Thunder Road Raceway — HO Racing, Sep 3, 2022

Race Report

Saturday brought extreme heat and seventeen racers to Thunder Road Speedway. While temperatures exceeded 100 degrees outside, guys brought their own type of heat inside the raceway. With some competitors driving 2-3 hours to get here, we started the program right on time after an hour of warm up.

TFX hardbody cars got things going, as we always start with the slowest classes and work our way up to the fastest at the end of the day. With Team South Bay well represented, four of the top five spots were TSB, with Kenneth C. Stephens taking the checkered flag, Jim Rose second and Daniel Jimenez third, all within a couple laps of each other.

Up next were the Viper Jets, running at 12 volts due to the fact they have no traction magnets. In fact, we have found these cars work much better on this track without any type of rear weights, lowering the times by several tenths. Greg Kondrek takes the win by one over Ronald Coaxum and Bruce Douglass rounding out the podium.

After a tasty lunch, things got very serious with the fastest class, the Viper Level 4 cars with lexan bodies at 15 volts. These cars get around the 80 road course from Brad Bowman in the low 4 second range and do tend to get airborn on a regular basis, so watch out for flying objects! Rapid Ron showed his dominance today with a 7 lap victory over Bruce, and Ted Essy getting his only podium of the day in third.

The last race of the day were Tomahawk IROC cars, which are Tyco 440 wide pan cars with lexan bodies, always fun to drive, again at 15 volts. Kenji took his second win of the day by 4 over George Peters, who had a stellar race and followed by Rapid Ron with his third podium finish.

Thanks to all of those who braved the temps to make it another great day of racing and camaraderie with the group.

(From Ted Essy)

Video

(Courtesy of Jim Rose of Norcal Slot Car Scene)

Results

TFX

Viper Jet

Viper Level4

Tyco Tomahawks