On The Track

3DBotMaker

by Josh Paufler

Round 1 of The Camaro Summer Tournament kicked off with a couple exciting races at 3DBotmaker this week. All the Camaros are stock. While I prefer the custom races, this one definitely had its moments. It was exciting to see the many Camaro castings released by various companies over the years, all showcased on the most epic stage in diecast racing.

Group 1 set the tone for the series as three 70s era Camaros and one from 2018 went at it. The first race was a great match up between Nick Braxton (Blackburn Family Racing) and Jeremiah Logan (Po Boy Racing). Braxton was on Logan’s tail the entire race but couldn’t get by. Logan won the first heat but not before Peter Bee (TuneTrax Racing) staged an incredible pass to take 3rd place, leaving James Dean (CRC Racing) to finish in last.

Heat 2 saw a big-time comeback as James Dean blew the doors off the rest of the field to post a new Race Mountain Speedway track record of 16.550 seconds.

Unfortunately, James Dean couldn’t follow it up in heat 3 as Logan got sideways to take out everyone except Nick Braxton who finished by himself to take the top spot.

That set up James Dean and Nick Braxton in the front row for heat 4. Braxton, with a little contact in turn 2, propelled Jeremiah Logan to victory and allowed him to take the group round.

Classic American muscle prevailed in the end as Peter Bee, racing for TuneTrax, in the 2018 Camaro was eliminated. However, the race ended with a tie for second place.

With the top two cars advancing, a tiebreaker was needed. Braxton and Dean went head to head to determine who would move on. With a crazy spinout in turn 2, Dean blocked Braxton, finishing the race in reverse and moving onto the next round.

Even with James Dean having an impressive day, Logan is still the car to beat coming out of group 1.

BITCHIN’ CAMAROS - Exciting drifting action in the 2 nd round of the Camaro Summer Tournament. TheloniusJawnMcBatmanorama (center) and RedGlovesRule (left) swing sideways as Artipia (right) pulls away in an FTE-wheeled convertible.

Group 2 featured the longest name I’ve ever seen on the Mountain. TheloniousJawnMcBatmanorama for CRC Racing debuted on the track with a slick 2016 SS. Chuck Turbo from 3DBotmaker was driving a Johnny Lightning and immediately earned the admiration of 2D. You could almost see the hearts floating above 2D as he swooned. Legendary race team, Michael’s Diecast Garage (MDG) was well represented by Artipia in the Convertible Concept and the field was rounded out with another familiar team, Skorpio Love Smith, represented by RedGlovesRule in the Concept Coupe.

The stage was set for a showdown for the books. Race 1 started with fanboy 2D’s favorite, Chuck Turbo, making a brilliant pass to overtake TheloniousJawnMcBatmanorama right before the finish line.

But the field flipped in race 2 as Turbo couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle twice and finished dead last. RedGlovesRule ruled the tra ck, leading the entire race. And then, the fireworks came out. After carefully studying the field, legendary team owner MDG finally made his move, Artipia exploded into the lead, expertly handling the challenging turn 2 as the rest of the pack piled up in the rearview mirror.

SENDING JAMES KIRK INTO ORBIT! - Kong (FGC Family) smacks inside to claim the heavily into The Flying Brick (James Kirk) at the finish line crossroads. Like many others, Kong seems to have completely ignored the stop sign at that intersection.

Seizing the moment, Artipia skated onto victory, and set up a tie for second place. Golden boy, Turbo, rolled over and was eliminated from the tournament. The Group 2 tiebreaker was a barnburner. Artipia and RedGlovesRule lined up at the top of the hill, representing two juggernauts of the sport, Skorpio Love Smith and Michael’s Diecast Garage . The gate fell and it was bump and grind as they traded paint through three turns. On the final straight, they powered through in single file. RedGlovesRule got a little wiggle which opened the lane with Artipia drafting behind. Instinct took over and Artipia made their move to the second spot in the second round.

Along with the Camaros, the qualifying runs for King of the First qualifying race since our last Mountain second tournament were also running this week. I like how the qualifying races are split up by vehichle type this year. That way, you don’t end up with 16 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO’s in the brackets.

