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Hey y'all,
I am starting plans for PASER the Can Am race scheduled for April 25th here at Inslot's Checkered Flag. Some feedback from Saturday's Sportsman race would help me a lot with my plan. I sent out an email to those that I have email addresses for. If you didn't get it that means I don't have an email address for you!

How did the doors open time of 9am work for you?

How was the race starting time of 10:30am for you?

What did you think of the 3 round race format, with 4 minute heats?

What did you think of the random starting line up for the first round, followed by me setting the line up for the final two rounds?

We finished up around 5:00pm. What time would you prefer as a race end time?

As far as the race schedule, how do you think the race one round, break 1 hour for lunch, and then race the remaining 2 rounds worked out?

Any suggestions for the April 25th Can Am race?

Thank you for taking the time to help me out with this!
============Bill

In the Pacific Northwest hardbody racing community, the Sportsman Class could be considered the middle weights. Weighing in around 9 to 10 ounces, they are typically about 1 to 2 ounces lighter than the NASCAR Class cars which could be considered the heavy weights. Although the Sportsman cars are lighter, the NASCAR class are generally faster and better handling. If you've never raced in one of these hardbody events, you are truly missing out! This Sportsman race provided the 20 participants with all the competition and excitement they could ask for! Some of the wrecks, collisions, and get offs during the race were spectacular!

The race was split into two segments. The first round consisted of 4 minute heats, and was used to establish the starting grid for the second segment. In the first round Bob jumped out to a good lead, with the next closest racer seven laps behind him. Bob's car was dialed in as was Bob (no surprise there)! The next five racers were all within three laps of each other. For those of you not counting, that would be the top six! The next eight racers stayed within just 15 laps of each other. Over 70% of the field was in a position to win going into the second segment of the race! But first, FOOD!

We took an hour for a lunch break after that first segment. My wife Diane made us some of her (now famous) Sloppy Joes. The spread she laid out also included cold cuts, cheese, potatoe salad and macaroni salad. I think everyone ate pretty well (at least I hope so)! During lunch I put together the starting line up for the second portion of the race. Racers first segment lap totals would be added to the second portions lap totals to determine the overall winner. Racers were entered into the starting line up based on their finish position in the first segment. In the second portion of the race, each racer would be on the track competing with racers that were their closest competitors to that point.

The second portion of the race consisted of 2 rounds of racing, with 4 minute heats making up each round. It did not take long after the green flag dropped for things to get exciting! I don't know if it was the lunch or what, but it got wild! Some of the most exciting moments were provided by Stuart getting hit in the bank and taking a high altitude route to the lower straight, where he was immediately hit again! Then there was Bryan's barrel roll over the top of another car coming out of the bank! Not to be out done by Geof who took a full throttle blast down the lower straight and into the bone yard, sending scrap bodies and pieces flying! And those are just the highlight I can remember! The racing action was intense throughout the second and third rounds. Bob was still in the lead, but he was not gaining as much ground on the rest of the field.

Things settled down somewhat in the last round of racing. Everybody was more focussed and laying down better lap times. Then within the last few minutes of the race it looked like Stuart was going to be out due to chassis breakage. But when it was pointed out to him how close the positions still were, Stuart returned to the track with his crippled car. Although he was unable to make a good race pace with the front axle assembly nearly broken off his chassis entirely, he did manage to complete enough laps to keep him in the top 10! What an effort! At the checkered flag it was Bob Nak, followed by Flyin' Bryan, with Howie in third. Just one lap behind Howie in fourth was Steven. Oh and Stuart? By getting back on the track he was able to stay within just two laps of eighth place, finishing in nineth one lap ahead of tenth place! Here are some other didbits I feel are noteable: Hersch drove one of the best races I have seen from him to this date! By the end of the race he and his car were dialed in and turning some impressive lap times! Plus, he finished the race without failures of any kind! Steven's son Greyson, at ten years of age performed very well on a track he had never raced on. Geof did an excellent job not only racing his first race on this track, but also turn marshalling! And a big thanks to Douglass for continuing to stick around and turn marshall even after he was out of the race! I could continue to mention everyone that was in attendance for one thing or another. You guys are all my good friends, and I appreciate each and every one of you coming to this race! You guys make all this worth while!

Here are the final results:

Best of Show Award went to Bob Nak

1st   Bob Nak                  522 laps
2nd  Flyin' Bryan              507
3rd  Howie                       504
4th  Steven Dragin' Man    503
5th  BH Bill Henry            495
6th  Al   Meat                 485
7th  Herb                     475
8th  Bill                       471     
9th  Stuart Stew Meat   469
10th  Terry                  468
11th - tie  Bart               456
11th - tie  Ken Gear Loose 456
13th  Mike G.                    426 (Mike had to leave early missing his last heat race in the red lane).
14th  Hersch                   424
15th  Frank                  415
16th  Tim M.                403
17th  Geof                   360
18th  Greyson              306
19th  Tim Timba           134  (Tim only raced through the first round).       
20th  Douglass             DNF  (Unfortunately, Douglass had a motor failure during practice before the green flag).

