Like Marty said: “Cold temps – hot racing“. Although temperatures at the track room were hovering 40°F on December 14, the addition of a patio heater (properly ventilated … sort of 
) warmed the room to a cozy 55° before racing start; after all, this is not the type of racing you would want to do while wearing gloves.
Brian, Marty, Roy, Russell, Shawn and Steve lined-up for the final race – six heats of 5 minutes.
Heat 1: Russell’s “Little Bastart” seemed to have traction issues on the green lane, it was slightly off-pace, completing 69 laps. Steve’s Blaupunkt 911, on yellow, and Marty ‘s Mobil, on blue, were on fire – figuratively. The golden, oil-sponsored, Porsche clocked a 3.896 fastest lap (fastest of the race) and completed 74.75 laps; Steve kept-up with it, finishing just behind with 73.5 laps.
Heat 2: Roy’s Jever, on yellow, joins Steve, now on green, and Russell, on blue. Steve maintained his pace and completed 73 laps. Russell and Roy raced side-by-side for the duration of the heat; Russell was just short of 70 laps after 5 minutes; Roy just over 70.
Heat 3: Wow! Roy and Steve start the heat ahead of Brian, parked at the gridline on yellow. While Roy, on green, was chasing Steve, leading on blue, for the first two minutes of racing, Brian pushed his Blue Coral Porsche and was now putting pressure on Roy. By the 3 minutes mark, all racers were on the same lap; Steve leads by ¾ of a lap. Roy pushes his Jever too hard and de-slots, Brian continues chasing Steve. By heat-end, Steve was just short of 74 laps, with a fast lap of 3.93 seconds; Brian was a few feet behind, completing 73.70 laps and a fast lap of 3.958; Roy completed 71.80 laps.
Heat 4: Sometimes the scoring system fails (it is what it is), that’s why we record our races. In this heat, Brian’s first lap, on green, did not register (26 min. mark on the video). With that lap in mind, Wow #2! Shawn, on yellow, completed 71 laps; Roy, on blue, completed 73 + some laps and Brian, which I thought was lucky to have his car coast the finish line to complete 74 laps, actually completed 75! This was a great heat!
Heat 5: Three club founders battling; Marty on yellow, Brian on blue and Shawn on green. Marty had a short trip to his first lap and gained the lead right out of the gate. Shawn tried to keep Brian behind but the Blue Coral Porsche had been finely tuned and took second position by lap 20. Marty kept his lead till the end of the race, completing 74 laps – his fastest lap in this heat? 3.897; one thousandth of a second slower than the fastest lap of the race …also his. Brian shortened his gap to Marty, completing 73.75 laps; Shawn’s heat total was 72.
Heat 6: Very clean heat. All the competitors raced their Porsches to their potential without incidents. Marty’s car was able to easily turn 3.9 second laps; in Shawn’s case, it was 4.0 laps and 4.1 seconds for Russell. At the end of the heat, that difference was shown in lap totals: Marty had completed 73 laps to Shawn’s 71 to Russell’s 69.
Here are the results:
And the final podium:
This series was a great learning tool. The stronger long-can motors coupled with the anglewinder motor orientation required a greater finesse during acceleration. It was also very interesting how minor body and motor-pod adjustments made a much bigger different on the cars behavior, comparing to a short-can, inline variety of slot cars.