September 27, 2017 | Jim Hoar Outlaws 2017-2018 racing season starts off on a happy note but ended kindof glum once we all heard about the tragic death of Ted Christopher, New England Modified Champion and friend of the Mottola’s, who died following the crash of a small airplane very near where we were having our race at Rapid Raceway in Plainville,CT. Kindof illustrates how little control we often have in our destinys but our legacy will last forever. Our racing event was held thanks to the portable DBL Raceway that Dave Lockwood brings every year up to Rapid Raceways spare back party room and we have yet to drop it as we move it into location!! 9 racers from the Outlaws and quest race Dawn Raducha joined in the frackus we call HO slotcar racing. Guess everyone is saving up their energy for next months Grill’n-N-Chill’n spectacular event up in Maine which is always super fun. The Best Appearing Car Award went to car owner Greg W’ski who showed up with a Charlie Glotzback #99 Dow Charger Daytona painted up by guru Pat Dube earlier this year. Mario Bosse one a award at Modelville last year with the twin to that car so it must be a real work of art. Racing kicked off with the Grand Nationals class. Close racing resulted in there being only a 10 lap difference in total laps for the top 6 cars. Making it look both fun and easy was Dave “The Flash” who ended up winning with 104 laps followed by Dave L with 102 and Steve N.with 99 for Third Place. Rudy and Jim tied with 98 laps but Rudy had a almost full lap advantage to take 4th and Jim 5th. Sixth place was Honest Ole’ Bill C.with 94 laps and 7th was Greg W.with 91 laps only because he gave up a ton of laps to help out Dawn get her car up to race condition. Cooperation is way better than Competition Folks, remember that. Paul M and Rick M are so much alike they each got 87 laps with Paul having a edge over Rick on this race and 10th was Dawn R.giving it her all and doing very well I might add. A pizza-fest was always the way to try to slow down us aging juvenile delinquents with our vintage slot cars but we wanted to race the Limited SS Class next and throw some NASCAR style bodies on them for kicks n’giggles this year. Tight racing with some of these wide bodied Life-Like converted bodies insured that more than a few paint colors were left on Dave’s outside turn walls. The Flashantor gets the top spot two times in a row by running 131 laps and second, again…was Dave L.with 129 laps. Third this time went to 515 Teammate Greg W.with 124 laps. Rick M came out better this race by taking 4th place with 119 laps followed by Maineiac Hoar with 117 laps. 6th place was Rudy with 114 followed by Steve N. with 114 also. 8th was Paul M.with 105, 9th was Dawn with 104 and 10th was Bill C. crashed out Lee Roy Yarborough Ford with 99 laps. In the now infamous words spoken by Dave L.prior to the beginning of the Magna-Traction AFX race, “This is going to SUCK”, was just a precursor of the fun we all had racing these little magnet rockets on a track mostly run with T-Jet cars. A more appropriate comment may have been, “This is going to SUCK, BUT be a blast and a ton of FUN”, because it was. Seeing lots of winged Can-Am cars snap through sharp turns and then roar by the front stretch was a total BLAST. Guess who won? Yup, Flash did the days podium sweep by running 149 laps followed by Dave L…again,,,who ran 148 laps. Third place was Rick M with a impressive 139 laps. 4th was Steve N.with 138 laps followed by Greg W with 135. Dawn R.showed some vast improvement by staying in the groove and getting 116 laps for 6th place. Seventh was Jim Hoar with a close 115 laps then 8th was Bill C with 113 laps. Rudy U.was keeping up and having a blast all the way to his 9th place 103 lap total followed up by Paul M “I’m just here cuz it’s fun” who finished with 92 laps. Our most sincere and heartfelt sympathy goes out to Greg and Lisa W’ski at the recent death of Greg’s dad last week. We know he was a very decent guy to turn out all the special W’ski children including Greg. Get yourself ready for some Maine hospitality in two weeks up at the mega Sebago HO Raceways center cuz on Oct.7th the Grill’n-N-Chill’n marks it’s 10th year anniversary as a landmark HO racing event. Oval track racing at it’s finest on the original King of Dirt narrow corner spacing Oval and New Englands Monster road course with a 24ft long backstretch. Doors open at 8 am on Sat.and earlier Fri.PM for anyone wanting to enjoy a easier to travel weekend. 2 spare bedrooms plus 2 bed downstairs plus a bed in the RV means there’s lots of comfy area for full weekend visitors.