2002 NITRO Turkey Trot November 9th

2002 NITRO Turkey Trot
November 9th, 2002

Race Report

The day dawned and fourteen entrants came out to challenge Crystal Rock Raceway's straights and hairpin turns. The 2002-03 NITRO series has seen tight races and today looked to be more of the same. Practice saw short lines and fast action. Illinois HOPRA regulars Brian & Carol Boehm along with Rick DeRosa made the trek down from up north to challenge the NITRO regulars. Joining them was Jason Holt.

Stock Class

Stock Class was first up. Steve's Lola took the qualifying race by a short lap over Wayne. After showing up with an interesting approach to the stock rear tire rule Brian had to rework the wheels and tires on both his and Carol’s cars. Brian modified Quicker Engineering front rims to press onto the mandated stock T-jet axles and accommodate the mandated slip on narrow silicone tires. The resultant white rims looked good and were a nice contrast to his lime Corvair and Carol’s yellow Volvo. In the qualifying race Brian drove his MEV Corvair to a surprising third! Brian was followed by Jim Keen , "Danger" Dan Rothwell and John Verbich. Danger’s fast lap of 7.090 indicated that he was a serious challenger despite his fifth place finish and that there was more to come from Danger’s black Lola. The results of the qualifying race were:

Stock Qualifying

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	62	30
2	Wayne George	61	32
3	Brian	56	8
4	Jim Keen	53	35
5	Dan Rothwell	53	34
6	John Verbich	53	34
7	Bob Muys	52	41
8	Dan Luna	51	42
9	Carol	49	39
10	Chuck Keen	48	31
11	Erik Ruud	46	35
12	Jason Holt	46	6
13	Bill Deuser	45	14
14	Rick DeRosa	DNS

	Fast Lap		7.090	Dan Rothwell
	Avg. Race Lap		7.661

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

After a short break the stock mains were up. Everyone got a chance to run again and the mains were counted as a single round robin. This means that the racers in the B-Main could bump the A-Main racers down and possibly win overall. The A-Main was first up. When the power came on Danger threw away any chance of taking the win by losing at least half of his first segment with controller and pickup problems. When the car did get rolling it wasn’t the same quick car it was before. Wayne did his best but couldn’t stop Steve’s Lola steamroller from taking its third A-Main of the season and sixth race in a row. John moved around Brian to take third and demote the NITRO rookie to fourth. The results of the A-main were as follows:

Stock A-Main

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	127	36
2	Wayne George	122	37
3	John Verbich	113	15
4	Brian	110	27
5	Jim Keen	109	39
6	Dan Rothwell	96	16

	Fast Lap		7.040	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		7.513

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

Rick arrived late and didn’t have a stocker. Rick knew to borrow better and ended up with Steve’s new backup car. Rick had never turned a wheel on CRR or driven this car before. This didn’t deter him as in the B-Main Rick’s Ferrari GTO went wire to wire to take the win by three laps. Dan Luna and Bob both had 105 laps. Dan’s went 30 sections further to take second over Bob. Chuck finished fourth six laps behind Dan and Bob. Like Brian and Carol’s cars Rick’s GTO had reworked rims as well. In Rick’s case Wizzard independent front rims provided the material for the conversion. The results of the B-main were as follows:

Stock B-Main

		Laps	Sections
1	Rick DeRosa	108	11
2	Dan Luna	105	31
3	Bob Muys	105	7
4	Chuck Keen	99	9
5	Carol	98	19
6	Erik Ruud	97	39
7	Jason Holt	95	11
8	Bill Deuser	92	2

	Fast Lap		7.704	Rick
	Avg. Race Lap		8.869

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

The overall finishing order is shown below. The A-Main racers took the first five slots. Rick’s B-Main win moved him into sixth place. Danger’s problems at the start dropped him way down the order. The move of the stock race, and probably the entire race, was from Rick who arrived late for qualifying, borrowed a car and did not turn a lap at CRR until the start of the B-Main.

Stock Final

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	127	36
2	Wayne George	122	37
3	John Verbich	113	15
4	Brian	110	27
5	Jim Keen	109	39
6	Rick DeRosa	108	11
7	Dan Luna	105	31
8	Bob Muys	105	7
9	Chuck Keen	99	9
10	Carol	98	19
11	Erik Ruud	97	39
12	Dan Rothwell	96	16
13	Jason Holt	95	11
14	Bill Deuser	92	2

	Fast Lap		7.040	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		7.513

Fray Class

After lunch Fray was up. Again there was a fast field. Jim, Wayne, John and Danger did their best and despite turning fast laps couldn’t stop Steve from taking qualifying by almost three laps. Steve’s yellow Ferrari GTO is smooth, fast and currently unbeatable at CRR. In qualifying Steve took a tenth of a second off of the track record and looked untouchable. The field qualified as follows:

Fray Qualifying

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	70	44
2	Jim Keen	68	4
3	Wayne George	66	27
4	John Verbich	65	37
5	Dan Rothwell	65	33
6	Brian	62	38
7	Dan Luna	62	32
8	Bob Muys	62	10
9	Bill Deuser	58	12
10	Erik Ruud	57	26
11	Chuck Keen	57	21
12	Carol	56	4
13	Rick DeRosa	51	30
14	Jason Holt	51	29

	Fast Lap		6.469	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		6.765

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

Again the A-Main was first up. Like stock everyone ran again and everyone had a second chance. The A-Main was a repeat of qualifying for the top seven. Steve reset the track record and won easily. There was a race in his wake but no positions changed. The closest race was between Danger and Brian who both finished with 126 laps. Dan took fifth place by a short 10 sections. The results of the A-Main are as follows.

