105 replies to this topic

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

That flat square MGP track in the photo . . . they had one running in Arvada, a suburb of Denver about 15 years ago. Nice little track with a another "roadcourse" and dragstrip in the old downtown of Arvada.

I had assumed it was a custom, but I guess not. Neat stuff. I don't remember much of the advertisements on tracks.

Anyway, Ron, that extended orange in Pittsburgh was still there in 2001 when I moved from there. Very odd place. Only track in the hobby shop and it wasn't being used. I had to PLEAD with the manager to let me run a car. And only after I showed her that I would only run a period AMT rather than a "legal at R-Geo" car. Even then, she hovered around me like I was doing something very dangerous. It was a surreal experience.

She never did explain why they had the track if they didn't want anyone running it!

Fate

[Rick]

There were two Tom Thumb Raceways in Pittsburgh in the early to mid '60s The one in the South Hills had a 220 Altech* and the one in North Hills had the 330 Altech*. When the North Hills shop closed they moved the 300 ft track to the South Hills location.

Story has it the a young boy was killed crossing the busy Saw Mill Run Blvd either going to or departing the South Hills Track and it disappeared shortly after that.

Odd thing (to me) is Mac's Tom Thumb had/has American tracks and Pittsburgh's Tom Thumbs had another brand???

There was a raceway in my town that opened in the middle '60s ('65 or '66) Its name was American Family Raceways and opened with a Deluxe Orange (formica sides), a Sovereign (Purple Mile), a black Regal, and an embedded HO track. The owner of said track dropped in on the Tom Thumb South and viewed the track owners selling a bag of ball bearings to a customer for like $2.95 (LOL) and commented to his wife, you see how much they sold that little bag for? He came home, signed a 20 year lease to a not-yet-completed building in the New Heights Plaza Shopping Center, and opened his track. This track, which turned full-line hobby when the boom ended, closed in 2003. Almost everybody that raced slots and passed thru Pittsburgh raced at American in the day. ALWAYS powered by just power supplies. The track owner required that you remain seated in the track seats while racing and NEVER was glue permitted on his tracks. Paul Meiers was ejected many times for "putting stuff" on his tires at that locale, LMAO. Jan Limpach bought four of steering wheel controllers in about 1994 (complete).

American Family Raceways had all the literature, complete with full-color binder of all the tracks, behind the counter. And all the wall decor. There is a man in Pittsburgh that has the small wooden pieces to the scale of the tracks, so you could lay out your shop on a peice of paper, prior to setting them up for real in the shop, for best fit.

I purchased the lap counter and Regal power supply from that track in 1988, via another track owner.The Purple Mile was sold and burnt up in a garage fire and the Black disappeared. I also purchased the Simco Zapper and Fendell Engineering Dyno/Controller Tester from this track.

* I think this is the correct brand, but may be mistaken.

[John Gorski]

Nutley, 1968. Engleman track before the roof leaked and fell on the track. :shock: It was replaced by its famous Blue King American after that. Last race run on it was the New York Car Model, May, 1968, won by Jerry Brady, Howie Ursaner 2nd, Sandy Gross 3rd, John Cukras 4th. It was also the first big race for sidewinders Can-Am in the East. The first big Pro race I ever attended. I still had an inline. The key to this track was learn the secret of the donut! :mrgreen:

[John Gorski]

By the way fast time was set by Howie Ursaner, 5.77 secs.

[TSR]

I won the only race I ever entered on that track . . .

After an epic 3,000-mile trip inside a 2-cylinder (and sometimes 1-cylinder) Honda car with the King himself, Lee Gilbert!
No shower for 53 hours. Luckily, the windows DID roll down!

[don.siegel]

The first American ad I've found so far in a trade publication is January 15, 1965, Toys and Novelties magazine. Sounds like they're fairly recent, even though they offer "finest and most complete line of equipment". By the middle of that year, they're claiming to be the leader, too.

In Craft, Model and Hobby Industry, August, 1965, it says this:

"According to Jim Gardner, Sales Director for American Car Raceways, Inc., the first Tom Thumb Hobby Center was opened in Panorama City, California, by the company, in November, 1964. The Tom Thumb Center now serves as a training center for new center owners who have purchased equipment from American Model Car Raceways."

". . . Only six months old, Tom Thumb Family Hobby Center has already been outclassed by new installations across the country."

So now you know when the infamous "boom" really started: November, 1964.

[TSR]

Don,
This corresponds pretty much with the info I have.

