35 Entries. A couple heats of trucks, a dozen Street Stocks, 21.5 LM's, 13.5 LM's, SC LM's and Mod Sprints. A lot of the fast guys from Late Model and Sprint were not racing for various reasons.
Street Stocks started with two heats of six, then quickly went to one heat of ten that was interesting to say the least. There were a couple of newer racers running tonight which is a great thing for the hobby. Some might argue that 10 is too many in a heat of anything on a 115 ft track. It probably is if everyone is expecting a perfect run in a breakout class. It was entertaining to watch, that's for sure.
The 21.5 class ran for the first time. I don't know what the fast lap time was for them. The numbers I was hearing were around 4.1-4.2 when they ran a clean line. I'm not a huge supporter of the class because it waters down Late Model, however, the speeds look like they allow for some great racing. That class is going to be all about getting your car as efficient as possible. Whoever can get their car set up to hold the throttle down all the way around is going to be the fastest.
In Sprints, we didn't have a huge turnout. Jody and I ran pretty close in lap times and finishes so it was pretty exciting that way. The track didn't allow for really fast lap times. I think we were somewhere around 61 laps in the heats. I'm not too sure in the mains. Lenny, Chris, and Steve Bahr were all notably absent which left the class a little thin.
Late model was a riot. I had the fastest car all night, then I tried some of Zerfas' Brand X pink dope on my tires and it tightened the car right up for the main. I hung on for the entire race until Jody got his nose just in front of mine at the start finish line as time expired. I choked and he triumphed. A little heartbreaking, still, I would rather lose a few of those and have great racing than win by three laps with no one close. I've got some ideas on what went wrong that I'm going to try and set about fixing for next weekend.
Rich was tearing it up in trucks. EDM truck is starting to be one of the most competitive classes out there now that a couple of the veteran offroad guys are running it. Those guys are pretty good at adopting to the oval and excellent drivers.
I may have to jump back into a little offroad next summer to beef up my driving skills. The thing I think that it helps with is constantly adjusting to different track conditions. In oval, it's really more of a rhythm thing when you're going fast. When you get out of rhythm is when you need to be quick in making decisions about where your moving and how you're adjusting your throttle response.Those guys from Ionia are a class act. They come in force just about every weekend that I'm there and they are real gentlemen when it comes to racing. I enjoy racing with them.
What prompts people to travel mile after mile to get to a dirt oval to RC race? I've asked myself that question many times. If you are travelling 30, 60, 90 or more miles to race toy cars, there's a good chance that your wife, friends, and family think you're a nutter. It's hard to explain how I can justify driving an hour each way to race. We regularly spend more on gas getting to the races than we do actually racing. It's also a little strange trying to explain to someone that doesn't race how spending $400 on a toy car is a "good deal" so I don't even try.
Addictions are difficult to rationalize. At least this one is somewhat healthy for you. Family friendly entertainment that isn't going to shorten your life (unless you get too worked up about getting wrecked in that third heat) and isn't going to land you in the pokey if you've raced one too many classes some night. Some folks cash their check at the bar. Some collect things and buy status symbols. I'm good with however people justify RC racing as long as they can afford it.
It's early, I'm not fully caffeinated yet. That's all I can think of other than getting some eggs and bacon this morning. I might do an edit later in the day or a mid week post this week.
Later.
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