5 replies to this topic

[sledman]

Coupes on the Hillclimb at Rooster’s Raceway– 8/11/26

 

 

With Modelville Hobby closed for Richard and Sue’s annual trek to Maine, this week’s episode of the MVH Tuesday Night Retro series relocated to Rooster’s Raceway in Southwick, MA, to run GT Coupes. It was also a good opportunity for the racers to log some track time on the ex-MVH Hillclimb for the upcoming NERR event scheduled for October 17. Eleven drivers showed up for practice, but we had one DNS, leaving a field of ten. Racing was on the middle six lanes, with four marshals and the DNS driver (Nick Ball) to run the computer. A big thanks to Nick for running the race!

 

The GT Coupe Field (ignore the one Can-Am car):  

 

Noah Ball and Gary Clinton Jr. had the two fastest cars on the track, and both were putting up big lap totals from the get-go. Most drivers were struggling with the reverse camber deadman, especially on the outside lanes. As Noah and Gary drove away from the field, Greg Burstein and Dave Panich looked like they were in a battle for the bottom podium step while Rob Hayes, Ryan Archambault and Woody Hazelwood were running side-by-side in the race for the title of “best of the rest”. Meanwhile, Larry Labounty had gear issues and fell off the pace while Gil Aubin and Dave Gesner dropped out early in the competition. 

 

When the dust settled, Noah took the win with 223 laps, five laps up on Gary. Dave Panich finished third, with 199 laps, well behind Gary, and five laps up on Greg. Rob claimed best of the rest, finishing two laps up on Ryan, who was another lap ahead of Woody, while Larry closed out the field.  

 

(L to R): Greg, Woody, Gary Jr, Ryan, Dave, and race winner Noah 

 

The lap counter set-up didn’t show fastest laps per lane, so all we have below is driver’s name and lap total.

Finishing order and laps completed:

1. Noah Ball                  223      
2. Gary Clinton Jr.         218      
3. Dave Panich             199
4. Greg Burstein           194
5. Rob Hayes                190
6. Ryan Archambault    188
7. Woody Hazelwood   187
8. Larry Labounty         170
9. Gil Aubin                     89
10. Dave Gesner              43                                  

UPCOMING EVENTS:

        The Tuesday Night Retro Race Series will return to MVH next week. Here's the schedule for the rest of August:

       Aug 18       Coupes on the Royal

       Aug 25       Stock Cars on the Figure 8  

         NOTE: MVH will be closed until Aug 17 for summer vacation.        

       

        NERR Season 14 will begin in just two weeks at Modelville Hobby:

              Race No. 1 will be held on Saturday, August 29, 2026, and will now feature:

                      GT Coupes on the Royal

                      Stock Cars* on the King

                        *NOTE: this is a change of class from the original schedule!

 

              Race No. 2 has been relocated from 1010 Raceway to PJ Raceway in Ronkonkoma, NY, and is now scheduled for September 19, 2026. 

              The event will feature:

                      F-1 on the Hillclimb

                      Can-Am on the Hillclimb

             

Plan accordingly…

                                                       

Podium: (L to R):

2^nd Place – Gary Clinton Jr, 1^st Place – Noah Ball, 3^rd Place – Dave Panich

 

Lane Change Action on the Hillclimb 

 

Thanks to Rob Hayes for organizing this event and additional photography! 

[Larry Labounty]

Rob, Great job on getting this race set up @ Ron's effort on the track

[Bridgehampton66]

Thank you, Larry!  Ron is a fine host, and Roosters is going to be a swell venue, hopefully

for many years to come.

 

Best part for me was seeing several of the Connecticut and Western Massachusetts guys

meeting up again, for the first time in many years.  This is a great hobby, always has been.

[John Luongo]

track looks great!

[Gil's son]

Glad it went well. Looking forward to the October race.

[Gil Aubin]

Just to clarify - the updated body rules will not be in effect for the August 29 race, correct?  It is my understanding that they go into effect September 1.  Just trying to get one more race out of last season's bodies