First qualifying race was the luxury car race, which also running this week. I like how had some classics with BMW, the qualifying races are split up by Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar all represented.

Allison Chains was lights-out in the first race, but Timmy Vincent in the Audi would have won if he had another 6 inches of track.

Race 2 was all about Timmy Vincent’s comeback. Gummi Bear in “The Heavy” Orange Psychic Jaguar slipped up and Vincent took the lead after turn 2. And from then on, it was the Timmy Vincent show, taking the rest of the heats and advancing on.

A photo finish determined Allison Chains was the second place finisher but it didn’t matter because only first place moves on. Still cool, I guess.

The second race of the week was much smaller. The compact cars strapped on their big boy pants and rolled down the Mountain.

FGC Family ruled heat 1 but took a shot after a victory lap as The Flying Brick of James Kirk set up the brick wall and BOOM goes the dynamite. You pay for every win at Race Mountain. At least there’s some padding set up to prevent damage to the cars. You don’t see that at every track.

Heat 2 saw a little payback for FGC as they got the opportunity to get under Kirk and flip him for the pass and win.

Samukako Nasuka took advantage of a wreck caused by Kirk in heat 3 that caught up FGC, registering a DNF for the first time in the competition. Nasuka easily slid on to a win.

FGC just needed to stay on the track to win the round but rolled after turn two.

By some stroke of divine intervention, every other competitor rolled in the same turn, forcing a restart in heat 4.

FGC learned their lesson as they packed their entire family into that VW Golf and went full throttle into victory lane. High Mileage of Cole Williams tallied only 3 total points after wrecking on both the middle heats.

King of the Mountain qualifying continues with Round 6 next. Groups 3 & 4 of the Camaro Summer

Chaos Canyon

by Christopher Kidder-Mostrom

For the last month, things have been quiet at the premier track of the Southern Hemisphere. After a rapid succession of exciting race series, the track at Chaos Canyon fell silent. That is because the original track which wound an alabaster path of speed and carnage in New Zealand during the pandemic lockdown was getting a facelift.

Once the island nation essentially eradicated the virus on its own shores, channel owner Warwick Rule was able to get out to gather supplies for a major overhaul to the track.

No longer is the entire course stark white. And the newly contoured canyon walls have been carefully sculpted and decorated in the signature style that will come to define The Canyon in the months to come.

RETURNING CHAMPIONS - All four of Chaos Canyon’s former champions have visited the new track, and will soon be racing their winning rides on the virgin pavement: (l-r) Grandma (Chevy Showdown), “Traffic Hazard” Travis (Looney Mooneys), Brian Vaughn (The Redmeption), and Myke Maze (Canyon Overlord).

Racing is about to begin with a showdown between the original champion of the Canyon Overlord series, Myke Mayes (whom readers will recognize as the track owner of RTR Diecast Racing Legue) versus Brian Vaughn (the editor and site owner of Redline Derby Racing).

Kayem Corner and Carhooner Corner are very much like their previous incarnations, though the entire track is now slightly wider than before. The collapsing bridge/ jump midway through the track is still a major feature (and the accompanying signage is hilarious).

Speaking of hilarious, if you’ve not yet seen the video preview of the new course, you should make an effort to do so. It’s a lovely tourism video with a wicked twist. Well worth your time.

https://youtu.be/NjFzzRu-BTY

While the track’s layout will be familiar to regular viewers, a quick glance at the final straightaway contains a new challenge for drivers. Straightaway isn’t exactly the right word, actually, as there is now a bit of a chicane about halfway down the final stretch.

Track announcers Dr. Thom “Spanners” Watson and Frank “Guru” Gibbs have been keeping busy hosting the DSPN weekly racing news report, but it will be good to laps. So, one wonders if the new hear their voices calling races again track will hold such adventures for in the near future.

Also, I look forward to seeing how cars handle Kayem Corner on the new track. The first turn used to be difficult for cars to navigate. Some would take multi-story falls that, while epic, made for inconsistent performances by some of the top racers. Even once the infield of the previous track had been filled with food trucks, drivers would occasionally veer sharply right and place their cars at the carry-out windows instead of completing their laps. So, one wonders if the new track will hold such adventures for upcoming participants.

