Race Report
Nineteen entrants from Illinois, Iowa and Indiana turned up for the NITRO Finale at Crystal Rock Raceway (CRR). After an eight race series for the Fray cars the points battle was tight. Kevin Kessler and Steve Medanic were separated for the season championship by only six points (258 Steve / 252 Kevin). The battle for fifth through ninth was just as tight. CRR hosted three extra hours of practice Friday night and many contenders made the trip to Naperville to get some extra practice. At CRR's first race (The NITRO Turkey Trot) there were problems with the T-jet pickups picking up track residue leading to severe performance problems. There were fears that this could happen again. Fortunately the earlier cleaning methods and not the track were at fault. The latest cleaning method worked like a charm, the rail problems were no more and CRR was now a conventional slot car track in all respects. Several drivers implemented some of the driving and setup tips from the Siberia Racing website and dramatically improved their Turkey Trot (TT) times. Jim Keen , Kevin Kessler, John Verbich and others significantly improved their TT times to join the six-second club. Jim would to prove to be one of the men to watch today.
Outside Saturday dawned rainy and gloomy, inside it was warm, dry and the track was ready. Three hours of practice saw more drivers making improvements and feeling good about the "new" CRR. Along with the rails not being an issue, CRR had been updated for the second race to add a breaker trip alarm and address some minor bumps. Track call buttons, and power status lights had also been added. After the problems with Trakmate Version 1.60 at the last race Version 1.55b was on-line to eliminate any PC problems.
Concourse
Concourse was a fight between Al (#1), Zipper (#2), Jeremy (#5) and Paul (#43). Zipper's patriotic AMX was tough but it was Paul's beautiful Petty Ford (He really drove one) that took Concourse.
The Photo's don't do the cars justice.
Fray Qualifying
Fray qualifying saw Jim Keen (Rockford, Illinois) on top with 51 laps to set the CRR Fray qualifying record. Steve narrowly beat Indiana's John Verbich to take the second qualifying spot and the two points associated with it. John and Jim were in their own battle for season points and Jim's three points for pole position cut John's lead down to eight points. Steve's two points for the second qualifying spot increased his lead over Kevin to eight points. John and Kevin's tasks became that much harder and Jim and Steve's a bit easier.
The Fray race was run as a Two-Bracket race. The consis were set at two minutes per lane and the winner and second place would move up to race against faster cars. The grid was set as follows:
Names in BLACK are those racers who qualified in their race. Names in RED indicate those racers that moved up from their previous race.
Fray Consi Races
The first consi featured Bill, Dan and Jeremy. Dan led wire to wire to win by three. Bill and Jeremy were tied at the end of the second segment. Bill subsequently pulled away to take second place and the final move up spot leaving Jeremy third.
Erik, Josh, Chuck and Danger lined up in the second consi. Some folks were wondering just how badly Danger sandbagged qualifying and the answer became apparent when the power went on. Danger starting turning 6.6 second laps and just walked away to win by five. There was a race in his wake. At the end of the first segment Josh was in second a lap behind Danger but one up on Erik and Chuck. Josh continued to hold a one-lap lead over Erik in the next two segments. Meanwhile Erik had picked up four laps on Chuck. Yellow is a good lane, however, Josh was overconfident and let Erik through to take the move up by a lap. Chuck finished on red but put on a charge as well. Unfortunately the charge came up short and Josh would finish third.
Dan and Bill joined Bob and Al in the next race. Dan would go wire to wire again but like last time there was also a race going on for the second move up spot. Bill and Bob were tied for the first two segments. Al was keeping pace but was one lap behind these two. Things started to spread out in the third segment and Bob pulled away to finish second. In the last segment Al put on a charge to tie Bill on the computer. Al was ahead on the track, got the spot and demoted Bill to fourth.
On the other side Danger, Rob Erik and Paul were lined up. Like Dan, Danger also led from wire to wire and was obviously practicing for the main. Unfortunately, Danger had slowed down a bit and the others were able to stay in touch. In the first segment Erik tied Danger for first. Paul was running third a lap back but a lap ahead of Rob. Going into the third segment Paul and Erik were tied. They were one lap back from Danger but had gained an additional lap on Rob. Neither Erik or Paul could gain any advantage in the last two segments and Paul would take second and the move up by feet over Erik. Rob was running just as fast as Erik and Paul. Unfortunately he couldn't make up the lap he lost in the first segment and would finish fourth.
Dan and Bob now moved up to face Zipper and Jeff. When the green light went on it was Zipper's turn to walk away from the field. Jeff held second after the first segment a lap down from Zipper but a lap up on Dan and Bob. The second segment showed no change in the gap between these three as they all turned the same segment totals. Going into the last segment Bob was tied with Jeff with Dan only two laps behind these two. Dan had the lane advantage and despite running the highest segment total of the race he couldn't make up the gap to Jeff and Bob who were still tied. The outcome only mattered for lane choice as both Jeff and Bob made the move up. Zipper was invited to speak at his college's closing ceremony and had to leave. He graciously refused the move up associated with winning the race giving Jeff and Bob another chance.
