It’s a new year and the
beginning of a new season of racing at ROCK ISLAND RACEWAY.
This will be our second season. Our first season was a learning
experience and a lot of fun (and work).
It
was October of 2000. I
was wanting to find out if anybody still raced HO scale slot cars, and
I was thinking about the track that my father built for me, in our
Bristol, Pennsylvania basement. How
cool it would be to actually race those little cars again, of which, I
still had my entire childhood collection. So, I did some internet
exploring to see what I could find out.
Four
years prior, in 1996, I surfed around the internet and found little to
nothing about the hobby I so loved as a kid. In 2000, however, I was
shocked and delighted to find that there were many others who still
loved slot cars as I did. In
fact, I was overwhelmed at what was going on within that realm. I
found that, not only did people still race the old Aurora Model
Motoring cars, but newer, more technologically advanced cars were
being made, currently, and raced from coast to coast.
I
decided to treat myself to a birthday present, and got myself a brand
new track! I purchased
the Tomy Super International speedway. At last, I would have another
track..and this time, I would have four lane racing.
I couldn’t wait to get the set home and begin construction.
I put together one of the 17 layouts that the set was capable
of, and a raceway was born. The set came with Super G+ cars, the likes
of which I’d never seen. They were SO fast and they held the track
so well. It didn’t take
long for curious friends to experience the thrill of slot racing, and
by January of 2001, ROCK ISLAND RACEWAY had it’s first official
race. There were 24
racers that day, each with their own car.
We started with NASCARS from Lifelike and Tyco, because they
seemed like a good middle ground between the old-school Thunderjets,
and the speedy new Super G+ Indy cars.
That first race was SO much fun. Everybody had a blast.
Most of these people had never even heard of slot cars 6 months
earlier. But the ‘fever’ spread fast. It was decided, after that
day, that we would have a race season, that would go all the way till
November.
We
raced every 2 weeks, and although most of my friends thought that
I’d lost my marbles, I changed the track layout for EVERY race! We
went from 4 lanes to 6 lanes….from manual ‘clicker’ lap counters
to digital lap counter/timers.
As
the year progressed, we entered into the world of T-Jet racing, and
Indy racing as well as the NASCARS. Also, as the year progressed, more
and more racers were getting the hang of racing and the competition
grew closer and closer. It was great!
My childhood hobby had been re-born and bigger and better than
ever.
The
year came to a close in early December, with finals in the NASCAR and
T-Jet series. The finals
were very close and action packed.
I ended up on top of both divisions, mostly due to a big head
start over the other drivers, early in the season.
But, the competition had gotten so close, that it was still
possible for someone else to be the champ, up until the last race.
The competion led to great comaraderie, and many new
friendships were made over a beer and a chat about racing.
As
we now enter into season 2, many things have changed. No longer do we
show up for a race with only 1 or 2 people that might take the trip
down victory lane. At
this point, there are 9 or 10 racers, on any given day, that may race
to victory. Also, the
T-Jets have taken over as the favorite form of racing.
This is due, in part, to our exposure to the members of SCHOR
(Southern California H O Racers). These guys have been racing together
for many years, and they are the T-Jet National champs for 2000 and
2001, a title that they earned by winning the Ferndale Fray, the
definitive National T-Jet competition, for the past 2 years.
They’ve sort of ‘taken us under their wing’, as a
fledgling group of enthusiastic racers. Special thanks go out to MILT
SURATT. He is the first of the SCHOR guys that I made contact with,
and has become a good friend…as have many others.
They have been very generous in sharing ‘hop-up’
information with our group, and inviting us to compete in their races.
None of us have managed to get into their finals, yet, but
we’re getting closer each time that we race.
So,
this brings us to the present and our 2002 season, which promises to
be a good one. We will be
starting with a NASCAR race on February 17th…the day of
the Daytona 500. But,
before that, out team will be going up to Ferndale, in early February,
to compete in the ‘Fray’. We’re
taking a well rounded team of dedicated racers, and we hope to end up
somewhere in the middle of the field. This may not seem like a lofty
goal, but since we’ve been racing t-jets for less than a year,
we’ll be happy if we beat anybody!
I
will be updating the website after each race, with the official race
report, and current standings. This
year, we will have at least one new track on the circuit, and
hopefully one or two more before the end of the year. I am sure that
the competition will be intense and the championship will go right
down to the wire. We welcome any new racers around the Los Angeles
area, and welcome emails from any others out there in cyber space who
are interested in H O racing.
To
those of you who may be thinking about H O scale racing as a hobby..DO
IT! You’ll have a
blast.
Take care, and good racing!
