30 replies to this topic

[MSwiss]

.... I'd like to see the rest of it.

I included a screenshot which tells a little bit about it.

Joey Wiggins was one of many, of P.A. Watson's top, national caliber racers.

[slotcarone]

Now THAT'S a drivers track!!

[Eddie Fleming]

Wow that is something. The walls are super tight on the outside of the corners. 

[MSwiss]

And the inside.

I noticed that when I counted the lanes.

[Pappy]

Extremely poor design. The first thing I noticed is most of the drivers can't see the big banked turn or the donut.

[MSwiss]

Yes, like quite a few tracks, back in the day, and are still being used today.

On quite a few Hillclimb designs like that, the raceway puts an angled stripe on the floor, that the drivers must respect, to help with the other racers visibility.

[Eddie Fleming]

It hit me that we look at that and start criticizing it by our standards rather than just finding joy in someone having built that incredible track and all the folks that had fun racing on it.

[Pappy]

I don't consider that an incredible track. I doubt if it lasted very long or was much fun to race on.

[MSwiss]

That track probably didn't even have a lap counter.

Were you participating in slot racing in the 60's?

At my neighborhood raceway, there wasn't any racing.

Guys had fun running their cars, racing friends for a lap or 2, or drag racing down the straightaway.

On a Saturday,every lane was filled up from opening, up until an hour or so, before closing.

[Phil Smith]

That's very cool! I've never seen pics of a track with a spiral like that.

 

Mike makes a good point. I don't think they raced at the track I went to.

 

I put a rubber band on the drop arm of my brother's Manta Ray and would pop wheelies down the straight. And that's all I cared about. The corners were just a means to get back to the straight so I could pop another wheelie.

[Dave Crevie]

I'd like to know the exact timeframe that track was in operation. I don't remember anything that complicated in the Pasadena area before 1966. The biggest I remember was something like a Purple Mile, but I don't remember exactly where that was. We visited a lot of tracks in the 1964/1966 era. If it was around then, I sure wish we had gone there.

[MattD]

65, we did have races on Monday nite,   Run what you brung.   No lap counter.   Draw the lane color from a can and you raced on that lane all nite.    The rest of the time we were just kids playing with slot cars.    

 

I wonder if all the guys that want to figure out how to return to 1965 really want to walk in a raceway that has 20-40 boys running around, taking up space and wrecking cars.   Most of us are used to walking in a raceway that has 5 or 6 guys about 90 years old that can barely get to the track to race their car.

[Phil Smith]

 

Joey Wiggins was one of many, of P.A. Watson's top, national caliber racers.

 

That's very true. PA and his racers would always wup up on us DFW racers when they came into town.

[MSwiss]

I'd like to know the exact timeframe that track was in operation. I don't remember anything that complicated in the Pasadena area before 1966. The biggest I remember was something like a Purple Mile, but I don't remember exactly where that was. We visited a lot of tracks in the 1964/1966 era. If it was around then, I sure wish we had gone there.

Pasadena, Texas

[Phil Smith]

 

I wonder if all the guys that want to figure out how to return to 1965 really want to walk in a raceway that has 20-40 boys running around, taking up space and wrecking cars.   Most of us are used to walking in a raceway that has 5 or 6 guys about 90 years old that can barely get to the track to race their car.

 

That's a good point.

[Pappy]

Were you participating in slot racing in the 60's?

Yes, I was. i was about 13 or 14 in 64/65 when I started going to a commercial raceway with a red king track. When they first opened they had races with guys using hand held lap counters for each lane. You drew a lane and the races were 100 lap semi's and 200 lap mains. You didn't want to draw red, white, purple or black. Within about three month they got a lap counter with photocells. Occasionally they had to stop the race to clean them.

 

Back then there were about 5 or 6 raceways in the Cincinnati area and each raceway had a team that would meet every month at a different raceway for a city race.

[aquavelvis]

I never saw that track but if it was in the Pasadena-Houston area it may have been owned by Lloyd Drews, Mrs. Drews, or one of their boys. 

[elvis44102]

we had about 6 raceways in Cleveland area...none with a monster like that..i love that hey threw in the land crossovers just because

[Dave Crevie]

Pasadena, Texas

 

That explains things.

[Howie Ursaner]

Back in the 60s we did not care that much for the American tracks. We loved the Quirky ones that were too big to see and really tested your ability to the max. Those were fun. I refer to EMMRA , 500 ft around and you did not go super fast , you negotiated your way around it  to survive. You could not see what was really happening in the back parts, it was more instinct. Another was Cliffhurst raceway in Wilkes Barre where some turns were chicanes that demanded you get into a single file to make it through. Those tracks were challenging and we had more fun than any king track. After those, King tracks were like for babies. 

[MSwiss]

How,

That could be the title for the book, on your life story;

 

"I Use to be Tough, Until King Tracks Ruined my Life".

[Pappy]

Swiss, what you need to do is get rid of that sissy King track you have and build a real he-man track. 

 

One raceway back in the 60's here in Cincinnati (I believe it was Don's Hobby's) built a track that was about 350' around it. I heard no one wanted to run on it because they spent most of their time going after their car when they came out of the slot. I think Gary Adams might know more about that track than I do.

[Eddie Fleming]

Any very hard tracks to drive we should just call Ursaner's 

[MSwiss]

Swiss, what you need to do is get rid of that sissy King track you have and build a real he-man track. 
 
One raceway back in the 60's here in Cincinnati (I believe it was Don's Hobby's) built a track that was about 350' around it. I heard no one wanted to run on it because they spent most of their time going after their car when they came out of the slot. I think Gary Adams might know more about that track than I do.

I already have one.

Howie and I,man up on it, every Sano.

[Pappy]

How many feet around it?