You're a hard man.
If you were an official American Model Raceways franchisee, you got one of these emblems. Mike reports that it is made of vacuum-formed plastic and says Tom Thumb has four of them... But when's the last time you saw one on the wall at a raceway? And did it look this good? Too effin' cool...
Here's the original blue AMR King, resurfaced once. I thought it raced without flaw, but then I wasn't very fast. Some termed it a bit quirky, but if so, I didn't see it.
The guy in the deadman sure looks like Les Wright (Cedric) of Wright Way Products. One of the nicest guys in all of slot racing, as he proved to Jay Guard this weekend by using my pit and tools to dismantle Jay's power supply to confirm the LED display is bad. He's sending Jay a new unit to replace the defective display.
I was pretty impressed with Tom Thumb's inventory for slot cars, as it clearly isn't their main business (yet... heheheh). They had Warmack nosepieces by themselves for $24.95 (IIRC), a terrific idea. I could only find some Koford flux brushes to buy, but that's because I made Jay give me a pair of Kelly tires I used for both Coupe and Can-Am.
Cindy McMasters and Jessica's friend Kyle Snyder at the doorway of the raceways's very small kitchen, which Cindy admitted used to be a bathroom. I had a sloppy joe on Saturday and it was great! Pablo was raving about the pulled chicken sandwiches. The prices were so cheap as to be embarrassing, 16-oz sodas for $1, the same for either sandwiche. I'da put that much in the tip jar, but there wasn't one...
The McMasters took a well-deserved vacation to Gatlinburg, TN, after the R4, and are not home as I write this AFAIK. They could not have been more gracious hosts, as I well know. The earlier part of this race coverage would not have been possible without Mike loaning me a laptop and his wireless connection.
The story Mike tells is this: after an unremembered race some years ago, he was approached by a turn marshall who apologized for a fumble that he felt had cost Mike a place. He wanted to give Mike something in atonement for his error.
Mike doesn't remember being upset about any such marshalling incident and started to tell the guy not to worry about it, until the apologetic turn marshall showed him what he wanted to pass along: the pictured interior.
You bet he took it. Do you blame him?
I believe Mike said this interior was packed away for many years in his safe. The plastic box was incredibly dusty and the tape holding it shut had hardened such that had to nearly be chiseled in half to get the box open.
Does anyone know who could have painted this interior?
Jay Guard brought this crazy toy. As one shifts the gears, the guy vibrates, leans, and makes the kind of noises three-year-olds do with their toy trucks, getting louder and louder as higher gears are reached. What a hoot! Jay says he's gonna re-label it "Retro Racer".
