09/14/08

Hillsborough NJ

Racers drove from as far south as Maryland and as far north as
Binghamton and as far east as Connecticut for a total of 22.
Why would grown men drive for 3 hours? To race Thunderjets, of course.
The classes were thunderjets set up for VHORS SS/ Fray rules and our
fun Indy class. The venue was the Huntington Park clubhouse and the
Wizzard track was provided by Henry Harnish. This was the first race
run on this track and was a great prep for the ECHORR Challenge.

This is a challenging course with a lot of twists and turns. It will be a
nice addition to the Challenge.

First up were the SS/Fray class, running 3 minute heats with a
random rotation and the top 4 running a ten lap sprint to determine
the winner.

Here are the qualifying results

Finals

COHORA “Mid-Ohio Challenge”

By Bill Kurtz

As a racer who loves to travel to races all over the U.S., I have found that there
is more than just the racing that makes an event successful. Sometimes it’s the
food, the track and timing system, the available pit space or the people who hold
the event that make it special.

Of all these factors I have personally felt it’s the people which is most important
and at last weekends COHORA “Mid-Ohio Challenge” also known simply as the
“Ohio Cup” we saw the epitome of this.

From our arrival Friday afternoon at about 4PM until late into the evening the
track was reserved for out of town guests. Not only where the racers who
traveling in to compete the only cars running practice that evening but the
“Buckeye Thunder” group stood around the circuit and marshaled the practice
for the entire six hour session. The weekend would continue with that same
mindset, whether it was Brad Morgan asking what did we think and how could
we make it better next year or Myron Brenner sitting at the controls for 12 hours
on race day and Bill Taylor walking up to every racer in attendance and thanking
them for coming. Finally there was Ryan and Ann Peoples who not only opened their
home to us but made us feel as though we were part of a family reunion. Of all the
events I have traveled to, some can match this type of hospitality but none could
ever top this “Ohio Welcome”.

Now for some race talk as the event drew in a little less than 40 runners and the
names that were there topped the who’s who of east coast HO racing. From the Wiz
and RC to Hiram, Mike and Chuck from ECHORR. Tom Bowman of BRP, Jim Nagy of
SlotPro and Charlie Benson of Slotcar Racer had their mobile parts stores set-up and
fully stocked. In addition to Ohio guns like Adam Wright and Chris Abston we had
VASCRA’s Joe Murray, WPSCC’s John Bamonte, LCHORS Kevin Browning and Northeast
shoes Jim Hoar and Matt Patrick who made the run all the way from Maine.

After Pre-Tech, the qualifying started up and consisted of combination 2-minute runs
on all the lanes for total laps and the field was set into 10 mains (A – J) at four-minutes
each.. I put the DPR- DB7 in the “E” but after throwing a shoe, my fellow southern racer
and “Road Trip” partner, Kevin Browning ended up in the “J” main.

I think everyone in attendance knew what we were about to see, it happens rarely and
it’s even more rare to happen by circumstance. Kevin is formally from Kansas City and
his pit box reflects it. I have witnessed this at the Fray, when a racer moves up through
 multiple mains and I must say it is one of the coolest things that one can experience.
Kevin moved through the “J” and three others before getting into the meat and potatoes
of the field. He ran with Bob Lincoln toe to toe in the “F” but fell short by a half of lap.
Unfortunately the Wiz had to withdrawal but this now moved Kevin into the “E” Main.
That is five move-ups but it would end there for both Kevin and myself as Chris Abston
held us off to advance.

As the event entered the “D”, we began to see the “Big Guns” rotate in with Myron Brenner,
Greg Carpenter and Kevin Bacher joining Chris for the 4-minute heats. All had a legitimate
shot to make the “A” from this point on.

Kevin Bacher began to throw down 41 lap segments which not only caught the attention
of the racers in his main, but Hiram Durant and the others who awaited in the upper brackets.
As Hiram put it, “The Kid is going to be tough to get past”.

Kevin, along with Adam Wright moved up all the way to the “B” but that where the days’ host
took over. Ryan Peoples blistered the field and set the “A” main up with four of the best racers
we have east of the Mississippi. Tom Bowman, Hiram Durant, Brad Morgan all plugged in with
Ryan for the “Main of Mains” and the chance to be the first name on the “Ohio Cup”.

