395 replies to this topic

[mrtc4w]

I went to The Pit Stop on Starr Ave in Toledo, OH. I did not go to the other tracks because I wasn't allowed to travel that far on my bike.

Marty

[Keith Levine]

Bryn Mawr Raceway, on Bryn Mawr Avenue, in Hollywood Park, a neighborhood on the far north side of Chicago: a small place with three American tracks: yellow, black and orange. First place I raced.

Classic Raceway, on Lincoln Avenue, in Lincoln Square, another neighborhood on the far north side of Chicago: a large place with several (maybe six) homemade tracks, some quite large. The big thing there was to race stockcars. Second place I raced.

Tom Thumb Raceway, on Davis Street, in Evanston, a northern suburb of Chicago: I think this was the largest raceway in the Chicago area. They had about a half-dozen tracks: five American, including an orange, a black, a red, maybe a yellow, and, I think, one other; and a 220-foot blue track that may have been custom-made or may have been an Engleman. Third place I raced.

Keith

[LindsayB]

I started racing in Australia at Parramatta, I guess around 1965. But that was just track time not actual races. think around 1968 I started racing. My first car was a crome plated 26D sidewinder chassis that had 2 peices of ping tube to mount the body. I got it home, put a drop arm on it and then some side pans.

Ran a rewound 26d motor. Then bought a bag of kit that some guy was selling, had an anglewinder with a Mura A series motor. Ran the Sate Championships the next year. I Australia the state championships are sort of like the tri states, about 8 races a year - cars ranged from canam style, sedans, and F1. we also ran mini's - which were sort of like 1/32 scale. All class's used Grp 7 motors.

Raced that series against Stoo, a guy called Mak Fox and Wayne Bramble, we were all about 15 at the time. All these guys are still racing in OZ.

[spudboy]

First I raced Aurora HO cars on "Winky" Johnson's basement track and then 1/32 cars on "Truck" Treveloni's little figure8 track.

Got the fever in 1967 and raced commercial at Modelville Hobby, operated by Dick Cafarelli and his mother Mary, at 380 Waverly Street in Framingham MA. They operated three American tracks - Sovereign, Monarch and Windsor. I really enjoyed the Monarch and had many good races on it.

I played at another slot car center in Framingham, I think it was on Park Street, a few times but it didn't last. Can't recall the name of it. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else recalls that raceway.

[Vay Jonynas]

Lost some door handles and mirror's in that turn.

Oh man. That was heartbreaking to lose pieces from the car you'd lovingly built.

[flem1959]

Hobby Unfair
Indianapolis
American Raceways Figure 8 and Orange.
Eventually we all got kicked out by the owner, Monkey Mike.

[Tim Neja]

1961-- Costa Mesa Hobby Shop--custom hillclimb track behind the hobby shop on 17th street---had dime/quarter timers like was used on washing machines!!
1964 -- Miniature Freeways-- Newport Blvd in Costa Mesa--owned by a former professional musician--Ted Schultz-- he built the track and operated for many years--don't know what
happened to it--I quit racing when I went to High School in 1966.
FWIW
Tim

[Wade Raceway]

Slot Car City Las Vegas in the early 90s. Hasse King is all that was set up when I started, then Mick got a hill climb. Very fun place to race.
Dub

[Mark Clemence]

Growing up in Kansas City I raced at three places: there was a track at the Papenfus Hardware Store (in Independence), a raceway (3 tracks) in the lower level of the King Louie East bowling alley, and a shop on the lower level of the Antioch Shopping Center. Sadly, all have been closed for at least 25 years.

[MrWeiler]

Do any of you Vegas types remember a track from 67-68 that was sorta like a hillclimb and made from cast concrete?

Anybody ever heard of this business?

I only went into the track once (I was 17 and with my parents who were in Vegas for other reasons than slot cars).

I was interested in how the track was built. The owner told me he wanted to franchise in competetion with American Raceways. Bad timing as this was the slot crash era.

When I went back the next year it had vanished.

[MrWeiler]

My home track was Edda & Jerry's in the city, back around 1968 or 69. The bug didn't bite me until almost all the tracks in the Bay Area were gone. That's where I met Gene Fong, Hippo Krat, Keiji, Owl Chump, the Aguirre & Ng brothers & Spiderman. That's was also where "team burrito" was born. The only other tracks were Oakland Speedway, Family Hobby in San Leandro & Mission Speedway in Hayward. I quit racing slots in 1971; that was when the Zodiac killer was at large & I was riding the buses at night.

