We’ve started a new novelty event in Crash & Burn as Paul Gilbertson (Butch) has created a traveling Figure 8 race track! The rules? Be the last one running and you win! Simple. Each car is dedicated to the lane it’s on while the drivers all rotate each lane. The results were a lot of fun.
Aluminum Foil Invitational at Okt”HO”berfest 2017/2018
This year’s aluminum foil invitational was run with late model camaros! As always we run them on 4 gear AFX style chassis. The aluminum cars are created by me (Bill Martin). If you’d like to find out more information on the club or get into better contact with us you can join us in our new Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/791896631005616/
December 10, 2015 Highlights Video
Video from 12/10/2015’s events at Ames Memorial Superspeedway
Points Updated / Tin Foil Series
All Crash & Burn Points have been updated to most recent races. All 2015 points standings have been posted as well.
So I (the moderator of the site, Bill Martin) once a year for our Oktoberfest weekend races will throw together tinfoil bodies for a single night only series. It’s something I tried to do first around 1994 or 95 by wrapping tinfoil around the bodies of Racing Champions cars I had at the time (which I had a ton as I was only turning 14 years old at the time). Because of the wheel base difference, at the time I introduced them the only cars I knew they’d fit on were Tyco 
440’s of the divisions we ran. The results were hilarious. Paint flew, it was a great time. I didn’t bring them back again on any frequency until 2010. They have now become a great deal of a fun novelty event for Oktoberfest. We now run them on 3 gear aurora style chassis as the wheel bases are perfect and, unlike the 440’s, the crashes aren’t happening at a thousand freaking miles per hour.
The process of making the chassis is fairly simple, but takes a bit of trail and error. First things first…they will never be perfectly flat…it’s just not possible. There’ll always be a few wrinkles here and there, but just like painting your Saturday Night local track race car, 
these wrinkles disappear from your eyes once you paint them. Since we only do this once a year I tend to paint them fairly elaborately (though in 2015 I was short on time and had to half ass a few). Best paint for the job is either Acrylic or Enamel Testors paint. Acrylic will dry faster, but I feel like the Enamel is a bit thicker and might give the bodies a bit more stiffness in the little stiffness they have.
The bodies I use are mostly from racing champions cars between the 1993 and the 1998 series. The best seem to be the thunderbirds from about 1993 – 1995. I’ll usually fold the tinfoil 2 – 4 layers thick depending on the quality of the foil. Do all painting on them before making ANY cuts to try to get the tinfoil off. When it comes time for cutting, cut the windows you want cut out first (typically just the drivers side and passenger side windows). Color the rest of the windows in black. You’ll need the structure. After cutting the windows out, CAREFULLY cut out the hood and truck lids, but only 
cut out the strips along the top of the fenders and the quarters. No need to cut them completely out. This way when the cars get hit they’ll buckle like they’re supposed to in the real world. It also gives you more points of access to fix them if they need fixing before the next race. After you have that cut out you can cut out the wheels. This can be tricky as the slot car wheels are bigger than the Racing Champions car’s wheels so you’ll have to carefully cut along the bodies and make the openings larger. Finally after that you can cut off the remaining extra bits of tin foil that line the sides, the nose, and the tail’s bumper.
When you’re ready to pull the body off, be very careful around the spoiler area. It’s also very easy to tear the tinfoil when trying to mold the body. If you do, just start over. You’ll be hard pressed to get a body off if paint seeps through that tear in the spoiler.
Once the body is off you’re ready to mount on the slot car. Best tape 
to use is the thicker 3M double sided tape. Lay it on top of itself 3 layer thick for the right side of the chassis, 2 layers thick for the left side of the chassis. This will like it up perfectly for proper coverage. Best chassis are Aurora 3 gears. You’ll want to move your front axle to the front of the 3 holes for the it.
And presto, you have Tin foil cars! If you’re planning on giving this a go, I urge you to test a few before going through the painting process. It’d suck to spend all that time to find out something went wrong. Good luck and happy racing.
right click on any image below and you can open it in a new tab to see them in their full size.
