April 29, 2024 | Jim Kostinden April 20, 2024 “Up In Smoke” The ninth race event of the East Coast Outlaws ten race 2024 season took place on April 20th at Paul Ryer’s South Shore Speedway in Hingham, MA. A strong turnout of 16 racers showed up at Paul’s to battle it out in three races on the challenging Elvis track: Gran National, E-Fray with NASCAR bodies, and Magnatraction with Fairgrounds bodies made up the three ECO classes for the races. With a race date of 4-20 and an appropriately named race, “Up in Smoke”, hopefully all of the racers left the race day on a high… that is a natural high. Some racers were probably feeling higher than others, notably: 1) welcoming back Donnie Hall; 2) Jimmy C., formerly known as “Oh Jimmy” for his break-out racing event, and; 3) Paul R., finishing in the “highest” podium position in 2 of today’s races. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in, Dave Lockwood conducted the drivers meeting. Dave started the meeting by welcoming back Donnie Hall. This was Donnie’s first HO race since last December. It was great to see Donnie racing back with the ECO. Welcome back Donnie! Dave then talked about the changes for the last race of the ECO season coming up in May. These changes have been updated in the ECO schedule on the ECO website. Basically, we will be running the same three classes but will not be using the Rollin’ O track. We will be running Grand National on the Car Model, Ltd SS with NASCAR bodies on the Bear, and Coupes on the Tri-Oval. Paul R. reminded the drivers about Steve’s IROC race on June 1st (see Checkered Flag section of this report for more info). Paul then talked about the summer series and changes that will be made to it this year. While the summer series (June, July, and August) will continue to focus on preparation for the Havoc race, the change this year will be morning build (and drive) sessions geared towards the newer ECO racers but open to all ECO racers, with two races being held in the afternoon. Schedule for the summer series should be coming out in the coming weeks. Both Paul and Dave urged racers to provide input on what topics you would like to see covered in these morning sessions. Best Appearing Congratulations to Jimmy C. for winning Best Appearing with his beautifully prepared Dan Gurney #121 Ford Torino Grand National car. I did not realize Dan Gurney raced stock cars, but Jimmy C. filled me in and mentioned that Dan Gurney only ran in these races when they were held at Riverside (a road course). According to Jimmy, Dan Gurney dominated these races winning 5 of the 6 Grand National races held at Riverside. On to the races… Grand National The South Shore Speedway Elvis track has a long front straight that leads into a technical “in-field” section consisting of increasing and decreasing radius turns, that flow into a back straight with a little “bus stop” like kink before entering an upward corkscrew turn that takes the cars back onto the front straight. This track rewards Grand National cars that are quick and good handling, a challenging combination to achieve in this class. With that said only 15 laps separated first place and 16th (last) place among the ECO racers. Racing was close! When the dust settled, it was Flash driving his Superbird 85 laps around the track for the win. Second went to Jimmy C. driving his best appearing Ford Torino to 83 laps. Bring up the 3rd podium position was PitStop, also driving a Ford Torino, only 1 lap back from Jimmy with 82 laps. In taking the “highest” podium position, first place, Flash was the only racer to get sub-8 second lap times on more than one lane. Achieving this in the Yellow lane with a 7.997 second lap, and in the Blue lane with the lowest lap time of the race at 7.980 seconds. PitStop was the only other racer to attain a sub-8 second lap with a best lap of 7.998 seconds in the Yellow lane. Nice work gentlemen! Because of the close racing, there were many “races” within the race. Battling it out for 4th, 5th, and 6th positions, Paul R (4th), Dave (5th), and Greg W (6th), all finished with 81 laps with only sections separating these 3 positions. Jim K (7th) and JoeRinn (8th) were also determined by sections as both racers completed 78 laps. Even further down in the field, Donnie (10th), Pete H (11th), Paul C (12th), Terry (13th), and Brian (14th), were separated by less than 2 laps for these 5 positions. Great close racing gentlemen! E-Fray with NASCAR Bodies After a lunch consisting of locally sourced pizza and Big-Y chocolate chip and M&M cookies, the racers were re-energized to take on the Elvis track with the quicker E-Fray cars. As with the Grand National race, racing was close and competitive with only 18 laps separating the field of 16 racers. When the last heat was completed and the controllers were disconnected, our host Paul R. emerged as the winner knocking out 105 laps in his Cole Trickle Chevy. Only a lap behind in second place was Jimmy with 104 laps in his beautifully painted blue Coors Chevy. Taking 3rd, also with 104 laps, but 23 sections behind Jimmy, was Flash driving another of his Mopar cars. Rounding out the top half of the field was Dave in 4th with 102 laps, Jim K in 5th with 101 laps, Greg W in 6th with 100 laps, Paul C in 7th with 98 laps , and JoeRinn in 8th with 98 laps …and just one section behind Paul C! A very close race for these last 2 positions! Fastest lap of the race was turned in by Jimmy in the Yellow lane at 6.083 seconds. Jimmy also had fastest lap in the Blue lane at 6.309 seconds. PitStop had fastest laps in the Green lane at 6.321 seconds and the Red lane at 6.167 seconds. MagnaTraction with Fair Grounds Bodies The MagnaTraction class is the fastest class run in the ECO. As such, while racing was competitive among the drivers, especially between the top 2 finishers, the total lap counts were more spread out among the racers than the previous two races. The Fair Grounds bodies provided quite a variety of looks, with bodies ranging from 55 Chevies to late 60’s muscle cars to the winning 70’s Thunderbird! It was cool seeing all these different body styles running side-by-side. With the race field down to 15 drivers for the final race of the day, it was our host, Paul R. driving his 70’s Thunderbird to victory with a blistering 134 laps! Not too far behind in his 55 Chevy was Dave L. turning in 131 laps. The final podium spot was taken by Flash driving his late 60’s Cougar with 120 laps. With his first place finish, Paul had the “highest” lap count in two of the heats, turning 35 laps in the Yellow lane and 34 laps in the Blue lane. In contrast, Dave L. was the only driver to turn sub-5 second laps in all 4 of his heats while setting the low lap time for the race at 4.757 seconds. Finishing out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 8th were Jimmy with 118 laps, Greg W with 116 laps, Paul C with 114 laps, JoeRinn with 108 laps, and Donnie with 108 laps, only 5 sections behind Joe. Nice job Donnie! It took a couple of races to shake all the rust loose! Checkered Flag A big thank you goes out to our gracious host, Paul, for providing a great race venue, coffee and doughnuts, and delicious lunch. And again, congratulations to Jimmy for his breakout ECO event taking 2 second place finishes, a 4th place finish, and the Best Appearing award (for the Torino, not you Jimmy, though it was nice of you to change clothes and get dressed up for the winners photos). Donnie, speaking on behalf of the ECO racers, it is great to see you back! Great racing everyone!!! Next race will be May 18th at LenJet, “Museum Madness”, ECO’s last race of the season. As mentioned earlier we’ll be running Grand National on the Car Model, Ltd SS w/NASCAR bodies on the Bear, and Coupes on the Tri-Oval. Finally, as a reminder Steve is putting together an “All IROC TJET Race” at Lenjet Raceway on Saturday, June 1st. Doors open at 8am. Racing starts at 10am. On your own 1 hour lunch.