79 replies to this topic

[Alchemist]

Whatever the reason may be and why.  Whether it be a commercial track or some home track, it makes no difference.  Please share your story!

 

My all time favorite track "was" the orange track at "Model Car Raceway" located at the San Francisco Ocean Beach Playland. Our nickname for the track location was "Playland Raceway".

 

I was in elementary school and always went to the track to watch my older cousin race and he always let me run a few of his cars.  He was in high school.  

 

It's my favorite track because it was the very first race I was entered in and garnered a third place my first time out! What made it really exciting for me was that my cousin handed me his favorite car and said, "I entered you in this race - go do it!" What a wonderful surprise.

 

Most of the races were held on the orange track. Back in 1965, the tracks at Playland Raceway were not called by their formal names - just by their colors.

 

I still remember that first race. The car used a Russkit motor with a Porshce Carrera body. Ahhhh, the memories.

 

Thank you.

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

Ernie,

 

My favorite is also the American orange. I've raced on a number of different ones in Maine and Massachusetts starting in 1967. I like them because you can race classes on them from the early Mabuchis, to Grp 12, to Grp 27, and everything in between. I don't recall ever running 1/32 cars or Womps on an orange, but those would be fun, too.

 

One of the club tracks in this area is a four-lane mini-orange built by the Tunkels. It's fun to race on, too.

[Cheater]

Tough call on favorite track.

 

Many more laps on an American orange than anything else and I nominate it for the best single track design of all time, especially if the humps on the straight are removed and the esses eased.

 

But my heart says the 220' Sovereign "Purple Mile" is my all-time favorite.

 

As for raceways, probably Ray Gardner's Bullet Raceway on Lavista Road in Atlanta in the early '90s... though it only nosed a couple of other raceways.

[Tex]

I cut my racing teeth on a red Imperial, humps and all; I'd give my eye-teeth to do that again.

[Cheater]

As an aside, Tex or anyone else, is there an unmodified American red Imperial up and running anywhere in the US?

 

Rich Attee's track, or someone else's, is a cut-down red IIRC. 

 

Is there an authentic American red track anywhere?

[Edwardo]

American red Imperial, complete with humps and D-shaped donut would be my favorite, followed closely by a 220' All-Tech.

 

I've never had the pleasure of running on a Purple Mile, but if I had I'm pretty sure that would knock the red Imperial out of first place.

 

[gas]

Engleman run in reverse at Mr. B's hobby shop in Tampa, Fl. Took horsepower and handling.

 

Also the aroma of fresh-brewed beer from Busch Gardens. Could be I won my first point series there also.

[SlotStox#53]

Wonderland Raceway in Southend on sea, in the UK .

Was a commercial raceway in the '60s and early '70s that my dad raced on. Remember back in the early '80s as a kid when he took me to see if it was still there and it WAS!!

The one and only time I ever saw it or drove a car round it but can remember the small boy amazement at seeing a banked corner slot car track for the first time! Especially as it was a King track and all I'd seen and raced was my small Scalextric oval with 1/32 plastic minis... LOL.

By then it hadn't got a raceway store anymore and just bad condition rentals that didn't go very well. When we tried to go see it few years later someone had put their foot through the straight and the track disappeared.  

Edit: other one that even tops this is a homemade wooden routed track that I built with my Dad when I was a teenager. Took up my big bedroom that I gladly moved into the small box room for !!

Was huge with a bridge and tunnel section and could handle both 1/32 and 1/24 ,,plastic and proper slot cars as they're known. Original Parma flexi 1 cars ,scratch built drop arm cars ,womps the lot !!

Definitely my most favorite track

[macman]

I too have to go with the original American Orange. A group of us restored one in the beginning of '88, in Pensacola FL, and proceeded to race on it the rest of that year. One of the subtle beauties of this track was that it could be easily marshaled by 2people, & even 1 in a pinch.
I have to admit that Stan Engleman,s designs run a close second... Both the originals like Jim Honeycutt's in San Antonio, & the newer versions are a pleasure to drive. That can not be said of the modern versions of the Orange.

[Justin A. Porter]

I love racing on Kings, and have turned more laps on Kings than on any other variety of track combined, and I would probably say that I would rather race on a King than on any other track...

 

...but I will also say that a King track isn't my favorite track for running slot cars. The MTT that was set up at Speedway Slots or the four lane at HMS have to take the cake for my favorite "I just want to turn laps" track. I don't even have a particularly good answer as to why. They're also such completely different tracks, too.

