FarrOut Slot Racing Club
2008 Ninco GT1 Le Mans Race Reports


Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 7
2008 Race 39
Nov. 15, 2008
Nigelstone

As the song goes, "Smoke gets in your eyes" and your hair, lungs, and so on; due to the wildfires that started this weekend, stranding Gary in the Santa Clarita Valley (hope all's well, mate), we all ended up smelling like one of Ed Beer's cigars today as Round 22 of the OTHG World Championship took place at Nigelstone. Here's what happened (writer's note: we left the coughs in the transcript to show what things were like):

Once we changed our air filters for the (cough) second race (only some of us could, as the hospital ran out of lungs for transplant), the GT1s took over, with the (cough) same old results; this time, Michael Smalley got his revenge, as he (hack) burned (figuratively, of course) Daniel Snipes for the win. Third through seventh were only three laps apart on (cough) average, and they were all to play for in the final heats; Bill Schniedewind and Nigel Rick (wheeze) jumped over yours truly (I'd use more colorful language, but I'm also using this for my English students), dropping (spew) YT from fourth to sixth. (At least, in this race, the Luck Bitch-my name for her, so take that, Frank Sinatra-left me alone.) As they say in this business, "That's (cough, wheeze, hack, spew, drop) racin'"

 

90s Ninco Le Mans--Meet 22, Race 39:  15 November 2008

 

 

Nigelstone

3Min Heats: Clockwise 13v

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

Driver

Car

Red

Green

Yellow

Blue

Total

Rank

Points

SMALLEY, Michael

 

20.8

21.2

20.9

19.9

82.8

1

20

SNIPES, Daniel

 

20.3

19.4

20.6

19.9

80.2

2

18

BECK, Bob

 

19.4

20.1

20.1

18.7

78.3

3

16

RICK, Nigel

 

18.5

19.1

19.3

19.3

76.2

4

15

SCHNIEDEWIND, Bill

 

18.5

19.5

18.6

19.6

76.2

4

15

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

 

18.0

19.5

19.0

19.6

76.1

6

13

WILLIAMSON, Craig

 

18.6

19.5

18.4

18.9

75.4

7

12

SMITH, Stan

 

17.5

17.9

19.2

19.5

74.1

8

11

TALAMON, Bruce

 

18.1

18.3

18.1

18.1

72.6

9

10

WESTON, Tim

 

17.9

18.3

17.6

18.6

72.4

10

9

BEER, Ed

 

16.6

18.2

17.3

18.4

70.5

11

8

FERNANDEZ, De'Angelo

 

17.6

17.4

15.8

17.3

68.1

12

7

BRACHER, Russell

 

16.5

15.8

17.1

17.1

66.5

13

6

NICHOLS, Roger

 

16.3

16.0

16.0

17.2

65.5

14

5



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 6
2008 Race 31
Sep. 20, 2008
SSI Raceway

Round 18 of the OTHG World Championship saw another racing rarity; last week, it was Sebastian Vettel at Monza claiming his maiden, and this week the model masters held an enduro at the fast-yet-twisty SpeedShooters International with some intriguing action of its own. The "E" drivers of the four teams contested pole, but this time, it was not a progression of each knocking off the other sequentially. J.R. Ewing for Team Cortez (Rene, Stephen Farr-Jones, Stan Smith doubling) snatched pole on the final lap; had this not been the case, they would have been third, yet only 0.004 secs behind the provisional pole winner, Team Smalley (Mike, Gary Woods, Bob Scott doubling, Jim Wolfe qualified), which took second. As it was, Team De Los Santos (Terry, Craig Williamson, Nigel Rick [shared with Team Snipes], Eddie Shorer, Bruce Talamon qualified) was 0.003 secs behind for third, with Team Snipes (Daniel, Thomas Lauffenberger, Nigel Rick, Chris Chan, Ed Beer qualified) picking the leftovers.