Russ:

I've heard some of the spiderman stories but I've never met him. Is he still around. I know Owl and the Aguirre brothers from Sonic and SoCal racing.

[Charlie Nelson]

I did'nt know it at the time (1966-69) but I grew up in slot car heaven ( North Hollywood, Ca.) within a few minutes of my house were: Thom Thumb,2- Revells, Circle T and three or four more that I can't rename anymore. Today I will drive all day to get to a track.

[MrWeiler]

I did'nt know it at the time (1966-69) but I grew up in slot car heaven ( North Hollywood, Ca.) within a few minutes of my house were: Thom Thumb,2- Revells, Circle T and three or four more that I can't rename anymore. Today I will drive all day to get to a track.

When I was a teenager, I lived in Chatsworth (across the SF valley from N Hollywood).
I lived there from 64 to 68 and there were LOTS of tracks within a 40 minute drive.

All gone now.

The last track that I know about in the valley was Checkered Flag (home of the 93 NATS).
The track that was open for the longest period was Circle T in N Hollywood.

[PreacherMan]

Does anyone remember the raceway at Hobby City in Stanton CA? Used to race there all the time, all i remember is the 2 level track with a net under the upper banks, so the cars would slide off into the net!

[GearBear]

First commercial track I ever went to was in Bellevue, WA (I grew up on Mercer Island). I don't know the name as I was 5 at the time (Summer 1965). That Christmas my parents gave me an Aurora HO T-Jet set. That grew over the years to over 300' when mixed with my neighbors AF/X track. Between us we had over 50 cars as well. We would race every afternoon it rained (and sometimes when it didn't) until we were called to dinner. When I was about 12 in the summer my neighbor and I would hop on the bus and go to Empire Hobbies to get cars and parts and to run on their Tub track. After graduating from High School, I got a job working at a gas station and a friend and I decided to go to West Seattle Speedway and Hobby one day. I was instantly hooked and purchased a Trans-Am car from Steve Hosford to race on Friday Nights on the Hillclimb. I raced there off an on for a year or so finally quitting due to lack of funds.

I didn't race again until my son Justin found my old box in the garage after moving to our new house in 1998. We then called WSSH to see if they still had a track and then headed out there. We found out they were doing weekly Friday night racing and quickly geared up an started racing. This turned into racing at South Hill Slots in Puyallup and then racing at the Speedshop in Auburn. Finally my kids stopped racing so I did too as I didn't care for the MTT at the Speedshop. When I found out Rob was opening up Pacific Slotcar Raceways in Edgewood with the Twister I decided to start racing again (much to my wife's chagrin). I showed up for the first race 5 minutes before the race just to chat with people. They talked me into running so I bought a car out of the case, TQ'd and won the race! And I hadn't touched a controller for over 6 years! Talk about a good night! That hooked me big time and I've been racing every weekend since. I even managed to win the Flat Track Worlds Eurosport race this year

I sure wish my parent's hadn't given all my HO cars away! I would love to have them now. I do still have my original T-Jet Mustang convertible for some reason.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Charlie, years ago, I had a conversation with Philippe about traveling to "the big races". Personally, I knew I was not Cukrus! In any case, here in Salt Lake, the population was half what it is now. Despite that we had EIGHT race centers. I could get a good money race friday night, saturday morning, noon, afternoon and sunday, never see the same guys twice AND each race would have 25 to 40 entries! ARRGH.

Knowing I was not Cukrus and having more racing than I could handle locally, I saw no reason to travel to race! Like you, being a poor student, the money issue was also part of that.

I did, in the day, travel to big money promotional races around the intermountain west. Now, one track in Nampa, then, I knew of 6 in the southern reaches of Idaho, tracks in Bozeman and Billings, and places like Craig Colorado, Vernal Utah, Provo and Oreem and.. well pretty much anyplace with anything more than a gas station. Most of these other tracks didn't have the money in the purse to "pay" for the trip. My buddy Jeff Bedell had a VW Microbus camper that we used to go "slot car hustle" in. And mostly we also cruised the pizza shops for food!

Fate

[Duffy]

My buddy Jeff Bedell had a VW Microbus camper that we used to go "slot car hustle" in. And mostly we also cruised the pizza shops for food!

We REALLY oughta do a remake of "Two Lane Blacktop" with slots.

[Lovinggood]

Does anyone remember the raceway at Hobby City in Stanton CA? Used to race there all the time, all i remember is the 2 level track with a net under the upper banks, so the cars would slide off into the net!

I would only race at Hobby City if all the other tracks in Anaheim where busy. Untangling your wheels and braids every time you hit the nets was sooo fun...

