ECHORR Challenge 2009 – Day 1 – Friday
Up at 5:30 AM, have to get to the hall by 7 AM to start breaking down tables and chairs and prep for 7 tracks and pit spaces.
When I got there the tables were all setup and chairs stacked up on them, it was the Bingo night setup for @ 400 people.
Tim Leppert strolled in a few minutes after me and started to break down chairs, a few minutes later Dave Lockwood came in
and the three of us worked for @ 45 minutes before some more support came in. All told we worked close to 2 hours just
breaking down tables and chairs. At @ 9 AM we started to bring in the tracks and stage them. Then we all had to stop when
Big Anthony arrived, his “portable “track needs special attention and 12 guys to get it in and staged. We worked on Anthony’s
track then one by one we staged the other tracks. We set up the pit tables so each team could have at least 2 tables per,
Janet , Cheryl (Paul Kniffen’s better half) and Anthony’s wife Rose made sure each table had a plastic cover on it, when you
looked from the stage it resembled a checkered flag, alternating black and white table covers, awesome job ladies!. I had to
run out to the Post Office to get some track parts and stop at Radio Shack to get some connectors, by 11 AM all the tracks
were in and being connected and cleaned and making sure the glitches were out, yes we did run some cars on the tables,
but this really cannot be considered any “extra” practice for anyone. Thanks to all that were part of the set up crew,
you worked hard and made sure everything was ready when promised. By noon most of the participants had arrived and
were marking their territory in the Hall. The tracks were open for practice and everyone started to rotate on the tracks to
get their team cars ready. It was now time for me to do the administrative part of the event, hang master tally sheets,
rotation sheets, etc. and make sure each table had the proper scoring sheets and the right color lane stickers (Thanks Henry for
the Lane Stickers).
At 1 PM I held a Team Captain’s meeting to hand out the rule set and discuss the schedule, etc. for the weekend.
ZoominMotorsports and my roaming store were set up on vendor’s row in the back of the hall. On Saturday local collector
Doug Keys set up to add some “collector” flavor to the event.
Late afternoon came early and it was almost Tech time. I assembled the Tech crew and gave them instructions, the teams lined
up to get their cars through tech. Thanks to all the Tech guys and to Paul Kniffen for working on bodies for racers, even if they
were not ones he cast. I assembled the Captains to draw their team numbers, we had some open practice for the classic cars and
did the Team intros all by 7:30 PM, not bad! All team cars were put in boxes and sealed impounded till Saturday AM.
A group of us went to a local place called The Green Turtle for some much needed adult beverages and food. It was rather
crowded and we finally got seated outside and it was cold and rather damp, but the drinks were awesome!! Another Early rising
on Saturday, the hall was to open at 8 AM.
ECHORR Challenge – 2009 – Day 2 – Saturday – Team Racing
The Hall was to open at 8 am, I got there @ 7:50 AM and the parking lot was full, racers chomping at the bit. The doors opened, everyone
signed in and received participant plaques and trays. I ran around and quickly cleaned some of the tracks. We had a Driver’s meeting at 8:30
and handed out the team cars to the captains @ 8:45 AM; fifteen minutes to get to first rack and warm the cars up. We started the program
at 9 AM and everyone was going full tilt by 9:10 AM. We would run 7 races of the 13 and break for lunch. There were some hotdogs and
drinks available at the Hall, but that did not last long. As the racing was going on, local collector Doug Keys set up his wares and had quite
a bit of traffic to his table, T-shirts for the event were selling and Todd and Debbie of TKO fame set up to answer questions and get feedback
from the racers. Todd is always looking for ways to improve his products and love to hear from the racers.
I did not race much during this event, so I got a chance to go around and watch some of the team racing, Wow! Everyone has certainly improved
their equipment and driving. There were many close races during the day and the team records don’t necessarily reflect the closeness of the
completion. There was a lot of laughing and carrying on during the races which was great to see.
The results after the dust settled:
|
Team
|
W
|
L
|
T
|
|
KC - Jet
|
13
|
0
|
0
|
|
ZoominMotorsports
|
12
|
1
|
0
|
|
Buckeye Thunder
|
11
|
2
|
0
|
|
NJ Longhorns
|
9
|
3
|
1
|
|
Tye Dye
|
9
|
4
|
0
|
|
High Voltage
|
8
|
4
|
1
|
|
Jester
|
6
|
6
|
1
|
|
Burger & Beer
|
5
|
8
|
0
|
|
West Coast
|
5
|
8
|
0
|
|
Riff Raff Racing
|
4
|
7
|
2
|
|
Force Aurora
|
2
|
9
|
2
|
|
All Stars
|
1
|
10
|
2
|
|
East Coast Outlaws
|
1
|
12
|
0
|
|
BTE
|
0
|
12
|
1
|
It was now time for the Team Awards and for the 2nd Challenge in a row Team KC-Jet (Steve Ward, Clint Bourne, Don Royal, John Habernal and a
couple of cameos by me) went undefeated. Congrats to team KC – Jet, they were pushed hard but still prevailed.
