[tonyp]

My motor was good on the track alone but not enough steam through the infield with other cars around me.  I should have geared up.

[Rick]

WTG DZ, pulling off a clean sweep among that crowd is no small accomplishment. And Biscit and Greg Gilbert making  it 1-2-3 in Coupes is just awesome. Thanks to all the racers that used R-Geo Products. Keep up the good work down South!!.............

[Jay Guard]

Nice turnout.

 

Quite a few of the entrants weren't afraid to put some gear into those F1's.

Mike:

You had to have a really "special" motor to be able to have great punch in the infield section with an eight tooth pinion, the top three did!

[Grant G.]

Can Am 

 

25 entries for Can Am

 

Bud Greene and his True Scale TI-22 won Most Realistic.

 

Ivan R. and his O/S Ti-22 were awarded Best Appearing.

 

Danny Zona Top Qualifier with a 4.816 sec lap on the king track. 

 

 

Can Am / C Main 
1. Grant Goerner 248
2. Pablo 244
3. Bud Greene 236
4. Ralph Barrs 233
5. Kim Lander 221
6. Mark Laux 209
7. Skip Govoni 203
8. Wayne Thomas 196
9. Dana Ellis 73
 

Bud 3rd, Grant 1st, Pablo 2nd

 

Can Am / B Main 
1. John Clow 263
2. Jay Guard 261
3. Brian Ambrose 256
4. JC Martin 256
5. Greg Walker 255
6. Ivan E. 251
7. Roger Whobrey 251
8. Ed Hoffman 246

 

Jay 2nd, John 1st, Brian 3rd

 

Can Am / A Main 
1. Danny Zona 277
2. Mike Bresett 273
3. Tony P 273
4. James Merriman 270
5. Ralph Thorne 265
6. Rick Moore 264
7. Terry Tawney 261
8. Tommy Flythe 225

 

Biscuit 3rd, Danny 1st, Tony 3rd

 

 

[MSwiss]

Mike:

You had to have a really "special" motor to be able to have great punch in the infield section with an eight tooth pinion, the top three did!

James had a 7T pinion listed on his tech sheet.

[MSwiss]

Grant,

Thanks for posting such an extensive race report.

 

It's always great to see pictures of chassis and  what guys are coming up with.

 

Holy Cow, Tony P with a Z-railer.

 

It must of been real good to stay within sniffing distance of the young Florida guns. LOL

[Danny Zona]

7 tooth pinions felt better in the infield on all my cars. But when you put an 8 tooth pinion on the lap times were just faster every time. F1s pulled 8 tooth pinions with ease. Of course the smaller tires help and the low down force bodies don't heat the motors up.

[Rick]

Very nice report! Pics and all. Well done............................

[tonyp]

Mike, Bryan Warmack sent me the parts and said to try it. I built it for Ernie for practice but it could not make it. When I tried it it was magic on that track. Don't know why but it sure was... Lol, even though a z railed. Lol...

[Noose]

Grant nice job!

[Grant G.]

Thanks everyone,  It was a great weekend of slot racing.  Aaron Scott has built one heck of a facility. It is cliche to say, but it reminds me of the movie Field of Dreams. The turnout on Friday alone was enough to put a smile on my face.  This was the largest slotcar race I have ever taken part in. 

 

It was cool to meet a lot of racers I have only seen on the blog.  The race day started at 8am on Saturday and finished at 1:30am Sunday.  A  long day of racing for sure, but  everyone did a great job getting their cars prepped and ready to pass tech inspection. Next time we may want to look into either going to a two day event or dropping a class. There were a few bumps along the way, but the understanding and support of such a great group of people was one of the reasons this event was such a success. The quality of racing even down into the C-mains was superb and some of the best I have seen.

 

Ralph Thorne Racing did an awesome job on the event plaques. If anyone has any stories or photos they would like to share, feel free to do so here.  I saw some guys walking around with some pretty nice cameras.  I think my 70 dollar Nikon has seen its last race. 

 

Like everyone else I would like to do a combo race this again sometime this year. If anyone has a suggestion for a time frame, post it up and we will discuss. 

[SliderGreg]

Grant,

 

  I've been talking to Aaron, Ralph & Bernie about promoting a race at the V.P.

 

  A combined Retro/AMSRA style event would be fun and have something for everyone. I'm thinking perhaps GT-1/GTP/GT-12 and at least two Reto classes. Since the USRA scale Nats are in early April either March or may would work best for me.

 

  P.M me and lets get a discussion going.

 

  Oh, like I told you Saturday night. Great job running the event.

 

    Greg G.

[Gator Bob]

Zwallenda is just down right evil 

 

Nice reporting and it looks like this event was a metric ton of fun.