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| 10/29/06 Seventeen drivers gathered at the Slot Car Club of the Twin Tiers, (SCCOTTT,) on Saturday, October 8, 2006 for the 8 Hours of Horseheads. The event was a thriller from start to finish. Several records were set including the furthest distance covered and the closest finish. After eight hours of intense racing the winning margin was only three laps, which equates to approximately 17.5 seconds. The race was run to Enduro rules and in natural light. That meant that work on the cars could only be done during the time the power was on to the track and that the lights in the shop were off whenever the track power was on. The race started at approximately 2:25, which meant that a little more than half of the race was run in darkness. The cars were slightly modified 1/24 Corvette C6-Rs and Ferrari 575s produced by Carrera. The race was held on SCCOTTT's 53' 4-lane, 9-turn Carrera road course. 8 Hours Of Horseheads Official Entry List Team - Hometown - Car Frank Spena Racing - Horseheads, NY - Chevy Corvette C6-R Drivers: Frank "Chub" Spena Jr. Ryan Hendrickson Tyler Reed Dave Van Duzer KAOS - Wilkes-Barre, PA - Chevy Corvette C6-R Drivers: Chuck Perez Tom Gunshannon III Tom "The Assassin" Gunshannon Tom Pintchuck KRD Racing - Erin, NY - Ferrari 575GTC Maranello Drivers: Dave Hendrickson Kevin Hendrickson Gary Weber Joe Atkinson Scratch & Dent Racing - Horseheads, NY - Chevy Corvette C6-R Drivers: Scott Walker Matt Metcalf Brian Metcalf Alex "Swirly" Carmody Don Brenner QUALIFYING For qualifying each team could nominate their driver who would have 20 seconds to get the fastest lap possible. Besides bragging rights, qualifying would determine starting lane choice for the 8 Hours. The team names were drawn from a hat for the qualifying order. FSR was drawn first and lead driver Frank Spena Jr. stepped up to the line. The FSR Corvette had not been under 5.35 in practice and testing. Spena had borrowed a trued rear end from KRD just before the race and, along with sticker tires, he was hitting the track with the car this way for the first time. He then showed why he has more Majors pole positions at SCCOTTT/PRR than anyone else. Spena flew the Corvette - literally. His first lap out broke the overall lap record for this class of car and was also the first sub-five second lap for the class. His second lap was nearly as good and would also have been good enough for pole. He had the car completely airborne through the esses on all three laps. KAOS and lead driver Chuck Perez were up next. This was the team's first Majors experience at SCCOTTT and Perez put in a solid run that would hold up for third. KRD Racing and Dave Hendrickson was up next. Hendrickson and his Ferrari had been quickest throughout testing leading up to the race but he had never been under 5 seconds. He nearly made it but had to settle for second. Scratch & Dent Racing barely had their car finished in time for qualifying. Scott Walker, the former owner of Pocket Rocket Raceway and the current owner of the track SCCOTTT was using for the 8 Hours, had not been in competition since April of 2005. Even so, he nearly pipped KAOS for third. QUALIFYING RESULTS Position | Time - Team - Driver 1| 4.992 - Frank Spena Racing - Frank Spena Jr. 2| 5.046 - KRD Racing - Dave Hendrickson 3| 5.470 - KAOS - Chuck Perez 4| 5.541 - Scratch & Dent Racing - Scott Walker THE 8 HOURS OF HORSEHEADS With lane choice, FSR picked the fastest lane, blue, to try to get a jump on the race. Spena showed his qualifying performance was no fluke and put FSR well out in front, despite brake trouble on his controller towards the end of the segment. His 641 laps broke the old segment record of 627 set by Dave Hendrickson in October of 2004 and put FSR in front by 33 laps. Even more remarkable about the broken record, the '04 rules allowed magnets but only rubber tires. The '06 rules called for no magnets, but silicone tires. Over one lap the '04 cars were faster, and most figured they would be over a race distance as well...Kevin Hendrickson opened for KRD, which chose red, the second fastest lane. He was disappointed to drop so far back, but his 608 laps would prove to be the highest 1 hour total of the day for his team as well as for any team in red lane. Scratch & Dent started in the slowest lane, yellow, but, with leadoff Don Brenner, they put up the day's best yellow performance at 586 for third. KAOS had Perez open and he did well with 583, just three behind S&D. Hour 1 Standings Pos.