Fray A-Main

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	143	22
2	Jim Keen	134	27
3	Wayne George	132	21
4	John Verbich	129	9
5	Dan Rothwell	126	33
6	Brian	126	22
7	Dan Luna	122	43

	Fast Lap		6.379	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		6.691

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

The B-Main was a bit more interesting. Bob’s Lola took fastest lap and the win by seven laps over Erik. Erik finished a short lap ahead of Chuck. Erik and Chuck both moved around Bill to demote him to fourth. Rick finally got the feel of his Norm Gardner prepared 58 Vette and moved around Carol to finish fifth.

Fray B-Main

		Laps	Sections
1	Bob Muys	124	34
2	Erik Ruud	117	45
3	Chuck Keen	116	27
4	Bill Deuser	112	37
5	Rick DeRosa	111	8
6	Carol	107	14
7	Jason Holt	104	20

	Fast Lap		6.883	Bob
	Avg. Race Lap		7.809

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

The overall results were as follows: In the overall the A-main finishers took the top six places. Bob’s win in the B-Main moved him around Dan to take seventh. Otherwise there were no changes in the order.

Fray Final

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	143	22
2	Jim Keen	134	27
3	Wayne George	132	21
4	John Verbich	129	9
5	Dan Rothwell	126	33
6	Brian	126	22
7	Bob Muys	124	34
8	Dan Luna	122	43
9	Erik Ruud	117	45
10	Chuck Keen	116	27
11	Bill Deuser	112	37
12	Rick DeRosa	111	8
13	Carol	107	14
14	Jason Holt	104	20

	Fast Lap		6.379	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		6.691

JL Tuff One Class

The last race of the day was the JL Tuff One race. This was the second race of the season for these heavily restricted cars and the first JL race at CRR. This race would be run as a single three minute per lane round robin without a qualifying race. In practice Jim Keen was looking good and Steve indicated more than once that he would rather be running Jim’s car than his own. Danger had a monster GS Vette but after some suspicious items were noticed on the car during practice that car quietly disappeared. His other car was fast but not in the same league as that rocket.

The cars were generally better sorted than they were at the first race. Most of the cars were still bullets in the chute and tentative in the turns. But the number of smooth, fast cars is increasing. Key factors to getting these things dialed in are pickup tuning, tire and track choices. A car with a narrow rear track is fast but unforgiving. It's limit is hard to find and it tends to tip at the limit. Widening the rear track makes the limit easier to find, increases the tendency of the car to slide at the limit and brings faster and more consistent times. You have to be careful here as going too wide slows the car down as you spend too much time going slideways. Detuning the car by removing pickup and a small amount of motor brush spring tension helps too. The detuned cars are almost as fast as the tuned up missiles. The missiles are very fast in a straight line but the detuned cars come of the corners faster and brake later and actually are faster than the tuned up cars. This is especially true in CRRs infield straights.

The GS Vette seems to be the body of choice and today the Vettes outnumbered everything else combined. This got interesting as one race had three identical cars. Erik sized up the situation when he was on deck and put a large piece of orange tape on the roof of his Cream/Orange Vette. Considering that there were three more Cream/Orange Vetts out there it was a good idea. Erik indicated that the tape made his car easy to spot and he had no problems in traffic. It wont be long before custom paint is the norm in this class. Like the other classes, the cars with the most time on them seem to be the quick ones.

At the first race Steve, Jim and John had the cars to beat but Steve’s cream/orange car seemed to be in a world of its own. Today was no exception. When the power can on Steve’s blue/white GS Vette ran away and hid to take the win by ten laps over Jim. John was a lap behind Jim. Wayne was a further lap back. Rick "borrowed better" again and now having a bit more experience around CRR finished fifth in a car he had never seen or driven before a lap back from Wayne. As the results show the JL cars are a bit faster than Fray on an individual lap but are still slower over the course of a race. My guess is that that trend will continue. Places two through five were separated by four laps and there were several battles on the track. Danger's race car was quick but, as in the stock race, problems in the first segment doomed him to another poor finish.

JL Tuff One Final

		Laps	Sections
1	Steve Medanic	103	26
2	Jim Keen	93	6
3	John Verbich	92	29
4	Wayne George	90	10
5	Rick DeRosa	89	20
6	Dan Rothwell	83	37
7	Dan Luna	83	13
8	Erik Ruud	79	37
9	Brian	77	43
10	Chuck Keen	76	0
11	Carol	74	17
12	Jason Holt	71	2
13	Bob Muys	DNS
13	Bill Deuser	DNS

	Fast Lap		6.301	Steve
	Avg. Race Lap		6.952

Trakmate Race Summary File

Trakmate Laptimes File

All in all everyone had a good time. The season now takes December off. Many thanks to Erik Ruud for helping me keep track of things and developing the NITRO race management software. His PC saves a lot of time and really helps to move the day along. Thanks also to Hobby Pros for donating rims and other prizes to the NITRO prize fund.

With the wins here Steve turned a triple hat trick having won every A-Main this season. Will the "Maddman" continue to steamroller the series or will the Winter break bring new challenges. Join us in Iowa to see what will happen when NITRO regroups in January for the "Dash to the Outhouse!"

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