The “Heartbreaker Raceway” is a four lane Maxx which gives a racer in the gutters a distinct
obstacle in the tighter corners and trying to keep up with the center lanes usually leads to one
or more de-slots. Ryan had the gutter lanes one-two in his rotation and he not only paced the
field, he led it in lap totals. Tom and Hiram were not far behind but they would end up battling
between themselves for second place. Tom led as he wound his way through the center lanes
but it would be Hiram who pulled out the runner-up spot at the checkered flag.

I must mention the track itself, “Heartbreaker” is a 10-year old Maxx that looks better than one
that just came out of the box. It was so smooth and clean, it gave all of us the opportunity to take
our little racers to their limit and beyond.

Ryan Peoples may have taken the glory on this summer day but those that were there will return
to take another shot on this gem of a track tucked away in Winchester-Canal, Ohio.

To the COHORA racers and Mr. and Mrs. Peoples … My hat is off to all, you could not have put
on a better show!

Here are the final results from the mains for the "1st Annual Central Ohio Challenge";

"A" main

 Ryan Peoples           166.09 "Champion"

Hiram Durant            162.35

Tom Bowman            159.34

Brad Morgan             152.26

"B" main

Ryan Peoples      161.31  moved up to "A"

Kevin Bacher            157.06

Mike Briggs              153.01

Adam Wright            142.33

RC Lincoln qualified for the "B" but withdrew

"C" main

Kevin Bacher       161.22 moved up to "B"

Adam Wright            153.24 moved up to "B" due to RC withdrawing

Bill Taylor                 151.

Chuck Sheaffer         150.

"D" main

Kevin Bacher        156.33 moved up to "C"

Greg Carpenter        154.01

Chris Abston           151.23

Myron Benner          146.15

"E" main

Chris Abston        155.07 moved up to "D"

Kevin Browning        154.09

Bill Kurtz                 153.01 

Dave "Crash" Craddock 147.09

Bob Wurdack qualified for "E" but withdrew

"F" main

Bob Lincoln         155.11 moved up to "E" but withdrew

Chris Abston        154.26 moved up to "E"

Kevin Browning   154.07 moved up to "E" in place of Bob Lincoln

Lance VanDoren     153.16

"G" main

Kevin Browning    152.16 moved up to "F"

Danny Rinehart        148.04

Joe Murray              148.02

Jim Hoar                 144.05

"H" main

Kevin Browning   150.13 moved up to "G"

Matt Patrick             142.33

Mike Stutchell          142.09

Ron Lewis                137.33

"I" main

Kevin Browning   152.01 moved up to "H"

Steve Roehll              142.13

Jake Rooker              142.08

Jon Bamonte             138.22

"J" main

Kevin Browning    146.02 moved up to "I"

Cody Bacher              139.33

Alex Nagy                  134.26

07/13/08

2nd Annual Willy's Extravaganza

Sunday, July 13th  marked the second annual running of the ECHORR sanctioned Willy's Coupe
Open at ThunderLoop Raceway in Port Jefferson Station, New York. Seventeen racers were on
hand with their coolest and fastest Willys Coupes. These cars are a blast to race combining the
"old school" Willys bodies (chopped and detailed like when we were kids) mated to the state
of the art FRAY and VHORS Super Stock T-Jet chassis set ups.  Doors opened early at 8AM and
some of the best racers on the East Coast arrived with Pit Boxes in hand. Special welcome to
Chief, Don, Eric and Gerard on their first visit to ThunderLoop Raceway. After some greetings,
laughs and coffee, no time was wasted as racers staked out their pit stations and got to the
business of testing their cars and familiarizing themselves with the layout of the track.  At 11:00
the Concourse event was held. At the same time, just outside the track room on the deck, Joerinn
started slow cooking the ribs, mmmmmm. An assortment of real nice looking, hood blowing, side
piped, chopped up, decal crazy Willys were parked on the Loop ready to be appreciated and judged.
 The Concourse winner was determined by total votes-one vote by every racer for the best looking
Willys. The 2008 Concourse winner was Dave 'The Connecticut Kid'  Lockwoods' authentic replica
of a hand painted Danbury Fairgrounds Dirt Racer.  Dave's and the rest of the cars can be seen in
the photo album on the ECHORR website. The Concourse was followed up with a five lap qualifying
event to determine the main event race brackets and who could turn the fastest single lap time.
The single fastest lap time was set by the East Coasts' HO Ambassador, non other than 
Hiram Durant. His 9.37 seconds lap on the white lane of the challenging ThunderLoop Raceway,
has set the bar for next year!