The start was one to remember; on the weekend where Mike Smalley didn't bring his camera we had something truly inspiring to shoot; in the first stint of the first round, the four drivers (Thomas, Stan, Bob, Craig) did something that has never been done in our club's known history-they drove the entire leg without the leader lapping anyone; all four drivers managed 64 laps in nine minutes, and the next set of drivers managed 16 more laps before the leader managed to put anyone down. For reference, this was almost 12 minutes of continuous racing, and except for the flyer on blue, the others were bunched and racing hard in close quarters; surely Bob Varsha and his team would have creamed themselves describing this action. At the first bell, Team Cortez lead with 313 laps, but fourth place was by no means out of it, down by only 6.

The start of the second round was nearly as good as the first, with Stan and Thomas (yellow and blue, respectively) duking out the lead, blue harrying yellow for a dozen or so laps before flipping and losing a half-lap. The others all ran their heats well, too, and when the race hit half-time, Team Cortez maintained the lead, but by a razor-thin one lap margin over Team Smalley. Team DLS, which had been second, was now third but only by seven tenths, and Team Snipes, though fourth and having run the supposedly faster inner lanes, was only 9 laps in arrears. Was the outers-to-inners tactic going to fail this time?

The third stanza again started tensely, with only a two-lap spread from first to fourth. For the third consecutive start, the teams managed an average of 64 laps completed with a tiny spread. Things, inexplicably, slowed down for Team Snipes, as when the three-quarters-time were calculated, Team Smalley had usurped the lead, with Team Cortez only 2.7 laps down and Team DLS 5 down from the lead. Team Snipes, 22 laps in the rearview mirrors, was watching from the sidelines.

The last round held station and mimicked the others; not much changed, though an interesting phenomenon occurred in the final results; Team Smalley held on for a 3-lap overall victory, followed by Team Cortez, with Team DLS 13 laps behind the winners, and Team Snipes off the podium 26 laps down. In all four cases, the tenths were the same; everyone finished on half a lap, so the lap deficits stated here are exact.

 

90s Ninco Le Mans--Meet 18, Race 31:  20 September 2008

 

 

SpeedShooters Intl. Raceway

46 Min Heats: Clockwise 13v

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

Driver

 

Red

White

Blue

Yellow

Total

Rank

Points

SMALLEY, Michael

Team 2

318.1

319.4

319.5

308.5

1265.5

1

20

WOODS, Gary

Team 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

SCOTT, Bob

fastest lap

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

SCOTT, Bob

Team 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

WOLFE, Jim

Team 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

CORTEZ, Rene

Team 4

315.7

319.2

313.8

313.8

1262.5

2

18

FARR-JONES, Stephen

Team 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

SMITH, Stan

fastest lap

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

SMITH, Stan

Team 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

EWING, J.R.

Team 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

DE LOS SANTOS, Terry

Team 3

312.3

313.6

315.1

311.5

1252.5

3

16

WILLIAMSON, Craig

Team 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

RICK, Nigel

fastest lap

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

SHORER, Eddie

Team 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

TALAMON, Bruce

Team 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

SNIPES, Daniel

Team 1

315.4

307.7

310.7

305.7

1239.5

4

15

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

Team 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

RICK, N.

fastest lap

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

CHAN, Chris

Team 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

BEER, Ed

Team 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

15



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 5
2008 Race 23
Jul. 5, 2008
Mr. Model Car Raceway

IROC reared its head again two months after the last round, and again it showed who really knows how to drive these things. (Perhaps they would offer lessons?) This race had a much tighter distribution of scores and no shortages of drama, as Leigh Diffey would say, with positions 1, 2, 3 and 6 in play in the final heat. Once everything was double-checked, Chris Radisich emerged victorious, with Michael Smalley second and Daniel Snipes third. Yours truly did best on the outers and strangely enough had another mid-pack photo finish, tying for eighth this time with Craig Williamson.

Loaners Only (H Champ.)

