Cheech and Chong are best known for influential counter-culture activities and the adage “Up in Smoke”.  Well, not that Greg W’s too much into the counter-culture scene, but his claim to fame forever now will be seeing his Can-Am racer with a vintage AFX M/T chassis go “up in smoke” on the final lane of his rotation during Sunday’s East Coast HO Outlaws Clubs first event of the 2015-16 racing season, the Lockwood 500 held at the Rapid Raceway in Plainville,CT.   17 racers were in attendance

The club would like to give Best Wishes and Bon Voyage to Russ Upton and his totally awesome Mom as they head west to AZ for the good life. Russ and his Mom will be missed and remembered fondly by many sloters around New England.

Dave Lockwood did a great job of bringing northward his infamous DBL Raceway road course for the event, probably hoping he’d win the Indy race,but alas, was not to be.  Making his mark for the first time this season was Greg B in Victory Lane with 113 laps. Dave drove well but was a lap plus short with 111 and 26 sections for second place. AZ Cardinals fan now Russ Upton waltzed into third place 110 laps and 27 sections. 4th was Flash with 110 and 5th was Rick H.with 108 laps.

Next up were ECHORR SS cars to be tested on Dave’s DBL Raceway.  Once again, some very strong cars are showing up in preparation for next months ECHORR Challenge at LenJet Raceway,Oct 9-11th.  This one Dave did show us he’s got it in the bag by running 141 laps to take the victory.  Second podium spot for the day went to Greg B with a good run of 139 laps and 16 sections. Third place, Greg “Smoke”W’ski, ran 132 laps and 27 sections. 4th and 5th was a tie between Ryer and Hoar, but Hoar being the “bigger man”, gave up the 4th place spot and he took 5th.

We finished out day with our Magnatraction, Formally fairgrounds,  class with something different for bodies this time. Vintage and stock AFX Can-Am open cockpit cars, wings and all.  Can’t say for sure if it was Paul Ryer who suggested this idea, but he made the most of it and slapped down the victory by running 145 laps. Two laps behind were Flash and Rick H. tied for second with 143 laps and 16 sections.  Now that is close racing!  4 & 5th were Jimmy C with 140 then 5th was Phil H. with 139 laps and 5 sections. Greg W. had the field pretty much 4 laps down as he started the final lane rotation but with about a minute left in his heat, his armature and brushes did their Cheech and Chong imitation and was removed from the track before it looked like Juan Pablo-Montoya’s NASCAR vs jet dryer fireball.

Great racing again and a reminder that Sept 20th is the Summer Series Finale at Greg B’s track in Longmeadow,MA. The more racers the better as we prepare for the epic event here on the east coast next month, The ECHORR Challenge.