January 19, 2025 | Jim Kostinden January 18, 2025 “The New Year Challenge” The first ECO race of the new year also marks the mid-point of the ECO 2024-2025 race season. With an impressive 20 racers in attendance, the highest number of racers so far this season, we would be racing: 1) Hobby Stock on the historical Car Model track, 2) E-Fray on the Brad Bowman Champion track, and 3) Jalopies on the challenging Bear track. With 20 racers in attendance, we would break the racers up into two groups so that the Hobby Stock and E-Fray races could be run simultaneously in the morning. After lunch the Jalopy race would be run as one group. As it turned out, with an early pizza delivery, only half the Hobby Stock and half the E-Fray race was completed before lunch. After consuming the delicious pizza, the second half of the Hobby Stock and E-Fray races were completed before moving on to the final race, Jalopies on the Bear. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in were completed, Dave Lockwood lead the drivers meeting. Dave touched on several topics: New Wizzard top-plates are legal for ECO classes that allow this chassis. There are 2 versions of the top plate: 1) with cut rails, and 2) with full rails. New Wizzard SS Fray front ends are available and legal for the ECO SS Fray class. Dave mentioned that these new front ends are breaking records. Dave has seen the new ECO outline logo that will be applied to the new long sleeve t-shirts. Dave is still working with Randy on the t-shirts. Dave mentioned that Mike Paquette is making resin bodies. He is doing the Indy Turbine, some cool Legends and NASCAR truck bodies. Contact Russ Upton or check out the CFB Resin Bodies Facebook page. Dave then handed over the meeting to Paul R. to talk about magnet car racing. Paul, who just came out of the closet, as a “bi” racer, racing either magnet cars or non-magnetic cars. Not sure yet what Paul’s pronouns are. Paul is it mag/non-mag? Paul mentioned the East Coast Championship races coming up at Lenjet from Jan 31st to Feb 2nd. While the Friday and Sunday races will run the fastest magnet classes, Saturday will run a couple of the “slower” magnet classes. Both Paul and Dave suggested that the Saturday races would be ideal for any ECO members that are interested in trying out magnet car racing as they are similar to the ECO Magnatraction class. Also, Dave mentioned how a lot of the magnet racers show up and support the Halloween Havoc race, so it would be great if the ECO members could reciprocate by attending the Saturday East Coast Championship races. Loaner cars will be available; however, it would be wise to reach out to Paul (mag/non-mag) to let him know you are coming to the race and will need loaner cars. Speaking of the Halloween Havoc, the dates have already been set for the 2025 Havoc. It will be the weekend after Halloween, Nov 7th thru Nov 9th. Our club treasurer, Jimmy Colligan, provided the club’s financial update. A balance of $1651 was reported. Closing out the meeting, Dave mentioned that Bob Beers show on Long Island will be on Feb 9th! Best Appearing Best appearing award went to one of our new rookie racers, John Esposito. Here’s John’s words on how this Jalopy came to be: “This started as an AutoWorld Willies unpainted injection molded body. It was then driven 30 years on the mean streets of Redondo beach. It was trimmed with a Dremel to its Jalopy state. Uncle Mel Artz, local TV sales, repairs and service, donated $3.37 and $6.00 shipping (a large sum for Mel) to buy decals from CoCos slot car decal store on this new-fangled site called EBay. Testors modelling paint completed the project.” Thank you, John, for the detailed history of the car. John selected a nice color combo of red and white along with those cool looking decals. This really brings out that classic jalopy look. Congratulations John on your (first) Best Appearing award! On to the races… Hobby Stock on the Car Model This was the second Hobby Stock class race of the season, running the first race last month. Unlike last months race which was run on the flat Bear track, this second race would take place on the historical Car Model track. Using a molded orange colored fiberglass base, the Car Model contains a large 180 degree banked turn, really allowing these cars to open up. With their skinny tires, it was prudent for the racers to carefully apply power once the car was on the long straightaways. Applying too much power too soon, would break the skinny tires loose, resulting in a de-slot just as the car is entering the straight. One final note: The Car Model is a 6-lane track but only the four center lanes were used for this race. With that said, the racing was very dispersed with about half the racers breaking the 100-lap total and a number of race positions being determined by sections. Taking the win was Dave “Skinny Tires” L. with 111 laps. Dave also had the lowest lap times for all 4-lanes and in doing so, the only racer to have sub-6 second lap times. As impressive as these numbers are, Flash took second place only 1 lap behind Dave with 110 laps. Rounding out the podium in third place was that infamous “bi” racer, Paul R. with 104 laps. Nice racing guys! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 10th were: 4th Steve N. 103 laps/19 sections (nice job Steve!), 5th Terry A. 103 laps/4 sections, 6th Donnie H. 102 laps/6 sections just beating out 7th place finisher Chief by ONE section with 102 laps/5 sections, 8th JoeRinn 100 laps/14 sections just beating out 9th place finisher rookie Brian W. by 3 sections 100 laps/11 sections, and in 10th Jim K. 99 laps. Some real close racing here. Congrats to all! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers along with best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Please note that the laps times are shown in 2 separate screen shots as this race was run in 2 groups. The fastest laps highlighted in green are for each group. You can compare the 2 screen shots for overall fastest laps. E-Fray on the Champion Combining high speed straights and an esses section with a tight 180+ degree downhill turn and scorpion tail before the main straight, the Champion track rewards fast, good handling cars, along with good driving skills. Racing was very tight at the top of the field with only 5 laps separating the top 5 positions and 11 laps separating the top 10 positions. Taking 1st place with 115 laps was Dave L. Less than a lap behind was Greg W. with 114 laps in 2nd. In 3rd was Donnie H. with 113 laps. Dave again led with best lap times for 3 of the 4 lanes while Greg W. had best lap time for the remaining lane. Rounding out the top half of the field was: 4th Flash 112 laps, 5th JoeRinn 110 laps, 6th Jimmy C. 108 laps/40 sections, 7th Paul R. 108 laps/22 sections, 8th Terry A. 107, 9th Tom G. 106 laps, and 10th Jim K. 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 Please note that the laps times are shown in 2 separate screen shots as this race was run in 2 groups. The fastest laps highlighted in green are for each group. You can compare the 2 screen shots for overall fastest laps. Note: Due to some technical issues, one heat of lap times was not recorded for 4 racers as denoted by the ‘0’ in the lap time column. Jalopies on the Bear After lunch we had 17 racers for the Jalopy race that would be run as one group. While a few of the racers had to leave, we picked up another racer, our 20th racer of the day. Peter Lentros arrived just in time for the start of the Jalopy race. It was really great to see Peter back racing with the ECO. The Jalopies, which are based on the ECO Indy class, but with a Jalopy body, offer some unique handling characteristics with their large diameter tires and a higher center of gravity. On the Bear track, that higher center of gravity can be a real challenge to manage. With 17 racers and only 20 laps separating the field when the race finished, the racing was very close and there we many positions determined by track sections. When the dust settled, the battle for first and second was determined by sections. It was Dave L. taking the checkered flag with 84 laps/ 36 sections. In 2nd was Flash with 84 laps/6 sections. Close racing gentlemen. 3rd place went to JoeRinn with 79 laps. Nice race JoeRinn! Once again Dave had fastest lap time in 3 of the 4 lanes and the only racer to record sub-8 second lap times. Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 9th were: 4th Hal P. (78 laps/19 sections) just missing his second career ECO podium finish, 5th Donnie H. (78 laps/9 sections), 6th Steve N. (77 laps), 7th Paul R. (76 laps/42 sections), 8th Greg W. (76 laps/32 sections), and 9th Jimmy C. (75 laps). Great racing all! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Please note that Chief’s name appears twice in the lap time listing. This was due to a technical issue. The second Chief name entry is actually racer Bob “Bobarrazi” Farnsworth. Checkered Flag With the first half of the season in the books, we are looking forward to the second half of the season. There was a lot of close racing, and as noted below, a lot of racers had a strong outing today. Looking across all of the results of today’s racing, it is great to see the very close racing and some of the “new” faces moving up in the positions. Notably Chief and Steve N. had some really strong races today. Also, Hal who got his first ever ECO podium finish last month, almost added a second podium finish today. It was great to see Donnie H. back on the podium again after a long hiatus due to his surgery last year. And JoeRinn’s long drive from his new home in Delaware paid off with a podium finish and some strong finishes. It was also great to see Peter racing. He turned a very respectable 72 laps in the Jalopy race. A tough heat in the yellow lane may have cost Peter as many as 5 or 6 positions in the race. But again, with all of the close racing, it doesn’t take much to drop back in the finishing order. None the less, I am sure I say this on behalf of all the ECO racers: “Welcome back Peter! We look forward to seeing you at the future ECO races!” Next month’s ECO race on February 15th, The Freezer, we’ll be running more skinny tires, Hobby Stock on the Tub, Magnatraction with IMSA bodies on the Boomerang, and Super Stock on the Champion. Don’t forget the East Coast Championship races, specifically Saturday February 1st if you too wish to become a “bi” racer.