| New England 1/32 Endurance Championship - Winter 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||
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First, thanks to the 32 racers who made the trek to Storrs, CT to participate in the subject event!! Several states were represented including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. We also had 2 racers who made a 9 hour trek (each way) from Quebec to participate!! For roughly 1/4 of the participants, this was their first experience participating in an organized event.
The Teams |
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| Race Day The doors opened at 6:00 a.m. with most participants arriving by 7:30 a.m.. The computerized race management system was used during practice to ensure all teams received practice time on each of the lanes. A driver's meeting was held to discuss race logistics - drivers changes (which took place under the green flag), pitting/working on cars (again, only under the green flag) and marshalling. For a given team, one person would be racing, another person pitting, another person marshalling and the remaining team member ensuring the proper lane stickers were in place for upcoming heats. All team members were required to race in each heat so roughly every 5-6 minutes, team members would be "rotating" through the various team roles. In other words, all team members would be very busy once racing began. Like real endurance racing - it would require a true team effort to be successful! |
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| The race itself was broken into two (2) segments. Each segment had 8 heats which were 22 minutes in length. All 8 teams race in each of the 5 lanes during each segment. For the first segment, 2 lanes were designated for the Porsche 911 class while the remaining 3 lanes were for the GT cars. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Segment 1 (Heats 1 - 8) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| In the second segment, the lane assignments were reversed - the 3 lanes where the GT cars ran in the first segment were now designated for the Porsche 911's while the other 2 lanes were now designated for the GT cars. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Segment 2 (Heats 9 - 16) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Like real endurance racing, this format allowed car from both classes to be racing at the same time. The GT cars were faster and generally handled better; however, racers in both classes had to stay focused at all times on track position, who they were overtaking, who was overtaking them, where to setup passes, accidents/crashes, driver changes and pitting. Racing started a 9:30 a.m. and continued until about 4:15 p.m. when the 16th and final heat was completed (we took a brief 10 minute break between segments). | |||||||||||||||||||
| Race Results | |||||||||||||||||||
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Racing was fast, furious, and incredibly close all day. After 6 hours of racing, less than 1 lap separated the first 2 teams!!! The battle for 4th and 5th place was decided by less than 6 feet!!! The first place team's car traveled over 29 "real" (1:1 not scale) miles!!! Here are the results: |
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| Place | Team # | Laps | Team Members | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 5 | 1132 | Dick Mcmanus, Rick Toleos, Erik, Wayne Sokolosky | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 2 | 1131 | Rich Dumas, Norman Judge, Roy Carlin, Tony Scelfo | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 6 | 1112 | Rich Mason, Matthew Wilder, Steve Schaffer, Don Willis | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 4 | 1107 | Bob Bradley, Bob Bianchi, Didier LeGall, Andy White | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 7 | 1107 | Mike Chiocchio, Rick (NY), Bob Methe, Andy Wilder | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | 1 | 1106 | Rick Perrault, Marc Gosselin, Paul Manzi, Harlan Roberts | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | 8 | 1101 | Steve Sawtelle, Matt Foskett, Bob Bourque, Peter Simoneau | ||||||||||||||||
| 8 | 3 | 1090 | Larry Sorenson, Charlie Shmerler, Christian Gingras, Dick Pearson | ||||||||||||||||
| Event Sponsors Special thanks to our event sponsors who graciously donated prizes for participants. Each of the event sponsors is acknowledged below including a description of the prize(s) and a picture of the winner. |
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| 1) Jim Difalco (Difalco
Design) - Jim graciously donated a brand new custom built
Difalco 1/32 slot car controller. If you think all controllers are
created equal - think again!! Jim is a world renowned custom
controller builder - many national and world champions use his
controllers exclusively. Thank you Jim for your support and
sponsorship! Rick DiNizo (New York) walked off with the top door prize for the second event in a row!! Here are a couple of pictures of Rick showing off his new controller. |