It's Wednesday before the race and time to start prepping the track. First off thank you to the guys that offered to help me with the track cleaning. I really appreciate the offers but, I am totally anal when it comes to my track. I have a certain method/procedure I follow when I clean the track, and I am just most comfortable executing that process myself. The care I take when cleaning the track surface and braid is probably extreme and over the top, but I have my reasons! It isn't hard, and it does not take a great deal of time. I just crank up my music and get to it. I hope nobody gets offended by me declining their offer to help, it's just me.

It is 3:00pm and I am finished. I started around 11:00am, had lunch from noon to 1:00pm, and finished up after spending a half hour or so capturing a humming bird that found its way into the shop. I had the overhead door open for ventilation because I use Naptha for the track cleaning. Evidently the bird did not mind the smell.

Tomorrow I may do a quick cleaning of the braid. It doesn't look bad because I just did a thorough cleaning of the braid the last time I cleaned the track. I inspected the braid and it all looks good. There was only one small spot where it has curled just a little, and I will repair that with a little adhesive tomorrow.

My philosophy as a track owner is to have the track 100% ready for races. I want there to be NO issues with the track and or its operation. Any handling problems or deslotting issues need to be either car set up or driver caused. I need to do my best to assure racers those types of problems are not track created. All I ask from racers is diligence in being sure the car you are running on the track is not causing any damage to the track braid or racing surface. This primarily means checking your car for proper ground clearance, especially under the crown or even more importantly, the spur gear. Other areas of concern are the edges of pans and screw heads. Lastly please remember, no additional tire glue. It is OK to CLEAN or add conditioner to your tires (i.e. muscle rub or similar creams). Your tires should feel dry, not wet or greasy after cleaning/conditioning. This track is for you guys, the racers. Please treat it as yours!

Lastly, since I became the caretaker of Inslot's Checkered Flag, I have completed a great deal of work on it. In addition to the redesign and reconstruction of the "Dead Man" curve section of the track track, I have reconstructed and moved the driver's stations, reconstructed many of the side walls, and rewired the entire track adding more power taps. The wiring has been customized for the ability to select different computers and timing/lap counting systems. I have also completely rebraided the track. This is the one task I do not enjoy, at all! If we all just stay on top of our cars maintenance the braid should be good for many more years! But, when the track gets to the point of needing to be rebraided it will be time for the track to move to a new home! I am over 70 years old now and I will not rebraid it again!

Thank you all for racing here, and I am looking forward to seeing everybody on Saturday for the Sportsman race!

Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway hosted the CRSCR Odd Monday Night Race yesterday, February 9 2026. I sincerely hope everyone had as good of a time as I did! Racer attendance was outstanding, and we had five visitors check out our program. I got to see and visit with a few friends that have not made it up for awhile. It was a great evening for me! Thank you all!

Now down to the details. We started off the event with dinner supplied by my beautiful wife Diane. Diane made us a generous portion of sloppy joe sliders. Thank you Diane, I love those sliders!

After the casual dinner we lined the start line with Womps, the first class for the night's racing. Womp races are always close and this race was no exception. The top eight placers all finished with lap totals over 100! Doc was able to take the lead and stay out front for the win. On a side note; Bart raced in my place, and the following racers lost one lap due to deslots across the lap counter: Bob, Al, Bart, and Doug.

Here are the results:

For the past few years PASER has not been a very active group, or probably more appropriately, a very active sanctioning body. The rules as listed on the NASTE website were taken directly from old PASER Rule books, or pages there of. For two reasons I took the liberty to edit the rules governing the bodies for the Can Am Class; 1.the original Can Am class had split and gone in different directions leaving the PASER version of the class abandoned. 2. Retro (IRRA) racing chassis have become readily available. With the IRRA style chassis available for purchase, I felt it was reasonable to have the rules reflect the original PASER standard of inline motored chassis classes.

I have recently had some conversations about the upcoming race with various interested racers. Some had questions about racing the old Can Am cars they had raced before. With these conversations in mind, I returned the rules regarding bodies for the Can Am Class to the original verbiage:

Body Group: Only Can Am cars that actually raced in the Can Am series, using Lexan Bodies to Scale with a minimum thickness of .010”.

However, I added this to cover races after the February 21st race: (After the Can Am race on April 25, 2026 the minimum body thickness of .030” will be observed requiring the use of Team Bluegroove bodies).

My hope is this will allow racers to participate with any Can Am cars they may have built for PASER in the past, without the need to purchase a new body before April 25th. After the April 25th race the body rule for .030" Team Bluegroove bodies will go into effect. I think the Team Bluegroove bodies will better support PASER's Hardbody Racing theme than the traditional thin Lexan bodies. I apologize for any confusion or difficulties this may have created.   =======Bill