Based on our experience from the night before, Janet went to a local sports bar named Time Out and reserved a private room for the Challenge
participants…Much better! We were inside and could actually hold a conversation without being drowned out by noise. We drank we ate, drank
some more and shared tales of this event and past races.
ECHORR Challenge 2009 – Day 3 – Individual and IROC Day
Again the morning got here way too early. We had voted on the track for the Individual event on Friday, so that was already set as well as the
IROC table and cars. Anthony Zampelli’s “portable” track was the overwhelming favorite for the Individual event and the Blue Max was used for
the IROC race. The Individual race class was the VHORS Classic cars and the IROC cars were 4 Fray – style cars with silicone slip –on tires prepped
by Don Royal and Steve Ward. The Individual tech went smooth and rather quickly and the Individual race started @ 10:00 AM. We ran both events
simultaneously with a group of 8 racers racing and marshalling on the Individual track then moving over to the IROC table to do the same. Although
everyone ran in the IROC race not all were eligible for the finals, if you made the top 16 or Sweet 16 in the Individual race you would not be able to
compete in the IROC finals. The Individual race turned out to be one of the best races in recent history, some very fast t-jets moving around
that TKO track.
Qualifying for the Individual event – 2 minute heats:
|
Racer Name
|
Total laps. Sections
|
|
Clint Bourne
|
74.18
|
|
Steve Ward
|
73.19
|
|
Don Bourne
|
73.07
|
|
Habby
|
73.02
|
|
Dave Lockwood
|
72.03
|
|
Don Royal
|
71.01
|
|
Ken Ott
|
70.20
|
|
Hiram Durant
|
70.18
|
|
Paul Kniffen
|
70.07
|
|
Anthony Zampelli
|
69.24
|
|
Don Auriema
|
69.23
|
|
Henry Harnish
|
68.17
|
|
Kevin B
|
68.07
|
|
Rick Phillis
|
68.02
|
|
Bruce Gordon
|
67.21
|
|
James Tindall
|
67.13
|
|
Ryan Peoples
|
67.03
|
|
Tom Bowman
|
67.02
|
|
Greg W
|
67.01
|
|
Alan Sleeper
|
66.23
|
|
Doug Elton
|
66.23
|
|
Dave Failing
|
66.04
|
|
Tim Leppert
|
66.03
|
|
Brad Morgan
|
66.02
|
|
Derek S
|
66.02
|
|
Lewis W
|
66.02
|
|
John Bamomte
|
65.22
|
|
Steve Nilsen
|
65.21
|
|
Rick Mercado
|
65.19
|
|
Vic Quinones
|
65.17
|
|
Ray Kurtz
|
65.11
|
|
Georgie B
|
65.06
|
|
Joe Rinn
|
65.05
|
|
Rudy Urban
|
65.02
|
|
Mark Kaminsky
|
64.21
|
|
Chris Abston
|
64.17
|
|
Ian Keck
|
64.09
|
|
Jim Hoar
|
64.04
|
|
George Bukovsky
|
64.03
|
|
Chuck S
|
64.02
|
|
Kevin Price
|
64.02
|
|
Bill Trotter
|
63.21
|
|
Tim Keevin
|
63.19
|
|
Don Berbek
|
63.06
|
|
Bill Kurtz
|
62.24
|
|
Brian Bright
|
62.06
|
|
Mark Frazin
|
62.02
|
|
Dave Simms
|
62.01
|
|
Paul Graz
|
62.01
|
|
Scott Keck
|
61.24
|
|
Jeff Crosley
|
61.21
|
|
John Voellinger
|
61.21
|
|
Bob S
|
61.20
|
|
Ron Dilico
|
60.09
|
|
Tj Mottola
|
59.02
|
|
Josh Bowman
|
57.21
|
|
Matt B
|
57.02
|
|
John Gero
|
53.19
|
|
Scott B.
|
53.19
|
Sweet 16:
|
Clint Bourne
|
|
Steve Ward
|
|
Don Bourne
|
|
Habby
|
|
Dave Lockwood
|
|
Don Royal
|
|
Ken Ott
|
|
Hiram Durant
|
|
Paul Kniffen
|
|
Anthony Zampelli
|
|
Don Auriema
|
|
Henry Harnish
|
|
Kevin B
|
|
Rick Phillis
|
|
Bruce Gordon
|
|
James Tindall
Elite 8:
Clint
Paul
Habby
Dave L
Steve Ward
Ken Ott
Don royal
Don Bourne
Final 4 :
Clint
Paul
Steve Ward
Don Royal
Individual Champion: Steve Ward
|
There were some heated battles in this one, wow those cars were fast and the finalists drove awesome, it was anybody’s race and Steve
held Clint off to take the win. Congrats Steve!!
