Edison, New Jersey - Hundreds of laps were done today and hundreds of non-slot folks got to see some great racing. The first race in the SCX National Series was held to day in Edison, New Jersey. Sixteen racers from around the region came together to race the SCX Nascars in one class and the SCX Pro Audi in the other class.
One of the Kasy Kahen Nascars sweeps through the turns as the driver competes in the Nascar heat race.
The winning Pro Audi (driven by Joseph Rosales who is above in the green shirt) screams down the 40-foot straight away during the first heat race at the beginning of the day's racing.
But I've gotten ahead of myself... the day started with racers showing up for tech inspection. The racers bought hand out motors, an RX42B for the Nascar and the Pro Speed motor for the Audi. The racers also used Slot It S2 tires for the Audi's and Indy Grips for the Nascars. All of these were bought by the drivers before the race and these were installed by tech inspectors to try to keep racing as even as possible. Tech inspection took about 2 1/2 hours. After the cars had the motors and tires installed I got to supervise the 3 laps that each of the racers got to briefly (yes, very briefly) drive their cars to make sure they worked to their liking.After all the cars were inspected then racers congregated around the track, those not racing marshaled in the turns to make sure the racing went as quickly as possible. At the start of the race it was amazing, there were racers and onlookers packed around the track 2 and 3 deep in some places (see the photo below). It was exciting to see the racing and I think it was a bit of a surprise for the people who happened to come to the train show to see things moving...well... just a bit faster than the average HO train.
Below you can see Mario Baskin, a really great guy that I've had the pleasure to race with in Manhattan, who came to this race to try his luck during the racing today. He spent the day (while not racing) in this corner marshaling. And I'm sure he got to do more than his share of answering questions from curious folks who came by the track to see what was going on. I can't tell you how many people I talked with today about slot cars. So many moms and dads with kids on their shoulders got the chance to see these cars circling the track and I can tell you the folks I talked with today were amazed to see slot cars. It's the same old story, show people slot cars, and they love them. Most everyone had slot cars when they were kids (mostly HO it seems) and then they sort of forget they exist. But to see the delight on kids faces when they see the cars flying around is really great.
Here Richard counts up the laps as we figure out who won the races today.So who won? Well, from left, Dave DeMott placed 3rd, Robert Holt placed 4th, Joseph Rosales won and at far right, Sandy Walden placed second.
A few more photos from the day's racing:
A panoramic photo pieced together from 6 different frames to show the whole track we raced on today.
A shot of the racers names on the official race list.
A great guy named Marcus that I met, who was so excited about the race that he made up a shirt...well he sells shirts and he also makes something I think he calls Pit Matts that have a logo for your slot club or favorite photo. He's promised that when he has a website up and running that he'll send me the link so I can show everyone what he makes.
This is how the motors were shipped to me. I don't know if anyone else finds this interesting but I thought it was sort of funny to see slot car motors all packed up like some kind of prepackaged food.
Racers and marshals concentrate on the action early during today's racing.
And while the "serious" racing was going on, there was plenty of action on an SCX digital demo track where young slotters got the chance to take some laps around the large layout. I think it's plain to see they had fun too.
So there you have it. A great day, lots of fun, and oh yeah... since the NJSlots club got 11 of their racers at the Regional race today they won an SCX 10100 digital set! The set was donated by SCX and Great Traditions Hobby.Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Cars Blog