Updates
I’ve put this site on the back burner for a year now. Time to get some updates on it again starting this weekend. Videos, photos coming and (finally) a place to purchase “Butch’s Resin Bodies” outside of e-bay. The store will either be housed here at the RCHORA site or will be on its own site (an extension of this site) at http://www.rchora.net/butch
Plans are to start scanning all our year books as well dating back to I believe the late 70’s. Whew, that’ll be some work!
Check back in shortly for some new content. All results from 2015 will be posted to the standings page as well to bring all standings up to date there. Should be weekly or biweekly updates from then on of the current season standings.
Martin Sweeps Track Championship at Ames Memorial
This past week the drivers of the Crash & Burn series went to Dakota, MN for the 4th and final night at Ames Memorial Speedway. Entering the night Bill martin lead all 4 division points after 3 weeks, but was in striking distance for drivers to take the top position in the final visit to Ames Memorial for 2014.
First round of the night was the Hobby Stock division where Bill Martin held a 7 point lead over #28 Pat Schroeder. 3rd through 5th were all tied 8 points behind the leader (Tom Lange, Rich Hohlfeld, and Paul Gilbertson). As the heats progressed in the end it was 3rd place entry Tom Lange who would come out at the end with the most points on the night with a solid 25 overtaking Paul Gilbertson and taking 2nd place away from Pat Schroeder who only was able to pull 14 points at the end. Although Tom Lange scored the most points it was not enough to make up the 8 point gap with Martin ending the Hobby Stock night with a total 23 points taking his first track title. Martin takes first with 90 points followed by Tom Lange, Paul Gilbertson, Pat Schroeder, and Jake Shimshak rounding out the top 5 positions. Rich Hohlfeld would drop to the 6th spot. Feature winner for the night would be Paul Gilbertson in his #5 Whers/TJs sponsored 69 Chevelle.
Next round for the night would be the Late Model division. Points were tighter entering the night with only an 8 point spread from 1st to 3rd between Bill Martin, Paul Gilbertson, and Tom Lange. 4th place Rich Hohlfeld was also in striking distance on the top 3 spots, but it would be a tough gap to make up pending the other driver’s results. When the heats & features came to a close there was a total 4 drivers coming away with 20+ points and a 5th coming away with a total of 19 (Jake Shimshak). The Feature win would go to Rich Hohlfeld, his 2nd feature win of the year at Ames Memorial, bringing his total points to 20. Although winning the feature, Rich would come away 4th in the final track title points. In the end Martin would come away with 27 points on the night followed by Tom Lange with 23 (who ends up 3rd overall) and Paul Gilbertson with 21 (2nd place overall). Martin ends the night gaining points on the field and finishing with a 10 point lead taking his 2nd track title for the night.
3rd round for the night would be the Vintage Grand National series. Entering the night this was the closest battle as Martin only had a single point lead over Paul Gilbertson’s #17 Chevy with Jake Shimshak also in striking distance only 5 points behind the leader. All 3 drivers in the top 3 were also feature winners in the previous 3 weeks of racing at Ames Memorial. When the points were tallied at the end of the night we saw all 3 of the top runnings scoring strong. Martin ended the night with 27 points (including feature) followed by Jake Shimshak with 24, and Paul Gilbertson with another strong 21 point finish. Jake Shimshak would pull off his 2nd feature win on the night, putting him one point short of 2nd place finisher Paul Gilbertson. With Martin’s 27 point finish he wins his 3rd track championship of the night. Rich Hohlfeld would pull off a 4th place finish followed by Bob Talley’s #15 Tippy Toe Inn Ford rounding out the top 5.
4th and final division of the night would be the Limited Late Models. Entering the night Bill held a decent 6 point lead over two drivers tied for 2nd place (Jake Shimshak & Rich Hohlfeld) followed by Tom Lange 4 more points back in the 4th position. Paul Gilbertson & Pat Schroeder were tied for the 5th position. After some hard crashes and very close battles during the heats it was Paul Gilbertson who would come away with the feature win with an easy single car remaining win on lane 1 after a big crash on the frontstretch early on in the race. Despite the feature win and a total combined point total for the night of 27 points with his heat races it was not enough to finish any higher than 4th position behind 3rd place Jake Shimshak pulling 18 points, 3rd place Tom Lange who came away with a strong 24 points, and 1st place Bill Martin who came away with 23 points. With his 23 points Martin was able to capture his 4th track championship of the night and sweep all 4 divisions..
