February 22, 2026 | Jim Kostinden February 21 2026 “The Freezer” While the New England area prepared for a Nor’Easter impacting the area the day after the race, a smaller storm dropped several inches of snow overnight resulting in a lighter than usual turnout for the seventh ECO race of the season. Twelve racers showed up at Lenjet for “The Freezer”. We would be racing: 1) Hobby Stock on the historic Aurora tub track, 2) Super Stock Fray on the Brad Bowman Champion track, and 3) Magnatraction with IMSA bodies on the Max Trax “Bear” track. Drivers Meeting With Dave Lockwood on the west coast preparing for the Fray race, Paul Ryer kicked off the drivers meeting: Next ECO race will be at Terry’s house in southern New Hampshire. We’ll be running SS Fray and an IROC race on the road course, then switch over to the oval course to run a Coupes race. As mentioned above, Paul noted how Dave L. is out at the Fray this week. We all wish Dave and his team the best of luck in the races. Paul also heads up the MARC HO slot car club and mentioned their next race will be March 7th. Our club treasurer, Jimmy Colligan, provided the club’s financial update. A balance of $1548 was reported. Peter Lentros was in attendance for the race and mentioned that he recently purchased 200 new OEM completely built-up T-Jet chassis. According to Peter, these are chassis built around the time Aurora was going out of business using new tooling dies, so the chassis are about as clean and straight as can be expected. These are the only/last chassis made from these dies. Peter is selling them for $35 each or 4 for $100 out of the Lenjet HO store. Peter stated that he bought these for the club, and as such, they are intended to be used by club members to build new cars. Peter stressed that he does not want to see folks buy them and then turn around and sell them on eBay. On behalf of the ECO, we truly appreciate Peter’s efforts in purchasing these chassis that can be used by the club and thank him for this! Best Appearing After the drivers meeting, the racers then voted for the Best appearing car in today’s race pool. The Best Appearing award went to Jim K for his Hobby Stock Lola GT. The car is an original Aurora body that Jim purchased from Bob Beers. Jim prepared the body by sanding all of the body seam lines smooth and removing the rear window portion of the clear plastic window insert. He then used Tamiya spray cans to apply a gray primer. This was followed with a coat of Tamiya TS-56 Brillant Orange. After this coat dried, Jim then masked off the stripe down the center of the body and along both side skirts using Tamiya masking tape. Next a couple of coats of Tamiya TS-42 Light Gunmetal was applied as the final body color. Once dried, the masking tape was removed, and the body details were hand painted using Tamiya paints. The front headlights were painted Chrome Silver, while the taillights were painted Chrome Silver with a coat of Clear Red over the top to give a translucent finish to the taillights. Front and rear grilles, along with the side grilles were painted Black. Finally the windshield was lightly tinted using Tamiya Smoke colored spray paint and the windshield wiper on the body was hand painted with Chrome Silver. Finally, water slide decals were applied such as the number 2 “meatballs” and the Shell sponsor decal. Once dry, the body was coated with Tamiya TS-13 Clear. Here’s a picture of the Best Appearing car. On to the races… Hobby Stock on the Aurora Tub This was the third, and final Hobby Stock class race of the season. The Aurora Tub track is the perfect track for Hobby Stock races as this is what the Tub track was originally built for, racing Aurora T-Jets. While the Aurora Tub track at Lenjet has a 5-lane Brad Bowman insert, we would only race on the 4 outer lanes. With that said, the racing was very tight among the top 8 racers who were separated by only 4 laps. The last 2 podium positions were determined by sections. It was Paul R. who took the win with 96 laps. Paul was able to hold off the charge coming from Chief and JoeRinn who were battling it out for the 2nd and 3rd podium positions. Chief was able to take the 2nd podium spot, turning 95 laps/ 51 sections. JoeRinn was only 30 sections behind chief to take the 3rd podium spot with 95 laps/ 21 sections. A BIG CONGRATUALTIONS goes out to Chief who took his first podium position at an ECO race! Chief had a fast car, turning the fastest lap on 3 of the 4 lanes. Paul would turn the fastest lap of the race in the green lane with a 6.836 second lap. Great racing gentlemen! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 6th where all 3 drivers completed the same number of laps! In 4th was Jimmy C with 94 laps/46 sections, 5th Brian W. with 94 laps/34 sections, and in 6th Matt G. with 94 laps/1section. Again, great racing gentlemen. Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers along with best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here are the podium racers and their cars. Hobby Stock Podium Racers (left to right): Chief 2nd, Paul 1st, JoeRinn 3rd Note: JoeRinn had to leave early and was not available for the podium photo. Standing in for JoeRinn was another Joe, Joe Escalante. I took the liberty of super imposing JoeRinn’s head in the picture. Hobby Stock Podium Cars (left to right): Paul’s Porsche 904 1st, Chief’s Ferrari 2nd, JoeRinn’s Lola GT 3rd Super Stock Fray on the Champion Champion, the rhythm track, really lets the Super Stock Fray class stretch its legs. With its fast straights and esses and a couple of tight technical sections (scorpion tail and corkscrew like downhill tight turn) this track rewards fast, good handling cars, and a driver who can feel the rhythm of the track. Racing wasn’t quite as close as the Hobby Stock race, but there were battles for a few positions that were determined by sections. When the race ended, it was Paul R. taking his second win of the day, lapping the track 112 times. One of the battles that took place was for the 2nd and 3rd podium position between Brian W. and Matt G. While Matt was able to turn an impressive 29 laps in the white lane, and the only racer to turn 29 laps in a heat, it was Brian who had a more consistent lap count in the heats with two 28 lap heats to eke out the 2nd place finish by about ½ lap over Matt. Brian turned 109 laps/48 sections to Matt’s 109 laps/12 sections. Great racing! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 6th was: 4th Jim K. 107 laps, 5th Joe E. 106 laps, and 6th Jimmy C. 104 laps. Again, great racing everyone. Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers along with best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here are the podium racers and their cars. SS Fray Podium Racers (left to right): Matt G. 3rd, Paul R 1st, Brian W. 2nd SS Fray Podium Cars (left to right): Paul’s Ferrari 1st, Brian’s Lamborghini 2nd, Matt’s BMW M1 3rd Magnatraction on the Max Trax Bear The Magnatraction race was initially scheduled to be raced on the Nuvolari track. However, with the Nuvolari track moved to a new location, the racers at the last ECO race voted to hold the Magnatraction race on the Max Trax Bear. For the third ECO race event in a row, we had the potential for a triple crown winner (a racer winning all 3 races at an ECO event). Paul R. was looking to get his third win of the day in the Magnatraction race. Paul put forward a valiant effort, and it came down to the last heat of the day (just like the last ECO race) to determine if we would have another triple crown winner. This was an exciting race, with the final podium positions and winner determined in the last heat of the race. Paul R. had completed his race already, holding the lead with 105 laps. Paul was very consistent in 3 lanes, turning 28 laps. However, he had a rough heat in the red lane, turning only 21 laps, that would ultimately cost him the win. Going into the final heat, Matt G. and Jimmy C. had a chance of overtaking Paul for 1st place. When the dust settled, it was Matt G. who took the win with 109 laps. Jimmy C. would turn one more lap than Paul, 106 laps, for 2nd. Paul, with his unfortunate red lane heat fell to 3rd. A very exciting finish! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th and 5th were: 4th Chief (100 laps) and in 5th Jim K. (99 laps), just beating Brian W. by sections. Nice race Chief! Great racing all! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here are the podium racers and their cars. Magnatraction Podium Racers (left to right): Paul R. 3rd, Matt G. 1st, Jimmy C. 2nd Magnatraction IMSA Bodies Podium Cars (left to right): Matt ’s Capri 1st, Jimmy’s Bob Sharp Datsun 280Z 2nd, Paul’s BMW M1 3rd Checkered Flag Wow! What a great day of racing! Congrats to Chief for his first ECO podium finish! Congrats to Paul for his two first place and a third place finish!And also, thank you Paul for running the race today. Congrats to Brian W. who took his second ECO podium finish of the year (his first ECO podium finish was in the last ECO race)! Dedication award goes to JoeRinn who drove 10 hours yesterday from Delaware to participate in today’s race! Also, a big shout out to Peter for purchasing the OEM T-Jet chassis and providing them for the racers! Finally, it was great to see Tom Metcalf at his second ECO race. Unfortunately, Tom had some technical issues with his SS and Magnatraction cars that really impacted his lap counts. Hopefully Tom will be back! Just a quick comment: As I have noted in the past, the racing amongst the club members has been getting tighter as the racers improve their car building and driving skills. This was quite apparent at today’s race with Chief taking his first podium and finishing 4th in the Magnatraction race. Brian W. took his second ECO podium along with a 5th and 6th place finish. While he was not mentioned in the Hobby Stock race report, Pete H. ran a strong race finishing 7th. Pete ran a Cheetah body and his car was fast and handled well. Nice race Pete! Also, Joe Escalante has been making regular appearances at the last 5 (including this one) ECO races. Even though Joe overslept his alarm clock this morning, he still made it to the race in time. Great to see you racing with us Joe! As Paul mentioned at the driver’s meeting, the 8th race of the ECO season will be at Terry Ayer’s home in southern NH on March 14th on the infamous Ralph Spoilsport track. We’ll be running Super Stock Fray on the road course along with an IROC set prepared by Terry, also on the road course. We’ll wrap up the racing with Coupes on the oval course. Terry’s oval course is long, 16’ straights?, so the Coupes should be fun to run on this course. Also, Terry always seems to prepare a delicious lunch feast, so it will be interesting to see what Terry cooks up this year. Hope to see everyone there. As I look at the weather reports, they keep on upping the snow fall amounts for the big Nor’Easter expected to start in less than 24 hours. Hope everyone stays safe. Remember Spring is less than a month away.