IROC Qualifier:
|
Racer Name
|
Total laps.sections
|
|
Kevin Price
|
82.11
|
|
James Tindall
|
81.23
|
|
Clint Bourne
|
80.32
|
|
Steve Ward
|
80.20
|
|
Chuck S
|
79.25
|
|
Don Auriema
|
79.18
|
|
Paul Kniffen
|
79.18
|
|
Don Bourne
|
79.15
|
|
Ken Ott
|
79.12
|
|
Habby
|
79.08
|
|
Henry Harnish
|
79.06
|
|
Dave Failing
|
78.28
|
|
Rick Phillis
|
78.25
|
|
Dave Simms
|
78.17
|
|
Bruce Gordon
|
78.13
|
|
Georgie B
|
78.06
|
|
Doug Elton
|
78.01
|
|
Brad Morgan
|
77.35
|
|
Chris Abston
|
77.32
|
|
Tim Leppert
|
77.32
|
|
Ryan Peoples
|
77.25
|
|
Jim Hoar
|
77.17
|
|
Derek S
|
77.06
|
|
Hiram Durant
|
76.27
|
|
Steve Nilsen
|
76.23
|
|
Tj Mottola
|
76.22
|
|
Alan Sleeper
|
76.18
|
|
Dave Lockwood
|
76.16
|
|
Don Royal
|
76.13
|
|
Rudy Urban
|
76.05
|
|
Scott Keck
|
76.03
|
|
Kevin B
|
75.34
|
|
Joe Rinn
|
75.23
|
|
Lewis W
|
75.10
|
|
Mark Kaminsky
|
75.07
|
|
Greg W
|
75.06
|
|
Tom Bowman
|
75.06
|
|
Paul Graz
|
74.34
|
|
Jeff Crosley
|
74.32
|
|
Vic Quinones
|
74.23
|
|
Ray Kurtz
|
74.06
|
|
Anthony Zampelli
|
73.26
|
|
Bill Kurtz
|
73.23
|
|
Rick Mercado
|
73.15
|
|
John Bamomte
|
73.11
|
|
Mark Frazin
|
72.30
|
|
Bill Trotter
|
72.25
|
|
Tim Keevin
|
72.16
|
|
Brian Bright
|
71.15
|
|
George Bukovsky
|
70.25
|
|
John Voellinger
|
70.12
|
|
John Gero
|
70.11
|
|
Matt B
|
69.34
|
|
Ian Keck
|
69.26
|
|
Bob S
|
69.12
|
|
Don Berbek
|
69.00
|
|
Josh Bowman
|
68.25
|
|
Ron Dilico
|
68.10
|
|
Scott B.
|
65.18
|
IROC A Main:
Kevin Price: 123/0
Dave S. 120/25
Chuck S. 120/23
Dave F. 120/19
Congrats to Kevin Price (Dr. Evil) on his IROC win, drove the heck out of these cars!
Ok, now it was time for the closing festivities, plaques were given out, tracks were taken down and sponsor prizes were distributed.
We had great support from our sponsors and everyone needs to keep these guys in business as they are the ones that truly support
our hobby and ECHORR.
Sponsors:
BRP
Bob Beers
DR. Oogan
Greg Davis
ZoominMotorsports
Identity Tires
DCM Raceway
DBL Racing Controllers
Bubba Racing shells
Jim Sgrignioli
Jim Nagy – Slot Pro
RTHO
NJ Nostalgia Hobby
Bill Kurtz
Henry Harnish/Bob Hardin
ET Grip
Free-Jet Oil
JW Racing parts
Tom Shepperd
** A special thanks to Brian Kelly of Chevrolet/Buick of Wilton Ct, who loaned Dave Lockwood a truck form the dealership to
transport 2 tracks to this event.
Also a big Thank you to TKO race tracks and Max Trax for donating tracks to ECHORR for the Challenge events.
Randy Panos, who arranged for us to get the hall and cooked hot dogs on Saturday and took pictures and did everything!
I would like to extend thanks to all the track owners who brought their tracks to this event: Dave Lockwood, Anthony Zampelli,
Paul Kniffen, Donnie A and to Henry for lugging the trailer back and forth from NJ.
Also the set up crew: Tim Leppert, Rick Phillis, Dave Lockwood, Derek and Chuck ,the KC boys, all the track owners, all the Ohio boys,
etc etc, Rose Zampelli, Cheryl (ZoominMotorsorts better half) and off course Janet who tied up all the loose ends and arranged all the
social aspects of the event.
Thanks to all for your support and next year we will try to make it grow and get better. Watch www.echorr.com for updates and
coming events.
Hiram
 | 
