slot racing

I was talking with a fellow modeler in the UK this afternoon and the subject of slot racing came up. It seems that slot racing is alive and well both in the UK but across Europe as well. He sent me a few photos of the club track where he races and that pushed my memory back about 40 years. While I was with Revell I joined a slot racing club ( Inglewood, Ca. ) named MESAC. The letters stood for "miniature electric scale auto club". and SCALE it was. You had to pass a tech inspection before each race to ensure that your car was realistic, driver, all four wheels touching, room for driver and engine, etc. The track was something that had never been seen before and, I suspect, never seen again ( unless it still exists ). the club house was a building about 40 feet square with just enough room to walk around the track configuration. There was, however, an area set aside for working on your creations. There were three different driving stations that were changed each week. There were electronic shunts in the track so that three different race courses could be used, this coupled with the ability to change the direction of the cars gave the club 18 diferent variations to race on. I can guarantee you that no one ever got bored driving a race. The track featured areas of up hill proportions and down hill. Staight-a-ways and chicanes, normal curves and hair-pin curves. It was a real challenge.


Now, to the races themselves: Once in a while we would have a LeMans type race. With drivers racing to their driving stations to start the race. Because we were racing 1/25 scale the 24 hour race in real time was cut down to a more manageable 6 hours. The first two hours were under normal lighting,then 1/2 lighting ( dusk ), for 1 hour. Then all lights were extinguished for two hours and we ran with on-board headlites and tailites. After this timeing ( automatic, I might add ) the lights were brought up to "dawn" and then to full power for the finish of the race.

I might add that any race longer that one hour required a "pit stop". This was accomplished by having shunts in all of the lanes ( four if I remember correctly) . Whenever you wanted to make the mandatory pit stop all you had to do was signal the "contol tower" that you were ready. On coming by the tower would direct your car into the pit area ( 6 volts, then off, for a preset time. When the time was up you had 6 volts in which to enter the racing lanes and continue with the normal 12 volts. You had to be careful here because you were pulling into fast moving lanes.

One last item: The track was totally landscaped. There was not one area that did not have a detail of some sort. Grand stands ( with people ), small buildings still under construction. A restaurant with tables, chairs and people. Grass, trees bushes, etc were seen everywhere. Strombecker used the track in some of their advertising.

bottom line: This was the track ( and club ) considered the ultimate. I have no idea what became of either. It was going strong in 1970 but when I left Southern California I lost track of it.

Bob Paeth

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/480726.aspx

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