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| Friday September 13th the racers from the Kansas City area, including MOKAN and MAHOR gathered at Jim Welty’s Lenexa Raceway for the 2nd Race For America, with proceeds going to The Rewards for Justice Fund. Thanks to the organizational efforts of Tim Leppert, 24 racers were in attendance, including Rick Phillis, Rick Machado, Steve Kralik, and Sean Kralik from California. Rick Phillis took full advantage of Lenexa Raceway’s three tracks to come up with a fun race format for the night. The theme was Bag of Parts and the entry fee included a raffle ticket and pizza from Breadaux Pizza, and I must personally thank Jim for locating his shop next to a pizza place! The event started at 7:00 p.m. and once the crowd had settled in, the number on your raffle ticket corresponded to a bag of tjet parts and the chassis were distributed by matching numbers. Racers had 45 minutes to do what magic they could to the chassis using the parts provided. The only items that you were allowed to add were skinny silicone tires, a guide pin, screws and a body. With no restrictions on car building, out came the poising tools. Heck, Steve Ward brought his whole workshop with him. Originally we were told that we could not add Thunderbrushes, and that we had to use the brushes that came with the chassis. Later we found out we had been had!! John Balson had donated Thunderbrushes, and they were in every car! To make driving these stockers more interesting, the axles had to be flush with the hubs. At 8:00 sharp the time was up and 24 cars were brought to the tables and impounded. Racers were randomly paired into 12 teams of 2. Six drivers would run on the green table, and six on the blue table, both of which are 4 lane tracks. The top three finishers from each table would meet on the 6 lane yellow table that I’m sure looked familiar to Rick as it’s based on the yellow Fray table, for the finals. The next three runners up would meet on the green table, and the last three on the blue table. Teams could use either individual’s car, or use one car exclusively, but each driver had to drive half the lanes. Heats for the first round were 5 minutes per lane, and at the end of the first heat the teams that advanced were: Tim Leppert/Larry Thomas, Trek Lawler/Steve Godinez, Jason Dover/Tracy Huston, Jack Lamb/Rick Phillis, Steve Ward/Gene Stephens and John Walter/Ryan Stacy. A break was taken to allow racers to participate in the silent auction fundraiser and eat pizza. Nothing adds traction like a little pepperoni pizza grease on the rear tires. The items up for silent auctions included complete cars by fellow racers, bodies, tools, oil, clothing, and even more Thunderbrushes!! The people who generously provided items are listed below and a big Thank You to everyone. After the break, racing resumed with the finals at 7 minutes per lane. Racing was tight on all three tables and Jim Welty tirelessly manned the Trakmate systems and kept everything running smoothly. All of his tracks are top notch, and so was the racing action. Howard Kilgore was racing so hard the body literally came right off his Ford GT. Howard demonstrated the reason you glue that guide pin on and kept right on going. Since the racers on the blue and green tables had only 4 lanes to rotate through, everyone was at the 6 lane yellow table by the end of their finals watching the top teams battle it out. There was plenty of banging and sliding with stockers on a sweeping fast track and everyone was giving it their all. Steve Ward had built yet another fast car, and drew Gene Stephens as a partner which proved to be a combination of car and drivers no one else could beat. The teams finished as follows: 1. Steve Ward/Gene Stevens After the racing concluded, the silent auction finished, and there were door prizes as well. The evening provided fun, fellowship, and raised $500 for The Rewards for Justice Fund. I would like to thank those that provided items for auction, Tim Leppert for organizing the race, Jim Welty for providing a great place to hold the event and to all the participants especially our guests from California, and Larry Thomas who tirelessly drives from Nebraska each race to join us!
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| Larry Thomas, Jack Rutherford, Tim Leppert and Don Royal working to build that perfect tjet. | |||||||||
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| Rick Phillis and Howard Kilgore battle on the green table. | |||||||||
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| Cars of the top six teams, from left to right | |||||||||
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