Wayne and Greg now met Danger and Paul. Danger found some of the speed he showed earlier but he was now in very fast company. The first segment ended with two laps covering the field as Greg was one lap back from the others. Greg was able to make up the lap in the second segment and there was again a three-way tie. This time the tie was for second. Wayne was solidly in third for the championship and was running an Aurora Soft-top Dune Buggy. However, Wayne was on a mission and pushed his buggy into the lead with a lap over the field. In the third segment Paul and Wayne slipped back a bit. The three-way tie now was for first between Greg, Wayne and Danger. In the last segment, Danger pulled out a lap to win over Wayne and Greg who were still tied. Wayne's dune buggy was ahead on the track and would take the move up to end Paul's and Greg's day.
Fray Semi-Main Races
We were now in the semis. These races were still two minutes per lane however, only the winner of each race was guaranteed a mover up and a berth in the Fray main.
John, Wayne and Danger lined up in the A-Semi against top qualifier Jim Keen. John and Jim were only eight points apart and Jim really wanted to avenge his performance at the Turkey Trot where a failed controller in the B-Semi cost him a berth in the main. When the power came on Jim just ran and hid. At the end of the first segment John, Wayne and Danger were tied but already two laps shy of Jim’s very quick Lola. This was not the car that Steve tweaked earlier but a brand new car. John took control of second place in the second segment leaving Wayne and Danger still tied for third. In the Third segment Wayne came back to tie John for second. Wayne’s challenge was to end as he was finishing on Red and John was on Blue. At this time, Jim was about 5 laps ahead however, he has a bad habit at CRR of blowing up late in the semi’s and not making the main.
In the last segment of the Turkey Trot his controller faulted and tripped the breaker early in the last heat. In the resulting "what’s wrong with my car" confusion he missed the main. The subsequent installation of breaker trip alarms meant that fate (or Murphy) had to be a bit more creative this time if Jim was to miss the main. But Fate was asleep and the semi ended without incident. Jim took the win and moved into the main with a 67. John was second with 64. Danger put on a charge for third in the last segment but couldn’t pass Wayne. Wayne finished third with a 62 leaving Danger in fourth a lap behind with 61.
A-Semi Results
A happy Jim Keen after winning the A-semi and making the main.
Championship contenders Kevin and Steve lined up next to each other in the B-Semi. When the power came on Steve ran four nearly flawless segments to take the win and T.Q. for the main with an incredible 70 lap run. The race spread out quickly after the first segment. Kevin kept Steve in check in the first segment but couldn’t match his performance and finished second with 66. Jeff finished four back from Kevin. Jeff in turn was holding a five-lap lead on Bob when the power went off.
Fray Main Event
The NITRO Finale Fray Main featured Steve, Jim, Kevin and John. The main had two season point fights. In order to win the season championship, Kevin had to win with Steve finishing fourth. In order to take fourth place, Jim had to win and John had to finish fourth. Having broken his run of bad luck, Jim was feeling good. Steve’s 70-lap run in the semis gave him lane choice in the main and before the power came on it looked like another Ferrari blowout. Well, things were not as they seemed. When the power came on Jim left a microsecond before Steve to lead into turn one.
In the infield, Steve’s BSRT Ferrari came back to take the lead. Steve started on Red which is a tough lane and the long way around. Jim, Kevin and John were pushing hard and several offs in the first 90 seconds shifted the advantage from Steve to Jim. Jim (Aurora-Lola), Kevin (MEV-Ford Mk-IV) and John (Aurora-Cheetah) all ran like a train for a while with Steve's Aurora-Ferrari 250 GTO about a lap behind. When the power went off at the end of a long four minutes, Jim had pulled out a one lap lead on Kevin who in turn was a lap up on John and Steve.
In the second segment it was Jim’s turn in Red. Jim drove Red very well but unfortunately Steve was stringing together some very fast laps in Blue to make up the deficit and tie Jim at the halfway point. Steve's fastest lap of 6.478 in the segment set the CRR Fray record, Kevin was still one short lap behind these two and was holding a comfortable two-lap lead on John.
