June 1, 2025 | Jim Kostinden May 31, 2025 “Museum Madness” Wow!! Time flies when you are having fun. The last race of the ECO 2024-2025 season took place at the fantabulous Lenjet Raceway in Ashland. MA. With 13 racers in attendance, including Peter Lentros who participated in 2 of the 3 races, the racers were ready to do battle for the last time this season on the Bowman Champion track running Coupes, the historic Car Model track racing Grand Nationals, and wrapping up the final race of the season on the Max Trax Bear with E-Frays. While ECO typically runs its 3 races in progression from slowest class to fastest class, to better accommodate Peter Lentros’ schedule, we would be running the fastest class first, Coupes on the Bowman Champion track. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in were completed, Dave Lockwood kicked off the drivers meeting. Dave began the meeting by thanking the club members for helping out over the past year (setting up the tracks, setting up the computers, etc.). Dave mentioned that this year was another good year for ECO. On a side note: I will be doing a final year end report in the coming weeks that will review attendance and race statistics. A brief update on our club Treasurer, Jimmy “Oh Jimmy” Colligan, was provided by Jim K. as a number of club members were asking how Jimmy was doing. Jimmy had hip replacement surgery a couple of weeks ago. In email correspondence with Jimmy a few days after his surgery, he said the surgery went well and that he is doing well with his recovery. On behalf of all the ECO members, I want to wish Jimmy a speedy, healthy recovery, and that we look forward to racing against “Oh Jimmy Version 2.0” next season, if not sooner. God speed Jimmy! Our rookie racer (of the year?), Brian W., then took the floor to present the idea of holding a team race (ECO member and a newbie) to introduce new racers to the club by hosting this team race event, using IROC cars, later this summer or fall. A show of hands by the ECO members in attendance showed a vast majority supported the idea. Brian and Jim K. will begin working on the details and will discuss again during the summer series. As a follow up to Brian’s idea, Dave suggested that we may want to change up the race format of some of the ECO races which are all based on time and distance, to hosting some races using a shoot out format, or race with teams. Dave suggested we continue this discussion at the annual rules meeting held during the July summer session race (on July 12th). Another lengthy discussion came up with regards to the club’s funds and donating the proceeds. Most of this discussion was around how to do this in a way that also benefits the club versus simply writing a check to some charity. One idea was to set up the Rolling O at a public venue related to a charity, or even a car dealership, to get some exposure for the club. Dave recommended thinking about ideas and to be prepared to discuss at the annual rules meeting With the driver’s meeting running longer than usual, a brief treasury report was provided by Jim K (filling in for Jimmy C.) showing the club had $1550 in reserves. Best Appearing After his 3-peat best appearing streak was broken at the last ECO event, Terry A. came back to reclaim another best appearance award with his very clean-looking Coupe that was sponsored by the Ralph Spoilsport Raceway. Terry mentioned that the exhaust headers/pipes were made from electrical shrink tubing. Cool! Nice job Terry! Terry’s Coupe – Best Appearing Terry receiving the award from Dave On to the races… Coupes The ECO Coupes class is the ECO’s “open” class with the fewest build restrictions. These cars are fast and are designed to run on an oval raceway. Unfortunately, due to schedule issues, the Rolling O track (an 8’ long oval) was unable to be delivered to the Lenjet Raceway in time for today’s race. Instead, we would run the Coupes on a road course, the Bowman Champion track which is a fast rhythm track. Given that this was the first time in several years that we would be running Coupes on a road course and to add to this challenge, this would be the first class run for the day, ECO’s fastest class, this race was bound to be very exciting. With 12 racers participating in this race, the spread between 1st place and 12th place was about 42 laps, proving that this race was a challenge to the racers. Staying on the track was key and just turning laps was important to place well in this race. When the roar of the Coupes’ engines died down and the race computer finally announced, “race over”, it was Dave L. taking the win with 106 laps. In 2nd, 5 laps back was Flash with 101 laps. The final podium spot, 3rd place, went to Jim K. with 99 laps. Rounding out the remaining top half of the field, positions 4th thru 6th were: 4th Greg W. 96 laps/36 section, 5th Matt G. 96 laps/9 sections (a close battle for 4th spot), and in 6th Terry 89 laps. Looking at lap times, Dave L. and Greg W. split the fastest laps. Congratulations to all for a great race! