We Race Diecast

by Christopher Kidder-Mostrom

While Dave at WeRaceDiecast prepares himself for the mayhem that is about to head his way in the form of TMNT Party Wagons (mayhem he brought upon himself, by inviting the entire field from Indiana Diecast Racing to come for a visit!), he’s filled his production schedule hiatus with a couple of events on the There and Back track, a two-straightaway-oneturn track that consists of mostly two-wide fat track (Crash racers). There is a short bit of divided track at the beginning, as the starting gate is the 6-lane set we’ve all come to know and love from the 6-2-1. After rushing down that first incline, then zipping along toward the banked corner, the cars finish by hurdling down a second straight that is interrupted halfway down its length by a jump over a 5-inch void. If a car makes it past that point, then it’s a quick run to the finish line.

First of the three events of the last three weeks was the Bugatti Divo Showdown. Four custom painted Matchbox Bugatti Divos competed to see which color would come out on top. Customizer Wayne Heede of Wheel Swappers Garage did the custom work on these beautiful supercars.

No drivers were assigned for this race, and all of the cars were the work of one builder, so which car you might have been rooting for really came down to color. Take your pick: Red, Green, Yellow, and Purple.

Red got out to an early lead on the first lap. All four cars took the jump well, and the purple car put on a good show of trying to catch red for most of the race.

Scoring for the event was the common 5, 3, 2, 1 system, so red was on top after one lap with five points.

After rotating starting positions, lap two came out with green in the front. Yellow drift-blocked red and purple for much of the race, leading one to believe that they might all fail to make the jump, but they cleared it, and yellow barely beat red to the line to take second.

After two laps, red and green were tied at 7 points. Purple and yellow were tied at 4.

In the most closely contested lap thus far, the third lap was led by yellow through the turn and up to the jump. Shortly after landing, however, purple burst forward and stole the race from the golden one’s grasp.

Red and purple had 9 points after three, green had 8 points, and yellow sat at 7 points, being the only car yet to win a lap.

When it really matters, the racers do what must be done. Purple led through the turn, but red was hot on his tail. Purple watched red pass him by with about two feet of track left. Yellow successfully driftblocked green for most of the race, and released the block just in time to finish third while leaving green lagging behind.

Red came in first overall, and purple was the first loser. In the end, though, the cars were very evenly matched, which makes sense because they were all modified by the same person and were all the same model of car.

The next event was a 2v2 race, which essentially was a grudge match between two castings with two of each casting making up the field. This match-up was the Magic 8 Ball Rodger Dodger up against the red Rodger Dodger 2.0.

For this writer, it was hard to be emotionally vested in this race, as it became quite difficult to ascertain which of two identical cars was doing better or worse, or which car was which, for that matter.

The four cars made six laps down the track, and unlike the relatively clean racing seen in the Bugatti race, the Rodger Dodgers did a good deal of flipping, crashing, and had some glorious altercations at the jump. So, while it was difficult to track which cars one might be rooting for, just sitting back and enjoying some absurd carnage was easily done.

In the end, the 2.0s came out on top by 4 points: 34 to 30.

In the third offering from WeRaceDiecast, the ten cars of the Hot Wheels Factory 500 series were given a run on the track to see which 500 HP car was the fastest. Mayfied41, Thomas Filipiak, Artemis Lancaster, Sammie Moondust, and The Caddy Man made up the first group of five that raced for two spots in the finals. Shiloh Thomas, Bigg Samm, Grand Slam, Bhushan Kokam and Cube Boyd comprised the second group of five.

With each group consisting of five cars, 5 laps had to be taken by each group to ensure each got to start in each position.

In lap one of the first group Artemis Lancaster sat on the pole in his ‘13 SRT Viper. Next to him in the outside lane was Sammie Moondust in the blue McLaren 720S. Straight out of the gate, Lancaster’s Viper shot out to the lead, followed by the other two cars in the inside lane. All three inside cars zipped past the two cars in the outside lane, and the race was never contested. Lancaster led from start to finish.

Lap two’s front row was made up of the slowest cars from the previous lap. Have you ever seen “55: A Mediation on the Speed Limit”? That’s basically what happened here. The two slowest cars kept the traffic behind them from moving forward the whole race. Thomas Filipiak had lost so much momentum that his Ford Shelby GT350R didn’t hit the jump right and flipped, but he managed to finish, dropping from 2nd to 4th .