Over all 4 divisions we saw 16 features. Here’s the feature winners (and how many they won)
1.) Paul Gilbertson (5 wins)
2.) Bill Martin (3 wins)
3.) Jake Shimshak (2 wins)
4.) Rich Hohlfeld (2 wins)
5.) Pat Schroeder (2 wins)
6.) Tom Lange (2 win)
Final Points Standings for the track can be seen with the link below:
Ames Memorial Superspeedway Standings (Final)
2014 Oktoberfest Results
Schroeder wins back to back Fests, now has Book Ends
Once again Pat Amos Schroeder was the odds on favorite to win the Fest pole with his Havoline Thunderbird, a garage queen that sits parked all year waiting for this 1 day a year. This year was different as Pat was quiet and relaxed, unlike years past. With Eleven drivers entered, Pat would be 4th out for his attempt.
The random qualifying order put thirteen time Fest pole winner Paul Gilbertson in the number 1 spot. He was quick in practice in the #52 Bud T-Bird for the 2nd year in a row. Puk turned in the quickest lap he ever turned here, 0.034 faster than last year, and 0.041 off the track record set last year by Amos. Second out was Puk’s teammate Kevin Owen in the #16 D.A.P. Taurus. Kevin’s goal was to finish in the top 5. His time of 2:899 put him 8th on the grid. Next out was hometown favorite Jake Shimshak. Jake’s quickest lap was a 2:716 planting him 2nd quickest but up next was Amos. Not saying much Pat went about his business turning a best of 2:717 and figured oh well, no big deal. This placed Pat 3rd on the grid with Rich CrazyHo Hohlfeld, Johnny G, Shimmy, Bob T, AJ and Swingle yet to go. No one came close to the pole with their times being in the 8s. Puk ended up with his 14th career Fest pole. Deceased Don Ames is 2nd with 7 poles followed by John Gilbertson who has 6, his last coming 30 years ago in ’84.
For the 2nd time ever all qualified drivers had a chance to win the 15 second Dash 4 Cash, $15 and a $25 Amazon gift card. Puk edged Jake in heat 1 while Shimmy and Swingle ended up between Puk and Jake. Puk’s win was his 9th career.
All drivers names were randomly drawn by the computer and each driver would race on each lane once for 160 seconds. Amos won heat 1 on lane 4 with a lap count of 54 by 2 laps over Paul Shimshak and 3 over AJ. Shimmy, in Jake’s back up car, then scored wins taking heats 2 & 3. After placing 2nd in heat 3 Jake won heat 4 over Rich. Rich then won heats 5 & 6. Puk won heats 7 & 8 after placing 3rd in heat 6. Shimmy once again ran strong taking heat 9 over Puk and then Puk won heat 10 over Bill.
With one heat to go Puk held a 50 lap lead and his racing was over. Each heat winner had over 52 laps so it didn’t look promising for Paul. Schroeder stayed out of trouble and cruised to a 56 lap heat win taking the 40th annual “The Fest” for a second year in a row. This has happened only 5 times before between 3 drivers, Puk, Scott Murphy and now Pat.. Schroeder’s Havoline Ford also has tied a Fest record with Puk’s Caps Vending Nova having won The Fest 3 times.
