September 20, 2025               “Showdown at Silvermine”

The first race event of the East Coast Outlaws 2025-2026 season took place on September 20^th at Dave Lockwood’s place in Norwalk, CT. This event kicks off the 18^th season for the East Coast Outlaws. Happy 18^th birthday!!

It was perfect weather for a late summer day, with temps in the mid-70’s and clear blue skies for the 10 racers who travelled to Dave’s place. With 10 racers, the racing would prove to be close and exciting.

This first race event of the year was scheduled to have 3 races: 1) Grand Nationals on the DBL raceway, 2) E-Fray on the Wizz track, and 3) Magnatraction with Can Am bodies back over on the DBL raceway.

Drivers Meeting

After practice, tech and sign-in, Dave Lockwood conducted the drivers meeting. Dave began the meeting by talking about some of the confusion related to the new TFX class, specifically the bodies that are eligible for the Muscle Car class. With a new class there are always some growing pains that may require further clarification or changes as we move forward.

Both Dave and Paul Ryer talked about the bodies that are eligible for the muscle car class. In summary, the body must be an Auto World car that has screw mounting posts (i.e no Auto World Xtraction type bodies). Paul will update the rules in the next few days, so please review the rules again after the updates are made.

In addition, Paul mentioned that he will be updating the rules on the TFX Trans Am class that will allow trimming the wheel wells on the bodies to help them to sit lower. The trimming must be minimal and still allow some vertical separation between the top of the wheel well and the side of the hood or trunk. Again, Paul will update the rules in the next few days, so please review the rules again after the updates are made. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to Dave or Paul PRIOR to selecting or making any modifications to these bodies.

Dave gave a brief update on the Halloween Havoc sign up. As of this writing, there are 40 participants signed up to attend. Dave noted that if you have not signed up yet, it is best to do so before October 3^rd, which is the cutoff date for T-shirts.

Our club treasurer, Jimmy Colligan, then provided an update on the club finances. At the end of the last season, the club had $1594 in reserve. Per decision at the rules meeting in July with regards to the new TFX class that was voted in at that time, it was decided that each member who had paid their dues for the previous season (2024-2025) would get $32 from the club that could be used to purchase a TFX chassis or kit. With that said, the club currently has $994 in reserve going into the 2025-2026 season.

Brian Wotton provided a brief update on a couple of special race events he is looking into. First is a donation/charity event, discussed last year, to get some publicity for the club, and hopefully new members, while also donating some of the excess club funds to a worthwhile charity. While the initial thought was to work with an organization that helps stroke victims, one of the largest in this area is the Teddy Brusky organization. Teddy was a former New England Patriots player in which his charity focuses on sporting events (i.e. the Boston Marathon, etc.) so Brian did not think this would be a good fit. Brian reached out to the Big Brother Big Sister organization in central Massachusetts. This group seems to be a better fit. Initial thoughts of holding an event would be: 1) bring the Rolling ‘O to one of the organization’s events, 2) Host the event at the new Lenjet Annex, or 3) host the event at Lenjet. Pros and cons of each option are being discussed, and more updates will be provided. The second event is to bring potential new racers into the club by hosting a race where current members bring a friend who might be interested in racing and joining the club and holding a race for these potential new members. While details still need to be worked out, a tentative time frame for such an event would be May/Jume 2026.

Finally, Joe Rinn, showed the new racing sheet we will be using this year to track races. The biggest change using this sheet is that it will allow us to record an entire race on one sheet when we must break up the racers into two groups.

Best Appearing

Best appearing was given to Chief for his Grand National Torino painted in the #21 Cale Yarbourough colors. Chief did a really nice job applying the paint job and decals to properly finish this car. Congratulations and nice job Chief.

The car:

Chief:

Grand National on the DBL Raceway

The DBL Raceway 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. I like to call this the “O $#!t!” straight as once you know you have carried too much speed on this straight, you know the inevitable is about to occur when your car enters the tight 180 degree turn too hot and that there is nothing you can do about it.

Racing was relatively close among the 10 racers with only 10 laps separating the winner from the 10^th place finisher!

