There is always a lot of excitement and fun when a new track becomes available for racers. Ron Martin's track in Salem is a perfect example. Ron bought the track and moved it from its location in Junction City to his shop in Salem. Ron's shop provides a spacious home for the track with plenty of pit space and room for racers to move about. Something most of us racers are not used to!
Ron said the track is a Gerding Fast Tracks build, originally set up in Colorado. He said from Colorado it went to Medford, and then into a storage unit. Superior RC bought the track and set it up in their shop in Junction City. When Superior gave up on slot cars, Ron was there to purchase the track. Lucky for all us slot type racers!
Saturday April 14th was the opening race for the track. There was a good turn out of racers, nine with controllers in hand. The racing consisted of one round of three minute heats, racing on the inner four lanes of the six lane track. My initial impression of the track was; very fast from the front far right corner to the front left corner via two nicely banked corners connected by a nice long straight. On the way back to that front far right corner you must negotiate a pretty tricky series of curves and a couple of short straights. I found the course challenging, so I chose to run my Team Bluegroove bodied Champion Turbo car, which was slower than my JK. JKs were definitely the car of choice for this race, but the speed was just too much for me to handle on the tricky circuit. I focussed on trying to complete laps, while trying to ignor the fact I was being eaten alive on the straights! Ron's race format includes the use of "Track Call" buttons, so there is no need for a bunch of turn marshals. Needless to say I got plenty of practice using the "Button"! I truly believe my "Track Call" button phobia helped me become a better driver on Ron's track. I my "offs" decreased as the race went on.
In the end Paul Painter scored the win, to no one's surprise! Pat Hurley finished second, and Herb McRobert finished third. It was a great morning of racing! We started early and finished early, with plenty of time for B.S.'n. Perfect for this old guy!