[John Gorski]

Correction on Nutley track history. :roll: We had another race. PVA won and the next day the roof fell in. That was the joke, Pete von Aherns won with the B can and the roof fell in. PVA was staying out in the midwest with Cukras :shock: and developing the "B" can. Every time Mike Tango called REH for an order he busted Pete's balls about coming back East to race again, and how bogus the B cans were, how they could never beat the Keans, etc. :? Then Pete showed up and blew everyone into the weeds, The next day the roof fell in. :down: :cry: When Tony P. first started going to Nutley they were running the track backwards :? until Emott and PVA showed up and told Mike to change it around. :mrgreen: Just another page from IN THE DAY.

[John Gorski]

Philippe, you won on the gray epoxy Blue King at the second Nutley site. It was the Big Nutley race at the Belleville, NJ, site after we moved. Lee Gilbert won the pro race and Philippe won the amatuer race. There was one more race after that won by Tony P., his first pro win, and then Nutley closed to become another part of slot car history . . . IN THE DAY.

[don.siegel]

Just as an addendum to this whole thing, I just went through the trade magazines I have (not complete unfortunately), and after early or mid 1966 or so, there just aren't any more ads for commercial track manufacturers! There was a huge spurt in 1965, and some of the earlier ones in late 1964, but by '66 the "fad" seems to have run out of steam, even though we usually place the date of the bust as 1967.

Lots of car ads still and the RTRs and/or Thingies are going strong, but the get-rich scheme of commercial raceways seems to have quieted down.

Don

[MrWeiler]

If memory serves me right, there was one of these 300' monsters in Brockton, MA, circa 1966. Sheldon Buck (former MIT rocket scientist) and I raced there, once. It was a VERY fast track, lots of long straights and banked curves, but a pain to practice on because it was a VERY VERY long walk to retrieve your car on the back side of the track. Sheldon won that race with a Champion 707-powered Lancer McLaren using a Fast Wheels chassis, Weldun gears and (probably) Tiny's silicones.
There were at least three tracks in the building, an enormous expanse of space. Never took the long drive back there as we had at least 20 other tracks closer by to choose from. Ah, those were the days, when there was a track in every little town and several in each big city.
I remember seeing an overhead plan view of the track in an ad in MC&T; don't remember the issue. (Don?)

There was another in New Jersey in '68-69 in a hobby shop/raceway. Can't remember the name of the place. Went there with PVA for a test tune session and a couple of other times to race. They had a Trans-Am race that was fun. On the Indy track. Real fast for the era. Driving the track was kinda like an Engleman with the flat corners replaced with banks and longer straights.

[don.siegel]

Here's the American track mentioned earlier in action at the 29th HIAA Hobby Trade Show at the Sherman House in Chicago. From the February/March issue of a short-lived trade mag called Model Racing Journal.



And from the January '66 issue, a look at the Tom Thumb in Panorama City, CA, after the installation of these steering wheel tracks.



Don

[don.siegel]

And one of American's competitors, the Mila Miglia Glas-Track.
Don

[Ron Hershman]

The first pic is the 135' Aristocrat Hillclimb.

In the third pic, there is a FORTUNE in those Vintage Bicycles . . . LOL. How many Stingrays are in the pic alone??? :shock: 8)

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

There was an extended 275' version of the Mille Miglia track in Ogden, UT, from '65 through '74. It was one of the last to close in the intermountain west.

It was the site of my "broadcast power" story. I made a lot of money off those guys!

Unlike many tracks, this was in the downtown center of the place. '30s-style brick business building across from a bank and next to "real" businesses like Woolworths.

Fate

[Maximo]

Gee, more wonderful tracks! I wonder what has happened to these great racetracks? I hope that not all of them have become fireplace fodder.

I still think that it would be great (but impossible) if there were a museum of these great tracks. That is, if any examples of any of these rare birds still exist anywhere.

- Maximo

[Rusty Pinion]

Unfortunately, many old tracks were stored in barns and sheds with leaky roofs and were water-damaged beyond resonable repair. Some were just left in buildings after the shop shut down and were "disposed "of by the landlords to make room for the next tenants. Some remained in action and were worn out from the abuse of "speed crazed morons".

There was a fiberglass Mille Miglia in the Nashville, TN, area a few years back and they tried valiantly to make the surface smooth but lost the battle and rumor is it was given away to get rid of it and was replaced with a King track.

So. . . . while it would be neat to run a car on some of these great (and not so great) tracks of the boom days of slot car racing, a time machine would be needed and mine is not perfected yet. The days of glory and the tracks we did battle on will live on in the pages of old magazines, the good Dokktor's manuscripts, and the dusty corners of our memories.

"Never grow old . . . never give up"

[macman]

Maximo: there is a 180' Engleman right in San Antonio. You should also consider driving out to Odessa, TX, to see Doc Gibb's Odessa raceway. He has an original American red. He is also rumored to have a NOS 220' purple in storage. It supposedly has never been set up! Check it out and tell us about it. FYI, don't forget Elmsford's original 220' engleman, still in operation after all these years . . .