[Jeremy Wyant]

Wow, so many places to remember just in michigan. Tiny Tim's in Royal Oak was my first commercial track, then to S.R.S hobbies in chesterfield, mi. I still have my first trophy from there! Then to Family hobbies in westland, larry's place up in flint, Fantom raceway out in saugetuck, Trackside in roseville and madison heights. Thats about all the locals.... many more out of state...... What great memories....

I started raceing in 1990 and it was at fast eddies in jackson mi I know you were there a few times

[Slow1ron@yahooo.com]

Slot Shop on Winkles street in Elyria, Ohio in the late 60's, followed them to a location on Cleveland Street in Elyria, Ohio.
Parma Model Raceway on Pearl Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
Ran all the local weekly races and some HO enduro stuff at Parma. Ran the first two "Nat's" at Parma and then the third one at the Slot Shop.
Kind of quit racing in the mid 70's and never looked back until late 2001. Found out Donna Hubble had just sold the Slot Shop and it was still in the same place.The Nat's king was gone but the original Orange was still there.
Found J&B in Fremont, Route 93 in Akron and Raceway Hobby's in Mineral Ridge. Stomped around for a while and then started traveling the series and Nat's circuit.
I still race occasionally.I have met some great friends and some real characters along the way.

[Frankie Schaffier]

In my old hometown of Brighton Michigan, though I can’t remember the name of the track (Mid 60's?). It was located on Grand River Ave, next door to what is now Camps Pub. I believe Brian Lavin’s Law office is in the building where the track used to be.

My brother was supposed to be baby-sitting me, but he would drop me off at the slot track, pay for some track time and buy me a coke. Then he would go off and play kissy face with his then girl friend, now wife of many years.
 

[DOCinCanton]

My home track was DJs in Canton, Ohio. It had a custom built 90' track like an American Orange. I quickly branched out to Akron Ohio, then up to Elyria and then Cleveland.

[32Deuce]

"Bob 'n Ray," "Grand Prix" & "Checkered Flag" to name a few that I "ran" on in the St. Louis area in the mid 60's. Grand Prix was actually featured in "Car Model" I believe, or one of the publications. All were gone with the crash except the last one Checkered Flag which had their tracks into the early 70's. The Checkered Flag Hobby shop still exists in a different location, without the slots of course. I've been told that St. Louis boasted a whopping 42 commercial raceways during the 60s boom at one point. At 12 or so years old, I missed most of them.

Z

[Windyracer]

A few days ago I posted what I thought was a great response on this thread. In it I described a huge (5 tracks) American Model Raceways franchise that was here in Joliet, Il. in the mid to late 60s.

I'm curious as to why my post was deleted, and who deleted it?

Thanks

[alanb]

This thread is bringing back fond memories.

In 1975 I started racing at Hickory Hobby Center in Hickory, NC. It was located in the basement of a building in downtown Hickory. A good friend took me by there and introduced me to slot car racing and I was hooked. The owner's name was Don and I believe his last name was Duckett. He was not willing to help at all and like Roho21 stated earlier in this thread nobody that was fast would help anyone. I remember Scott Beard who was the fastest every week. In fact Scott and his father bought the track years later and ran it for a while. Scott won almost every race there on that big oval in Hickory. It was a scale model of Charlotte Motor Speedway. The closest I ever came to beating him was finishing second behind him and during that race he lapped the field. I finished one lap down to him. Scott ended up closing the track many years ago. We ran scratchbuilt brass chassis' and hardbodies with Mura Group 12 motors. There was also a smaller track in Newton, NC which is just a few miles east of Hickory that a lot of us raced at. It was owned and ran by Ronnie Lail. He was a super nice guy and was always willing to help. I used to run at both places back in the day.

More recently Don Duckett, the same person who owned Hickory Hobby Center, started one up in Hildebran, NC that was also a large oval. It became Tri-County Hobby where I raced for several years. He sold it to several guys who ran it for a few years before recently shutting it down. The new owners did replace the track with a better version that was built by one of the owners. That track was one of the largest ovals in existence from what I understand. Those guys were nice but there were too many owners and the way they ran things really killed the business and ran people off. They even ran off one of the co-owners who was a super nice guy and was really good for the business. He was willing to help anyone at any time and he really helped bring the racers in there. At one time they had a smaller road course and and 1/8 mile and then a 1/4 mile scale drag strip that sat inside of the big oval. Terry Thornburg was one of the owners and he built that large oval as well as that 1/4 mile drag strip. We even ran 1/12 scale cars on that big oval. Those things were a blast. *Sigh*....those were the good ol' days.