March 15, 2026 | Jim Kostinden March 14, 2026 “New Hampshire Dreamin’” With spring only a week away, many of the racers were surprised by the sight of snow as they crossed over the New Hampshire border on their way to the 8th ECO race event of the 2025-2026 season, hosted by Terry Ayer at his Ralph Spoilsport Speedway in Windham, NH. 15 racers showed up on the snow-covered roads of Windham, NH to participate in the 3 races: SS Fray on the Ralph Spoilsport Speedway road course, IROC Jalopies on the Ralph Spoilsport Speedway oval, and Coupes also on the oval. The Ralph Spoilsport Speedway is a Max Trax routed track that can be configured as a large oval or a challenging road course, with the infamous “squiggles” section. During lunch, the track would be reconfigured to the oval course where the second race consisting of IROC Jalopies prepared by our host, Terry, and the third race, Coupes would be run in the afternoon. Drivers Meeting After SS Fray practice on the road course, tech and sign-in were completed, Dave Lockwood kicked off the drivers meeting. Dave started the meeting by thanking Terry Ayer for hosting today’s race event. Terry received a warm round of applause from all the racers. Dave stated his appreciation to everyone that helped in the last race (Dave was out at the Fray race) and how proud he is of how smoothly the club runs because of the folks that step up and help out or fill in. One of the club officers, Paul Ryer, was not in attendance. Paul has been sick the past week and is in the hospital. In a text to Paul today during the race, Paul responded that he was expecting to be released from the hospital tomorrow. When you have a moment, please reach out to Paul. On behalf of all the ECO members, we wish Paul a full and speedy recovery and hope to see him at next month’s ECO race. Dave mentioned ECO racer, Pete Halgren’s son, Patrick Halgren, won a silver medal in the 2026 Paralympics Downhill ski event representing the USA. Congratulations to Patrick, and a very proud dad, Pete! Dave talked about parts and tools that are for sale: As was mentioned in last month’s report, Peter Lentros purchased a large quantity of new, original Aurora T-jet chassis. These are still for sale at $35 each or 4 for $100. Dave has tools and scales for sale. John Pileggi, who was in attendance for today’s race, sells an excellent down force scale, magnet meter, and small dyno. There was some discussion about rules in regard to best appearing cars eligibility. This discussion was tabled for the annual rules meeting in July. Our club treasurer, Jimmy Colligan, provided the club’s financial update. A balance of $1580 was reported. Dave closed out the meeting by providing the members with the results of the Fray race. The Wizzard team, which Dave was a member of, won the Team IROC event using Greg W’s Havoc IROC buses. Three of the racers from the Wizzard team finished in the top 10 individual, including Dave who finished 9th. The Wizzard team finally beat the St. Louis team, however they still finished 2nd overall. Dave was the 4th fastest qualifier! Congratulations to Dave and the entire Wizzard team for their outstanding accomplishments at this year’s Fray. Best Appearing Our host, Terry, won the Best Appearing award with his very detailed Coupe. The voting for the best appearing was very close resulting in a tie breaker vote that gave Terry’s coupe the award over a very nicely painted Coupe by Chief. Congratulations Terry! Here’s Terry receiving his award from Dave. On to the races… SS Fray on the Ralph Spoilsport Speedway Road Course With its large sweeping 24” radius flat turns at either end, and the “squiggles” sections in the infield, the Ralph Spoilsport road course is ideal for Fray cars as it requires a combination of speed and good handling to place well on this track. With that said, the racing was very close with a number of race positions determined by track sections After the dust settled over the road course, it was Dave L. taking 1st place with a decisive 5 lap lead, turning 129 laps. Dave would also turn fastest lap in 3 of the 4 lanes and the fastest overall lap at 5.124 seconds in the white lane. Nice race Dave! It was a battle for 2nd between Jim K. and Flash with both racers completing 124 laps, but it was Jim taking the 2nd position finishing just 21 sections ahead of Flash, who would take the 3rd podium spot. Flash had some tuff racing luck in his first heat in the white lane that set him back in this race, though he drove hard in his remaining heats to make a good run at second place. Rounding out the top half of the field: 4th Terry A. with 119 laps, 5th Brian W. with 118 laps, 6th John P. with 117 laps, and a battle for 7th, 8th, and 9th with all 3 racers finishing on the same lap, it was 7th Matt G. 116 laps/54 sections, 8th Greg W. 116 laps/8 sections, and 9th Chief 116 laps/1 section. Great racing everyone! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times With all of the close racing, I only got pictures of the podium racers. Sorry no pictures of the podium cars. SS Fray Podium Racers (left to right): Dave L. 1st, Flash 3rd, Jim K. 2nd IROC Jalopies on the Ralph Spoilsport Oval Course With the first race of the day under our belts, it was time to put some food in our bellies. As has been the case in the past, our gracious host, Terry, always prepares a delicious lunch for the racers. This year, Mrs. Terry A. prepared a delicious bowl of chili along with homemade peanut butter cookies. Yummy! A big thank you to Terry and Mrs. Terry for a delicious lunch! As the racers chowed down on the most excellent lunch prepared by chief Mrs. Terry, the Ralph Spoilsport Speedway was transformed into the oval course configuration, for the final two races of the day. With the track configured to the oval course, a brief period of time was set aside for drivers to practice and setup their cars for the oval course before the start of the 2nd race. Terry prepared a beautiful set of IROC Jalopies for this second race of the day. The cars basically follow the ECO Indy/Jalopy class with the exception that Terry added stronger magnets to the IROC cars to provide more torque. Like Mrs. Terry’s chili, these cars were mild to drive, but fun to race. As expected with an IROC set of cars and a great group of racers, the racing was very close with only 16 laps separating the entire 15 driver field! The race was so close that the podium positions, specifically 1st place, were not decided until the last heat. Also, looking at the lap times, four different drivers had best lap times. Going into the last heat of the race, Flash and Chief were tied with 146 laps through their first 3 heats. This final height was to decide the overall winner of the race! When the checkered flag fell, it was Flash who turned 3 more laps than Chief to take the win with 198 laps, to Chief’s second place finish with 195 laps. This was Chief’s second podium finish in the ECO and his second podium finish in back-to-back ECO events. Congratulations to Flash and Chief for a great race! Taking the final podium position, 3rd, was our host, Terry A., who had already completed his race prior to the final heat and was leading with 195 laps. However, Terry would fall back to third finishing on the same lap as Chief but 13 sections behind. Nice race Terry! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 8th was: 4th John P. with 194 laps, 5th Jim K. 192 laps, a close battle for 6th and 7th between Jimmy C. and Matt G. resulting in 6th Jimmy C. 190 laps/69 sections, 7th Matt G. 190 laps/40 sections, and 8th Brian W. 189 laps. Again, great racing everyone! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here’s a picture of the podium racers. IROC Jalopy Podium Racers (left to right): Chief 2nd, Flash 1st, Terry 3rd Coupes on the Ralph Spoilsport Oval Course Coupes are one of the fastest classes in the ECO. We typically run this class on oval tracks. Recently, the oval tracks these Coupes have been run on are short (8 foot length), resulting in a car that is way over powered for the track, resulting in a car that can be a handful to drive. This would be the first time running the Coupes on the Ralph Spoilsport Oval, and it was a race most people were excited about. With its 16 feet straights and large sweeping 24-inch radius turns at both ends, the Ralph Spoilsport Oval would really allow the Coupes to stretch their legs and utilize their higher horsepower on a high-speed oval. The Coupes class is one of the most “open” classes in the ECO, with minimal rules and specifications as to how you can build a car. With such an open class, the race results show this large variation in car builds with almost 100 laps separating the field! When the final checkered flag fell for the day, it was Dave L. with another commanding lead, 24 laps, to take the win turning 269 laps. Dave also had fastest time in 3 of the 4 lanes with the fastest overall lap in the yellow lane at 2.404 seconds. Great race Dave! Jim K. was able to sneak into 2nd place by turning one more lap in the final heat of the day, finishing with 245 laps. In 3rd, and taking his first podium finish in an ECO race was John Esposito who completed 244 laps. Congratulations John on your first podium finish and an outstanding driving effort. Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 7th: 4th Flash 242 laps, 5th Matt G. 239 laps, a battle for 6th and 7th between Terry and Jimmy C. with Terry just beating Jimmy by TWO sections: 6th Terry 233 laps/6 sections, 7th Jimmy C. 233 laps/4 sections Again, congratulations to everyone for some exciting racing! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here is a picture of the podium racers. Again, sorry I did not take any pictures of the winning cars. Coupes Podium Racers (left to right): Dave L. 1st, John E. 3rd, Jim K. 2nd Not sure if Espo looks unhappy because Jim K. beat him out by one lap, or because our host Terry did not have soft serve ice cream for dessert. 😉 Checkered Flag Again, on behalf of all the ECO racers, I would like to thank our gracious host Terry for an outstanding event and Mrs. Terry for the delicious chili! It was great to see one of our new ECO racers, Phil Petroska, at the race. Phil drove all the way from Maine to race today and was headed to a HOCOC race in Connecticut on Sunday. Great to see you Phil and good luck in the HOCOC race. It was also great to see John Pileggi at today’s race. John is a true gentlemen and great racer who typically races with the magnet clubs. John, thank you for coming today! And a big THANK YOU to Terry for retrieving the race results from his PC for the IROC race after we accidentally thought we had lost them due to a technical issue after the race had ended. A BIG congratulations to John Esposito for his first ECO podium finish. Great race John! Also, congratulations to Chief for his second ECO podium finish in his second in a row ECO race event. Will Chief threepeat and take home another ECO podium plaque in April’s ECO event? Speaking of the next ECO race event, Paul Ryer is scheduled to host the “Up in Smoke” April ECO event on April 18th at his South Shore Speedway in Hingham, MA. We’ll be running Grand National, E-Fray, and Magnatraction with Fairgrounds body. Given Paul’s illness this past week, please watch for any schedule changes on the website or FB pages in the event Paul is unable to host. Again, on behalf of the ECO members, we wish Paul a full and speedy recovery and hope to see him at the next ECO event (hopefully hosting). Happy St. Patrick’s Day!