Intramurals
Indiana Diecast Racing by Josh Paufler
After a full month and a half of racing at Le Cellier in Indiana, the Westfield 500 came to its thrilling conclusion this week as the top 4 cars competed for the “somewhat nice hot glued and spray painted trophies”. If you’ve been watching since the beginning, you’ve witnessed some spectacular crashes, incredibly realistic passing, last-minute heroics and the finish line camera getting smashed repeatedly. The championship had all that and more. Jim Desaulniers of Indiana Diecast Racing started this charity event to raise money for his local library and the diecast racing community rallied around his cause. In total, 36 cars started the race in mid-July. Group 2 and 4 proved to be the best heading into the tournament as they produced all 4 cars in the final race. Group 2 brought us the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento of George Stackert and the Golden Ticket of Kit Kayem, who had the lowest points coming into the finals. The points-leading yellow Mustang of Nathan Desaulniers and the Color Changer HyperTruck of “Jimmy John” Hanson came out of group 4. Nathan started with a commanding win on lap one and never looked back. Everything behind him seemed like utter chaos as Nathan won three laps in a row. After finishing second and third behind Nathan, Stackert’s Lambo needed to beat him for the opportunity to tie it up. But Nathan also had to DNF on the final lap. Sure enough, the odds were in his favor and Stackert crossed the line first as Nathan had issues in the 20 | Diecast Racing Report
always troublesome turn one and wrecked just before two. This forced an exciting run-off for the championship. Nathan took the inside lane as the driver with the most points in the semis and the run-off began. Stackert had the best jump heading Westfield 500 Finals – Cars in action and taking action to raise into turn one but, as funds for the Westfield (Indiana) Public Library. tradition has it, the turn was cruel to him and slowed limited lighting and even learning him down. Nathan saw his how to edit videos. opportunity for the pass and cruised on to the podium, hoisting the gold Over the course of the race, the trophy. videos got better and better as Jim took all the setbacks in stride and Kayem only had one lap in which he put together a fantastic production finished higher than last and so 4th of his first complete tournament. We place was decidedly his. A middlelook forward to more of, as Jim puts packer throughout the semis, it, “slightly above mediocre diecast Hanson worked his way to a bronze racing”. cup finish even after posting a DNF on the final lap. Next up at Le Cellier is the continuation of the IDR Open, a race Of course, running a mail-in race of Jim started in May. It’s a stock this size is not without its challenges tournament from Jim’s own and it proved to be a learning collection. In total, he’s sent 80 cars experience for Jim. down the track in 17 videos. The intention was to get his feet wet and One of the largest hills to climb was debut the track, but he initially getting the event out there unintentionally put out some great and visible to a prospective audience. racing content with which to launch This is a well-known struggle among his channel. Since the last posted YouTubers. video in the IDR Open, Jim has made some improvements to his track and Hopefully, the viewership at Indiana to the lineup. He took a cue from Diecast Racing can pick up as Jim Facebook racers and had people sign continues to put out quality content up to drive the remaining 32 cars. I’d (go subscribe now). recommend checking out the previous races to get ready for the Other hurdles included track seams continuation of this tournament. separating from moisture in the basement, multiple start gate swaps,
