Racers began to come in at 1pm. No one knew what the type/ body the cars would be. Most racers did not bring their slot boxes. Controllers in hand, they seemed almost lost not needing to thrash before the race.
With a start time of 2pm, I had taken the race fees and listed the drivers to draw for lane choice. Just as I was about to reveal the cars...Kyle and Kraig came up the stairs for 2 more entries. So that made 12 racers for the IROC race. Willie and Mac sat out to provide the necessary pit work/lane change/oiling/braiding etc etc.
I took the sealed box to the starting line for the much anticipated reveal. What would it be??? Intern'l 32nd chassis with an Intrepid body!!! The four people (Jay, Mac, Willie and I) all knew they drove well but for some there was a momentary panic.
Everyone (except the sitouts) lined up for 1 min of practice. Then the sitouts had their turn.
Then it was race time.................
We had 8 race cars, one painted for each lane. 3 emergency cars, painted with stripes.
The first half of the first heat was a crash fest. But soon they settled into a nice smooth-ish race pace. Fortunately we had the emergency car as 2 were needed in the 2nd heat. Mac thrashing to replace a gear. As soon as a car was repaired it went back on the track immediately. The purple car seem to have a hex on it today breaking several times. Orange appeared to be the rocket.
Racers kept the marshals on their toes and very busy. But with every heat, everyone's driving improved. Remember, this chassis/body combination had never been run before today.
Considering the very limited amount of time they had to become familiar with this car...the racing was very close for many of them. But it was Brain Cannon that seemed determined to win the first IROC race at Dallas Slot Cars. Second place went to Randy Holden from Wichita Falls. Third place was Glen Blanchard.
It really was fun and if you missed it, you missed a good one. We will do this again.
Thanks for coming and playing with us on a Sunday afternoon. Big thanks to Randy and Bill for making the drive from Wichita Falls. You two always make us laugh!
We hadn't seen Randy and Robert for several weeks so it was great to see them walk through the doors. It was nice to see Kyle and Kraig come to play too.
My biggest thanks to Willie. He built and painted every car for today's race. He and Mac worked perpetually through the race to keep the cars in working order as well as dealing with lane changing AND marshalling. Dallas Slot Cars would be lost without Willie and Mac.
1st Brian Cannon 267 4.76 green 2nd Randy Holden 260 4.94 black 3rd Jay Howard 259 4.82 blue 4th Glen Blanchard 257 4.89 orange 5th Bill Perry 255 4.89 green 6th Kyle Stokes 252 4.89 green 7th George Mikez 247 4.94 blue 8th Jerry Hall 247 4.94 black 9th Randy Parker 244 4.94 orange 10th Kraig beck 241 4.99 black 11th George Steuben 208 5.06 12 Robert Burch 174 5.41
