The East Coast HO Outlaws is definitely a eating club with a racing addiction.  Combine racers from Ct, RI, Mass with a few extra Maine’iacs and the annual Grill’n-N-Chill’n 500 (G-N-C) was another race for the record books.

Gotta love when our club members show up with both a hanker’n for some great Maine seafood and, new Coupe class race cars. The King of Dirt TKO track showed no favorites and when 14 guys had their cars ready, it was off to the starting line.  Mustang bodies, Gremlin bodies, early Ford and Chevy Coupes all looked awesome both on the track and into the catch fence or infield tires.  A Coupe even took the Best Appearing Award this month, thanks to the work of Rick Hubbert, who did a sweet looking replica of the “M” car that ran at lots of Ct and Mass short track modified races.  Too bad it wasn’t as quick as the green machine of Greg W’ski that  ran a amazing 302 laps with only one Off to take the first of his three class wins of the day. Second place was returning to Maine from Mass racer Matt P. who brought out his many time destroyed but always rebuilt #1 Coupe that ran 281 laps. 3rd place was Rick H’s “M” car, nice big wheels and all, with run on the Bubble to get 275 laps.  4th place was the T-jet based,weight pan equipped Gremlin modified of Master Host of Hosts,Jim Hoar that ran 268 laps. Rudy loves the KOD track and was a Top 5 finisher coming in 5th place with 266 laps.  Another Mainer broke the Top 10 spots coming in 6th place, Greg Willey, formerly of So.California who ran a Coupe for the first time ever and did 265 laps. 7th-Rick M,258 laps.8th-Bob F,229 laps. 9th-Ron D,227 laps. 10th Brian V.-226 laps. 11th-14th all tracked out with Offs so, once again, the KOD track claims it’s victims which included:Paul M,Bill C,Mario B and Butch S.

A dozen fresh off the boat Maine lobsters gave their lives for the club along with a couple of cattle and whatever stuff goes into red hot dogs but thanks to Brian V and Debbie Hoar for getting us well fed and on schedule.

ECHORR sanctioned classes were next including the Indy’s and Super Stock (SS) classes on the Monster Mile, Sebago HO Raceways Road Course.  Marshalling is key and luckily we added a crack novice spectator named Chance Gallant who came by to see some slotcar racing. Works with Mario at Poland Springs Water and he was super reliable.  INDY Class results:  Making it to the top spot again was Greg W’ski by putting down 106 laps compared to 2nd place Rick Hubberts 104 laps. Top 3 again finisher Matt P. ran 101 laps. 4th place was Rudy with 97, 5th was Bob F–96 laps, 6th was Greg Willey with 92.  7th–Rick M,91 laps. 8th–Ron D.,88 laps. 9th–Butch S.,87 laps+. 10th–Jim H., 87 laps- as was 11th place tie Bill C with 87 laps-. 12th was Mario B.,86 laps. 13th–Brian V., 84 laps+ and 14th was Paul M with 84 laps-.

Finally, and still not even 2pm was the last class of the day, the ECHORR SS class.  Give the guy a broom cuz Greg W’ski put the beat down on the last race of the day also by running his SS car 119 laps. 2nd place was Matt P. with 116 vs 3rd place finisher Rudy U with 113+ laps. 4th was Greg Willey with 113- laps, 5th was Jim H over Rick H, both with 112 laps. 7th was Rick M.,111 laps. 8th and 9th were close also with Bill Craven getting a few more track sections than Ron D, both with 109 laps. 10th–Bob F., 107 laps. 11th–Brian V., 104 laps. 12th–Butch S., 102 laps. 13th–Mario B., 97 laps and 14th was Paul M with 93 laps.

All in all, the Grill’n-N-Chill’n is exactly what Bill Craven said at the conclusion. “This race is for sure one of the Must Go To races on our schedule.  Great racing, free place to stay overnight and lots of room for everything. Hope to see the whole club plus friends at next years Grill’n-N-Chill’n 500.