 

In the case of the MTT, it just always felt so damn good to run a good lap! No matter what car I ran, if I turned in a good lap I was thrilled.

[Tom Eatherly]

Late '60s, "Speed and Sport" in Lynwood, CA, Ron Granlee owner. The Riverside track built by his nephew. That track was awesome!! Anyone else remember that one?

[Howie Ursaner]

The custom tracks that we raced on the East Coast were much more fun than any commercial track. Cliffhurst Raceway in Wilkes Barre, PA, was the best slot track ever.

[John Streisguth]

135' Hasse hillclimb at Zeppelin Hobbies in NJ, at their first location. Had some great race results there.

[Noose]

Any Engleman.

[Half Fast]

"135' Hasse hillclimb at Zeppelin Hobbies in NJ."

 

Come to think of it that track gave me some great results as well, so I guess I have to say it was my favorite.

 

Cheers

[Bob Emott]

I'll agree with Howie...  

 

Cliffhurst was my favorite track... but I liked the Nutley King second best...

[John Gorski]

Mike Tango's Nutley Raceways King track and Engleman!

 

 
Also Ben Krum's Holiday Raceways 220"... nice sweeping flat corners.

 

[Steve Okeefe]

This track (sorry about the crude drawing), name and manufacturer unknown, at Grand Prix Raceway in the Bronx, NY, is where I first learned to drive, so I remember it fondly. I've never seen another like it:

 

 

But the Nutley King is where I learned to GO FAST (or as fast as I was ever gonna go...)

 

It's a toss-up...

 

BTW does anybody out there know the name and manufacturer of the track in the drawing? I must admit it is possible it was a hybrid built out of pieces...

[Tex]

That Engleman at Nutley looks awesome... flat turns except for the high bank.

[HarV Wallbanger III]

YMCA Engleman track in San Diego that later came to Clovis, CA, for the '84 Nats... my first Nats. This is why I love wiggles esses!

 

[Tex]

That looks like the same layout of Jim Honeycutt's in San Antonio.

[Gary Adams]

Like others here in this thread, I started racing on an Imperial red track. Mine was located at Don's Hobby in Cincinnati, OH. Man, those launching ramp humps were a pain to learn, but once you did, you had such an advantage over visitors or newbies!

 

My favorite track to race on, though, had to be the 160' custom King track at Parma Raceway. That track was incredibly smooth and fast, with arm-popping power to spare! Lots of great racing memories for me there, even without a great deal of success. Some really memorable dices at high speed with friends and foes alike. Ooo-wee, I can still smell the Dart!

[Big Durl]

Undoubtedly the 220' Engleman seen here in post #10 on this thread.  When I was fortunate enough to run on it, it was located at Flashbacks Raceway in Snellville, Georgia.  

 

Humpy, bumpy and the most fun I've ever had on any track. I hope whoever has it now didn't fug it up by smoothing it out or "fixing" it.

 

When I win the lottery, I'm bringing it to Northafornia and opening up "Durl's Slot-a-Rama™"!   

[gascarnut]

This was my all-time favorite:

 

 

It was our club track in the town I lived in South Africa from 1976 to about 1983, when the building in which it stood burned down.

 

4 lanes on 3" spacing (1/32 scale only!), 120-odd feet. On the right of the picture, you can just see the front of the drivers' podium, it was raised about 18" off the floor and set back from the track about 2 feet. The orange construction against the back wall is the Director's stand.

 

I won my only SA National Chamionship on this track, beating Russell Sheldon (whom many of you know as a master builder), Gustav Heymann (who has been the winningest slot racer in SA history for many years already) and Jaap Venter (the hotshot of the time, since deceased unfortunately).

 

The crazy part of the story was that I borrowed a set of tires for the Final. The car felt a little "bouncy at first but smoothed out quickly. After the race I realized I had used wheels reamed to .100" on the 3/32 axle that was in the car! Many of us used punch pins of various sizes back then and made the wheels to fit the particular car, so there were always funny sizes floating around, of which the .100" was one of the more popular as it was close to 3/32.

[Team Trend]

My favorite has to be the orange at a Tom Thumb Hobbies it was the first track i ran on and the first race win running modified womp with cobalt 27 3 hour enduro.  Ran on many other oranges at Elyria, Girard , Ft Wayne and Chillicothe buts Mike was the only one with orignal surface esses and hump .