FIN STR # DRIVER TYPE OF CAR/SPONSOR TIME LAPS
1 3 28 Pat Schroeder Thunderbird/Havoline 2:717 273
2 1 52 Paul Gilbertson Thunderbird/Bud 2:663 267
3 4 18 Rich Hohlfeld Fusion/Dairyland 2:803 258
4 11 30 Bill Martin Taurus/Redkote DNT 258
5 2 16oz Jake Shimshak MC/Old Milwaukee 2:716 257
6 7 16oz Paul Shimshak MC/Old Milwaukee 2:874 257
7 6 75 AJ Shimshak Monte Carlo/Mello Yello 2:861 247
8 5 88 John Gilbertson Thunderbird/Menards 2:824 247
9 8 16 Kevin Owen Taurus/D.A.P. 2:899 243
10 10 17 Bob Talley MC/Reeces 3:
11 9 23 Mark Swingle Monte Carlo/Camel 2:926 228
Hobbyfest for 2014 was taken home by Jake Shimshak and Bill Martin took home the win in the spectator drags edging out Paul “Shimmy” Shimshak in the best of 3 finale.
Martin takes home 2014 NasTJet Nationals
It’s been two and a half years since the last Nastjet Nationals were held. That doesn’t mean the cars and drivers have been sitting idle. These boys have been burning up the asphalt at Thompson Speedway and River City Raceway on the Crash and Burn circuit. Eleven drivers from Wisconsin, Minnesota and California made the trip to the 2 ½ mile Ames Memorial Super Speedway trioval for 2 rounds of side by side rubbing racing.
At the scales Tom Lange’s Lowe’s Chevy once again grabbed the lead sled award with a weight of 30.52 grams, up 5.62 from 2009! Tipping the scale the other way was Old Milwaukee Chevy driver Jake Killer Shimshak with a 23.50.
Qualifying consisted of each driver touring the track for 5 laps with the best lap counting as the driver’s official time. Wilton Wisconsin driver Bob Talley was the first up where he set the pace in his DuPont #24 with a 3:335 knocking off over 3 tenths of a second for a personal best. After Bob the track got faster. Second out was LaValle Wisconsin driver Tom Lange who was the first to lower the track record with a 3:147. The third driver out was Californian driver Richard Phillis. NoCal Rich managed a 3:289 with his FRAY legal Aurora chassis under the Aflac Ford Fusion.
Driving the only Mopar in the field, the Budweiser #9 Charger, Mark Swingle was the next driver to lower the track record with a 3:130 knocking off over 2 tenths of a second for a
personal best. That stood up till the next driver Paul Gilbertson lowered it to 3:120. Next out were Pat Schroeder and Jake Shimshak whose attempts landed them 9th and 8th on the grid.The 8th driver out was Paul Shimshak who was making his 2nd start in this event. Driving the #17 DeWalt Ford Fusion Shimmy turned the trioval in 3:032 on his third lap. Would this hold up for a new track record? Three more drivers were yet to take their stab at the track record, all heavy hitters. First up was Rich CrazyHo Hohlfeld who was still looking for his first ever pole award in this event. He toured the track in 3:117 which placed him 3rd on the starting grid. Next up was Madison’s Dr.Noise. Martin came away with a disappointing 3:145 for a 6th place start. The last driver out was Mr. Full Throttle Drew Kreibich in Johnny G’s FedEx Toyota. Drew’s best lap was a 3:108 which placed him on the outside of row one. Shimmy’s time stood up giving the #17 its 3rd pole with 3 different drivers in the 7 years of Nastjet National racing. “I like this driving for someone else, just show up and race” said Shimmy. All in all 7 drivers eclipsed the track record of 3:187.
This year’s events were run using the Crash and Burn rotation with a randomized driver line up. Eleven drivers equals 11 heats with the top 5 plus ties moving on to round 2’s 90 second segments were the driver with the most laps and furthest distance wins. In round 1 five different drivers won segments led by Bill Martin with 4. Others with segment wins were Drew, Tom and Jake with 2 each while Rich managed 1 win. Point wise Tom lead the way to the Round 2 Main with 68 followed by Bill and Rich with 67. Drew, Shimmy and Jake collected 66 points and also advance to Round 2. Since NoCal Rich was next with 65 he was added to Round 2 as a promoter’s option giving us 7 racers all vying for the Nastjet Nationals Title.