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) for the drivers and best lap times. Race Results Lap Times Here are pictures of the podium cars and racers. Podium Coupes (L to R): 1st Place Dave L, 2nd Place Flash, 3rd Place Jim K. Podium Coupes Drivers (L to R): 1st Dave L, 2nd Flash, 3rd Jim K. Grand National After lunch, the 2nd race of the day took place on the historic Car Model track with the ECO Grand National cars. While the Car Model track is a 6-lane track, it was decided we would only race using the inner 4-lanes. With 13 racers participating in this race, the racing was a little tighter than the previous Coupes race with 10 of the 13 racers turning 100 laps or more. While Flash ran away with the win, turning 122 laps, the battle for second place was close between Dave L. and Jim K. Jim K. eked out a 2nd place finish, turning 117 laps. Just less than a lap behind was Dave L. with 116 laps Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 7th were: 4th Chief. with 113 laps (Great race Chief! I believe this is Chief’s highest finish!), 5th Greg W. 110 laps, 6th Terry 107 laps, and 7th Peter L. 106 laps (Great race Peter!). Flash turned fastest lap time overall with a 5.638 lap in blue and fastest lap in 3 of the 4 lanes. Dave L. took fastest lap in the remaining (white) lane. 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 Here are pictures of the podium cars and racers. Please note Chevy fan Dave L. was racing a Ford Torino. Perhaps that explains the startled expression on Dave’s face in the podium picture below… he just realized he was running a Ford. 🙂 Podium GN (L to R): 1st Place Flash Ford Torino, 2nd Place Jim K. Plymouth Superbird, 3rd Place Dave L. Ford Torino Podium GN Drivers (L to R): 3rd Dave L., 1st Flash, 2nd Jim K. E-Fray For the last race of the ECO 2024-2025 season, we would be running E-Fray cars on the Bear track. With 13 racers participating, the top 5 racers were able to break into the “100 club”, turning 100 or more laps in the race. After the final checkered flag fell for the season, it was Dave L. taking the win with112 laps. In 2nd place was Flash with107 laps. In 3rd was Matt G. who drove a phenomenal race turning 105 laps. Congratulations Matt on your well deserved Podium finish! Rounding out the top half of the field, positions 4th thru 7th: 4th Greg W. 104 laps, 5th Jim K. 101 laps, 6th Terry 99 laps, and 7th Chief 97 laps. 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 are pictures of the podium cars and racers. Podium EFray (L to R): 1st Place Dave L., 2nd Place Flash Mercedes CLK, 3rd Place Matt G. Podium EFray Drivers (L to R): 1st Dave L., 2nd Flash, 3rd Matt G. Checkered Flag Overall, it was a great race day and a great way to wrap up the season. As has been previously mentioned, the competition among the drivers keeps getting better. This race proved that point with Matt G. taking the 3rd place podium finish in E-Fray and Chief just missing a podium finish in Grand National. Also of mention is Pete H.’s 9th place finish in the Coupes race. Nice race Pete. On behalf of the club officers, I would like to thank all the racers for showing up to the race events and participating in and helping out (setting up tracks, closing down tracks, setting up the computers, running the computers, etc.). It is these little things that help the club to be successful. Not to mention the camaraderie and good competition amongst the club members. Finally, it was great to see Peter Lentros participate in 2 of the races today. Pete looked right at home on the Car Model track turning some impressive lap times and finishing a strong 7th place. Most importantly, on behalf of all the ECO members, I would like to thank Peter for his continued passion and support of slot car racing, and providing the fantabulous Lenjet racing venue. Thank you Peter and we look forward to seeing you at more ECO races next season! Hope to see everyone at the summer series and don’t forget to sign up for the Halloween Havoc if you have not done so. That’s a wrap! Have a great summer and see you next season!