Close Racing On Friday Night
Close racing in the Friday night Nascar class is typical, and this week was no exception! Dick wrote a piece about the amateur race which can be found below, and I will talk a little about the expert race.
In this weeks expert race, Tim Burgess was fast time at a 4.53. Chris Alden was very strong this week, leading the first 2 segments. Timmy would take the lead midway through the race after recovering from a few early race incidents. As we headed into the 8th and final segment, Tim had a 3 car length lead on me. He was finishing his race on Orange, and I was on Blue. I tried so hard to try and get ahead of him before the start of the final segment, but I couldn’t make it happen.
Tim hustles a slot car around the Twister as well as anyone, and when time ran out I was only about 8 feet in front of him for the win. Close racing with really good racers like Tim is why I keep coming week after week. Len Strand finished in third, just a few laps behind us.
Friday was a real fun night for the amateur guys . All drivers (including amateurs) had to qualify. That’s kinda fun but also a little embarrassing for us novice drivers excluding Jim of course, he gets in the 4.7s. That’s getting close to the big boys.
The race that was the most fun was the novice class. As I said, we all had to qualify. Jim is getting real close to the expert guys turning in a 4.7. Dick somehow got very lucky and posted a 4.9. Rory got a 5.2 and warren managed a 5.7.
With the Warren brothers back we made it a four man race for amateur.
The fun stuff started when Jim blew everybody away lap after lap for the first five heats. He was about five laps ahead of second place when we all started smelling a very familiar odor. It was a motor frying! By the sweat rolling off Jims face, we knew it was him. Dick began to dance just a bit and could not conceal the grin spreading across his face. It was a chance, a small one but a chance (Hey a win is a win). Leading by several laps, Jim was able to slow down a bit to try and save what was left of his motor. He spent most of the time between heats blowing frantically on the motor trying to cool it off some. So much in fact he almost didn’t get back to the drivers stand in time to start some heats. Dick was able to make up a lap or so each heat and got within two laps, all the while praying for that scream of a dying motor all drivers hate. The scream never came, that, with a couple of nerve induced crashes gave Jim the win by two laps, Proving Dick still has a way to go to beat the “King of Amateur” even with half a motor Jims still got it.
The Warren brothers meanwhile were in a battle for third with Rory finally taking that spot. These guys continue to improve and with some more practice they will join the battle to take down Jim.