The battle for first place was very close with the winner determined by sections. Taking the top podium position with 110 laps, 26 sections was our gracious host, Dave L. Second was Flash with 110 laps 6 sections, finishing only 20 sections behind Dave. Of interesting note, in last year’s race, both Flash and Dave turned one lap less, 109 laps, with Flash taking the win over Dave by almost the exact same number of sections. Both Flash and Dave shared fastest lap times with Dave holding the fastest lap times in the white lane at 5.941 seconds, which was also the fastest lap time of the race, and the Yellow lane at 6.176 seconds. Flash had the fastest lap time in the red lane at 6.159 seconds and in the blue lane at 5.943 seconds. The final podium spot went to Jim K., taking third with 107.

Rounding out the top half of the field with a strong 4^th was Brian Wotton, with 105 laps. Only a lap behind Brian was Paul R. in 5^th spot with 104 laps.

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

Here are the podium finishers and their cars.

E-Fray on The Wizz Track

The second race of the day, held after lunch, was the E-Fray on The Wizz Track. The Wizz track is probably one of the more challenging race tracks the ECO club races on. The Wizz track is very much like a Fray track with its many varying radius turns. 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 91 laps. Dave also turned lowest lap times in 3 of the 4-lanes (yellow, blue, and red) with fastest lap of the race turned in the yellow lane at 7.226. Nice win Dave!

Second place went to JoeRinn with 86 laps. Joe turned fastest lap in the white lane with a blistering 7.278. Finishing in 3^rd only a lap down from 2^nd with 85 laps was Flash.

Rounding out the top half of the field was Paul R. (84 laps) in 4^th, and Jim K. (82 laps) in 5^th. Nice racing gentlemen.

Below are the official results (lap counts and finish positions) along with best lap times for each racer in each lane. I apologize for not having these results in the typical spreadsheet format. The software used on the Wizz Track computer is not Trackmate and we were not sure how to download the results into an editable file.

Race Results

Lap Times

Here are the podium finishers and their cars.

Magnatraction with Can Am Bodies on the DBL Raceway

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.

After running the GN cars on this track just hours earlier, transitioning to the much faster Magnatraction cars can be a challenge. Drivers who can adjust the fastest between racing these classes will typically perform well in the race results.

When the dust settled, Dave L took 1^st place with 158 laps, completing his trifecta for the day. The battle for the last 2 podium positions was tight, being determined by sections. Paul R. came out on top in 2^nd place turning 154 laps 25 sections to 3^rd place finisher Flash with 154 laps 3 sections.

Rounding out the top half of the field was Jimmy C. in 4^th with 152 laps and Terry A. in 5^th with147 laps.

Fastest lap went to Dave L., turning a 3.841 second lap in white. Not far off the pace was Jimmy C. who turned the second fastest lap of the day with a 3.844 second lap in blue.

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

Here are the podium finishers and their cars.

Checkered Flag

We are off and running for the ECO 2025-2026 season. This was a good start to the season, though attendance was a little bit light.

Not sure if it was Dave L. working all week with his Guatemalan deck construction crew lifting and moving rocks for his new deck, his home track advantage, or that Dave is a very good driver which helped him to his victories in all 3 racers. I suspect it was the racing tips he learned from his new Gautemalan friends. Just kidding ! Congratulations Dave on your 3 victories and for hosting the race. Look forward to next year’s race with the new and expanded deck you are adding on to your house. Perhaps we can bring down the Rolling ‘O and have an outdoor race on the new deck? The weather seems to be perfect every year we come down to race. Just a thought. 😊

A couple of quick reminders:

1. If you have not signed up for the Havoc, please do so ASAP. The T-shirt cut off is Oct 3^rd. Also, Dave will not be able to attend next month’s ECO race. Please contact Dave to sign up.
2. Remember, the annual ECO race dues are now due. Please plan to pay at next month’s race. For those of you who have already paid, THANK YOU!

Next month we’ll be at LenJet for the Lenjet 500, racing Indy on the Shamrock Glen, Super Stock (Fray) on the Python, and EFray on the Bear. Is it just a coincidence that we might be racing these same cars on these same tracks at the Havoc? Perhaps this a chance to do a final tune up before the Havoc? You did not hear this from me.

Thank you and see you next month!