February 2020: Once Bitten

Once Bitten Race Report at Fast Five Raceway

On Sunday, February 9th, 21 Outlaw racers made their way to Ryan Archmbault’s Fast Five Raceway in Southampton, MA. for our seventh race of the season After practice for the Indy on the super fast SnakeBite track and Super Stock on the Harley Davidson, the drivers meeting was conducted by Dave Lockwood. Greg gave the treasurer’s report and upcoming events were announced and it was time for racing. Best appearing was won by Joe Rinn with a beautiful Shell liveried super stock car.

Indy race

It was a battle royale between Dave and Flash on the four long fast straights with a real tricky section leading onto the front straight. Both racers finished the race 129 laps with Dave finishing first by sections. Ryan took the final step on the podium eight laps back! Rick Morrissette took 4th ( great drive Rick) with Ricky Hubbert , Mike Reilly ( great drive Mike) John Schoenfeld, Big Greg, Rudy and Cody rounding out the top half of the field.

Indy Car setup tip

I asked Dave if he had a tech tip that I could include in the race report to make the report more interesting and he said “YEAH”. “Both the top two finishers had staggered front ends” ( the front tires were of a different diameter) and the chassis were level. The rules specify the minimum front tire diameter must be .420 and the rears must be a minimum .460. If you use those tires, your chassis will have a nose down rake on the car. ( 60 years ago in the custom car world we called that a California rake). That will cause your car to oversteer ( the rear end will come around and cause a spinout). So in order to keep the polar moment of inertia as low as possible you want your rears to be at the minimum .460). That’s fancy engineering lingo for keeping the magnets close to the rail). So the trick is to make 4 spacers for the 4 sides of the chassis so it is square to the surface plate and then fabricate, purchase or (steal) wheel and tire combinations that enable your chassis to sit level. This is where the stagger comes in. If there is a a slight twist in the chassis you might have to use 2 different diameters on the front end. (Note to Dave Lockwood , if I’ve got any of this wrong you can clarify at the next driver’s meeting and thanks for this tip. Going to try to add a tip to all the race reports from here on. Might be a part the fast guys use or might be another set up tip from a fellow racer)

Super Stock

The Harley is a really neat track that rewards handling, driving skill and you need a little straight line speed but that won’t get you a win. The straight is shorter than most of the ​tracks we run on but is a nice blend of short straights and 2 challenging handing sections. you don’t need to have the best car, but you need to be the best driver on that given day! Dave once again took the win…this time over Ryan by a lap and there was Flash taking third! The top 3 had lap totals of 143,142,140. Steve took fourth with 129, with Big Greg, Tom Gray ( nice drive Tom), Rick Pare ( nice drive Rick) Mike Boucher, with John Schoenfeld, Jimmy, and the Joe’s….. Rinn and Escalante all having 125 laps with sections determining finishing order!

IROC Race on the SnakeBite

I wasn’t present for the race so I’m making this all up!!!!!!!!!!!! After having a mediocre day on his own tracks (3rd in Indy and 2nd in SS), Ryan finally took a win over Flash by sections!!!!!! Big Greg took a third and Steve took 4th. Steve is always near the top in the IROC race with a couple of wins. That fast kid Cody took 5th with Dave Lockwood, Mike Boucher and Farnsy ( nice race Bob) rounding out the top half of the field. they were followed by 5 racers with the same number of laps separated by sections. No wonder the IROC race is becoming a favorite of the Outlaws. Ryan was a terrific host, great tracks to race on and we had a great day of racing.

Next race will be Greg’s “Rockin it Old School” race using Aurora Bodies at LenJet. The classes will be Hobby Stock, Magnatraction and IROC.