BRM Challenge at Wyoming Valley Slot Car Association

Text posted on SCI by Chuck Perez
The Wyoming Valley Slot Car Club and Warrior Run Loco Works had their BRM Challenge races on Sunday October 5th, 2008 with an outstanding turn out for this double event. It was again another beautiful Northeast Pa. day, especially for slot car racing!!! Our first event of the day was the BRM IROC (cars supplied by Alan Smith of Scaleracing LLC) and the fun supplied by 13 racers for the race. The line up was....
1 Clem Ojevich
2 Tom Gunshannon JR
3 Sam Barbose JR
4 Sam Barbose SR
5 Tom Pintchuck
6 Mike Grabko
7 JJ Kozokas
8 Scott Kozokas
9 Chuck Perez
10 Dave Kennedy
11 Dean Kirkpatrick
12 Clarence Taylor
13 Tony Easly

The race line up was set random into the computer and when the green flag waved we were off to another action packed race event. It was clear when you race these cars passing has to be clean and momentum must be kept up. Everyone racing these cars were in the mid 6 second lap times 6.6 to 6.8 til Sam Jr dropped a 6.5 lap time in yellow. JJ was not to be out done he matched Sam then cracked a high 6.4 second lap. These two guys were the ones to beat and Chuck was doing all he could to keep up. Scott K. was working his way up the field, and Mike and Tom 2 were battling it out all through the race.

New comers to our track Tony E. (seen smiling in the Dallas jersey in photo on right) and second event driver Clarence T
(both from NJ) were racing consistent with little practice on the raceway. Tom P was trying to negotiate thru traffic battling Dave K for position with Clem in the whole mix of things. After the first rotation thru it looked as if Sam Jr was going to take it all away from JJ and Chuck P. When the second half of the rotation started JJ was not about to slow down in any way and you could tell he wanted this win !! Sam JR was running his hardest and Chuck P was holding steady. It was the middle of the pack that was putting all the pressure on the top three from the first rotation and they all were racing to take the trophies . After 2 rotations thru all the laps were added and segments (and I mean segments) separated most of the field.

The results are:
1st JJ Kozokas ..143 6 segments 2nd Sam Barbose 143 5 segments
3rd Chuck Perez 142
4th Tom Pintchuck 140 13 segments
5th Scott Kozokas 140 3 segments
6th Mike Grabko 139 6 segments
7th Tom Gunshanon 139 5 segments
8th Dean Kirkpatrick 138
9th Clarence Taylor 136 8 segments
10th Dave kennedy 136 7 segments
11th Sam Barbose Sr 135
12th Clem Ojevich 134
13th Tony Easly 130

After a short break in the program it was time for the second event of the day which was our BRM open challenge to start up and the addition of Rob Holt showing up to support our racing program we were ready to start. Only 9 racers participated in this event. It was Sam Jr who started out super strong with the intention of winning it all but Tom P was not going to give anything up in this race. Tom2 was running a car (hired gun so to speak) and the NJ guys were fast and running much stronger in this race as well. Chuck P entered the race finally and he was here to win it. Clarence Taylor was showing some speed and wasn't about to give up at all , with Mike Grabko racing up from the mid pack to show he can drive too. Rob Holt was showing he can learn fast (never seeing the track before) running consistent times and lap counts. after running 5 minutes each lane the results are .........
1st Chuck Perez .....189 (6.102 lap record)
2nd Sam Barbose JR ..182
3rd Mike Grabko.......175 5 segments
4th Clarence Taylor 175 4 segments 5th Tom Gunshannon JR..175 3 segments
6th Tom Pintchuck ... 174
7th Rob Holt...............172
8th Dave Kennedy.......165
9th Tony Easly ..........163
From left, Mike, Chuck and Sammy Jr.

We would like to thank all the racers who showed up and we would like to put out a special thanks to Allen Smith who sent us some great BRM cars to race with. We all had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again!!!!