45 replies to this topic

[MG Brown]

I was just at MC Speedway today in Gurnee Mills Mall and got permission to take a gallery of pics for all of you to (hopefully) enjoy.

MC Speedway Gallery

If I remember correctly the lap length is 320 feet using Ninco track. Race director system is by DS. Professor Motor controllers are provided. Rental cars are available or bring your own. They have Slot.It, Ninco, Scalextric and Fly cars for sale and Ninco and Scalextric sets.

Mike Coleman is the owner, he also owns the facility in the St. Louis Mills Mall which is still open.

The Gurnee Mills facility phone number is 847-855-1334. Their website is http://www.mcspeedway.net but the Gurnee location isn't listed yet.

I was at the track for about an hour and was amazed at the walk in traffic that they got. Half of the people that stopped in bought some track time.

They had a good selection of different types of rental cars but 100 percent of the people wanted to rent a Scalextric Nascar. Most popular rental by far was a Monte Carlo reliveried as the Bud #8.....

These cars look REALLY SLOW going down the back chute. They almost look like they are standing still.

[TSR]

Hi Mick,
Beautiful but in my opinion, utterly wrong. 320'!!! The kids will crash 3-4 times and then will get tired of walking 1/2 mile to re-slot their cars and just walk away from it, back to the video games. Let not forget SEEING the cars from 70' away...
If anyone is going to succeed with such a format, the track needs to be SMALL, so that the walk is not destructive to the whole concept. If you have ever driven a Ninco car, you KNOW that they will crash at just about every other corner. Does the owner has robot turn marshals to re-slot?
Also using Ninco track AND the DS lap counter for such a huge monster is a big mistake. But that's another story...
I wish the venture good luck but have no illusions, within a year the place will be closed or the format will have changed completely.
Thanks for posting the pics.

[BWA]

Doc, his other couple of ventures along these lines have been highly successfull apparantly. I think this is his third one.

Everything about it, as you suggest, is totally wrong, but, it seems to work.

I believe he has people marshalling the cars.

[MG Brown]

In the pics the young boy was far better than the teens. I think he ran 3 sessions while I was there and perhaps fell off once.

Everyone I saw run the track purchased at least one more "race" and seemed to be having fun.

The (rather attractive) gal in the green is race director, cashier and marshall. She said they have a 30 min or more wait for a lane on Saturday nights (these pics were taken at 2:00 PM on a Friday).

I think that the logic behind the huge track is to offer something far more than the average person would have in their basement.

[TSR]

No argument if it works for him...

[Cheater]

I was at the track for about an hour and was amazed at the walk in traffic that they got. Half of the people that stopped in bought some track time.

They had a good selection of different types of rental cars but 100 percent of the people wanted to rent a Scalextric Nascar. Most popular rental by far was a Monte Carlo reliveried as the Bud #8.....

These cars look REALLY SLOW going down the back chute. They almost look like they are standing still.

Folks, I am ready to declare this the next big trend in slot car raceways. This sort of operation is what J. D. Figoli has beeen running at Discover Mills here in Atlanta. His track is Ninco 6-lane and is newly expanded to 457 feet in length. J. D. Model Raceway was featured in the Atlanta Journal-Consitution's Gwinnett County section this morning. Here's a link to Four Wheeled Fun, the piece on J. D. is the third part of the text.

Look what Mick says: "Half of the people that stopped in bought some track time." J. D. has moved twice, to larger spaces, I believe. The guy Mick mentions has another location. Most of us know how expensive mall space is, and that the malls also demand a percentage of sales. If these guys are expanding and/or opening multiple locations, doesn't it stand to reason that they're making money?

One of the key reasons why these sort of raceways are attracting sufficient volume is that total newbies can walk in with no knowledge, no skills, no controller or car, and immediately begin slot racing (with very realistic cars they can identify with, which is another central reason). In other words, there are no barriers to slot racing of this type, unless you want to suggest that the lack of $3-5 could be a barrier.

I believe we will see more and more of this type of raceway operation, especially if it proves consistently profitable in the mall environment. The trick will be to see if the casual users and the diehard racers can co-exist in this type of raceway and co-exist in a manner that will allow the owner to make some additional bucks without have the diehards drive off the casual racers. Haven't heard that anyone has made that scenario work. In fact, J.D. seems to be doing so well with the casual racers that he doesn't seem to have much incentive to promote organized competion. At least, as far as I know. I could be wrong about this.

Philippe, at least at J.D.'s, the staff marshalls all the cars. Customer can't even access the track for the purpose of marshalling.

[TSR]

I would like to see the balance sheet...

[Cheater]

Philippe. I agree wiith you. Jay Guard and I have had extended discussions about J.D.'s large track. Jay seems to feel that having multiple, smaller tracks would increase revenue. For myself, I am not certain but that the large size of the track is not part of the appeal. I recall that at Harding Mall Grand Prix in Nashville, a classic AMR franchise raceway with three tracks, almost no one even used the two smaller tracks; the Purple Mile was what everyone ran one.

