NASCAR and Can-Am 1/24 Scale Races
By
“Gene Husting”, photos by “Al Hall”…
It is
becoming to be a bore, at least for other frustrated racers. Philippe de
Lespinay used his Easterly-built chassis, a recycled 2006 TSRF hand-out motor
and a MAC Mercury Cyclone to cruise to an easy win in the NASCAR race, with Paul
Sterrett and Mike Steube in tow. In the Can-Am event, no one could even come
close to Mike Steube who used the very same car and motor with which he won the
previous King track race, simply with one gear change.
Pre Race Activity
Bryan
Warmack built a new car that showed great potential and caused some controversy.
This car uses an ultra-lightweight chassis and a ground-effect under-tray that
is an integral part of the chassis, creating a certain amount of down force. The
controversy is not in the use of the device, but in the fact that it is an
integral part of the chassis, possibly infringing on the chassis rules not
because of function but because of the materials used. The car is very inventive
and deserves to get all the necessary consideration by the technical committee.
More controversial was the fact that the body, a MAC Abarth, had its nose
chopped to provide the necessary airflow under the car. That did not sit well
with some.
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This extraordinary machine comes from the fertile and imaginative mind of one of the most talented craftsmen this writer has ever had the privilege to meet. Bryan Warmack’s chassis is made of two main rails onto which a formed brass pan is soldered. The clear Lexan undertray is held by clear tape over the thin wire bracketry. |
| The wing shape can be clearly see as Bryan holds his inventive machine. Not since the early 1970’s had this writer seen an attempt at a serious ground-effect car, and this one does work but will need more tune up to find the ideal combination. |
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The whole car weighs only 82 grams and was the lightest in the race. |
| The whole chassis inside the body, with the nose cut right off to allow a good air flow to create the needed ground effect. |
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Retro NASCAR Race:
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The field was mostly composed of Easterly chassis, with a pair of Steube and a Sterrett for good measure. |
| The NASCAR Master, Jeff Easterly, giving Mike Steube’s Plymouth the full tech treatment. The intensity is floating heavily as Jeff measures the ground clearance with a precision-calibrated instrument also known as a piece of K&S wire. |
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The cars awaiting their fate. With two Wood Brothers # 21 cars, on-track visual confusion was a dire possibility. |
| The Concours winners, Jeff Bell, Philippe de Lespinay and Jeff Easterly’s machines. |
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Ready to rock! The Team Zombie members and honorary members are wearing the mandatory Ghoul Jackets. |
| The podium with two racers and a joker. Fun was had by all. |
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Team
Zombie’s Jeff Bell won the Concours d’Elegance. The NASCAR race saw seven
entries with new cars by Mike Steube, Keith Tanaka and Terry de los Santos.
However, these last two were Jeff Easterly-built chassis and do these things
work! Philippe had an easy time with his own Easterly car, plainly demolishing
the opposition with a car that would not come out of the slot. Jeff Bell won the
Concours with a well turned out car.
Mike
Steube trailed Paul Sterrett by a single lap at the end, with Terry best of the
rest.
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Pos |
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Body |
Laps |
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| 1 | Philippe de Lespinay | MAC Mercury Cyclone | 258 | 5.3780″ * |
| 2 | Paul Sterrett | Lancer Plymouth | 249 | 5.5977″ * |
| 3 | Mike Steube | Lancer Plymouth | 248 | 5.5465″ * |
| 4 | Terry de los Santos | Lancer Plymouth | 239 | 5.7104″ * |
| 5 | Jeff Bell | Lancer Dodge Charger |
232 | 5.9291″ * |
| 6 | Jeff Easterly | Lancer Ford Torino | 226 | 5.9802″ * |
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6.3080″ * |
* Fastest lap (new record)
* Establishes new records for class
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The winning car had a MAC Mercury Cyclone, devised by Lloyd Asbury in 1972 and recently re-issued by Electric Dreams. |
| The Easterly-built chassis was heavy but untouchable on the King track. Horsepower-city was also the name of the game, and the TSRF motor had plenty of it once run… in reverse! |
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Retro Can-Am Qualifying
20
racers signed up, down from the previous race as several racers were ill while
others attended a USRA race out of town. The track was a bit loose, causing lap
times to drop from previous races. Nevertheless, the racing was good. Tore
Anderson had his newest car ready just in time and with little practice set a
fantastic lap at 4.5392″ that no one could touch. While this was not a new
record because of track conditions, it certainly placed the mark very high for
others to follow. Mike Steube tried his hardest but failed by a mere 2/100th of
a second. Philippe de Lespinay somehow pushed his car from the high 4.77″s where
it had been stuck in practice to a end in third spot, only 5/100th off Tore’s
time, followed by a brilliant Yoshio Akiyama only 6/100th of a second behind.
