June 13, 2025 | Jim Kostinden East Coast Outlaws 2024-2025 Race Season Wrap Up Report Introduction With another successful race season behind us, as I did last year, I’ve written up a season ending report, looking at attendance and podium finishes. As you know, throughout the year I have kept track of race statistics, so this report will take a deeper dive into these statistics. In addition, I have added a “Checkered Flag” section to the end of the report were I will summarize the data and make some comments about the past season. While this report will not go into the details of each race (you can find this information in the individual race reports on our website’s race report page ), I think you will find these statistics interesting. The report is divided into three sections: 1) Attendance, 2) Race Results, and 3) Checkered Flag or Summary section. Attendance The 2024-2025 season consisted of 10 race events. Of the 10 races run this season, four (4) of the races were run at member’s home tracks, with the remaining six (6) races run at LenJet. This was a slight change from last year when the races were evenly divided between member’s home tracks and LenJet at five (5) races each. While ECO race attendance remains strong when compared to most other slot car clubs, the attendance for the 2024-2025 season was down slightly from last season (2023-2024). For the 2024-2025 season, ECO had 29 different racers attend the races throughout the season, with an average race attendance of 16 racers per event. This was down slightly from last year’s 2023-2024 season where we attracted 36 different racers and averaged 18 racers per event. Following are some charts to help you visualize the 2024-2025 season attendance data. Attendance by Race Average race attendance was 16 racers. The bar graph below shows the number of racers at each race, represented by the numbers at the top of the bars. It’s interesting to note that we had a drop in attendance for the last 3 races of the season. While 2 of these races were at the members’ homes, where turnout is usually below the average, the season ending event in May was unusually low. While this is only my opinion, I think the reason for the lower than usual May race attendance is that this race, also known as the Musuem Madness event, that was dedicated to oval racing, is that this year’s race did not include any oval racing. I feel the oval racing is more attractive to other non-ECO racers who have typically attended this event in the past and because we ran all road courses this year, may have created less of an incentive for non-ECO folks to attend. Perhaps we need to get back to the roots of the May Museum Madness race and host a couple of oval races during this event. Attendance by Venue : Member’s Homes versus LenJet As previously mentioned, 4 races were held at members’ homes and 6 races were held at Lenjet. Average race attendance at members’ homes was 13. Average race attendance at LenJet was 17. The following bar graph shows the attendance for each race (the number at the top of the bar) and the location of the race: Member’s home race locations represented by blue bars and LenJet races represented by the orange bars. Attendance per Individual Racer With 29 different racers showing up throughout the season, we had 4 “iron man” award racers who attended every race (10 races). Congratulations to Brian (rookie season), Dave, Jim K., and Matt G. for your perfect attendance! An honorable mention goes to Jimmy C. (aka Oh Jimmy) who missed his first ECO race (last race of the season) in a number of years due to his hip replacement surgery. We’ll give Jimmy the “titanium man” award in honor of his new hip hardware and making it to 9 events this season. Other honorable mentions to racers that made 9 races go out to Chief, Flash, Greg W., and Terry! Also, looking at the data we seem to have a solid core group of 16 racers who showed up to at least half the races (5 or more races). Race Results As most of you know, I created a spread sheet that kept track of all the race results for each individual racer. Within the spreadsheet you could sort through the data by racer, by overall standing, by each race class (i.e. Indy, E-Fray, etc.) standing. I posted this several times during the season on our Facebook page so that you had access to this and could look at your own results. In this section of the report, I will breakdown the race results, starting with podium finishes (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) by racers, then look at the overall standings for racers, and then break this down further by race class. Podium Finishes With a total of 30 races during the season, this resulted in 90 podium finish opportunities for the racers. We had 13 different racers finish in at least one podium position this year. This is the same amount as last year, though a few of the names have changed. The following bar graph breaks down the podium finishes for the 13 racers for season. To clarify the bar graph, each racer may have up to 4 bars: gold bar represents 1st place finishes, red bar represents 2nd place finishes, green bar represents 3rd place finishes, and the blue bar represents the total number of podium finishes. The number at the top of the bars represents the number of podium place finishes for either that position or in the case of the blue bar, the total number of podium finishes overall. In some cases, a racer will have 2 or 3 bars. For example, Matt G has a green bar and a blue bar with the number 2 on top of each bar. This represents two 3rd place podium finishes (green bar), resulting in two podium finishes for the year (blue bar). A quick observation: Considering we had a “core” of 16 racers this year (those racers that attended at least half the races (5)), that means 81% of the core racers were able to grab a podium finish. As was mentioned in the race reports, the racing seemed to get tighter as the year went on. This resulted in a couple of our core racers, Chief and Brian come to mind, just missing the podium, with each taking a couple of 4th place finishes. Race Results Standings: Overall and By Race Class The race result standings are based on an average of the racers finish for each race (overall standing) or the average of finishes for a specific race class (by class). For example if a racer were to finish half the races (15) in 1st place and half the races in 3rd place, then that racer’s overall average finish would be 2 (or 2nd place) across all 30 races. One of the cool things about breaking down the race statistics by class is that it can show a racer which classes they do really well in and which classes they need to improve in. For example, for me personally, I had an overall standing of 5.90. My Coupes class standing was 3.00, my strongest class. But my Indy and Jalopy (I use the same car) standing had an average of 8.00 and 9.00, respectively. This was my