The Magazine For Slot Car Enthusiasts

6/15/06
MAHOR - The Race in the Heartland
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By John Habernal
Note: Perhaps this is the greatest concentration of racing in the country. See some of the tracks here
Saturday the 18th of August finally arrived and it was time for Mid-America HO Racing's (MAHOR) second annual Enduro. The Enduro is the second of two summer events for the club, the first one being the Bag-of-Parts race. Everyone arrived early that afternoon and practice got underway. The track for the Enduro was John Walter's US-24 Speedway: a winding, four lane road course with plenty of straights of varying lengths and just enough hair to keep you on yer toes! Practice got underway as folks started arriving. There was pop and munchies for everyone and whoever was not practicing was either working at his pit area or eating!

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Following about an hour and a half of practice where everyone got some lane time, it was time for the team captain vote. Everyone got a ballot and voted for the four team captains. The captains voted in were: myself, Howard Kilgore, Don Bourne and Steve Godinez. Then, the captains adjourned upstairs to select the teams. With 13 drivers total in attendance, three of the four teams had three drivers each and one team (Kilgore's) had four. Team Bourne consisted of Don Bourne, Malcolm McIntyre and Andy Thomas. Team Godinez had Steve Godinez, Jack Lamb and John Walter.

Team Habernal had myself, Dave Carter and Don Royal. And finally, Team Kilgore had Howard Kilgore, Art Walts, Gene Stephens and Larry Thomas. With the teams set, it was time for team car selection and practice. Oddly enough, all the teams ended up settling on cars built by the captains themselves. Team Borne had a white Lola GT, Team Godinez had a red Lola GT, Team Habernal had a red Cobra GT, and Team Kilgore had a yellow Ford GT.

This Enduro was to be a GT race after all. When all team members had driven the team's car, it was time for tech and impound. Driver order was then decided, and the race began. The Enduro was to consist of four rounds, each team driving one hour per lane total. The three 3-man teams' drivers put in two 10 minute shifts each per round while Team Kilgore's drivers put in two 7.5 minute shifts per round.

Team Godinez jumped out to an early lead, no doubt aided not only by the skillful drivers on their team but to the T-jet engineering expertise of Dr. Tweak himself, Godinez. My team fared fairly well at the outset, both from good driving and a steady, consistent car. Although we dropped a lap or two to a couple of the teams early on in the first round, we ended up in second after the first round and never looked back from there. Team Kilgore was no slouch, however. They battled us for second the entire evening, at one point pulling within just eight laps of us! The final round afforded us the luxury of a great lane that enabled us to put some tremendous distance between us and the other two teams. However, this would not have been the situation had mechanical troubles not befallen the Bourne and Kilgore teams. Our team could have very possibly ended up playing catchup had these two teams' cars ran glitch-free the whole race!

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Team Bourne started off strong early in the first round, but started having arm problems; erratic power, overheating. Their car was in the pits for a costly amount of time and the problem was never really nailed down to one specific cause. Team Kilgore had some issues towards the second half of the race that had the body bouncing like a ghetto cruiser at one point!

Even Team Godinez was not immune to Murphy as they snapped a guide pin later in the race. How about that Cobra, Team Habby! It seemed that whenever Kilgore's car got within passing distance of us, theirs would come off as if repelled by magnets! Maybe that extra weight in front was the ticket for that. Although not necessarily the speed demons that Teams Godinez and Kilgore had, the Cobra stayed virtually glitch free for four solid hours of driving.

After a break in the action midway in the race for some pizza and butt time, it was back to the track for the conclusion of the Enduro. The results from round to round stayed pretty much consistent, with our team pulling a little closer to the top dogs (Godinez') near the end. But as the checkered flag flew, it was Team Godinez and the red Lola that stole the show. Congrats to you guys for a dominating performance!

For specifics on results, go to our website at: http://home.swbell.net/hopr/mahor/results.html

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Godinez' Winning Car