Insider information directly from Warwick Rule indicates that there will soon be a long-term mail-in competition at the track. Rumor has it that initially participation will be by invitation only, but that it will open to submissions thereafter.

Watch this space for in-depth coverage of both the regular series tournaments, and whatever comes next.

On The Track: Jackson Pass Speedway

by Christopher Kidder-Mostrom

For those who haven’t had a chance to take in a race at Jackson Pass Speedway yet, now is the perfect time to start. The “Battle of the Centuries” is underway, and it is a quality headto-head competition between two sets of 12 cars. The first dozen are from the 21 st Century. It’s hard to believe that there have already been two full decades since they year 2000 got us started in the new millennium, but it is true that there are 20 years’ worth of cars out there to race in the modern category.

There are 12 cars from the pre-2000 era, too. Drivers are the same folks you see on most other channels. And this is the point at which Jackson Pass begins to set itself a step above many other tracks. Mark Heisler (the track’s owner) is clearly a student of what’s going on in other series around the internet community. His races incorporate references to what the drivers have done in their appearances at other tracks.

As a for-instance, in the first race of the series Fearless Ferguson (of TuneTrax Racing) puts a fierce blocking move on Simon Harvey of 6-37 Racing. As Ferguson’s Bugatti Chiron stutters in front of Harvey’s Aston Martin Vulcan, the announcer (Philip DeTank) notes that the move was a classic Kit Kayem Brake Check Manouver.

Kit Kayem (the fictionalized version of this reporter) was a driver in multiple series at Chaos Canyon, and his driving antics on that channel have now been codified by the cross reference made in the Jackson Pass videos.

Heisler’s races take that extra bit of effort to turn what happens on disparate channels into a fully functioning and integrated community. So much so that he surprised me with a text before my race in the series. He wanted to make sure that if he portrayed my character in a certain way, that I would be okay with it.

That’s an extra level of concern and care that I’ve not seen most other track owners take toward their participants. And I think it’s great.

There’s an implied permission that we give to race producers when we allow them to use our names as their drivers. They are going to describe the action of the races, but they are also going to assign emotions, motives, and stories to our characters.

And most commentators function within their own bubble, creating the character anew for their own series.

Heisler gives a continuity and through-line to other people’s storylines by the way he does his own videos. In improvisational theatre (one of my real life activities), we have a concept of “yes-and”, which means that you take whatever was done by someone else, and you build upon that in a positive way. Jackson Pass Speedway videos are great at yes-and.

Before I move on to the races themselves, I’ll wrap up the previous point: I gave Mark permission to take the character any direction he wants, so Kit’s now the track’s wily old veteran who may develop into a series villain. How fun! We’ll watch and see where this all goes. I can’t wait to see if the other track owners follow his lead and add on to what could be a great character.

So, the series is already underway. With 12 cars in each division, in a 1- on-1 format, there are quite a few preliminary races to go through. Seven have already been released on the league’s YouTube channel.

All but one of the videos feature primary play-byplay announcer Philip DeTank, and track-side reporter Tyra Marks. Tyra was away from the track in the seventh race of the series, but shall return soon. In another nod to a different race series, Tyra obviously couldn’t be covering this race, because she was driving in a race at Mayes Mountain in Alabama.

The action has all been exciting thus far. And we haven’t even seen the older cars in action for the most part. While I’m driving the Lamborghini Gallardo in the 21 st Century bracket, I wouldn’t bet on Kit Kayem. The heavier cars with longer wheel-bases are all classic cars. On Fat Track, you want to have that longer wheelbase to keep you headed straight and true through the corners.

So, are my picks to go all the way? Look for JD Elst to play off the momentum of his first round win to dominate the 21 st Century cars.

Among the 20 th Century vehicles, I’d been thinking Dr. Thom “Spanners” Watson would fair pretty well in his Chevy Nova, but the casting was a lemon, and the car was switched out. Now he’s in a Dodge Charger, and MOPAR castings tend to tip and flip on Fat Track. There are a few good options among the field, though. Silverback Racing’s drivers all seem to have landed good rides, so it could be a contest between teammates. Yet, my bet is for Daniel Mercado driving the Ford Mustang Shelby.