23 replies to this topic

[Rusty Pinion]

I kinda stumbled across these photos and thought it might jar a memory or two from the guys that raced there back in the day.

 

Cheater ought to get a kick out of these as he was a former patron. These were taken about 1983 I think.

 

 

[Cheater]

I do indeed, Hugh. Charlie Williams was the owner IIRC. Sure don't remember that L-shaped sign on the corner of the building!

 

I raced there in late '72 or early 73, I think. Decatur Speedway (I never called it Hobby House) was a full-line hobby shop, with big model railroading and airplane sections. In fact, I think there was a big model railroad layout at the rear of the store on a second level mezzanine but I never ever looked at it.

 

They had a small oval track and were racing scratchbuilt NASCAR hardbodies, which was a very popular class around Atlanta for decades.

 

I stumbled on Decatur Speedway after transferring to Ga Tech as a sophmore and was happy to be able to drag my boxes out of storage on a trip back home and to start back building and racing. Took me about four or five races to get competitive, which seemingly was not very pleasing to the few grizzled old regulars. First time I won a race, they ginned up a reason to DQ me and that was it: I never went back.

[Rusty Pinion]

When I first went there back in the late '60s they had three tracks with long straightaways... I never took any pictures then (it was the last thing on my mind)... but now I wish I had. They were truly unique tracks although I never knew who made them.

 

The last time I was there they were down to only one track (the shortest of the three)  and had moved it the center of the building in the rear. I have no idea when they finally closed.

[Cheater]

Here's a Hobby House sticker that's on one of my '66-67 vintage slot boxes:

 

 

Hobby House had what had to be one of the best locations for a hobby shop/raceway I can ever recall. It was on the square in downtown Decatur, GA, essentially across the street from the old Dekalb County, GA, Courthouse, built in 1898. A new courthouse was built behind it some years ago and now the courthouse is a museum and event facility.

 

 

The Hobby House building was torn down and rebuilt as a restaurant probably 30 or so years ago.

 

 

[Ralph Thorne]

What was the track that was once on LaVista road? Say early '90s?

[Cheater]

You have to be talking about Ray Gardner's Bullet Raceway near the corner of LaVista and Oak Grove. I practically lived there...

I have an engraved brass plaque on my slot box that reads "Bullet Raceway Opening Enduro August 10, 1991." Dunno exactly when it closed, but it must have been 1993 or '94.

Ralph, that's where the Dapron-resurfaced American orange we raced on for so long in the Alanta area came from.

[Ralph Thorne]

That must have been it, I think I was around 6 or 7 so the timing fits. I seem to remember it being in a small strip mall. I bought my first car, and when I came back they were gone. I didn't find slots again after that until 2001 when Flashbacks opened.

[Chris Barnes]

Ray Gardner's track closed in 1993. He sold it to Joe Redmond, who opened up in the Marietta area off Sandy Plains. He then had the 1994 Nats in the hotel in Marietta. That is where we had the King track in one room and the roadcourse in another.

After the Nats, he put the King track back in another building for a short while before the King moved to Anderson, SC. I think it was the 2004 Nats that was held there. A few years later the King was sold and moved to Eden, NC, which I think is still in that area.

[Rusty Pinion]

Here's an old decal sheet I bought at Decatur Speedway.

 

 

[Rusty Pinion]

Here's a memento from Ray's old track...

 

[Cheater]

Hugh,

 

I have a small sticker on my slot box with that same artwork.

 

Chris,

 

The Scale Nats at Electric City was in 2002. I won't forget that year, as the minute I walked in the front door, I was told I had a phone call. It was Paul Kassens calling to ask if I would do OWH's "Almost Live" coverage for him since he couldn't make the event.

[Chris Barnes]

Greg,
 
OK, I'm old and losing track of time.
 
I had a long week at that race.

[beardogracing]

Ah yes, even I remember it well!

[BillyBob]

Didn't the ECR tracks come from Lee Robert's place in Brimingham???

 

King and Paperclip

[Rusty Pinion]

Yes, Bill... I believe they did... that's what Ed Beard told me.

[Big Durl]

Man, I wish I'd known there were all these tracks in Atlanta/Decatur back when I lived there. So this was going on between '73 and '88, huh? Jeez, I'd have never moved west.
 

[Rusty Pinion]

There was another track over by Belvedere Mall on Columbia Drive in the same shopping center as Dunk-n-Dine. It was a homebuilt track I'm told but I never raced there.

 

Another one was a Miniature Grand Prix at Second Ave. and Fayetteville Rd., just off Memorial Drive. They had a flat road course and a high-banked oval. I raced there a lot.

 

Suburban Plaza in Decatur had one in the bowling alley. I can't remember what kind it was as I was only there once.

[Cheater]

All of that was well before I got to town...

[Charley]

Don't forget "The Plaza" on Ponce de Leon, and FunTown down on Stewart Ave.

[Chris Barnes]

On Stewart Ave at the bowling alley, we had a 220' track where the bank was so highly banked you car would fall off when the power went off.
 
On the tracks in Belvedere Mall, I ran there in 1968. The big track was flat and I could never get any bite on it. I remember Cox Chaparrals at the time.

[Rusty Pinion]

Don't forget "The Plaza" on Ponce de Leon, and FunTown down on Stewert Ave.

 

Yeah... the Plaza track was called Olympic Model Raceways.

[Champion 507]

Chris,

 

The 2004 NATS was in Tulsa, OK.

[ossamoto]

I raced there from the late '60s until the late '70s. Charlie had a stroke and his son took over and moved it to Memorial Drive, only as a hobby shop, no slot tracks. That's where I learned to scratchbuild NASCAR slot cars, from his employee Jerry.

I grew up on the southside less than three blocks from Funtown; hung out at the track at the bowling alley. There were also several tracks on the south side, Westgate mall (that's what the track looked like with the stools), one at Headland - Headland shopping center around '63, Washington road, East Point, Lee Tant's place in Smyrna, circa '80s, Jerrys Place in Austell in the '80s, and Tim Ferguson's place in Douglasville, then moved to Fayetteville.

[Fast Eddie S]

At one time in mid-'60s around Atlanta there over 100 tracks in the area.