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| Jim Difalco also donated several coupons good for discounts ranging from 20% - 40% off the purchase of a Difalco 1/32 custom controller. Pictures of the coupon winners are shown below. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Norman Judge won the 40% discount coupon. Here's a picture of Norman accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Matt Foskett won the 35% discount coupon. Here's a picture of Matt accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Wayne Sokolosky won the 30% discount coupon. Here's a picture of Wayne accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Larry Sorenson won the 25% discount coupon. Here's a picture of Wayne accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 2) Dennis Faz (Whitey's
Slot Car Boxes) - Dennis donated one of his beautiful custom
made slot car boxes. This is one of the smaller boxes he offers -
it is perfect for traveling to club events where space is often at a
premium. The box has 5 car slides sized for 1/32 cars. The
top shelf also includes 2 slots so additional cars can be stored if
desired. Workmanship on these boxes if top notch - the fit and
finish is a testament to Dennis' woodworking skills. Dennis also
donated a slot box for our last event - thank you Dennis for your
continued support and sponsorship! Larry Sorenson won the Whitey's Slot Car box. Here's a picture of Larry accepting his prize. |
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| 3)
Scalextric-USA
and Wings 'N Wheels Hobbies - Bart Brown, owner of Wings 'N Wheels
Hobbies (email:
wingswheels@sbcglobal.net) , contacted Scalextric-USA and arranged
for a terrific Scalextric T2 Lola Race set to be donated as a door prize
for the event. Thank you Bart and Scalextric-USA for supporting
and sponsoring our event! Harlan Roberts won the Scalextric race set. Here's a picture of Harlan accepting his prize. |
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| 4) Bart Brown - Wings 'N Wheels Hobbies, Clinton CT (email:
wingswheels@sbcglobal.net). In addition to arranging
Scalextric-USA to donate the race set described above, Bart donated 3
cars as door prizes for the event. Thank you Bart for your
continued support and sponsorship of our events! The first car (Monogram Kreepy Krawler March 53G) was won by Didier Le Gall. Didier was one of two racers from Quebec who drove 9 hours each way to race with us!!! Here is a picture of Didier accepting his prize. |
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| The second car (Revell-Germany NSU 1300 TT Cup) was won by Rich Mason. Here is a picture of Rich accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| The third car (Scalextric Coca Cola IRL) was won by Bob Bourque. Here is a picture of Bob accepting his prize. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 5) Kai Bach Andersen - (
SlotLine
). The Shoreline and H.O.S.T. clubs are very familiar with Kai's
hubless aluminum wheels (a conservative estimate would be members of the
2 clubs have purchased at least 100 pair). These wheels are
lightweight, run perfectly true and enhance the appearance of any car
you install them on. It was no accident then that many of the GT
cars in yesterday's race used the SlotLine Contach (original design) and
SlotLine Alfa (current design) wheels. Kai donated four (4)
complete sets (each set contained one pair of "large" and one pair of
"small" wheels). Thank you Kai for your support and sponsorship of
our event! Kai's SlotLine wheels were awarded to each member of the first place team. Here is a picture of the team (L-R Dick Mcmanus, Wayne Sokolosky, Rick Toleos, Erik ) accepting their prizes. |
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| 6) David Reinecke - (
Reinecke
Motorsports ) David
Reinecke produces high-quality 1/32 resin bodies - his current focus is
Trans-Am era cars from 1966 - 1971. David's cars are made from
high-quality resin, using a system that produces bodies as smooth as
injection molded plastic. The result is a body which requires very
little prep work (in many cases, just a wash) before painting. David
donated one of his new 1970 Dodge Challenger kits complete with decals.
Thank you David for your support and sponsorship of our event! The Challenger resin body was won by Rick Toleos. Here is a picture of Rick accepting his prize. |
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| 7) Steve (SweetZ28) - (
PPR Slots )
Steve at PPR Slots donated four (4) pair of the 1408 tires which are
designed for Slot.it and compatible (include SlotLine) wheels. The
Shoreline club rules for several classes now allow PPR tires - they have
quickly become the tire of choice with most racers. While this
tire did not allow PPR tires, the next event will. Expect lap
times to drop!! Thank you Steve for your support and sponsorship
of our event! PPR Super Tires were won by the 7th and 8th place teams. Here are pictures of these teams accepting their prizes. |
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| 8) Dick Mcmanus - ( Mcmanus Co. email:
Mcmanus5162@cs.com ) Dick
is a member of the Shoreline Model Raceways Club. Given Dick's
excellent woodworking skills, it not surprising Dick was the first club
member to build a custom routed track. There are now 7 routed
tracks in the club thanks to Dick's track building classes and
willingness to help other club members with design and construction.