Keep in mind that J. D. ran this kind of operation in St. Louis, then moved to Atlanta and opened this current raceway. As I said, he's moved twice at Discover Mills and lengthened his track twice (as I understand it; if I'm wrong, will someone please correct me).

If the operation is not profitable, I would be very surprised, based on this history.

[MG Brown]

The thing that hits home for me is that at long last we have Slot Racing "out of the closet" and in a high traffic environment.

The photo of the older man looking at the cars in the case is priceless for me...



a lot of adults who walked into the shop had that sort of surprised look on their faces when they encountered the current generation of 1/32 cars... and of course the kids just would say "Oh wow Mom, can I try it?".

[TSR]

Mick,
if they are running the cars straight out of the boxes, and from my observation at four different trade shows in the past 3 years where MRC had large demo Ninco tracks, it was virtually impossible even for an EXPERT to put more than two laps together without the car(s) doing some kind of a pirouette off the track because frankly, they handle so poorly and there is so little possible control even if crawling. So the marshals should have been quite busy and you need one for every corner, no? :|
I remember as a youngster being in 1955 at a Peugeot dealership on the Champs Elysees where they had a huge (pre-WW2 by the way) L.R. rail track with their die-cast cars, of which handling was quite comparable to that of Ninco/Fly/Scalex cars of today. The cars were off most of the time, and the drivers never felt like they were controlling anything really. I remember walking out of there thinking that this was worthless.

With the Ninco track slot so shallow (mimicking that of the old Scalex track) and the top-heavy cars tilting all over, how can a youngster with no experience even put ONE lap together, especially when the cars are so far from where he stands? Either the cars have not enough magnet (Ninco...) or too much but too narrow (Fly) or adequate but not very forgiving (Scalex). Even with the PM controllers (a definite PLUS in this case), one has to have HOURS of practice with such cars to just keep a pace.
I would say that this may cause more harm than good about their appreciation of the hobby in the head of the kids. I know that It took me YEARS to overcome my first bad impression of little cars running on a track. When slot racing at a commercial level returned to Paris in 1965, things were not that much better really, that is until we began building our own machinery from bits.
I sure would like to have film footage from the security cameras... it would be interesting to see what is happening and the faces of the kids when the cars go off.
As I said, I hope that this is positive and that it is paying off, but with the cost of the floor space, the cost of the track layout (we are talking SERIOUS money here, much of it in Euros) I cannot see the balance sheet being too good unless they charge a LOT of money for the quick drive. :|

[MG Brown]

MrP: I am not sure what state the cars are in because I didn't think to examine them. It's apparent that they are not "out of the box" because about half of the nascars were reliveried.

I can only report what I saw; most of the customers were adults and teenagers, but the one Afro-American child and his father stuck in my mind. Have a look at the photo with the two of them at the driver's panel; It sure looks like both of them are having fun... which in an "entertainment" business is what it is all about.



Perhaps MC Speedway is to USRA-type slot racing like Miniature golf is to the PGA, but at least in my area putt-putt type businesses (if run properly) do make money and are popular. Do Putt-putt courses build future pro golfers? It's not likely. But with the state of slot racing in this country I will take and be happy for whatever exposure we can get.

I wish Mike Coleman luck and I have a plan for a "stealth" Scalextric NASCAR supercar to take the track record.... Maybe I'll take Jeff Goldberg and Mike Swiss (or whoever) with me just for giggles. Can't you just hear Mike yelling "Track! Track!!!!".

[Jairus]

Explains why they might use pretty girls as track marshals... I might even run MY car off the track just to watch her stretching to reach it....

(Damn, did I type that out loud?)

[rdmac]

...unless they charge a LOT of money for the quick drive. :|

$4.00 for a 5 minute "race", seems like a lot compared to a traditional raceway.
But if I was walking by, I would probably drop 4 dollars to take a drive.
5 minutes of mindless fun. :mrgreen: But I wouldn't wait in line.

[MG Brown]

$4.00 for a 5 minute "race", seems like a lot compared to a traditional raceway.

Sure it does when I can go to Mike Swiss' place and run all day for $10.

Note though that the time is stuck on with velcro and can be changed.

[BWA]

5 minutes, so, what's that on a 475 foot track, 2 laps for 4 bucks????? :?

[TSR]

The mathematics don't work unless the floor space is near-free.

[Cheater]

Al, the lap record for anglewinder cars is 18-odd seconds, for inlines is 21-22 seconds. You can do the math.

P, what I have seen at J.D.'s is that during a busy Saturday afternoon and evening, he often has people waiting their turn at each driver's panel. To estimate his revenue, figure $4 per 5-min block times 6 racers times 10 blocks an hour (the ideal of 12 5-min blocks per hour is probably unachievable). This gives a best case rental revenue stream of $240 per hour. No, he won't achieve this every open hour but it sure looks like he has long stretches on certain days (Friday night, Saturday and night) where he does. And $4 per "race" is not his most pricey rental. At the $5 level, the best case becomes $300 an hour.