BTW Cheater what ever happened to the Ga Hobby Center purple . . . ? And the 240' Ogilvie hillclimb from Smyrna??

[Maximo]

Ben,

Yes, I believe you are talking about the 180' Engleman that is in Jim Honeycutt's Magnatech Raceway at the Crossroads Mall. On the "Gulf Coast Retro Can-Am" thread. I posted a little history of that track document that JimHT hands out.

Thanks for the other info! I will look into that other info and get back to everyone on what I find out. A Purple Mile in storage? I hope that's not another urban legend!



Here is the track you mentioned!



This is another track somewhat similar but different . . .Jim told me that it is in Texas somewhere???

- Maximo

[don.siegel]

And a little more info on AMF from a British magazine in the summer of '67 . . . and yes, that's Yves Montand looking very debonaire, not to mention perplexed, behind the wheel of an AMF raceway.





Don

PS: Maximo, I keep finding more stuff! I hadn't even thought of looking in the British mags . . .

[BWA]

You can actualy see the trailing guides in that last shot.

[Cheater]

Ben, I don't have definitive answers to the questions you asked.

I believe I heard that Tim's Purple Mile was sold to someone in GA, who let it get wet in storage and that it has now been scrapped.

I have no info on the Lee Tant/Rodney Rasnick Ogilvie hillclimb, which I remember as being 235' FWIW. You are referring to the track they called the Georgia Cracker, right?

[Hworth08]

Unfortunately, many old tracks were stored in barns and sheds with leaky roofs and were water-damaged beyond resonable repair. Some were just left in buildings after the shop shut down and were "disposed "of by the landlords to make room for the next tenants. Some remained in action and were worn out from the abuse of "speed crazed morons"

There was a fiberglass Mille Miglia in the Nashville, TN, area a few years back and they tried valiantly to make the surface smooth but lost the battle and rumor is it was given away to get rid of it and was replaced with a King track.

So. . . . while it would be neat to run a car on some of these great (and not so great) tracks of the boom days of slot car racing, a time machine would be needed and mine is not perfected yet. The days of glory and the tracks we did battle on will live on in the pages of old magazines, the good Dokktor's manuscripts, and the dusty corners of our memories.

"Never grow old . . . never give up"

The Mille Miglia spoken of was my home track from about 1966 till I completely stopped slot racing in 1974. The track was actually located in Inglewood, about 10 miles outside of Nashville. If memory serves correctly the track surface and walls were were a continous "pour" of fiberglass with the walls and aprons being smooth and the racing surface being somewhat "matted'. Regular glue made a real mess, much more than on a painted surface, so we were restricted to Tiger Milk that worked just fair but probably saved many a motor.

The track was relocated to Slot Spot Raceway in Old Hickory,TN. I hadn't returned to slots then but I was told the surface became quite saggy and rough and had always had too shallow a slot. The track was replaced with a King with the Mille Miglia being placed in storage in Dickson,TN. A dispute erupted over the price of the track and the intended new owner threw the track in a sink hole. Sad ending for a proud old 240 foot track.

[Rusty Pinion]

Don, I knew about it being in that general area and heard that Slot Spot had it, but I wasn't aware of the trip to the sinkhole. I'm sure there was a way to fix it but it would probably not be cost effective. I ran on one in California once and Candies silicones would hook up big time on that track.Thanks for the backround and real story on it.

[Hworth08]

Don, I knew about it being in that general area and heard that Slot Spot had it, but I wasn't aware of the trip to the sinkhole. I'm sure there was a way to fix it but it would probably not be cost effective. I ran on one in California once and Candies silicones would hook up big time on that track.Thanks for the backround and real story on it.

We tried silicone-coated sponge that did work well. However the silicone would remove ALL the rubber for those wishing to use regular sponge tires!

We'd soak our tires in Tiger Milk all week by placing the tires in a pill bottle and filling it with Tiger Milk. Grip was good on clean tires. Most of our races were 200 continuous laps with no rotation. Somewhere between 100 to 125 laps you'd make a pit stop to clean your tires. The car would pick up an easy second per lap on clean tires! Maybe not the fastest racing but it was realistic.

Slot Spot history . . . the King track located in Old Hickory burned when the entire shopping center burned to the ground. A new Slot Spot has changed location to Madison Square shopping center in Madison,TN, about 5 miles from where the Mille Miglia track was first located in Inglewood. The first track I ran on was in this same shopping center so in more ways than one, my slot racing carreer has never gone anywhere.