90s Ninco Le Mans--Meet 13, Race 23:  5 July 2008

 

 

 

Mr Model Car Riverside Raceway

3Min Heats: Clockwise 13v

 

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

 

Driver

Car

Red

White

Blue

Yellow

Total

Rank

Points

Avg

RADISICH, Chris

DC Loaners Cars

25.9

25.6

25.5

26.2

103.2

1

20

103.2

SMALLEY, Michael

DC Loaners Cars

25.9

25.2

25.2

26.4

102.7

2

18

102.7

SNIPES, Daniel

DC Loaners Cars

25.9

25.3

25.4

25.7

102.3

3

16

102.3

WOODS, Gary

DC Loaners Cars

25.5

24.0

24.9

24.9

99.3

4

15

99.3

DE LOS SANTOS, Terry

DC Loaners Cars

22.1

26.0

25.0

26.2

99.3

4

15

99.3

BECK, Bob

DC Loaners Cars

24.5

25.0

24.0

24.5

98.0

6

13

98.0

FARR-JONES, Stephen

DC Loaners Cars

24.9

24.4

23.9

24.4

97.6

7

12

97.6

WILLIAMSON, Craig

DC Loaners Cars

23.9

24.9

23.5

25.1

97.4

8

11

97.4

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

DC Loaners Cars

24.8

23.9

23.8

24.9

97.4

8

11

97.4

CHAN, Chris

DC Loaners Cars

24.3

24.5

23.3

25.2

97.3

10

9

97.3

WESTON, Tim

DC Loaners Cars

24.0

23.9

23.4

23.9

95.2

11

8

95.2

SMITH, Stan

DC Loaners Cars

24.2

23.8

23.5

23.4

94.9

12

7

94.9

PAWL, Mike

DC Loaners Cars

23.4

23.2

23.2

24.1

93.9

13

6

93.9

BEER, Ed

DC Loaners Cars

23.2

23.3

23.3

23.1

92.9

14

5

92.9

BRACHER, Russell

DC Loaners Cars

23.1

22.4

23.5

22.2

91.2

15

4

91.2

NICHOLS, Roger

DC Loaners Cars

21.4

21.5

21.9

20.5

85.3

16

3

85.3



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 4
2008 Race 17
May. 18, 2008
SSI Raceway

At the voltage setting these cars were so equal that it was essentially a contest to see who would commit the fewest errors. Michael Smalley passed that test, scoring 91 laps to motor his way to victory. Host Rene Cortez was 1 lap behind in second, with semi-regular Chris Radisich third. Fourth through ninth were separated by merely 1.5 laps, and true to form, yours truly was in the middle of the middle, achieving a ho-hum seventh place finish.

 

Ninco GT1 Le Mans -- Meet 10, Race 17: 18 May 2008

 

 

 

SSI Raceway

3 Min Heats: Clockwise 12v

 

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

 

Driver

Car

Red

White

Blue

Yellow

Total

Rank

Points

Avg

SMALLEY, Michael

 

22.6

23.2

22.3

22.9

91.0

1

20

91.0

CORTEZ, Rene

 

22.8

22.5

22.6

22.1

90.0

2

18

90.0

RADISICH, Chris

 

22.8

22.3

22.2

22.6

89.9

3

16

89.9

BECK, Bob

 

21.9

22.3

22.4

21.5

88.1

4

15

88.1

DE LOS SANTOS, Terry

 

22.4

22.2

21.4

21.4

87.4

5

14

87.4

WOODS, Gary

 

22.1

22.0

22.6

20.4

87.1

6

13

87.1

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

 

22.4

21.6

21.8

20.8

86.6

7

12

86.6

RICK, Nigel

 

21.3

22.2

21.7

20.9

86.1

8

11

86.1

WILLIAMSON, Craig

 

21.4

21.7

21.6

21.2

85.9

9

10

85.9

EWING, J.R.

