Results from the 02/25/2001 Race

The 2/25/2001 race had the biggest turnout so far this season in the Vintage HO Racing Series.  Twenty-six racers converged at Joe Hoopes ThunderJet Raceway.  The recent snowfall didn't deter many (or any) guys from this race.  All but one of the MM Racing Team was there, for the first race after the Fray.

As one might expect it was another great day of fun and competitive racing.  For a lot of us, it was the first time we ever saw ThunderJet Raceway.  The racers did their best to get a good feel for the track, and I think the did quite well.  I think everyone hated the blue lane (a tough gutter lane).  The racing was close all day, not more than a lap separating most of the racers in their final finishing positions.

Joe Hoopes used a new race format.  Cars went through a quick tech at qualifying (tech block and visiual inspection), but were not impounded.  Racers were allowed to clean/rebuild/repair/tweak cars between heats, but motor replacement was prohibited.  Qualifying consisted of running 3 laps (flying start) and the best lap time was used as the racers' qualifying time.  Racers were grouped according to their qualifying time to create 5 groups of 4 and 2 groups of 3.  The racing itself was done one lane at a time.  That is each group ran only one heat, then instead of rotating immediately to the next lane, the rotated out to be marshalls, and the next group rotated in.  The number of laps and the "zone" (the track was broken up into zones instead of counting each piece of track) was recorded after each heat.  When your group was up to race again, the racer rotated to the appropriate lane, and placed his car to start from the appropriate zone.  After all groups completed the 4 lane rotation, the top 8 raced in the finals to determine the winners.