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AVIS SCORES FIRST TRIUMPH; BRUCE ROLLS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT WIN

By Rob Hayes

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No, it really was just the best of times.

November 18 saw the Miniature Auto Racing Club/New England train pull into Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to MIT, Harvard, and Necco Wafers. 19 racers disembarked at the station, and made their way to Catfish International Speedway, the fourth stop on this year's MARC championship circuit for 1/64th-scale slot cars.

The crisp fall day brought out participants from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, for the first Super Stock event ever held on the smooth Catfish International MaxTrax. After three races, the Production championship leaders were a tight clutch of Benny Leyro, Brian Skidmore, and Peter Monemvasitis, with Gerry Cullan and Erik Eckhardt not too far adrift. On the Super Stock front, John Pileggi and Bruce Beaulieu were tied at the top, with Tom "Mr. Kitty" Gray and Dan DeCosmo close behind.

Morning practice was fueled by high-test coffee, from the urn, or from the espresso machine, and some of the world's finest donuts, direct from Lori-Ann's in Charlestown, Mass. Racers settled in, reacquainted themselves with the basement's low-hanging pipes -- either by sight or by forehead --and began the task of incrementally dialing in their Super Gs and P2s.

Three hours of squinting, tweaking, and joking passed quickly, and soon it was time to find out which Production racers had taken the proper measure of CIS' 66 feet of plastic and steel. 10 hardy souls laid down their five bucks, including three MARC first-timers, John Shortsleeves of Fitchburg, Mass., Adrian Ross of Watertown, Mass., and seven-year-old Liam O'Leary, a homegrown Cambridge product.

With the addition of two veteran fill-in drivers, three semis were assembled and run, to determine the top four spots, the move-ups to the Main. Dave Kaiser, Paul Avis, and Brian Skidmore won their heats, but who would claim the final spot into the main? Well, it was darn close, folks. New guy Adrian Ross, Benny (Yonkers) Leyro, and seven-year-old track namesake Henry Catfish all showed 83 laps on the monitors, with Adrian making the move-up by half a lap over Benny (1998's Production winner at CIS), who in turn had Henry by a mere four feet. This after Henry had forgotten to hook up his controller on White! That's how you learn, I guess.

Well, it was a battle royal between Avis and Kaiser, Kaiser and Avis, over the first two heats. They each started on a gutter, and Paul gave an early indication of strength by running even with Dave in the first frame from Red, by far the worst lane. Dave won the second heat from Blue, the best lane, by a single lap. In the third heat, talking his turn on Blue, Paul pulled out a three-lap advantage with a manly 39, and finished the race cruising for another pair, on White. Paul's fellow Catfish regulars Brian and Adrian finished third and fourth, respectively, running well, but off the pace set by Avis (147) and Kaiser (143). They in turn were both considerably shy of the160-lap pace set by HBO's Paul Marotta in last year's Production main.

OK! Pizza time! Harvard House of Pizza brought the pies, and we ate 'em, indeed we did. Doing admirably in this department were Greg and Glenn, who made the trip from Portland, Maine with Jim Hoar. Good to see you, Jim, and guys. We look forward to seeing you more often.

A bit more practice, and then it was time for Super Stock qualifying. Several had been fast when it didn't "count; who would be when the :30 was on the clock? Well, Mac set a blistering 3.157 early on, and looked to have it until Mr. Hot Dog himself, Tom Gray, wobbled up to the drivers' panel and cranked out two laps below Mac's; a stunning 3.055, and a 3.100. Final qualifier, was track owner Rob Hayes. Big drama! Alas, his best was a 3.180, just behind Mac, and the coveted TQ hot dog (and 5 points) were Tom's. The hot dog is in the mail, Tom.

16 racers, four lanes. Hmmm, that's cool. Four semis, no fill-ins, and there would be no B main.

The Catfish International layout appears simple, but it can lull you to sleep, particularly when driving ceramic magnet cars, and this happened to more than a few members of the top half of the field. The D semi saw Dan DeCosmo (178) triumph by 21 over Mark McQueeney, with Arnie Hernandez, and Kevin Macartney, who both had pretty rough days, another 20 back of Mark.

