Race Report TNT raceway 2-24-13
Our race @ TNT today featured another light turnout from our
regular drivers but a nice group of local enthusiasts were on hand and we had
another fun day of racing. Track owners Roy and Ann Axford had recruited among
the local crew and Roy raced all three classes himself while Eldean Huntington
raced the Can Am and helped out all day as did Gene Branham. Kevin Webster who
is a long time slot car racer but new to Retro and also new to TNT showed up
& ran a couple of classes as well. Dave Cummerow is one of the best of the
local crew and he raced two classes, directed the F-1 and did the race setups
all day. Thanks to the local crew for the participation and the help.
One of the star attractions of the day was this gorgeous looking stock car by "Noose". Herman James gave Noose the
basic direction of....."What if Wendell Scott gave Lewis Hamilton a Nascar race car to race.....what would it look like?"
Herman elected not to run this body in the race. (hmmmm.....wonder why?)
OK....enough with the eye candy..........on to the racing...............
We started the day with F-1 on the twisty corkscrew track and
with a slim field of five we elected to run a 4X4 rotation. Herman James
usually owns this race and sure enough, he opened up his first heat with a 36
lap effort. I came in with a 34 in the next heat and immediately knew I was in
trouble. Meanwhile, Roy Axford was going very quick as were Randy Keil and Russ
Toy but all three had a few too many deslots. I followed my 34 with a dismal 33
in my second to drop a little further back but after that started to come back
a little. Herman ran solidly throughout, made few mistakes, and at the end held
on to a comfortable two lap win. Roy held a very solid third over Russ while
Randy bent an axle and spent some pit time working on it then came back only to
run a heat on the wrong lane (courtesy of the sort of confusing “Taliban” 4X4) rotation.
Podium Cars: 2nd-Jim Fowler (builder, Fowler), 1 st Herman James (builder Samson), 3rd-Roy Axford (builder Fowler)
Next up was the Can Am race on the tricky Hillclimb track. I
say "tricky" because the sight lines are a little tough and the Local drivers
usually handle the field pretty well. We had a better field for this one with
eight drivers so we ran a normal rotation with a couple of dummies. I opened up
strong with a 32 in the first heat but there were several competitive cars
including Herman, Roy, and Eldean with a loaner that he’d never even seen until
5 min before the start. Dave C, the pre-race favorite was sitting out early on.
I backed up my first heat with another 32 and held a lead over Eldean and
Herman but I knew that when Dave came in, the game would be on. Surprisingly,
Dave had made a poor tire choice and was all over the place dropping four laps
in his first two heats. Dave made a tire change between his second and third
and suddenly he was in it. When I came back in after my sitouts, I continued to
run well but Dave was flying turning 5.15 sec laps and turning out some 33’s
and even a 34 lap heat. I pushed a little harder and ran some 33’s myself and
managed to hold onto a five lap win. Eldean was a factor all day as he ran
consistent and clean and although he wasn’t as fast as Dave, he nearly edged in
for second. Roy ran some fast 32 and 33 lap heats but had a few inconsistent
ones as well and eventually settled for fourth with Herman and Russ immediately
behind.
2nd-Dave Cummerow (Fowler), 1st-Jim Fowler (Fowler), 3rd-Eldean Huntington (Fowler)
Last race of this day was the 4.5” stock car class. This is
the favorite class for all almost of us as the slow mini brute motors and big
boxy bodies keeps everyone on their toes. These cars are a little tough to
drive but are slow enough and just narrow enough that you can sometimes run
door to door and even make side by side passes without nerfing and racing is very clean,
(ummmmm……sometimes). Because they are slow, you can see everything the cars do
and react when you are swapping paint. Also, the cars are pretty equal so it is
tough to make up ground when you get a few laps down. You will see from the
results that the 2-6 place cars all ran basically the same speed and were very
close. Because of the very tight banking, we elect to run a "center six" race for this class.
The first heat opened with a track distance lead for me with a 27 lap
heat but there were four cars on the same lap at that point. The race held that
way for a while with the top four cars all within a couple of laps. I put down
a very strong heat on Orange and started to pull away but the 2-6 cars were really
close. Randy Keil was running a strong second almost the entire race and Herman
was in the running for a podium as well until his motor went soft. Dave
Cummerow started a little slowly then turned it on and pulled past Randy for
second right near the end. Roy had never done a lap with one of these shoeboxes
yet ran fast enough for a podium but was a little inconsistent. Kevin Webster
did a fine job of piloting a prototype car that had never seen the track until
today. He stayed out of trouble and showed that he knows how to manage his
race. Kevin will be a factor down the road as he is experienced and will be
building cars soon.
2nd-Dave Cummerow (Fowler), 1st Jim Fowler (Fowler) 3rd-Randy Keil (Keil)
This was another “smiley face” day for all concerned and the
low key atmosphere can sort of disguise the competitive nature of some of our
races. Roy had a great time and naturally as track owner he never gets to race.
As a long time racer, it’s naturally a treat for him to just get out and swap
paint. He even swears he’s going to try to come to out next race at FTH in
Rocklin. If so, that’ll be the first time one of our track owners has gone
traveling to another raceway and we certainly hope that level of enthusiasm
becomes contagious.
The March Race is @ FTH with F-1 (MTT) and Can Am (Angel) as
always and Pro Coupes on the Angel as race #3. 1/32 is on the schedule as race
#4 on the MTT and will be our first race for 1/32 with the Mini Brute/Falcon 2
as the official motors.