I think J.D.'s is approaching his first full year in business and if he's still around after a year (and after expanding twice), it would very much surprise me that he's not paying the bills and making money.

$4 for a 5-minute race seems a lot compared to a traditional raceway.

Apples and oranges, guys. J.D.'s customers are in a high-end MALL, for crissakes. $4 is chump change to most in that venue, the cost (or less) of a latte at Starbucks. Plus the vast majority don't know about "traditional" raceways and therefore have no standard of comparison. And if you are showing up at that "traditional" raceway with your own stuff, you're paying way more than $4 for five minutes if you factor in ALL your costs (braid, tires, brushes, bodies, slot box, power supply, controller, etc., etc., etc.). Sort of like comparing the cost of a fish from the market to a fish you caught yourself. The hidden costs everyone forgets make a big difference.

The fact is J.D.'s and similar operations are offering a product that the traditional raceway doesn't: attractive, realistic cars anyone can "race" on an impulse for a few bucks in a location where the potential customer is already present (because he/she is shopping in the mall). A lot of positive factors are in operation here. And virtually no barriers of any kind, unless the line is too long . . .

[BWA]

Al, the lap record for anglewinder cars is 18-odd seconds, for inlines is 21-22 seconds. You can do the math.

So, how close to this figure does the average first time player get?

I know you and I could probably comfortably do low or sub 20 second laps with our own properly prepped cars, but, I'm betting the average duffer is in the 1 minute range or higher with the rental cars provided. With offs, I'm betting they only 2-4 laps in for their 4 bucks.

Now show me the math.

[Cheater]

Al, I'll be passing near the mall today and if I have time, I'll stop in at J.D.'s and try to give you an accurate, not calculated, figure for average lap total per 5 mins.

But let me ask you this: if the customer has fun only making 5 laps, and wants to do it again, what difference does lap total make?

[MG Brown]

Cheater: The average person off the street was doing 8-9 complete laps in 5 mins at Gurnee. I didn't write down any stats because it isn't like we are at an "event" where they would be meaningful numbers.

I think it was Milton Gamble that said recently that slot racing at the upper levels in this country can be compared to Riding Lawnmower racing, albeit with less sponsorship potential and no real following outside of the participants.

If I was a Lawnmower racer (instead of a wanna be wing racer), and someone opened a Lawnmower speedway a short drive from my house... I'd be pretty dang interested, as I am with this commercial slot car track in one of the largest malls in the world.

The mathematics don't work unless the floor space is near-free.

I have observed that some businesses have a storefront at Gurnee Mills only during certain seasons; such as a local Costume shop that has a branch store "At The Mills" around Halloween, etc. I also have seen Non-profts have a short term presence at Gurnee Mills during certain seasons.

I would perceive it currently to be the "off season" for seaonal businesses; It would not surprise me that rather than have a space empty, that special deals are worked out to get businesses on their feet. Lets speculate that MC Speedway is succesful and still has the doors open in September... I would bet that the rent is raised proportionately from what it is now.

[Horsepower]

Looks like a lot of fun to me! I'd like to try those long straights. It's been a long time since I was able to "flat out" on something like that. Thirty eight years to be exact. :-D :mrgreen:
Thanks for those pics, MG! :up:

[TSR]

I was flat-out on the freeway on my way back from BP today, because that big black 750i with smoked windows was really moving and how could I let THAT happen... :mrgreen:

[scooooter7]

Let's all fly out and have a Mall Nats Race.

Cost only $4 each 5 minute heat. :shock:

[MG Brown]

I was flat-out on the freeway on my way back from BP today, because that big black 750i with smoked windows was really moving and how could I let THAT happen... :mrgreen:

You're lucky- I was driving the Deville (thank the maker that I didn't take out the GTO) on a local 4-lane (with turning lane) street in an industrial area and one of the local cops pulled me over to inform me that I was doing a whopping 45 (exactly apparently) in a 30 MPH zone.

The fine officer said that they had received complaints from residents about excessive speed since the road was re-blacktopped. I asked the officer WHAT residents since there are no residences but he had no comment and just handed me the ticket while keeping my license.

Moral: turn on your radar detector even if you are within 25 miles of home.

[TSR]

:shock:
Man, you live in the wrong state. Before I picked on that guy and we uh, raced at speeds well above the ton, I was doing a mere 70 and EVERY old grandma in minivan or large SUV were passing me lilke if I was standing still...

Also please be informed that the law in most residential areas where the speed is 30MPH and up to 40MPH has a posted speed as well as an acceptable maximum speed. In fact, one may circulate at up to 55MPH in some residential if the traffic conditions and circumstances are allowing it. Ifought it on these basis twice in the past 20 years and won both times with photographic evidence and even a video.

Also most cops tolerate 15MPH above the posted speed. Apparently you ran into a Revenue Service Agent and not a real cop. A real cop would have simply asked you to slow down a bit. :whistle: