In February of 2020, the slot car community lost one of its finest, Bob McFarland. Although he had not been doing well for some time, his death was sudden and a shock to all of us. In addition to being a fine gentleman, Bob was a tireless promotor of the slot car hobby. He was a fierce competitor, track owner, builder and mentor. He shared his knowledge with others by holding classes in scratch building on a regular basis.
I first met Bob over 20 years ago. At that time, I was interested in 1/24 hardbody racing and contacted Bob via email about building a few cars for me. With no hesitation, he agreed. He offered to send me a couple of his works to try out so that I would be sure of getting my money’s worth. Sure enough, a few weeks later a BMW roadster and Jaguar XJ220 arrived in the mail. I hurried down to a local commercial track and wow, was I impressed. The cars were very quick and ran like a dream. I was hooked and ordered a chassis for a Corvette C5R.
Shortly after Bob’s passing, Bill Bostic scheduled a McFarland Memorial Race but was forced to cancel due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Here we are nearly two years later and finally we are beginning to get back to some semblance of normality. Instead of having only one Memorial race, Bill came up with the idea of having several events at private tracks all over the State of Oregon. The tribute would be called the McFarland Memorial Track Tour 2022.
Both Roseburg tracks, STR and Electron Raceway have committed to holding McFarland Memorial Track Tour events:
- STR will host a Sports Car Race on 3/7/22. For details, see the link http://slotblog.net/...event-str-3722/
- Electron Raceway will host a Trans-Am race on 6/6/22. For details, see the link http://slotblog.net/...-electron-6622/
Although the schedule for other events has not yet been finalized, at least two other tracks have committed to Tour events. The schedule of events is listed as a part of the NASTE calendar and will be updated over time. See the link and cursor down to see Tour events. Northwest Association of Slot Track Enthusiasts : Calendar (naste.org)