| Laps - Team 1| 641 - FSR 2| 608 - KRD 3| 586 - S&D 4| 583 - KAOS Hour 2 was KRD's chance to shine in blue and get the lead away from FSR. Gary Weber stepped in for KRD and pulled back all but one lap of FSR's lead. Dave Van Duzer and Ryan Hendrickson split the segment for FSR and the team felt good to still be leading after KRD's hour in blue. S&D was still in the hunt, 33 laps down with their turn in blue coming up. KAOS was struggling after consecutive segments on the two slowest lanes and now had a hole to dig out of. So after two hours, it was shaping up to be FSR vs KRD, with only one lap between them... Hour 2 Standings 1| 1209 - FSR 2| 1208 - KRD 3| 1176 - S&D 4| 1113 - KAOS KRD had failed to get the lead while in blue, but they had another shot, as FSR would now be in yellow. FSR pitted at the beginning of the segment, which handed a two-lap lead to KRD. It was now Tyler Reed for FSR and Joe Atkinson for KRD and Reed surprised everyone by reeling Atkinson in and taking the lead back. He built the lead to 11 laps before he tired and handed off to Spena with a little more than 15 minutes remaining. Atkinson was now struggling with tires and Spena took advantage to add another 10. FSR now appeared to be firmly in control with a 21 lap lead and KRD heading to yellow...S&D had been looking forward to blue lane, but mistakes and mechanical trouble saw them drop behind KAOS for the first time... Hour 3 Standings 1| 1764 - FSR 2| 1743 - KRD 3| 1675 - KAOS 4| 1668 - S&D For Hour 4 dusk was falling and FSR was ready to go for the jugular with a nice lead and KRD in yellow. KRD's lead driver, Dave Hendrickson, had other ideas. Ryan Hendrickson and Spena split the segment for FSR. With FSR's Corvette slowing slightly, and KRD's Ferrari picking up the pace, Ryan struggled to gain time on his father. He managed to gain a few laps when he decided to call Spena in. When the two switched they decided to stay with Ryan's controller, but something in the brakes failed. For the third time on the day Spena found himself with no way to stop the car. By the time the pair figured out the problem and switched controllers, Spena had suffered two large crashes and lost four laps. Like Ryan, Spena also found making time on Dave a difficult proposition... This segment also offered some of the day's best side-by-side racing. With KAOS trying to make up time in blue, Perez was slightly quicker than Spena in red, but not as consistent. With Spena trying hard to push the pace to gap Hendrickson, he found himself trying to get around the outside of Perez. Lap after lap the two banged fenders and fought hard. By the segment's end, the combination of FSR's two fastest drivers in the second fastest lane against KRD's fastest driver in the slowest lane could only yield a 5 lap gain. The race was now half over with darkness closing in and the cars' lights now prominent. FSR had a 26-lap advantage, but Dave's yellow performance had opened the door for KRD. KAOS now had a firm hold on 3rd, but had lost four laps to FSR despite being in blue and therefore had also lost any real shot at winning barring mechanical failures for the two leaders. Hour 4 Standings 1| 2352 - FSR 2| 2326 - KRD 3| 2259 - KAOS 4| 2188 - S&D Hour 5 had FSR and Spena in blue once again. Spena and the Vette were both tiring now and with the track getting dirtier as well, he could not repeat his Hour 1 performance. Kevin Hendrickson could not match his Hour 1 either, but he held the bleeding to a minimum with a fine run. Spena could only add 17 laps to the lead, which put it at 43 laps. KAOS was now over 100 laps down and heading into yellow, while S&D's race was unraveling. The team missed much of the hour doing car repairs. Hour 5 Standings 1| 2958 - FSR 2| 2915 - KRD 3| 2776 - KAOS 4| 2614 - S&D Hour 6 was KRD's last shot at blue lane, and they took full advantage. Van Duzer struggled to find his rhythm in the darkness and Weber sliced the lead in half before the segment was half over. With 33 minutes remaining Ryan stepped in for FSR to try to hold the lead. He did, despite several run-ins with lapped traffic, but only just. After 6 hours the lead was down to 3 laps, and with FSR going into yellow, KRD was poised to take control. Hour 6 Standings 1| 3514 - FSR 2| 3511 - KRD 3| 3298 - KAOS 4| 3075 - S&D Hour 7 started very poorly for FSR when they hooked their controller up backwards. That quickly, KRD was back into the lead. Dave Hendrickson was now at the helm. Reed drove the first few minutes for FSR before he handed off to Spena. He fought hard, but, stuck in yellow, he could not hold back Hendrickson. Atkinson took over for KRD at the