If you are looking for custom woodworking, a routed track, wall display
shelves or custom accessories, please give Dick a shout. Dick
donated a great looking wall display shelf for 1/32 cars as a door prize
and setup blocks for all event participants. Thank you Dick for
your support and sponsorship of our event! The wall display shelf was won by Rick Perrault; however, Rick had to leave before his name was drawn. Shown below is Dick Mcmanus accepting the shelf on Rick's behalf. |
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| Special Awards | |||||||||||||||||||
| Two special awards were presented to participants - please do not take these too seriously, they are strictly "fun" awards. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nerf of the Race Award | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dick Mcmanus contacted me a couple of days before the race and suggested we present a "Nerf of the Race Award". Dick went to work on a "trophy" which consisted of a Nerf brand football affixed to a small wooden base. The base includes a slot were a card can be inserted with the winner's name. It seemed only fitting that Nerfin' Norman (from Nerfinborough, NH) should select the winner and present the award. The "winner" was Steve Schaffer, a first-time participant, who made the trek up from Long Island, NY to join us. Steve was driving his GT car through the large sweeping corner leading onto the main straight when his car got loose and "nerfed" (!) one of the Porsche 911's. There was a loud crash as the 911 hit the guardrail (if the guardrail hadn't been there, the 911 would have put a hole in the concrete basement wall...). Steve assured his fellow racers he was a "clean" driver and it was just one of those "racing deals...". The picture below shows Steve being a good sport accepting this prestigious award. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Creative Interpretation of the Rules Award | |||||||||||||||||||
| Of the 2 classes in the event, the Porsche 911's were required to be pretty much stock. Therefore, you'd think the GT class where many more modifications are allowed is where folks would be pushing the rules to the limit, right? Wrong!!! One competitor went through at least 3 sets of rear axles/wheels trying to setup his car (we never did get a rational explanation about how someone destroys a rear axle/wheel which according to the rule doesn't allow any modifications...). But by far the one area of the car which received the most attention was the "stock" nylon rear axle bushings. The rules DID allow participants to take up excess bushing slop INSIDE the bushing using superglue. However, the rear axle on the 911's typically has quite a bit of side-to-side slop as well. Several (most?) competitors added a spacer or two to get rid of the side-to-side slop. The Rules Committee caught wind and ruled spacers were not allowed. Pretty cut and dry right? Well, not exactly - one competitor was determined to remove the side-to-side slop by fashioning a pseudo-spacer in place on the axle using superglue. His thinking was this was not a spacer in the traditional sense so therefore, it would be OK. Once again the Rules Committee caught wind of this creative rule bender and ruled a spacer by any other name is still a spacer. Our award winner (whiner?) didn't go down quietly (though he was always professional and polite...) - he continued to lobby his case (the Rules Committee stood firm...). The picture below shows Dickie Pearson accepting his special award. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Limited Edition T-Shirts (Eh?) | |||||||||||||||||||
| We were very fortunate to have 2 outstanding slot car racers, Didier Le Gall and Christian Gingras, travel all the way from Quebec to join us for this event!! This called for some sort of "special" recognition so we had some limited edition (only 3 in circulation...) t-shirts printed up. The pictures below show Didier and Christian modeling the t-shirts (they were both great sports...). The front shows a picture of several slot cars with the caption, "They're Only Toys..." - the back shows a picture of a controller with the caption, "...Until You Pull The Trigger, Eh?" | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Event Pictures | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Cars... | |||||||||||||||||||
| In our previous endurance events, we raced a single class of cars (GT). This time around we opted for 2 distinctly different cars. In real endurance racing there are often several classes of cars racing concurrently - our goal was to add that same flavor to our event. In addition to the GT cars which have been run in previous events, a Scalextric Porsche 911 class was added. The GT car class offers a great deal of flexibility when setting up the car whereas the Scaley 911 class is pretty much stock with only a few very basic modifications (e.g. gluing motor to chassis) allowed. Interestingly, the winning team was slightly behind after the end of the first race segment (8 heats). In the second race segment, 3 lanes were designated for the Porsche 911's. The winning team made up the deficit and went on to win largely because of their performance driving the 911's in the second segment. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Scalextric Porsche 911's | |||||||||||||||||||
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| GT Cars | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Teams (Shown in Overall Finishing Order) | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1st Place Team (1,132 laps) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| L-R (Dick Mcmanus - Shoreline, Wayne Sokolosky - Shoreline, Rick Toleos - H.O.S.T., Erik Eckhardt - no affiliation) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each team member of the winning team received 2 pair (1 small, 1 large) of SlotLine Alfa hubless aluminum wheels courtesy of Kai Bach Andersen (SlotLine Wheels). Many of the GT cars in the race were also equipped with these beautiful wheels. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd Place Team (1,131 laps) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| (Tony Scelfo - Shoreline, Norman Judge - H.O.S.T., Rich Dumas - Shoreline, Roy Carlin - no affiliation) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each team member received a Hudy .9mm Professional Hex Driver. These wrenches are manufactured to very close tolerances, have incredible "feel" in your hand and offer replaceable tips. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd Place Team (1,112 laps) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| (Rich Mason - Shoreline, Don Willis - Shoreline, Matthew Wilder - H.O.S.T., Steve Schaffer - no affiliation) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each team member received a Hudy .9mm Professional Hex Driver. These wrenches are manufactured to very close tolerances, have incredible "feel" in your hand and offer replaceable tips. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4th Place Team (1,107 laps) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| (Didier Le Gall - Select Racing Club, Andy White - Shoreline, Bob Bianchi - H.O.S.T., Bob Bradley - Shoreline) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each team member received a pair of Xuron Tweezer Nose pliers. These are high quality pliers with small, thin jaw are perfect for holding or grabbing small parts. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 5th Place Team (1,107 laps) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| ((Mike Chiocchio - Shoreline, Rick DiNizo - no affiliation, Bob Methe - no affiliation, Andy Wilder - H.O.S.T.) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Each team member received a pair of Xuron Micro-Flush cutters. These are high quality cutters which are perfect for cutting small wires or trimming flashing from plastic parts. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| The Event | |||||||||||||||||||
| The following pictures were taken by Christian Gingras before, during and after the race. Thank you Christian! | |||||||||||||||||||
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| The Racers | |||||||||||||||||||
| One of the event photographers, Christian Gingras, took some truly outstanding pictures of many event participants. Here are the pictures Christian took for all to enjoy! | |||||||||||||||||||
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