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[muskie^man19]

Lucky Bob's Raceway: Weekly HO "THURSDAY NIGHT THUNDER" Race Report April 28^th, 2022
 
HO racers from three states met up Thursday evening in Milwaukee at Lucky Bobs spectacular shop to battle it out across three classes on three tracks in the regular weekly racing.
 
Our host, Bob Thelen, is a world class raceway owner that is on top of his game.  He hosts a full slate of weekly racing of 1/24^th and HO scales, including drag racing.  He has hosted the HOPRA National Championships on multiple occasions and his tracks are all top-shelf.  The entry fees are low and he includes pizza for all entries every week!  Twenty-four years running in the same location.  Few can say that.  On a weeknight, the raceway was packed with racers and neighborhood families just in renting time on the Grandstand 1/24^th track.  If you have not made the journey to heart of Milwaukee to race slot cars, what are you waiting for?  It just doesn't get any better.
 
As the racers arrived, it became a bit of a reunion of sorts.  Al Thurman was in from Arizona, Doug Gilbert drove up from Rockford, IL and Mark Rosenwinkel ventured across the border into Packer-land also.  With regulars Rick DeRosa and Jimmy McKinney, the core group that hosted the legendary 1982 HOPRA Nationals were together and on the track for the first time in forty years photos attached. 
 
First up was the HOPRA Super-Stock class on the Bonsai track.  Local top gun Bill Armour, defending HOPRA Gravity class national champion, proved the man to beat, taking the win over last week's winner Scott Randall and Fast Al Thurman (still racing in the major leagues continuously since 1970 and counting).
 
The HOPRA SpecRacer class was up next on the benchmark Chain Drive track.  This was one of the very earliest steps forward of track construction, as big time HO slot car racing progressed from snap together track towards the modern high-tech tracks of today featuring continuous rails and full epoxied joints.  The podium was a collection of national champions and again, Bill Armour showed the rest of us the fast way around the track, edging out Rick DeRosa and Gary Moe Money.
 
The last race of the evening was the HOPRA CMPM class on the WizTrack.  In a battle to the end, at near-blinding speed, Lucky Bob Thelen edged out Rick DeRosa by mere sections on the track.  Rick and Bob have collaborated on so much for the good of slot car racing in Illinois and Wisconsin for many years now.  To see them laughing and congratulating each other after the race was heartwarming.
 
Until next week, just remember the words of the Yogi Berra of slot car racing, "Ninety percent of the nerfs are half mental".
 

 

 

 
 

[muskie^man19]

 

 

 

 

 

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[muskie^man19]

[philk]

Has he got the water damage fixed on the big track?

[muskie^man19]

I'm unaware of water damage on his Grandstand, can't speak to that.  I can tell you it was being used for rentals most of the evening.  If you are talking about one of the HO tracks, they are tip top.  Raced on all three.