half, followed later by Weber. Reed took over for FSR shortly after Atkinson jumped in and then handed off to Spena with between 10 and 15 minutes to go. For the first time in the race KRD found itself in the lead at the end of a segment. They had built it up to 13 laps. Now they would have to defend the lead for one hour from yellow, but considering FSR's net gain of only 5 laps the first time around, the lead looked strong. Hour 7 Standings 1| 4078 - KRD 2| 4065 - FSR 3| 3843 - KAOS 4| 3582 - S&D It would be Dave Hendrickson once again in yellow for KRD for Hour 8. For FSR it was deja vu all over again. In the first 8 Hours, in 2004, the team lead for almost the entire event only to be caught and passed by KRD late for the win. This time around the team had led most of the way again, but unlike '04, this time around they were finishing in a faster lane than their rivals. Still, faces were grim in the FSR camp. Spena left the task to Ryan Hendrickson. FSR pitted on the first lap in the segment, which added two laps to KRD's lead. Ryan quickly went to work and picked off 5 laps in less than 20 minutes to get the lead down to 9. He was flying, but he was also tiring... With a little over 40 minutes remaining he called for Spena to spell him. It looked like the deciding moment in the race. Was he tired? Was he cold? Either way Spena went off course four times in his first ten laps. What had looked like a difficult margin to overcome, now looked impossible. Spena had watched his team get overrun from the sidelines in the closing hour in 2004, but now his team's destiny was in his own hands. He had been hot earlier in the day but now he looked slow and awkward. The Corvette was down on power from what it had been 7 1/2 hours earlier, and Hendrickson and the KRD Ferrari were still flying in yellow. Finally Spena pulled it together and began the task. He had 35 minutes to catch his friend and arch rival for the win. Slowly but surely he picked off lap after lap. With 25 minutes to go FSR pitted for clean tires one more time. KRD did the same. With clean tires Spena reeled in Hendrickson even quicker, but as the tires went away, his advantage shrunk. Two mistakes by Hendrickson quickly gave two laps back to Spena and the fight was truly on. With about 12 minutes to go Spena finally grabbed the lead. A couple of laps later he had it to do over again when he tangled with the KAOS car and went off. Both Spena and Hendrickson were now struggling with tires but neither would pit. Hendrickson had the horsepower but Spena had the faster lane. Once again Spena inched his way up to the Ferrari and stole the lead. Hendrickson hung on grimly, but he simply did not have enough and after a few laps Spena began pulling away. As the final minutes ticked away Hendrickson gave it all he had but the Ferrari would not hold and Spena was able to open the lead to the final margin of three laps... The 8 HOURS OF HORSEHEADS FINAL STANDINGS 1| 4659 - Frank Spena Racing - Chevy Corvette C6-R 2| 4656 - KRD Racing - Ferrari 575GTC Maranello 3| 4432 - KAOS - Chevy Corvette C6-R 4| 4103 - Scratch & Dent Racing - Chevy Corvette C6-R Three laps after 8 hours of intense racing…At the finish the two leaders were running 5.8 to 6.0 second laps, meaning the winning margin was between 17.4 and 18 seconds. The lap total of 4659 by FSR also broke the 2004 mark by nine laps despite the lack of magnets. The fact that both FSR and KRD broke the old mark despite theoretically slower cars is a testament to the excellent driving displayed all day long. The lead cars covered nearly 47 miles. SCCOTTT would like to thank Dave Hendrickson for engineering modifications to the Carrera cars, which made them both quicker and more reliable. Not only did Hendrickson develop the modifications, he also helped outfit the other teams with them. Without his efforts the 8 Hours of Horseheads would not have been the successful and exciting race it was. The Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers is a non-profit group of enthusiasts dedicated to promoting slot car racing in the Southern Tier of NY and the Northern Tier of PA. Please stop in or check out the club web site. Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers 2117C Grand Central Ave. Horseheads, NY 14845 Web Site: http://www.reocities.com/sccottt1/clubmain.html E-mail: sccottt1@yahoo.com Race Photos and Race Summary spreadsheet available on request. E-mail: fspenajr@juno.com |
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| Below: FSR Corvette C6R & KRD Ferrari 575 Maranello - 1st & 2nd, respectively |