January 4, 2026 | Jim Kostinden January 3, 2025 “The New Year Challenge” Happy New Year!!! “The New Year Challenge” was an appropriate name for today’s race as it was a “challenge” to get out of bed this morning with temperatures hovering in the single digits for our NH racers, to low 20’s for our southern racers in CT and points south. Brrrr!!! With that said, 19 racers braved the cold temperatures to challenge the three races we would be holding: 1) Hobby Stock on the slippery Python track, 2) Jalopies on the charming Shamrock Glen track, and 3) E-Fray on the challenging Bear track. With 19 racers in attendance, we would break the racers up into two groups so that the Hobby Stock and Jalopy races could be run simultaneously. With a late race start for the first set of races, only half the Hobby Stock and half the Jalopy race was completed before lunch. After consuming pizza, the second half of the Hobby Stock and Jalopy races were completed before moving on to the final race, E-Fray on the Bear. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in were completed, Dave Lockwood lead the drivers meeting. Dave touched on several topics: Dave recognized and thanked those racers that arrive early to set up the tracks and get them ready for race day. Thank you to Matt G., Flash, and others. Thank you! Dave mentioned that we have had solid attendance so far this race season. At today’s race, Pit Stop made his first appearance of the year. It was great to see Pit Stop, who is recovering from rotator cuff surgery but was able to participate in two of the races. Also joining us for this first time was Hakim Harris. Hakim was a T-Jet racer back in the day but switched over to the dark side (force), i.e. magnet cars. Hopefully after racing T-Jets today, Hakim will join us for future races. As was mentioned at last month’s drivers’ meeting and capture in the race report, Dave reminded everyone of the upcoming East Coast Championships that runs from 1/30 through 2/1. If any ECO racers are interested in participating and need cars, please contact Paul Ryer. Dave mentioned that there are TFX parts and kits at the Lenjet store. There was then a discussion about the TFX guide pins and how often they break. Dave suggested a possible solution was to drill out a broken guide pin and insert a Bob Beers pin. There was also mention that the latest TFX guide pins being sold are not as “brittle” as the original guide pins. Dave suggested that we will continue to look at this issue and come up with a solution. As I mentioned in last month’s race report, it would probably be a good idea to bring spare guide pins, already trimmed to the correct length, when we race the TFX class. This will expedite replacement in the event your guide pin should break during a race. Our club treasurer, Jimmy Colligan, provided the club’s financial update. ECO has 25 paid (dues) members to date. A balance of $1409 was reported as of Jan 3rd. Closing out the meeting, Dave wanted to remind everyone to be alert when marshalling and to not get distracted with any side discussions that will impact your ability to quickly marshal a car. Best Appearing Best appearing award went to the Jalopy entry of Peter Lentros. Dave Lockwood provided the Jalopy car for Peter. Dave said he had pulled the body out of the spare parts bin and that it was hand painted. There are some nice detail paintings on the car including the pin striping. It definitely looks like a jalopy racer that would have run on one of the smaller oval tracks here in New England. Congratulations Peter (and Dave)! Here’s a picture of the winning car and Peter accepting the Best Appearing award from Dave. On to the races… Hobby Stock on the Python This was the second Hobby Stock class race of the season, after running the first race last month. Running these skinny tires on the Python track with its slithering esses at both ends of the track can present a real challenge to the racers. With its long main straight and relatively wide radius turns (except for the inside lane of those esses), the track will reward a car that has some speed. Ultimately, it comes down to the driver, and his ability to drive through the challenging sections of the track. With that said, the field of 19 racers was separated by 19 laps, with several groups of racers finishing on the same lap, thus having their final finish order determined by the number of sections completed on that lap. Taking the win was Flash with an impressive 77 laps. Flash also had fastest overall lap time (white lane) and fastest lap time in 3 of the 4 lanes. Dave “Skinny Tires” L. was able to slither around the track and complete 74 laps for 2nd place. Dave also had the fastest lap time in the red lane. The battle for the final podium position was determined by ONE section, with JoeRinn taking 3rd completing 71 laps/17 sections to Jim K.’s (4th) 71 laps/16 sections. Congrats to the podium finishers! Nice racing guys! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 5th thru 10th were: 4 racers finishing on the same lap, 70, resulting in a tie for 7th: 5th Matt G. 70 laps/48 sections, 6th Greg W. 70 laps/38 sections, and a tie for 7th between the two Peters, Peter Lentros and Peter Halgren, who both completed 70 laps/10 sections. Congratulations to the Peters who had an outstanding race. In 9th Jimmy C. with 69 laps, and 10th came down to a battle between Pit Stop and Joe E. who both completed 67 laps but Pit Stop took the 10th spot by completing 52 sections to Joe’s 13 sections. Great close racing! 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 The fastest laps for each lane are highlighted in green. Note: we had some issues with the race computer resulting in missing lap time data for one heat. This is denoted by the *. Here are pictures of the podium finishers and their cars. Hobby Stock Podium Finishers (left to right): Flash 1st, Dave L. 2nd, JoeRinn 3rd Hobby Stock Podium Cars (left to right) 1st Daytona Cobra, 2nd Porsche 904, 3rd Porsche 904 Jalopies on the Shamrock Glen Once again, the racers would try their luck on the charming Shamrock Glen with the Indy class-based Jalopies. These cars have one of the highest centers of gravity of all the ECO classes, so it can be a handful driving these cars on a technical track like the Shamrock Glen. As with the Hobby Stock race, the top 16 of 18 racers were separated by 16 laps. All of the podium positions were determined by lap sections with the battle for the third and final podium position taking place among 3 racers. When the dust settled it was Flash taking 1st place completing 76 laps/59 sections. Dave took 2nd finishing a half lap behind Flash, also completing 76 laps, but with only 18 sections. The real battle was for the final podium spot between JoeRinn, Brian W. and Peter Lentros. All 3 racers completed 71 laps, however, once again it was JoeRinn taking 3rd with 71 laps/55 sections, Brian W. 4th with 71 laps/39 sections, and Peter L. 5th with 71 laps/23 sections. Great racing gentlemen! Rounding out the remaining top half of the field, 6th thru 9th: was: 6th Greg W. 70 laps, another battle for 7th with 2 racers finishing on the same lap and only ONE section separating them: 7th Terry A. 69 laps/40 sections, 8th Jim K. 69 laps/39sections, and in 9th Chief with 68 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 The fastest laps are highlighted in green for each lane. Here are pictures of the podium finishers and their cars. Jalopy Podium Finishers (left to right): Flash 1st, Dave L. 2nd, JoeRinn 3rd Jalopy Podium Cars (left to right) 1st Willys, 2nd Lincoln, 3rd Willys E-Fray on the Bear So the big question going into the final race: Could Flash make it another three-peat? Spoiler alert, he could not. He was even challenged for taking the 2nd podium position in the final race. With 17 racers in this event, the racing wasn’t quite as close as the other 2 races but there were still some good battles for a number of finishing positions. Running away with the victory was Dave L. turning an astonishing 111 laps! Dave topped this off by turning the fastest laps in all 4 lanes! Great race Dave! There was a good battle for second place between Flash and Jim K. with both racers competing head-to-head in the last 3 heats of the race. When the checkered flag finally dropped, it was Flash taking 2nd place with 104 laps and Jim K. in 3rd with 103 laps. Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 9th were: 4th Matt G. 101 laps, 5th Joe E. 99 laps (just missed the 100 club!), 6th and 7th was a battle of the Jims with Jimmy Mac taking 6th with 98 laps/49 sections, and 7th Jimmy C with 98 laps/35 sections. 8th and 9th was also a battle between Greg W. and Peter L. with Greg W. taking 8th with 97 laps/13 sections and Peter L. 9th with 97 laps/4 sections. Great racing all! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times The fastest laps are highlighted in green for each lane Here are pictures of the podium finishers and their cars. E-Fray Podium Finishers (left to right): Jim K. 3rd, Flash 2nd, Dave L. 1st E-Fray Podium Cars (left to right) 1st Lamborghini, 2nd McLaren, 3rd Corvette C8 Checkered Flag This is the first ECO race of 2026 which marks the mid-point of the season. 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 today. As I have mentioned before, all of the racers are improving, resulting in very close racing. I’d like to mention a few of these racers that had some very good finishes today: Pete Halgren had a very strong finish in Hobby Stock. I raced in some of the same heats as Pete and his car was fast. Congratulations Pete for some great racing and your solid finish. The other Pete, Peter Lentros. It is always great to see Peter at the ECO events. At today’s race it is apparent that Peter is getting his groove back. 7th in Hobby Stock, 5th in Jalopy, and 9th in E-Fray are all very good finishes. And let’s not forget Best Appearing! Nice racing Peter! Brian W. is in his sophomore year of racing with the ECO and he has come so close to getting on the podium. In the Jalopy race, Brian just missed the last podium position by sections. Hang in there Brian, your ECO podium plaque is waiting for you. Chief has had some solid races and is consistently improving his race finish positions. Keep at it Chief! Joe Rinn had a great race day, taking 3rd place in two of the races. Looks like those long drives from Delaware are paying off. Congrats Joe! And of course Matt G., who is having a break out year, but struggled with car troubles today in the Jalopy race. So our next race is only in a few weeks. I’ll be hosting at the 2 tracks at my house. I’ll also host a test & tune the Saturday before the race on Jan 17th from 10am to 4pm. I’ll send out more info on the ECO Facebook page. Our next race will be the “The Blizzard Beat Down” on January 24th. We’ll be racing Indy on the Viper, TFX Muscle Cars on the Max Trax, and Magnatraction (Sports Prototype) on the Max Trax. Note that the Viper track is a 3-lane track so we will be racing 4-minute heats in each lane to equal our normal 12-minute races. Stay warm and I hope to see you at the test & tune and our next race!