 

19.3

19.8

20.7

20.9

80.7

10

9

80.7

PAWL, Mike

 

20.3

20.1

19.6

20.4

80.4

11

8

80.4

BEER, Ed

 

19.7

20.7

18.7

17.7

76.8

12

7

76.8



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 3
2008 Race 14
Apr. 26, 2008
Autodromo Baia della Sud

Things went south (or shall we say, sud) as the first heat needed to be run three times due to lap-counter issues. While the PC Lap Counter worked fine for the first race, we had to switch to the Braun program for this one. Things felt quite a bit different as the cars ran more slowly, yet we still scored better (perhaps a testament to the difficulty of driving Slot.its.) Early heat results seemed to indicate that this would be a tight race, tightly packed around a mean, as lots of 17s and 18s were recorded (time permitting, a statistical review of this race will be done.) This was indeed the case, as Dennis essentially checked out, finishing almost three laps clear. The big surprise was yours truly, who saved the drive of the year for the last heat (even though it's been a short year, it definitely qualified); coming from fifth place and needing 18.8 to keep fifth place, as well as finish between 0.4 and 0.6 laps ahead of the others in the heat to advance, a best-of-the-day 20.3 vaulted your intrepid reporter to second overall (and it may still have been a podium finish even if the usual suspects were here.) Host Stan Smith took a well-earned third.

 

90s Ninco Le Mans -- Meet 8, Race 14:  26 April 2008

 

 

 

Autodromo Baia Della Sud

3Min Heats: Clockwise 12v

 

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

 

Driver

Car

Red

Green

Blue

Yellow

Total

Rank

Points

Avg

SAMSON, Dennis

McLaren F1

20.2

19.4

19.7

19.9

79.2

1

20

79.2

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

Loaner Cars

20.3

18.7

18.5

18.9

76.4

2

18

76.4

SMITH, Stan

McLaren FINA

19.3

18.7

18.9

19.0

75.9

3

16

75.9

WILLIAMSON, Craig

Mercedes CLK

19.3

18.7

19.3

18.5

75.8

4

15

75.8

NEJA, Tim

McLaren F1

19.4

18.4

18.9

18.7

75.4

5

14

75.4

WOLFE, Jim

Loaner Cars

18.3

18.3

19.0

18.7

74.3

6

13

74.3

PAWL, Mike

Ferrari F50

18.4

18.1

18.6

18.3

73.4

7

12

73.4

TALAMON, Bruce

McLaren F1

18.5

17.9

18.0

18.1

72.5

8

11

72.5

WOODS, Gary

CMcLaren F1

17.6

17.7

18.7

17.0

71.0

9

10

71.0

EWING, J.R.

McLaren F1 ArtSports

19.1

17.3

17.7

16.5

70.6

10

9

70.6

BRACHER, Russell

Mercedes CLK

16.6

18.1

17.4

16.6

68.7

11

8

68.7

HOUCHLEI, Sarah

Loaner Cars

15.0

16.9

17.0

16.7

65.6

12

7

65.6

BEER, Ed

McLaren F1

16.4

16.1

16.5

16.5

65.5

13

6

65.5



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 2
2008 Race 9
Mar. 1, 2008
Woodside Raceway

The same top four drivers dominated the day's second race as well, though not with the same conviction as the first.

Daniel Snipes was your winner again followed by Michael, Gary and Terry.

My three top fives were not enough for a clear fifth place finish, as Chris Chan and I tied for fifth with 121.3 laps each, just 0.6 tenths behind Terry. JR again claimed a top five on White.