The main race results were as follows:

Senior

Joerinn

Jerome

D Main

B2

Johnny V

Pitstop

Jerome (moving up)

C Main

Eric

Don

Chief

Jerome (moving up)

B Main

The Connecticut Kid

Big Anthony

John G

Don (moving up)

A Main

 Hiram HO Ambassador of The East Coast (Winner)

Vinnknee (Second-last time he had a controller in his hand was last years race!)

The Connecticut Kid (Third)

Henry "The Legend" (Fourth)

The awards presentations were followed up by the much anticipated BBQ. The smell of ribs,
burgers, chicken and dogs had all attendees ready to chow down. The weather was perfect as
 the nicest group of guys in our hobby, enjoyed each others company and the usual T-jet related 
conversations.

Some special thanks and acknowledgements go out to:

-VinnKnee for designing the beautiful plaques, running the race, the bottled water and taking 111
 photographs.

-Joerinn for bringing ribs and the "slow cooking" on the grill clinic, those ribs were darn good!

-Big Mac for shooting photos and great video, check out (bigmacdaddio) on youtube and a few of
pics on the eastcoastyahoogroup site

-Senior for taking on the lap timer and helping run the main race.

-Hiram for sanctioning the race and providing the ECHORR ribbons

-Gerard and Eric of ET slots for the house warming gifts, fellas you have to try the ET grip and
new chamfered guide pins, awesome!!!

-Big Anthony for some great stories and for what might be the best pancake armature balancing
tool in existence.

-Jerome for the Speed Racer drawings

-The entire field for spending the day and making the event what I hoped it to be.

-My loving wife for turning over the house to my racing buddies and allowing us to turn her 
kitchen and the TV room into pit areas.

Next years' date to be declared as soon as I work it out with ECHORR to avoid any conflict
with other races...stay tuned t-jet racers;-)

 ECHORR Race – 06/28/08 – DCM Raceway

13 Racers showed up for the ECHORR race at DCM on Saturday 06/28/08. The facility has
been upgraded with a new Trak Mate System on the Wiz track. Doors opened at 8AM and
everyone had plenty of practice time to get ready for the two events of the day, VHORS
Classics on the Tubbie and VHORS SS\FRAY on the Wiz track. We ran a five lap qualifier
with the VHORS SS\FRAY cars on the Wiz track and used this to seed the 2 races. We ran
the Classics first on the Tubbie, broke for lunch, thanks to Anthony for buying everyone subs!! 
Then we ran the VHORS SS\FRAY race on the Wiz track. The results follow:

Qualifying:

Scott D. – 7.170

Hiram – 7.243

Dennis – 7.303

Henry – 7.314

Sal – 7.400

James – 7.724

Brian – 7.796

Dave – 7.823

Anthony – 8.023

Joe – 8.039

Pat G – 8.155

Ian – 8.470

Tim – 10.220

 Classic Class:

Hiram – 137

Dave – 132. 30

Dennis – 132.10

Henry – 130

James – 126

Anthony – 126

Pat G. – 125

Sal – 123

Scott – 121

Ian – 113.40

Joe – 113.12

Brian – 104

Tim- 88

VHORS SS\FRAY:

Hiram – 91.60

Henry 91. 40

Dave – 90

Dennis – 88

Scott – 87.50

Anthony – 87.20

Ian – 82

Sal – 81

Pat G. – 80.30

Brian – 80.10

James – 79

Joe – 78

Tim – 64

It was a fun day of racing, thanks to Dave Simms and his crew for letting use his shop for
this event. Thanks to Anthony for feeding us. See you all at the next event.