In the third segment Steve flew around Yellow and pulled out about a half-lap lead. Jim was no stone and he joined CRR’s exclusive "6.5 Club" with a 6.571 lap. Jim, in Blue, was comfortably in second as these two had started to pull away from Kevin who in turn was holding his two-lap lead on John. Fate, asleep in the semis, woke up in the last few seconds of the segment and loosened a front retainer. With less than 10 seconds to go, Jim gets on the gas early and half spins on the exit of the first infield hairpin (Turn 5). The marshal rotates the car and he quickly rejoins. Coming out of Turn 6 the car stops as the loose front retainer came off during the incident and scattered the front end all over the infield. While fate did it’s worst, Lady Luck smiled as the problem occurred just a few seconds before the power went off. Kevin’s "sky-cam" caught the incident on tape. The
replay shows that despite the Lola being all over the table Jim lost no more than a half-lap as a result of the incident. Steve could have pulled further ahead but, distracted by the proceedings, spun his Ferrari at the same spot a second or so before the power went off.A search of the table located all of his missing parts and after some T.L.C. Jim’s Lola was ready for the last segment of the Finale. Unshaken, Jim drove Yellow beautifully, kept Steve from gaining any additional advantage and actually took ground back. Jim, Kevin and Steve ran the same segment totals but Steve’s run on Yellow gave him the win with a one-lap lead over Jim. Without Jim's problems, the win would have most likely come down to sections.
The final lap totals were Steve 137, Jim 136, Kevin 131 and John 127. Steve and Jim were both ahead of the Turkey Trot (TT) times and all four were faster than the second place finisher in the TT. Likewise, Jim and Steve were both under the fast lap record at the TT and all four drivers had significant improvement over their TT times. A post race teardown of the four cars revealed no abnormalities and the results were declared official.
Steve's win gave him the inaugural NITRO crown with four wins, two seconds and 310 points. Kevin would finish second with two wins and 300 points. Wayne took third in the series with a single victory and 266 points. John took fourth overall with 250 points as Jim's charge fell four points short. The series top ten was rounded out as follows 6th - Jeff Wright, 7th - Greg Cozad, 8th - Bill Deuser, 9th - Paul Kessler and 10th - Bob Muys.
As you can see, the series ending "raffle" took over the infield and featured a huge assortment of prizes with T-shirts, cars, bodies, controllers, resistors, tires, magnets, front end sets, retainers and just about every imaginable part a T-jet racer would want.
Pro T-jet Support Race
About half the field left after the raffle and prize ceremony and the remaining ten racers lined up for the Pro T-jet race. Due to time constraints, this race was run as a single round robin of three minutes per lane. There were opinions that because of their bulk, these monsters should not be quicker than the Fray cars. When the power came on Jim Keen immediately got into the low 6.4 bracket to lead the first segment from Kevin who was running 6.6-second laps. Speed does not always mean consistency. John could only turn 7-second laps but managed to keep it in the slot to finish a lap ahead of Kevin to avenge his finish in the Fray race. Jim was to stay on point until the sixth segment when Steve hooked up in Red. Steve immediately started running laps in the low 6.3's and was staying on. The only question left was not who would win but just how fast could this road racing funny car go. His best lap of 6.047 shattered the Fray times and the Turkey Trot Pro T-jet lap record. However, the six-second barrier remained to be broken another day. Jim finished Second three laps behind Steve. John finished a distant third behind these two but a lap ahead of Kevin. Rob, Erik, Dan, Al, Paul and Chuck rounded out the Pro T-jet field.
Winner's Setups
Steve's triple race winning Fray car featured an Aurora Ferrari 250-GTO body. The car featured spaced and sleeved independently rotating front rims made by Jim & Chuck Keen, Hobby Pro 0.177" rear rims and American Line Tuff-One tires. A triple red arm with T-jet magnets and Thunderbrushes completed the race-winning car. Steve's new Pro T-jet used a Lifelike Ford Taurus body. Semi-flexible nylon body mounts controlled body float and gave handling. A Scale Auto "Mean Green" motor, Thunderbrushes and a pair of Super II magnets provided the "funny car" horsepower. Cylindrical front rims, Hobby Pro 0.250" rear rims and scuffed Scale Auto rear silicones turned by a 9/15 final drive completed the car.
NITRO's 2002-03 Plans & Rumors
The NITRO series takes the summer off and will return in the fall. Hopefully we will see you racing with us when NITRO's second season begins this fall. Victory Raceway has been sold and it's new location appears to be too small to host a race. Greg is building a new track and NITRO may visit the dungeon again. However, next year looks to be a fun season with at possibly two or three new host tracks. Jeff Wright is the new owner of Bill Dyal's Bucktrak Banzai and Doug Gilbert is anxious to host a race up in Rockford. Bulldog raceway is being expanded and with the TM's approval, NITRO could have both a Long and Short track race there. There are rumblings about a new HO slot racing shop starting up in Naperville and NITRO could have a late season race there as well. CRR will be back as well. Based on the first two races future races at CRR will be tighter and more exciting than the first two. CRR is reversible and convertible to an oval. Will NITRO have a big oval race next year? Fuel up with NITRO for some of the best T-jet racing in the Midwest!