worst class so I now know that I need to improve the performance of my Indy/Jalopy to help improve my overall performance next year. My point here is, take a close look at this data as it will identify the class(es) where improvements can be made. Race Results Standings – Overall These standings show the overall average race finish position for each racer. For these race result overall standings I had to filter out those races who attended less than 4 races so as not to skew the results. For those racers that attended less than 4 races, you can go to the ECO Facebook page and download the last copy of the race results spreadsheet to see where you would have finished in the standings. It was a close race (literally) for overall best racer with Dave L. taking it by 0.02 points over Flash. Also, there was a close battle for 3rd overall between Greg W. (3rd) and Paul R. (4th). A group of racers in the 7’s and another group in the 10’s. Race Results Standings – Hobby Stock For the race results by classes, I did include everyone, even if this was the driver’s only race they attended all year. We raced the Hobby Stock class 3 times this season. Dave shows why his nickname of “Skinny Tires” fits perfectly as he took 1st place in all 3 races. Flash took 2nd place in all 3 races. PitStop with a 3.0 average participated in one of the Hobby Stock races, taking 3rd place in that race. Steve N and Chief were very competitive in this class with some great running cars and good driving! Race Results Standings – Indy We raced the Indy class 3 times this season. Racing was close in this class with the top 3 drivers having an average finish within 0.50 points. Donnie had a strong showing in this class with a fast car to finish 4th overall. Race Results Standings – Jalopy We raced the Jalopy class 2 times this season. Flash and Dave ended up in a tie for best average in this class where they swapped 1st and 2nd place finishes between them in the 2 races. Once again, Donnie had a strong finish, as did Greg W. Matt G. and Steve N. also finished strong with both having the same average finish, 6.00. Race Results Standings – Grand National We raced the Grand National class 4 times this season. Flash just beat out Dave L for best average finish. Paul R and Jim K battled it out for 3rd and 4th with Greg W. close behind. Tom G. and Brian had strong finishes in this class. Race Results Standings – E-Fray We raced the E-Fray class 5 times this season. Dave L took 1st place in all 5 races for his 1.0 average. Donnie had a strong showing, finishing 2nd with a very fast car. Flash, Greg W., and JoeRinn were also tightly grouped in the 3’s. Race Results Standings – SS We raced the SS class 5 times this season. Greg B. participated in only one of the SS races and took the victory for his 1.00 average. A tight battle between Dave L, Greg W, and Flash with only 0.40 points separating this tight knit group. PitStop and Rick M. also only participated in one SS race but made it count by finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively. Race Results Standings – Coupes We raced the Coupes class 2 times this season. Flash and Greg battled it out for the best average with Flash taking the top spot by 0.50 points. Dave L. and Jim K. tied for 3rd position. Note: Jim K’s car is sponsored (built) by DBL racing. Jimmy C had a strong finish in this class. Race Results Standings – MagnaTraction We raced the MagnaTraction class 4 times this season. Flash and Paul “Mr. MT” R tied for best overall average. A tight group of 4 racers followed close behind with averages in the 4’s. Race Results Standings – IROC We held two (2) IROC races this season. The first IROC race was held in October at LenJet on the Car Model track using a set of cars prepared by Greg W. If I recall the cars used a Wizzjet chassis with “skinny tires” and late 1960’s Dodge Charger bodies. The second IROC race was held at Terry’s in April at the Ralph Spoilsport Raceway. Terry prepared a beautiful set of C3 Corvetts on Magnatraction chassis. Because IROC races “level out the playing field”, i.e. everyone has to drive the same set of cars, these types of races bring out good driving skills and familiarity with the track as key fundamentals to do well in these races. Checkered Flag Before I get into the summary and some of my comments about the past race season, I do have to mention the dominance by Terry in our Best Appearing car award given out at each race event. Terry won FIVE (5) Best Appearing awards this past year! That has to be some sort of record. Congratulations Terry on your beautiful looking cars! Starting with race attendance, below is a table comparing some of the key metrics related to racer attendance between the 2023-2024 season and the 2024-2025 season. Metric2023-20242024-2025Average race attendance – overall1816Average race attendance – LenJet1917Average race attendance – members’ home1713Total number of different racers3629Core racer group size (5 or more races)2016 While this is only 2 seasons worth of data, it is difficult to determine if this data represents any trends or if one of the seasons is an anomaly. We will have to wait and see as we gather more data in the future seasons. Considering that the 2023-2024 season was the first post-COVID season where we opened up the racing again at members’ homes and people were more comfortable in crowds, the 2023-2024 season could be more of an anomaly. Obviously looking at the key attendance metrics, there is a decline in every category for the 2024-2025 season. Regardless, if this is due to the 2023-204 season being an anomaly as discussed above, it would be wise for the club to take a hard look at this data and determine how we can improve attendance for the 2025-2026 season. As for race results, I will only focus on the distribution of podium finishes, since I did not track the race result data at the level of detail for the 2023-2024 season as I did this past season. Perhaps in future year end reports I can break this data down. The table below compares the percentage of core racers who took podium finishes for each of the past 2 seasons. 2023-20242024-2024Number of different racers with podium finishes1313Number of core racers2016Percentage of core racers with podium finishes65%81% You can look at this data in a couple of ways: 1) With a smaller group, it increases the chances of finishing higher in a race in a podium position, 2) With a smaller group, statistically, the number of different races with a podium finish should have also decreased. It did not. So this indicates that the racers are becoming more competitive and racing at a higher level. In summary, even though all of the attendance metrics were (slightly) lower this year, I believe the club still is healthy relative to other HO clubs. With that said, I think it is important for the club to consider taking some actions to increase attendance for the coming season.