May I say, Firstly,
Thanks So Much Guys for Finally getting what we (I am almost sure), have All perhaps thought / Wished for,.. FINALLY Happening.
Thanks also to All those that Have AND Hopefully Will eventually 'Contribute' to both this 'Thread' and to the collection!!
I am personally strangely 'Bereft' of Any remembrance or knowledge of Either When, How OR Why, I have Not managed to Keep and Hang on to ALL of My Older Slotting Stuff.
I DO have Some Various Fragments from the Very Early Period,.. but as Ever So Happily Now 'Re-Read', in the May 1970 issue,.. