May 19, 2024 | Jim Kostinden May 18, 2024 “Museum Madness” The tenth and final race event of the East Coast Outlaws 2024 season took place on May 18th at Lenjet Raceway in Ashland, MA. While the ECO has been averaging a strong 16-20 racers per event, this final race of the year drew 23 racers, the largest this season! The final race event of the year was scheduled to have 3 races: 1) Grand Nationals on the Model Car track, 2) Limited SS with NASCAR bodies on the BEAR, and 3) Coupes on the Tri-Oval. With such a large number of racers, there were a lot of “races within the race” among groups of racers with finishing positions determined by track sections. In addition, there was a new name on the podium of one of the races and the continuance of a breakout season for one of the racers by taking a victory in the Coupes race. Because of the large number of racers, they were broken up into two groups so that the Grand National and Limited SS races could be run simultaneously prior to lunch. The last race of the day, the Coupes on the Tri-Oval would be run as a single group in the afternoon. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in, Dave Lockwood conducted the drivers meeting. Dave started the meeting by acknowledging the large turnout of 23 racers for today’s racing event. Dave also recognized two of the original founding members of the ECO club, Rick H. and TJ, who were participating in today’s event. Rick H and TJ founded the ECO back in 2007. Dave also mentioned that this year’s Halloween Havoc will be held the 1st weekend of November. There is a Halloween Havoc Facebook page that contains all the latest information about this awesome event. On a personal note, I attended this race for the first-time last year and had a blast. I highly recommend that you attend. Just the swag alone was awesome and racing against some of the best t-jet racers in the country was a great learning experience. Dave also provided an update on the long sleeve ECO tee-shirts. The ECO logo is being “redesigned”. Once this design is done, the new tee-shirts will be printed. The tee-shirts are expected to be completed by the “second race” of the summer series. Steve provided some details about the upcoming IROC race he is hosting at Lenjet on June 1st. Basically all you have to do is show up with your controller. You’ll be racing IROC cars prepared by some of the best builders in the ECO. Doors open at 8am. Racing begins at 10am. Lunch is on your own. Paul Crosby mentioned his role in running the Lenjet “Candy Store” and that racers should provide Paul a list of any parts/items that they need and are out of stock in the store. Paul Ryer talked about the summer series. The schedule and information about the series has been posted on the ECO website. This years’ summer series will contain build sessions in the morning covering many topics on car building, tuning, and driving. Again, this information is provided on the ECO website. Best Appearing Congratulations to Matt G for winning Best Appearing with his #3 Coupe. Nice job Matt! On to the races… Grand National on the Car Model The historic Car Model track was used for the Grand National race. The orange fiberglass, tub like track that is 6-lanes wide is a relatively fast track with a large 180 degree steeply banked turn at one end leading into a series of the tightest turns on the track, a sharp 180 degree right turn followed by a short straight leading to a tight 180 degree left turn. The challenge with this part of the track is after exiting the 180 degree banked turn at full throttle, brakes are applied hard to slow down for the sharp right hand 180 degree turn. With long straights and relatively mid-size turns the rest of the track is fast but does require patience when exiting a turn as too much throttle too soon will result in a spin or off. Patience is also the word with 6 cars on the track, marshalling can be challenging, so it is wise to slow down or even stop if there are cars off in front of you that are being marshalled. Finishing in the top podium position with 174 laps was Flash driving a very solid race with his Superbird. Second was Dave L. with 169 laps. As mentioned earlier, there were many races within the race. In this case the battle for the final podium position between Greg W. and Jim K., went to Jim K(3rd) with 167 laps and 12 sections, also driving a Superbird, just nipping Greg W. (4th) with 167 laps and 3 sections. This was Jim K’s first podium appearance with the ECO this year. Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 5th thru 12th were JoeRinn (165laps), Cody (164 laps), Rick H (162 laps), Jimmy C (161 laps), Terry (159 laps), Matt (158 laps 19 sections), Paul R (158 laps 5 sections), and Paul C (158 laps 3 sections). A real battle for positions 10, 11, and 12. Great racing gentlemen! Limited SS with NASCAR Bodies on The Bear The other race held before lunch was the Limited SS with NASCAR bodies on The Bear. As most people know who have raced on The Bear, the name of the track is appropriate as it can be a bear to drive. With a large sweeping turn leading to a long straight that dives into a technical section of tight turns and elevation changes, and a series of squiggles, The Bear provides plenty of challenges to the racers as they navigate their way around the track. Navigating his way around the track most often and taking the win was Dave L with 102 laps. Dave’s car was very smooth and really hooked up well with the track. Not far behind in second was Cody with 100 laps. Rounding out the 3rd podium position was JoeRinn with 99 laps. With 22 racers competing in this race, rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 11th were: Flash (95 laps), Donnie (94 laps), Rick H (93 laps), Paul R (92 laps), Terry (91 laps – 46 sections), Greg W (91 laps – 22 sections), Jim K (90 laps), and Bruce (87 laps). Coupes on the Tri-Oval The Coupes are one of the ECO classes with the least restrictions. Rules are very liberal resulting in a variety of chassis builds. Typically, these cars put out a lot of power which can make them a challenge to drive on an oval track. Because of the less restricted build rules, there is a large variation in builds resulting in good handling cars, fast cars, and REALLY fast cars. This variation in speed among the cars and the open wheel design of the coupes creates challenging driving scenarios when passing opportunities arise. This can result in either a clean pass or tires touching resulting in multiple cars coming off the track. As has been the rule this season when running races on an oval course, there is no live marshalling. Instead, ECO uses the “off” method, where anytime a car comes off the track, a track call takes place and the driver is penalized one lap (deducted from the driver’s total lap count at the end of the race). A driver is allowed up to 3 offs per heat (aka “the bubble”), with the 4th off in a heat resulting in the driver parking their car for the remainder of the heat. So, the word of caution here is to not drive too aggressively and minimize your number of offs. With powerful cars and a 6-lane tri-oval, offs were very common. No drivers had a clean race (no offs) and only 2 drivers (Jimmy C and Jim K) had one off. With the race field down to 21 drivers for the final race of the day, it was our breakout driver from last month, Jimmy C, continuing to prove that the “Oh Jimmy” nickname is a thing of the past, with a consistent, fast, solid drive of 336 laps (337 laps minus 1 off) for first place. Second place was Paul R. who turned more laps than Jimmy C, 338 laps, but with 5 offs, finished with 333 laps. In the third podium position was Dave L, finishing with 328 laps. Finishing out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 11th were Flash with 325 laps, Greg W with 321 laps (Greg turned 334 laps but his 13 offs may have cost him a couple of positions), Jim K with 319 laps, Rick H with 309 laps, Chief with 309 laps, only 2 sections behind Rick H, Matt G with 308 laps, Hal with 308 laps, 6 sections behind Matt G., and JoeRinn with 306 laps. BTW, noting Greg W’s 13 offs, he was very lucky as it could have been 14 offs. During one of his heats, Greg’s car came in contact with a second car, resulting in both cars coming “off” (out of their slots). But amazingly, Greg’s car bounced off the outside wall of the turn and then landed back in the slot of his lane in the correct direction. “No off for you” Greg, but a 1 in a million chance. Hope you played the lottery on the way home. Congratulations to Jimmy C for another breakout win. A BIG congratulations to Chief for his 8th place finish and a solid race. Well done. Checkered Flag That wraps up a great racing season for the ECO. With a high turnout of racers at each event and getting back to the pre-COVID like schedule (50% of races held at Lenjet and 50% of races held at members home tracks), it was a very successful and fun racing season. Thank you to all of the members that hosted races this year. Your participation and dedication to hosting a race event at your home adds to the diversity and experience enjoyed by all of the racers. And finally, thank you to the ECO club officers. The untold hours and effort in organizing the race schedule, races, and just about everything else related to racing, enhances the experience enjoyed by all of the racers and is reflected in the increasing number of racers that show up to each event.