Next
was the other “usual suspect” Paul Sterrett, best of the rest but substantially
slower. Bob Scott was next and best “out of town” entrant, bettering Doug
Matthes and Bryan Warmack with his revolutionary car.
Kyle
Matthes, Allen Low and Keith Tanaka were the strong men of the B-race group,
ahead of Jeff Bell and Craig Williamson. Steve Walker and Terry de los Santos
had minor problems ands were a bit slower than the usual, but Terry would come
back with a vengeance in the B race. Ken Dylke used his latest twin-motor car
that had an enormous amount of torque and speed in the straight bits, but
unfortunately those are attached to curved bit where the car had a tougher time.
Roger Uusitalo was short of horsepower, ahead of a greatly improved Gibson
Coutley and Albert Cruz getting his feet wet in a new form of racing.
Qualifying Order:
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Pos |
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Body |
Lap |
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4.5392″ |
| 2 | Mike Steube | MAC Abarth | 4.5545″ |
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4.6472″ |
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| 6 | Bob Scott | MAC Lola T160 | 4.8143″ |
| 7 | Doug Matthes | MAC Lola T160 | 4.8630″ |
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4.9244″ |
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| 13 | Craig Williamson | MAC Ferrari 312P | 5.0653″ |
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Steve Walker |
Toytech |
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| 19 | Gibson Coutley | MAC Abarth | 5.4026″ |
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*
Fastest lap (no record)
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Part of the entries for the Can-Am class. The standard of finish was good. |
| Tore Anderson’s Ti22 had really nice detailing including wire mess on the oil cooler, specially molded intake stacks and a well detailed driver. |
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Part of the field shows the vast variety found in D3 racing. |
| More of the chassis show their mettle during tech inspection. |
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This car was patterned after a JK chassis with sliding sides. It did not work too well but surely will be sorted out for the next event. |
| Yoshio Akiyama was the man with horsepower and used it to set a great qualifying time that earned him a spot in the “A” race. Yoshi has become a force to reckon in D3 and watch out for his improved driving. |
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A
controversy of sorts arose when there was a confusion about who won Concours in
the Can-Am class. After all things appear to have been sorted out, it looks like
Tore Anderson’s beautiful Ti22 won over the Bryan Warmack equally gorgeous
Abarth and the Steve Walker Lola. The author of these lines apologizes to all
concerned for the error due to a misinterpretation of what the judges (about a
dozen of racers present) actually decided.
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Concours winners: Anderson at right, Warmack in center and Walker machines. The Warmack machine did cause some controversy with its nose cut to allow airflow inside the car as well as its chassis materials. |
“C” Race
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The “C” race ready to go. The white and red FIAT-Abarth is that of Gibson Coutley on his usual suicide mission. Actually, Gibson did quite well and certainly is improving, making everyone else feeling a bit more comfy racing. |
| Steve Walker built this inventive chassis for Gibson Coutley to drive. The main rails are square brass tubing. |
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The
race was a private affair for Terry de los Santos who built a 5-lap lead over
the race-long battling pair of Jeff Easterly and Ken Dylke. It did not come
easily as Terry avoided most of the crashes to eventually get away from the
furious battle behind his car. Eventually, Ken pulled a small advantage to
barely edge Jeff in the last lap of the last heat. Roger Uusitalo was too short
of power to b able to b a factor, while Gibson Coutley drove a fair race,
staying in the slot more often than not. A great improvement since he did not
slow down too much. Albert Cruz cruised around in this, his first D3 race, and
also ran into mechanical problems.