06/22/08 at the Snakepit - Report by Swamper Gene

Talk about a total surprise! This past Sunday, on a week's notice, 18 great racers from three states ventured
to my humble digs for a day of T-Jet racing on the Snake Pit...and what a day it was! Everyone arrived early
enough for plenty of practice time and shooting the breeze. As scheduled, before and during a lunch break
Hiram Durant gave everyone an excellent T-Jet building seminar, grabbing a NOS chassis out of the box and
quickly and precisely turning it into a contender. This presentation carried a wealth of information for those
in attendance, I'm sure we'll see some improvements in everyone's T-Jet program as a result.

After lunch, it was time to get down to some racing! First up was the Stock T-Jet class. It never ceases to
amaze me at how well these cars can perform, and this race was no exception. Hiram was early in the rotation
and set the pace for everyone else to follow. Dennis and Don were both threatening his lead but in the end
Hiram was ahead by about a half a lap and a lap respectively. The battle for fourth was where the real action
was taking place, with four racers spread out within 13 sections of each other, Ray secured the spot by three.
That's some close racing!

Following a short break, it was on to the FRAY/VHORS, run as a full round robin with the top four moving to
the main. This race was phenominal, while Hiram secured an easy lead the race to fill out the main was brutal.
With a ton of pressure on them, Don, Henry, and Scott took the spots, separated by mere sections at the end.
The main was awesome to watch, and it was anyone's game right up to the checkered flag.

After the racing, ribbons were given to the top four in each class, courtesy of ECHORR (Thanks Hiram!). Then
it was on to race prizes. The top two in the Fray/VHORS race were given choice, and we had enough prizes to
make sure everyone walked away with a little something so we randomly drew names for those. This is a nice
touch at any race, and I'd like to again thank Zoomin' Motorsports and Hiram Durant for their generous prize donations for
this event. To top it off, Hiram donated the chassis he built during the seminar to be randomly award to one of
the local guys....congratulations to Chad Whitenight on scoring that great prize!

I can't thank everyone enough for attending this event. For me it was an absolute pleasure meeting so many
new racers. One name that was not on the roster is Joe Rinn....thanks for coming Joe even knowing you had
to leave early. And of course this report would not be complete without mentioning Henry Harnish, it's always
a pleasure to race with him and to the local guys this was another highlight of this event.

One final note, this race was a sort of "tuneup" to see if we could get the ol' Snake Pit on the ECHORR circuit
this season, and as Hiram announced I am happy to say it will be.

Thanks again to everyone for coming!

	STOCK T-JET RACE
	Round Robin 2 Min. Heats
DRIVER			TOTAL LAPS
Hiram Durant			31.48
Dennis Moore			31.02
Don Auriema			30.27
Ray Kurtz			29.37
Chuck Sheaffer			29.34
Derek Sheaffer			29.30
Les Blosser			29.24
John Gero			28.05
Scott Donlap			27.27
Henry Harnish			27.26
Brian Bright			26.33
Tim Kline			26.03
Bill Trotter			26.03
Mike Hess			25.24
Chad Whitenight			25.15
Dave Karo			24.53
Gene Stainecker			24.14
Dreamer			20.15
	FRAY/VHORS SEMI
	Round Robin 3 Min. Heats
DRIVER			TOTAL LAPS
Hiram Durant			65.31
Don Auriema			63.56
Henry Harnish			63.52
Scott Donlap			63.45
John Gero			62.46
Derek Sheaffer			62.22
Brian Bright			62.17
Ray Kurtz			61.45
Dennis Moore			61.32
Chuck Sheaffer			60.44
Gene Stainecker			60.43
Mike Hess			58.54
Dreamer			58.40
Les Blosser			57.15
Bill Trotter			57.04
Chad Whitenight			55.13
Tim Kline			53.51
Dave Karo			48.09
	FRAY/VHORS MAIN
	4. Min Heats
DRIVER			TOTAL LAPS
Hiram Durant			88.53
Henry Harnish			87.30
Don Auriema			86.45
Scott Donlap			86.02