MoTown Raceway — Norcal32 — Oct 7, 2023

October 9, 2023

Race Overview

And we’re back!

Norcal32 hosted our October race at Motown Raceway in Modesto, California on October 7th, 2023. Racers began streaming into the raceway around 10am from Sacramento, San Jose, Modesto, Walnut Creek and more. The air was filled with giddy excitement and quickly the track filled up with racers looking to test their cars and get some practice runs in. When racing began, we had a solid 10 drivers. While generally on the smaller side of turnouts, we took the opportunity to run four classes and it made the day go by quickly.

Drivers Meeting

After practice laps had been run, we had a quick drivers meeting and discussed some of the potential upcoming 1/32 slot car classes we could run within the greater Norcal32 and in Modesto specifically. Jim Rose brought up some interesting ideas for next year such as moving closer to Electric Dreams rules for some classes, and opening up a few key restrictions in some of the more box stock classes, like allowing the ScaleAuto F1 to compete with the NSR and allowing air wheels for Group C. The meeting concluded with a gigantic round of applause for Gene, the owner of MoTown Raceway, who has recently making arrangements to sell the venue. We’ve heard that there are already several interested parties and Gene has assured us he’ll do everything he can to keep the doors open. After over 10 years providing racers with an incredibly welcoming, awesome slot car track, we can’t thank him enough for all his sacrifice and work.

Race 1: Slot.it Group C

First up was Slot.it Group C cars, which are one of our more box stock classes. Norcal32 currently allows the guides, tires, and some other little bits to be changed, so it’s always a close field. With Jim and Ted sitting out the first heat, Ian took the early lead after 3 minutes with 27 laps, followed tightly by UPS Mike and Franky, both with 26. As the racers settled into their grooves, Ian extended his small lead over UPS Mike to 3 laps after 4 heats. Unfortunately for Jim, he was experiencing mechanical issues and looked to be out of the running for the top spot.

5 Heats in, it was Ian with 84, UPS Mike with 81, Franky with 77 and Farley 67. Ted had a great first heat with 27 as well, and looked to be on pace for a podium. Herman and Mark Perkins were also in the mix with solid 28 lap heats on Purple and Blue respectively. Ian ended his rotations with 167, averaging 27.8, which was just ahead of Ted averaging 27.25.

When the dust settled, Ian took the first spot with 167, followed by Herman who went nuts finishing with 166. Ted finished in third with 163 and UPS Mike just missed the podium by 2, followed by Mark Perkins another 3 down. The top three all ran Nissan R90Cs.

Ian Douglass – 167
Herman James – 166
Ted Essy – 163
UPS Mike – 161
Mark G Perkins – 158
Richard – 157
Franky Valles – 154
Farley – 135
Big John – 123
Jim Rose (DNF) – 102

Race 2: Sideways Group 5

Our newest class in Norcal32 is Racer Sideways Group 5. Powered by a Slot.it Flat6 and the same basic logic of the Group C cars, these handle great and are a blast to drive. You can learn more about the rules for Sideways Group 5 here. The grid for Group 5 featured a mix of Skylines, BMW M1s, a single Ferrari, Porsche and Ford Capri. It’s clear there is not one car that’s the fastest in the class yet, so it’s great to see all the liveries and makes represented.

Jumping ahead to Heat 4, Jim was out to a solid 3 lap lead overr Mark G Perkins, followed 2 laps behind by Richard. Ted had only finished two heats so far but was averaging 27.5, which was just a lap over Jim’s average per heat. Ted was gunning for the win. After 6 heats and some sit outs, Ted was still averaging 27.5. Jim was sitting out, and Ian was on a tear averaging 29!

Ted finished first with a solid 166 laps, averaging 27.7. By heat 10 of 11, Jim appeared to be suffering from Mechanical issues again, taking him out of the running. By this time, Ian had finished up all his lanes and averaged a massive 29.3 and a total of 176 laps, which was going to be hard to beat. Going into the last heat, the battle was on for the final podium spots with UPS Mike, Franky Valles, and Richard all within striking distance. Richard was unable to capitalize on the final two lanes, and UPS Mike was able to solidify his third place finish, followed 7 behind by Franky and another 4 back to Mark.

Ian Douglass – 176 – Ford Capri
Ted Essy – 166 – BMW M1
UPS Mike – 163 – Skyline
Franky Valles – 156
Mark G Perkins – 152
Richard – 150
Herman James – 144
Farley – 135
Jim Rose – 133
Big John – (DNF) 47

Race 3: NSR F1 86-89

One of the favorite classes at MoTown has historically been the NSR F1 class. These cars have bodies that weigh around 10-12 grams, are 67mm wide and have major torque with the NSR King 21,900 motors. Ten drivers took the grid and after a little back and forth through tech, we got started.

Jumping in after 6 heats, Ian, Ted and Mark were all slicing and dicing for that top step – hitting 30 lap heats right and left. Ian ended his heats first with 179, which was going to be a big number to beat. In that 6th heat, Franky and Ted were hitting 29 and 30 laps as well, so it was far from over. Mark finished up his heats after the 8th rotation, and ended with 169. Ted was 6 up on Franky, so he had clear space to push for that top spot. Ted’s last heat needed to be a whopper, and unfortunately it wasn’t quite the heat he was looking for – with 27 laps.

The final results were Ian in first with 179, Ted in second with 174, and Franky stole the 3rd spot on the podium with 170 after Mark had some trouble in his last heat.

Ian Douglass – 179
Ted Essy – 174
Franky Valles – 170
Mark G Perkins – 169
Herman James – 168
UPS Mike – 168
Richard – 159
Farley – 143
Big John 84

Ian Douglass - MoTown NSR F1 - Oct 7, 2023 — ** Policar G25

Race 4: GT

GT is one of the most popular 1/32 slot car classes in Northern California. With ample power from the anglewinder 21,900rpm motor and open gearing and chassis, we see a big variety of cars and people really enjoy these races as they’re fast and furious! We had a 9 car field for this one, with a good chunk of the field running either Racer Sideways or NSR McLaren 720s, and a single Corvette, Audi R8, Mercedes AMG and Ford GTE. After some bad luck today, Jim was out for blood!

Starting off after 3 heats, Ted had a massive lead over the bunch, with 87, averaging 29 a heat. At this point, Jim had only run one lane, but had also hit 29, showing it was going to be close between the two of them. Jim had the slightest of edges dropping into the sub 6 second laps, with Ted managing a 6.03 at best.

After 5 heats, Ted was still averaging close to 29, with a 28.8 and Jim having finished 3 heats was averaging 28.6. Going into the last heat, Jim had already finished with 172 – averaging 28.7. Ted was going to need to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes to finish at the top step. And Ted did just that – finishing strong averaging 29 laps a heat for a total of 174. UPS Mike and Richard were in a battle for third with Mike edging Richard out by 3 for third.