Rich started off Round 2 racing strong with a win and 27 laps. Hanging tough was Bill and NoCal Rich with the all important 27 laps. Martin pushed the envelope in heat 2 with 28 laps while Tom, NoCal Rich, and Shim came away with 27. Tom ran strong in heat 3 winning with 28 while Shim, NoCal Rich and Jake turned 27. Another win and 28 more laps for Tom in heat 4 while Rich and Jake could only muster 26. Rich pulled out his 2nd win with a 28 lap segment win while Jake placed 2nd also with 28. Bill got his 2nd win in heat 6 with 27 laps followed by Rich and NoCal Rich with 26.
Entering the final segment Bill and Tom held a 1 lap lead (108) over Rich and NoCal Rich (107). Jake’s segment racing was over and his total was 133 meaning the above 4 drivers needed 25 to 26 laps to become the overall winner. Rich pulled out the win, his 3rd, with 28 laps but Martin also was able to complete 28 laps to become the overall winner by 3/4s of a lap. Martin ended up with a total of 136 laps followed by Rich with 135 and NoCal Rich with 134. Martin became the 4th different Nastjet National Champion coming in his 2nd start. NoCal Rich placed 3rd in all 5 of his Round 2 segments.
Ames Memorial Superspeedway Results of Week 2 (2014)
2014 Ames Memorial Superspeedway Week 2 Standings
2014 Overall Standings as of Week 3
This week in Crash & Burn we returned to Ames Memorial Superspeedway for one more practice week before entering this coming Sunday’s OktHOberfest event. Pat Schroeder continued his incredible start to 2014 by locking up his 2nd feature win, both coming from the same track. After just 3 weeks Pat is really on his way to a fantastic 2014 Hobby Stock season. Pat was also the top points man for the even coming away with 23 followed by Bill Martin, Rich Hohlfeld, and Jake Shimshak all earning themselves 22 points for the night. Paul Shimshak came in 3rd on points coming home with 21.
In The late models we saw the return of J.D. Stacy sponsorship on Bill Martin’s new #39 Camaro. Despite the new sponsorship it was Paul Gilbertson who took home top points this week in his #5 STP/Sungowi Camaro. Paul came home with 23 points followed closely by Bill Martin, Tom Lange, and Kevin Owen who all earned 21 points. 5th points position fell to Jake Shimshak with another strong week under his belt.
Limited Late Models were the next event and this time around Jake Shimshak in his #16oz Old Milwaukee Monte Carlo showing everyone how it’s done. Jake came away with 25 points followed by Paul Gilbertson with 22, Kevin Owen with 21, Bill Martin with 20, and Rich Hohlfeld with 18.
Final event for the night was the Vintage Grand National series. Once again showing their muscle were Paul Gilbertson and Jake Shimshak who earned 24 points and 23 points respectively. Following them was Rich Hohlfeld with 21 points in his #6 1957 Ford, Kevin Owen pulling in 20 points in his #16 white 1957 Ford, and Bill Martin with 19 in the #7UP 1956 Merc.
This week’s Lead Foot of the Week goes to Jake Shimshak.
Congrats to all drivers and we’ll see you next time at the OktHOberfest Event at Ames Memorial Superspeedway!
Thompson Speedway Week 1 2014 Recap
2014 Thompson Speedway Week 1 Standings
Paul Gilbertson led the way to the hobby stock main even and came away with his league leading 9th feature win at Thompson Speedway breaking a tie he had with Greg Oliver. Bill Martin claimed 2nd place. Puk was also Top Dog with 26 points.
Bill Martin led the way to the late model main but it was Jake Shimshak picking up his first ever LM feature at Thompson. Kevin Owen placed 2nd followed by Top Dog Martin with 25 points.
Martin once again led the way to the feature this time in NasTJets with 3 heat wins. Once again, though, it was Jake Shimshak with the win, his 2nd here and 4th career. Placing 2nd was Pat Schroeder. Jake wins top dog honors with 24.
Limited Late Model action once again saw Martin lead the way to the main and once again it was Jake coming away with the feature win, his 3rd of the night. The win was Jake’s 2nd career LLM feature and came in LLM’s 50th event. Top Dog honors went to Martin with 26.
For the 2nd week in a row Bill Martin wins Lead Foot of the week tallying 97 points. Jake & Puk tied for 2nd with 84 points each.