Sarah put her Smalley cars to good use all day with smooth driving and finished with some excellent rookie totals, although she did run into some trouble on the difficult yellow lane. Brad, visititing JR from Florida, probably won't return to race again this season, but we hope to see Sarah at another race soon. -- CW



 

90s Ninco Le Mans -- Meet 5, Race 9

 

 

Woodside Raceway

3Min Heats: Clockwise 13v

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

Driver

Car

 

 

 

 

Total

Rank

Points

SNIPES, Daniel

Nissan R390

33.3

32.7

32.8

32.8

131.6

1

20

SMALLEY, Michael

Saleen/McLaren

31.8

33.5

32.5

32.1

129.9

2

18

WOODS, Gary

Mercedes CLK

30.5

31.7

30.1

30.9

123.2

3

16

DE LOS SANTOS, Terry

McLaren GT1

29.6

31.1

30.6

30.6

121.9

4

15

CHAN, Chris

Snipes Nissan R390

29.3

30.1

31.8

30.1

121.3

5

14

WILLIAMSON, Craig

Mercedes CLK

30.1

31.2

29.8

30.2

121.3

5

14

EWING, J.R.

McLaren GT1

26.1

29.2

30.5

29.5

115.3

7

12

PAWL, Mike

Ferrari F-50

29.1

26.9

27.4

28.4

111.8

8

11

HOUCHLEI, Sarah

Smalley Saleen/McLaren

26.9

28.5

27.3

28.3

111.0

9

10

BEER, Ed

McLaren GT1

22.5

28.1

26.3

26.8

103.7

10

9

PIKE, Brad

Loaner Cars

23.6

26.2

24.5

19.5

93.8

11

8



Ninco GT1 Le Mans
Series Race 1
2008 Race 5
Feb. 2, 2008
Circuit Villeneuve

Back to usual business with this class, with one huge exception -- you read it here first, folks -- Ed Beer won his first-ever heat!!! OK, it was on the very-fast red lane, but hey, it's a moral victory. (And, perhaps, a warning, too.) Mike Smalley pulled a 30 on red (sod!) on his way to another victory, as well as smashing the theory that our lap scores could be normally distributed (he's too far in the right tail; ask a math teacher if you need to.) Terry DLS put in a silver performance, with Dan Snipes taking the last step. Yours truly finished mid-pack again but reasonably pleased with results.

 

Ninco GT1--Meet 3, Race 5:  2 February 2007

 

 

 

Circuit Villenueve

3Min Heats: Clockwise 13v

 

 

 

 

Lane1

Lane2

Lane3

Lane4

 

 

 

 

Driver

Car

Red

White

Green

Orange

Total

Avg

Rank

Points

SMALLEY, Michael

McLaren Saleen

30.4

27.2

27.2

27.7

112.5

112.5

1

20

DE LOS SANTOS, Terry

McLaren Jacadi

28.5

25.7

26.0

26.0

106.2

106.2

2

18

SNIPES, Daniel

Nissan Kenwood

28.1

26.0

26.9

24.8

105.8

105.8

3

16

SCOTT, Bob

Loaner Cars

27.6

26.2

25.8

24.8

104.4

104.4

4

15

RADISICH, Chris

Nissan Roadcar

27.3

23.7

25.9

25.2

102.1

102.1

5

14

WILLIAMSON, Craig

McLaren F1

26.7

24.0

25.0

24.2

99.9

99.9

6

13

LAUFFENBERGER, Thomas

Loaner Cars

27.7

23.7

21.7

24.5

97.6

97.6

7

12

FARR-JONES, Stephen

Loaner Cars

25.2

23.4

24.1

22.1

94.8

94.8

8

11

RICK, Nigel

Loaner Cars

26.5

23.1

20.4

24.2

94.2

94.2

9

10

EWING, J.R.

McLaren UENO Clinic

26.6

22.6

23.3

19.2

91.7

91.7

10

9

PAWL, Mike

Ferrari F50

24.0

23.5

21.3

22.6

91.4

91.4

11

8

TALAMON, Bruce

McLaren Jacadi

22.3

23.5

24.5

20.9

91.2

91.2

12

7

BEER, Ed

Loaner Cars

25.5

22.2

19.3

22.9

89.9

89.9

13

6





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