The first round of the NSR Abarth 500 series was a good start to what should be a great series. There were eight racers present for this opening round of the series.
These are interesting little cars that don’t really scream racer but that in itself is part of the alure to their popularity. Just looking at the cars you would not think they are quick or very fun to drive but then you take a few laps and you realize these are fun little cars to drive, especially on our rally track.
The series is run as a “stock” series with a limited number of items you can change. This makes this a real racers series with the technical side being so limited. Having said that, there are still things you can do with the stock package to get the car to run better. No secret tuning tips here, just getting everything on the stock car to work 100%.
The race direction for this round of the series was counter clockwise as determined by the flip of a coin prior to the start of the race. This direction is also the most exciting as racers get to catch some air on the straight before turn 1. Cars running in this direction can actually jump from one lane to another with no loss of time. Now that is exciting.
The races were fun to watch as these little cars worked their way around the circuit, jumping, running on two wheels, and the occasional de-slot or crash. They say that’s why people watch – for the crashes.
The series is set up for each car to run 40 laps and the total time for those 40 laps being the number that determines the drivers placing.
The cars all ran well with the exception on one – Marty’s. His car had a slipping spur gear that gave the car unwanted traction control under acceleration. Once the gear was tightened the car was back on its way, just way down the field.
The other seven cars all had solid runs with the final results showing David’s car on top with a time of 4’38”. This was 25.6 seconds ahead of the second-place car of Steve. Steve had a great run but could not keep up with David’s super quick car. Third was John only 1 second behind Steve. That is a very small gap over the 40-lap distance.
Fourth was Marc a further 4 seconds behind John. Fifth was Randy, sixth was Mark, seventh was Russell, and the final position was Marty and his loose spur gear.
In case you missed the first round of the series you can check it out on the clubs YouTube channel.
All of the racers had a great time and are looking forward to the next rounds.