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Gibson clowning for the camera. |
| Police-helicopter view of the cars of Ken Dylke, Terry de los Santos and Jeff Easterly. |
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Sewer view of the same machines.. |
“C” Race
Results:
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Pos |
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Body |
Laps |
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| 1 | Terry de los Santos | MAC Lola T160 | 268 | 5.1565″ * |
| 2 | Ken Dylke | MAC Lola T160 | 263 | 5.2699″ |
| 3 | Jeff Easterly | MAC Lola T160 | 263 | 5.2181″ |
| 4 | Roger Uusitalo | MAC Ferrari 312P | 256 | 5.3791″ |
| 5 | Gibson Coutley | MAC Abarth | 244 | 5.3206″ |
| 6 | Albert Cruz | MAC Lola T160 | 177 | 5.4884″ |
*
Fastest lap (no record)
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Terry de los Santos ran away from Jeff Easterly and Ken Dylke who had their own battle. At the end, Ken was but a few feet ahead of Jeff who is showing here his great disappointment. |
“B” Race
Kyle
Matthes won the race, or did he? Terry de los Santos and Kyle came out of the
donut together when the power shut off, but Kyle’s car was a mere 2.5″ ahead
after 10 minutes of trying to figure out the proper center of the radius. This
was the closest race finish witnessed by this writer in over 40 years of racing
these little cars…
Terry
and Kyle had a race-long see-saw battle that had them together within one lap of
each other over Keith Tanaka’s Ferrari. Steve Walker, Allen Low and Craig
Williamson had their own battle going, with Walker surviving it with fastest
race lap. Jeff Bell of Team Zombie motored around after a disastrous first heat.
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The field ready to go. Terry de los Santos moved up from the C race to lead the B until the power shut off, being edged by inches by the Kyle Matthes coasting machine. |
| Steve Walker, Keith Tanaka, Craig Williamson, Allen Low, Terry de los Santos, Kyle Matthes and Team Zombie Jeff Bell wave to the camera. |
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Yes, this is how they finished. Who won? In fact, the track braid holes were not in line with the actual radius of the track, meaning that Kyle’s car was actually ahead by 2.5″. |
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Paul Sterrett is establishing a center line to make sure that the actual finish would be fair, and it was. The closest seen by this writer ever.. |
“B” Race
Results:
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Pos |
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Body |
Laps |
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4.9377″ |
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*
Fastest lap (no record)
“A” Race
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The
race was a simple runaway for Mike Steube, who just jetted in the sunset and
built a 2-lap lead in the first segment over Sterrett, Bob Scott, Doug Matthes
and Philippe de Lespinay. Anderson was hurting on the red lane, another lap
behind. Warmack was also having problems with his new car on the black lane,
losing 6 laps on the leader.
The
second heat saw Mike adding another lap to his capital, while Bob Scott took
over second place after Paul ran into some serious on-track incidents, losing
him 3 more laps. Philippe was now in mortal agony on red, suffering the Anderson
syndrome in the previous heat.
The
next heat changed things as Philippe came back from 6th to 2nd place, but still
4 laps down from Mike. Anderson had regrouped and was now in 3rd, only one more
lap down, ahead of Bob Scott and Doug Matthes holding 4th spot from the
beginning. Paul was also hanging there after losing another lap, ahead of Yoshio
and Bryan still in trouble with a twitchy car.
In
the 4th heat, Mike kept even with Philippe with a 4-lap cushion. Doug Matthes
passed Anderson for 3rd, threatened now by Bob Scott in a serious charge for a
podium spot. Comes heat 5 and Tore is back in third, rocketing on black, now
only 2 laps from Philippe. But Mike is long gone, now 8 laps ahead. In the 6th
heat, Anderson pulled his controller and walked away, frustrated from his
inability to keep up with a car too new and lacking setup time. This allowed Bob
Scott to seize and hold the final podium spot, and this is how it ended, with
Matthes in 4th, Paul Sterrett and Yoshio Akiyama in a battle for 5th. Yoshio had
the faster car but it is hard to keep up with Paul’s faultless driving and
experience. Bryan trailed with his fast, promising but so far unpredictable
prototype.
“A” Race
Results
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Pos |
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