The weather wasn't promising for the weekend of October 5th and 6th in Moorestown NJ this year. Despite the impending threats of rain and other fall-like weather activities the first annual NJ T-Jet Shoot-Out took place.

Hosted by Kevin and Cheryl Chesney, the Shoot-Out began with a day of practice on three different tracks. The practice day, Friday, was followed by a full 10+ hours of individual ndividual and team racing. These tracks were placed throughout the home of the Chesney’s, which unto itself became a miniature raceway park for the weekend. Cheryl was graced with a delivery of flowers and many-many compliments for the hospitality and food served. Along with the fabulous hosts, Kevin had some help from members of the VHORS Rules Committee for 2001 (John “Yensid” Forlino, Bob “Mose” Marsley, Dave “Bigstuff” Pena, John “JJ” Jernstrom) with special help from Greg “Gage Daring” Dockery, and Larry “2 Beers” Schenk and track owners Joe, Larry and John Hoopes, and Tom Bowman.

The racing took place on three tracks. The host track being a newly re-designed Paperboy Raceway made up of “old school” lock and joiner plastic track located in the race room of the residence. Next, in the former race room was a track called Hot Slotz, a Tomy AFX track designed primarily for magnet car racing I believe, brought to the scene by Joe Hoopes with the help of his son Larry and brother John. The third track, which was placed in the living room I call “Bowman Speedway”. It’s a routed track made by Ed Bianchi, brought to the scene by Tom Bowman. As you can tell, the house was FULL!

Two events took place, making the first annual NJ T-Jet Shoot-Out a huge success. On Saturday morning with officially 36 logged in racers the Individuals Event began. Racers were drawn at random from the numbers of a door prize ticket handed out before the event began. Groups of four racers took turn cranking out laps on each of four lanes on all three tracks. Drivers were allotted two cars to be tech’d in for the event(s), so there was a choice of what to use as well as a backup, including allowance for guide-pin switching between tracks. Anyway, the first group would begin on Paperboy Raceway, each racer would run all lanes, 10 laps each. When completed the group would head over to the Hot Slotz track carrying the results sheet with them, and again run their 10 laps in each lane. The second group would start racing on Paperboy while the Hot Slotz race was underway, and so the flow began. Last in the series for individuals was an IROC race on the “Bowman Speedway”. This race was a timed race, three minutes per lane. Here at the “Bowman Speedway” the results sheet was completed and then passed over to the crew for entry into the computer and cars were impounded and tech’d for the information page. The top finisher results are posted on the website for each track. However the top honors overall total points for all three tracks (listed below), were quite close in finishing. The competition was very intense!

1. Joe Hoopes - 187.563 points
2. Tom Bowman - 187.485 points
3. Larry Hoopes - 186.285 points
4. Joe Selinski - 180.925 points

The second event was the team competition. There were eight teams participating, which basically had everyone from the individuals! There had been some “trash talk” the few weeks before the competition as to which team would be the winners. Wouldn’t you know it, one of the silent teams came out on top. Team Tuff Ones took first place, but only after an official tie breaker Shoot-Out with the Misfit Toys. It made for some exciting climax to a very long day of racing. The final team standings were as follows.

1. Team Tuff One’s - 119 points (won tie breaker shoot-out over the Misfit Toys)
2. The Misfit Toys - 119 points
3. Team Virgina Beach - 118 points
4. Team Volare’ - 114 points
5. Team NITRO - 104 points
6. Team KMGY - 94 points
7. Team Bigstuff - 75 points
8. Team Kutztown - 60 points

For more information, stats and pictures, please login to the NJ T-Jet Shoot-Out 2001 page. Having successfully completed the first annual NJ T-Jet Shootout, the host Kevin Chesney had announced the workings for another event next year had begun. Fortunately his home will not be invaded for the next race, we’re sure his wife breathed a huge sigh of relief after hearing that! The next NJ T-Jet Shoot-Out will take place on October 11th and 12th of 2002. Please visit the website for more information as the time draws closer.