Vintage Racing has returned to The Race Place, Farmingdale, NJ on the Red Lightning track. Here are the results of the first race of the season:
1) Jimmy Roselli- 173 laps- Classic Viper
2) Glenn Orban- 169 laps- Dynamic Cheetah
3) Ed Paterson- 164 laps- jaildoor Torino
4)Jack Paterson- 163 laps- scratchbuild dirt modified
5) Dom Roselli- 162 laps- Garvic Lunar
6) Rodney Ford- 156 laps- Dynamic Falcon
7) Pete Linszky- 156 laps- Classic Viper, American Line Sportsman
This being our first race of the season, racing cars that have not formally ever been raced either ever, or in a long time, there was a lot to be sorted out. Rodney used a loaner car, so he had to get used to the car as he raced it. Peter's Viper had braid issues ( I had to push it around the 180 degree hairpin as I marshalled that turn!) so he was forced to pull that car after a few laps and ran his American Line Sportsman kit car instead, which performed quite well. New (old stock?) braids should have Pete's Viper back at our next race. We had two father and son teams racing: Dom and Jimmy and Jack and Ed, and it was fun watching the fathers and sons battling each other throughout the race. Ed's jaildoor Torino was the largest and longest bodied car on the track. It was fast, handled well, and- just stay out of his way, or expect body nerfing to occur! Dom's car was very fast in the straights- I think he had a secret overdrive gear in that car! Jack's scratchbuilt dirt modified had a mean stance/forward lean to it, looked cool going around the curves. The three Thingies on the track were great to watch as they raced by me. They were the most original mid-60s factory cars raced.
At the beginning of the race, most commented that they were not going to race these old cars hard, just take it easy and have fun. The first few heats showed that all of us had issues to sort out- not used to the car, never raced their car before, etc. Then we all settled down into our own grooves, and the deslots were few and far between from then on. Once we all settled down and got used to these big, old, and slow (?) cars, something happened: the racing became more intense, the spirit of competition arose. All of us are 50+ years old except for the two "kids": Ed and Jimmy. Dom stated during the race that Jimmy races to win, no matter what types of cars they race. Jimmy told me that he was happy to race cars that he could never have raced when they were new, so he was having a ball. Ed was also racing hard, and we had a good heat going head to head next to each other. Of course Ed won that heat as I could not keep pace with him the entire time. But hey- that was fun!
Fastest lap time goes to Jimmy: 7.687703 in the purple lane. And for the rest of us our fastest lap times were in the 7.85- 8.06 second range, so all of these cars were very close. It was anyone's race, just look at the total laps- very close between racers. Everyone had a great time, and the next race is in the planning stages. There are a few in our group that cannot make the Thursday night races, so Saturday races are coming so all can have a chance to race. Stay tuned for our next race announcement. All racers are part of the C.A.R.S. Vintage Slot Car club, so my thanks to Pete and his club. Pete started this club many years ago and has been at The Race Place on the first Thursday night of every month. So if you want to hang out with a great bunch of vintage slot car enthusiasts, let your old cars get some track time, and all things related to vintage slot car racing, collecting, building and restoring then stop by The Race Place, Rt 33, Farmingdale, NJ on the first Thursday night of each month.
father and son teams: Jimmy and Dom, Ed and Jack