Filipiak was on the pole for Lap 3, while The Caddy Man joined him on the front row in his ‘12 Corvette Z06. Now, aside from his handle being the name of another car in this field, there should be little confusion about The Caddy Man. Right? Good stick with me on this.

The Corvette led until the jump when he inexplicably turned sideways, threw a drift-block on the entire field, and left just enough room for Sammie Moondust to squeeze his McLaren through for surprise lap victory.

Lap 4… Caddy Man’s Corvette and the Cadillac CTS-V of Mayfield 41 were on the front row. The Corvette leapt out in front as a rabbit would for greyhounds, but none of the hounds ever caught up to the bait. The Caddy Man’s Corvette was unchallenged.

Sammy Moondust (Blue McLaren) stopped just millimeters shy of the finish line, earning a goose egg for the scoring on the lap.

The final lap (lap 5) for group one started with the Cadillac and the Viper on the front row.

Everything kept close until just after the jump. Mayfield 41’s Cadillac got loose and Artemis Lancaster passed to take the lap and the overall group victory. The Caddy Man also moved on to the finals in the Corvette.

Super cars led the field down the track for the first lap of group 2. The yellow Porsche 911 Gt3 RS of Grandslam was on the pole, while Bhushan Kokam sat to his left in the black Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4.

Grandslam had the lead coming down the first stretch, but Kokam made a skillful pass on the outside through the turn and didn’t look back, notching one for the Lambo. Bigg Samm’s Bentley Continental Supersports went sideways through the turn and Shiloh Thomas (‘12 Camaro ZL1 Concept) and Cube Boyd (‘10 Shelby GT500 Super Snake) had to push him through the curve and lost momentum.

At the top of lap two, Kokam’s Lamborghini was on the pole and Shiloh’s Camaro was on the outside of the front row.

Not unlike the first lap of group 1, the entirety of the inside lane shot out ahead of the entirety of the outside lane, and despite some sloppy acrobatics from Bigg Samm, the inside lane took the race 1-2-3. One half of the outside lane (Shiloh Thomas) ended the lap off the track.

Shiloh moved over to the pole for lap three, and despite being unable to finish the prior race, he led this lap and took the lap victory, separating himself from what was otherwise a pretty good representation of racing bumper cars at a two-bit carnival.

The fourth lap featured Bigg Samm in what can only be called a miracle run. The Bentley was spinning uncontrollably, then turned a barrel roll, and finally drift-blocked the field just enough to slow everyone else down while somehow shaking off all the nonsense just in time to pass the lap-leading Super Snake just before the finish line. How that happened, I’ll never know. It had to be seen to be believed.

Comparatively the action-filled fifth lap was tame. Bigg Samm and Grandslam started on the front row. By the end of the lap, Bigg Samm had the Bentley on its roof, Kokam passed everyone to take the lap and the overall group victory, and of the non-Lamborghini cars, Grandslam’s Porsche snatched up just enough points to be the second car to move on.

The race finals featured two drivers from the USA (Grandslam and Mayfield 41), one from South Asia (Bhusha Kokam from India), and one from West Africa (The Caddy Man from Nigeria). Two of the cars were from the US, and two were from Europe. All in all, a pretty international final.

Lap one was a tightly run affair that proved that rubbin’ is racin’. But even with a good deal of paint swapping everyone finished in their starting order.

Lap two was dominated by the V cars, the Viper and the ‘vette.

Lap three was once again dominated by the American cars. With as easily as the Lamborghini had dominated group 2, it looks like that was more because the competition was lacking than that the car was superior.

On the final lap of the event, Kokam lined up next to Lancaster on the front row. A lot of shuffling about throughout the lap led to The Caddy Man’s Corvette making it into the second positon for the lap, and that made him first place in points.

The overall winner of the event was The Caddy Man from Nigeria in a Corvette from Detroit.

While we eagerly await the running of the Party Wagons down the multiple tracks at WeRaceDiecast, Dave’s ability to crank out consistent quality content every week ensures that even in the down times between tournaments, there is a lot of good racing coming out of Maryland.