September 22, 2024 | Jim Kostinden September 21, 2024 “Showdown at Silvermine” The first race event of the East Coast Outlaws 2024-2025 season took place on September 21st at Dave Lockwood’s place in Norwalk, CT. This event kicks off the 17th season for the East Coast Outlaws. Happy 17th birthday!! This first race event of the year was scheduled to have 3 races: 1) Grand Nationals on the DBL raceway, 2) E-Fray with Trans Am bodies on the Wizz track, and 3) Magnatraction with Can Am bodies back over on the DBL raceway. Turnout was little bit below the average of last year’s races, but still a good turnout with 13 racers arriving in Norwalk, CT on a beautiful late summer/early fall day. Even with 13 racers there was a lot of close racing action with some new faces at or near podium finishes. Drivers Meeting After practice, tech and sign-in, Dave Lockwood conducted the drivers meeting. Dave started the meeting by saying it was good to be back and is looking forward to a good year. I think Dave’s statement reflected the thoughts and feelings of all the racers. Dave provided a brief update on Peter Lentros and said that Peter’s goal is to attend the October ECO race. I know I speak on behalf of all the ECO members in that we REALLY look forward to seeing Peter! Let’s get a big turn out for the October race to welcome Peter back! Being this was the first race of the season the driver’s meeting was relatively brief. Besides the club’s financial update by Treasurer Jimmy Colligan, Dave closed out the meeting by mentioning the upcoming Halloween Havoc event in early November and the tracks that will be raced on are posted on the ECO’s Halloween Havoc web page. Best Appearing Best appearing award went to Jim Kostinden’s Mclaren #4 M6B Can Am car. The car was cosmetically modified using the Aurora AFX Ferrari Can Am body by reducing the number of engine intake ports from the 12 used on the Ferrari 12-cyclinder engine down to eight for the Chevy V8 used by McLaren. Also, push pins were modified to represent rear view mirrors. Congratulations Jim on a nice job! Jim also wanted to mention, specifically to Paul Ryer, that the paint color used was “Pumpkin Spice” orange On to the races… Grand National on the DBL Raceway The DBL Raceway was designed to be a portable layout, but now resides in its permanent location at Dave’s place. The track is a challenging 4-lane Max Track that includes an elevated crossover with a tight 180 degree turn at the end of the downhill straight coming off the elevated portion of the crossover. This is the most challenging portion of the track as it is very easy to carry too much speed into this turn when coming down the downhill straight. This was even more challenging since the DBL Raceway was not wired for brakes. However, this year, for the first time, the DBL Raceway was upgraded with wiring for brakes, so while the track was just as challenging, there was some comfort for the racers knowing that the brake setting on their controllers could now be used. Another update to the DBL track was the addition of trays, that were custom built by Terry Ayer for each of the drivers stations. Nice work Terry! Finally, the connections for the controller leads at each driver station were changed from the semi-hidden vertical connections drilled into the side of the track faceplate to the more typical exposed “bolt” leads, making it easier for us older racers to not have to bend over so much when connecting their controllers. 😊 Racing was relatively close among the 13 racers with the top half of the field finishing within 10 laps of the race winner. Many positions were separated only by a lap and in the case of a few positions, by sections. The battle for first place was very close with the winner determined by sections. Taking the top podium position with 109 laps 20 sections was Flash driving a very solid race with his Superbird. Second was Dave L. with 109 laps 1 section finishing only 19 sections behind Flash. Both Flash and Dave shared fastest lap times with Dave holding the fastest lap times in the white lane at 6.175 seconds and the Yellow lane at 6.177 seconds. Flash had the fastest lap time in the red lane at 6.251 seconds and in the blue lane at 6.050 seconds, which was also the fastest lap time of the race. Nice racing gentlemen. The final podium spot went to relative podium-newcomer, Jim K., taking third with 104 laps driving the Richard Petty Ford Torino. Interesting note, in the last Grand National race held in the final race last season on the Car Model track, the same 3 racers finished in the same 3 positions. As mentioned earlier, there were some new faces appearing at or near podium positions. Brian Wotton, who started attending ECO races during the latter third of last season, and who is now officially in his rookie season, took 4th place in the race, cranking out 103 laps, only a lap off the 3rd place podium position. Nice work Brian and congratulations on a great race. I think it is just a matter of time before we see Brian on the podium. Five and sixth positions were the closest race positions, only being separated by ONE section. Paul R. took 5th spot with 102 laps 17 sections with Greg W. breathing down Paul’s neck, completing 102 laps 16 sections. Great racing gentlemen. Maybe staying away from pumpkin spice has to do something with this finishing order?? Rounding out the top half of the field was Terry A., who turned 98 laps on his way to a 7th spot finish. Great racing by everyone! It was a great way to kick off the first race of the season! Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) along with best lap times for each racer in each lane. Race Results Lap Times E-Fray with Trans Am Bodies on The Wizz Track The second race of the day, held before lunch, was the E-Fray with Trans AM bodies on The Wizz Track. The Wizz track is probably one of the most challenging race tracks the ECO club races on. With each lane of the 4-lane track having numerous differences, increasing and decreasing radius turn, a tight 90 degree downhill corner, and numerous short straights, the Wizz track is about as close as you can get to an “official” Fray-like track. Familiarity of the track along with good driving skills will help a racer to place well and was evident in the finish order. Dave L. used his home-track advantage to take first position, turning out 94 laps, 10 laps ahead of the second-place finisher. Dave also turned lowest lap times in all 4-lanes. Congratulations Dave on a dominating performance. The battle for second place was very close, determined by sections. JoeRinn took the 2nd place podium position cranking out 84 laps. Finishing in 3rd on the same lap (84) but several feet behind Joe was Jim K. Rounding out the top half of the field was Flash (81 laps) in 4th, Greg W (80 laps) in 5th, Paul R. (78 laps) in 6th, and Oh Jimmy (75 laps) in 7th. Nice racing gentlemen. Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) along with best lap times for each racer in each lane. Race Results Lap Times Magnatraction with Can Am Bodies on the DBL Raceway After chowing down on Joe’s Pizza (New Caanan, CT) for lunch, the ECO racers were ready for the third and final race of the day. The magnatraction class is one of the faster classes run by the ECO and by far the class that utilizes the most from magnetic force between the motor magnets and metal rails of the track. The ECO runs this class several times a year with each Magnatraction race requiring a different body. For this race we used the Can Am style bodies representing the prototype cars raced from the mid-1960’s into the 1970’s. One of the (fun) challenges when racing in the ECO is the variation of power and speed among the classes of cars we race and adjusting your driving skills for these races. This becomes more of a factor when one of the slower ECO classes and one of the faster ECO classes are run on the same track on the same day. Drivers who can adjust the fastest between racing these classes will typically perform well in the race results. This was the case when running the Magnatraction class, as just hours earlier we had run the Grand National class on the DBL Raceway. There was a lot of carnage (offs) early on in the racing as the racers got adjusted to the higher race speeds. When the dust settled, Flash took 1st place, completing an impressive 160 laps. 2nd place went to Paul “I hate Pumpkin Spice” R. how carved out (like a pumpkin Paul) 158 laps. In the final podium position, 3rd, was Greg W. with 150 laps. Greg had one bad heat (32 laps in white) that may have cost him a higher podium finish as he turned the lowest lap times across all 4 lanes with the lowest ET of a blistering 3.862 seconds. Greg was flying around the track, cranking out 43 laps (highest lap count overall) in the blue lane. Just missing the podium in 4th was Jimmy C with 149 laps and a very impressive 3.985 second lap time in the blue lane. Besides Greg, Jimmy was the only driver to break the 4 second ET barrier. Nice run Jimmy! Only a couple of laps behind in 5th was Dave L with 147 laps. Terry A. took 6th with 145 laps, and rounding out the top half of the field in 7th was Jim K with138 laps. Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) along with best lap times for each racer in each lane. Race Results Lap Times Checkered Flag That wraps up the inaugural event of the ECO 2024-2025 season. It was a solid turnout with a lot of great racing. It was great to see everyone back for the start of a new race season. A big thank you to Dave L. for hosting and to opening the doors on Friday, the day before the race, to several racers who were able to get some practice time in the day before. Next month we’ll be at LenJet for the Lenjet 500, racing Indy on the Champion, Super Stock on the Shamrock Glen, and an IROC race on the Car Model. Please keep in mind that all of these races are using the tracks, and cars we’ll be running at the Halloween Havoc. So consider this a chance to do a final tune up before the Havoc. Finally, as mentioned earlier during the Drivers’ meeting, Peter is planning to attend the October race event. I highly urge everyone to attend this event to welcome Peter back! Thank you and see you next month! Anyone for some Pumpkin Spice doughnuts… Paul?? Anyone?