Group C saw a very smooth run (188.29) by Catfish Sr.., with what would be top total into the Main. Dave Kaiser was steady and consistent at 172, with Mike Martyn and Brian Skidmore having their troubles, 20 behind Dave. Brian was skidding more.

The B Semi was all Bruce (Voodoo Doll) Beaulieu with very heady 188.2, in a heat with some distractions, most of them coming from Henry's corner. These included some inadvertent marshal damage, a displaced comm bearing, the resulting direct short (the MacPack handled this beautifully, of course), and a fried controller. After a track call, order was restored, and the contest continued.

Stez had his troubles on Red and White, and Mac had a rough Red, and neither contended as a result. While this was not Henry's day, he continues to show steady improvement.

The A Semi would pit the Seditious Sausage, Mr. Hot Dog-TQ, Tom Gray, against the #5 qualifier, the always-steady Dr. John Pileggi, Catfish regular and Production winner Paul Avis, and 1998 Catfish Production winner Benny Leyro. As you might expect from the A Semi, it was the closest of the day, with the highest overall four-racer lap total. Benny started strong on Red, then things went South for him in a big way on Yellow. Ugghh!

Tom Gray (168), the Ferocious Frankfurter, started strong on Yellow, then had a horrific segment on the track's best lane, Blue, to drop from contention, if not from our affections! Meanwhile, Dr. John (174) was dogged throughout by an insistent Paul Avis (172), pulling out a two-lap win by bowling a strong, final frame on Yellow. And that was the difference for the final move-up to the Main.

After 15 minutes to tidy up, the big shootout: Catfish Motorsports' Rob Hayes, Bruce "Pin Cushion" Beaulieu, Dan "Bat Belt" DeCosmo, and Dr. John Pileggi would slug it out for 20 minutes in the fifth anniversary Catfish International Main Event. Heart rates were elevated, shoes inflated, bank balances checked. The time had come.

As the flag dropped, Dan started from Blue and looked strong, taking the first segment (81) from Rob on White (78) by three, with Bruce four back (74) on Red. Sadly, John dug himself a hole (72) on Yellow from which he would not escape. Bruce won the race in the second segment, turning a near-perfect 83 while Rob was doing his penance on Red (75), and the other two thrashed around like sharks in bloody water, on the middle lanes.

A respectable Yellow (79) and a race-best Blue (86) weren't enough for Rob to catch Bruce, who, despite his qualifying performance (6th), just had a ridiculous car. Dan took third from John, who didn't have enough ponies this day, by 11. Another bionic, caffeinated performance by Bruce, to take the win and the 100 points, vaulting him into the season lead.

Following the Main, everyone settled back while Rob and Henry Hayes did their Monte Hall thing, conducting a Catfish Fifth Anniversary Raffle. A remarkable group of friends contributed many hundreds of dollars worth of prizes for the racers to help celebrate this milestone, chief among them Gary Beedle and all the good folks at Scale Auto Distributing, our lead sponsor, who sent us a king's ransom of great stuff. Thank you. HBO, Lime Rock Park, Bruce Beaulieu, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Microsport Engineering, John Warren's Magnet Service, MaxTrax, Scale Auto Racing News, and master modeler Nick Toma, all contributed to make this event one to remember. There were posters, plaques, armatures, videos, bodies, banners, tools, you name it. Our thanks to good friends and supporters, one and all.

The crown jewel of the raffle was a SuperG+-based reengineering of the Ferrari F1 2000 by So. California's Nick Toma, won by Jim Macartney. This beauty features scratchbuilt wings, a redesigned nose, and a purpose-built, machined aluminum presentation chassis. Full pictures of Nick's Ferrari will be on the Catfish web site. While the prizes were too numerous to mention all of them here, a complete list will also be available on the Catfish site. Once again, we'd like to express our deep gratitude to this year's sponsors.

That's it! Many thanks to all for coming, from near and far, making this our biggest turnout ever. My own thanks to main squeeze Gretchen Adams for her tireless assistance in prepping for the race. The next stop on the MARC tour is Saturday, Dec. 2, on the brand new MaxTrax of Paul (Eerily Competitive) Avis, in the posh Avis Building, downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. Ever raced Modified cars above a four-star French restaurant? You will on Dec. 2.