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As Dan said, the racing was close and exciting last night at the Odd Thursday Night Race! We had a good field of fourteen racers.

The first class raced was for the F1 Class. This is our most diverse class with many different divisions and types of F1 cars all racing together. Dan Fritz was scored first with his well prepared Scalextric Eagle.

After the F1 race was the Trans Am race. This was the first of six Trans Am races as part of the 2017 NASTE Point Series Championship. The race was extremely close with a tie for first place. In the 2017 point series ties will be broken by lap times. Jeff Fields had the faster lap over Chris Kouba and was awarded the win. A great start to the 2017 season for Jeff, congrats!

After the Trans Am race the field thinned out. Seven racers stayed for the BRM Group C race. These cars are always exciting on the TooBad Motorplex course! Greg Petrolati lead the way to the checkered flag while most of the rest of us beat our way through and around each other to finish somewhere behind him!

For the Over 50 Class we were down to four racers. We utilized a "track call" type format to run this race. Mitch Brooks won the race with an outstanding drive!

Here are the official results:

F1
   Amy Fields  58.0 laps - N/C
1 Dan Fritz  56.5  + First in SV Division
2 Jeff Fields  56.2  + First in MOD
3 Rico Locati  54.1  + First in Division
4 tie  Chris Kouba  53.6  + First in MND
4 tie Greg Petrolati  53.6 + First in SND
6 Gary Goose Gossett  53.3
7 Anthony Schoepflin  51.8
8 Bryan Dickerson  50.5
9 Mitch Brooks  50.1
10 Al Christensen 49.9
11 Bill Bostic + First in CCD
12 John Fisher 47.2 + First in SWD
13 Terry Abbott 43.5  + First Vintage Slot Car Division

Trans Am - Official NASTE Point Series Championship Race - 2017 Season
1 Jeff Fields 53.7 laps - 9.475 fastest lap - 14 points
2 Chris Kouba  53.7 - 9.655 fastest lap - 14 points
3 Gary Goose Gossett  53.2 - 9.871 - 13 pts.
4 Rico Locati 52.8 - 9.551 - 12 pts.
5 Greg Petrolati  52.6 - 9.873 - 11 pts.
6 Bill Bostic 51.6 - 9.909 - 10 pts.
7 Dan Fritz  51.2 - 10.179 - 9 pts.
8 Al Christensen  50.6 - 9.923 - 8pts.
9 Bryan Dickerson  50.4 - 9.721 - 7 pts.
10 Mitch Brooks  50.0 - 9.931 - 6 pts.
11 John Fisher  49.1 - 10.316 - 5 pts.
12 Anthony Schoepflin  48.0 - 10.344 - 4 pts.
13 Amy Fields  46.7 - 10.364 - 3 pts.
14 Terry Abbott  45.7 - 10.166 - 2 pts.

BRM Group C
1 Greg Petrolati    60.3 Laps
2 Dan Fritz  57.5
3 Chris Kouba    55.8
4 Al Christensen   55.2
5 Bill Bostic   55.1
6 John Fisher    54.6
7 Mitch Brooks  48.3

Over 50
1 Mitch Brooks   53.3 Laps
2 John Fisher  52.3 
3 Bill Bostic    51.4
4 Al Christensen   51.0

After three runs the brake on the Hawksbill Flyer was wasted and it's day was done! Getting her stopped at the end of the run was not an easy task, she just wanted to keep going!

Today we took the Hawksbill Flyer and Chris Kouba's new car to our secret test area. The goal was to establish some baseline data using a GPS device during the test runs. We located an ideal spot and marked off a starting point for consistancy, and for future use in comparison tests.

This was my first high speed run in the Flyer, and I'll tell you it scared the crap out of me! Chris' first run in his new car was pretty uneventful as it handled and ran like a dream! After my first run we tightened up the steering adjustments on the Flyer which made the next two runs much less dramatic! After three runs Chris had posted a top speed of approximately 38 MPH. The Flyer set her fastest speed to date at just over 43 MPH! On my third run I totally used up the brake in stopping the car at the end of the run, so the Flyer was done for the day. Chris' car however had performed so well he decided to go ahead and run it all the way to the bottom of the mountain. Chris took off on a 2.5 mile test run raising his posted top speed to 43 MPH! These test runs are so valuable in getting a feel for the car and with the GPS giving us some actual data for comparison tests. It was an AWESOME day!

A big thanks to Beau Frazier and Dennis Hart for coming out and assisting in this endeavor. We could not have acco,plished all we did without you guys!

==========Bill

Hey Doc,

We are planning a test run of the Hawksbill Flyer and Chris' gravity car before the race. We may be out on the hill until about 3 pm or so. I will leave the garage door open for you and you can just come on in. I'll also leave the track on and ready to go. We should be back at the track no later than 3:30 pm. Just make youself at home. Diane wil be here if you need anything.

Our Group C entry at speed.

Alan Smith scoring.

Monte Smooth Saager at speed.

Our Group C entry under hard braking....make that just braking....these cars DO NOT brake hard!

Sorry for the photo delay, been nursing a slot car hang-over!

This is the six lane track we raced on. A long front straight and some tight turns in the gutters.

And this is why we call him Smooth, as evidenced by the calm look as he fights to control his excitement!

Another calm, cool, and collected participant! He has the 40 minute stare down!

I scouted three potential sites for testing of the gravity racer. The first road was way too rough. Road two was way too steep. But, the third road was perfect! On this road within a two and a half mile stretch there are multiple inclines with varying degrees of incline, and various curves from sweepers to hair pins. I believe we can make multiple runs with very minimal traffic interference if any. I only saw one other vehicle the entire time I was on the road.

So now I need volunteers to commit some time for testing. I'd like to establish a performance baseline we can test against after making improvements to the racer. Who's up for some road testing of the Hawksbill Flyer? I'd really like to get this done within the next two weeks, or by October 9th.

I would suspect it may match that helmet..............

THAT's what we want to hear (shameful plug inserted here)!

Doc, Al says you're good to come by early, around 3:00pm!

Yes, just as it is now. The points races will be the second race of the evening. That should give everyone a chance to be there by the start of the point race.

Thanks Rico. It will be interesting to see how the races progress. I will make adjustments if necessary, but I am optimistic at this point.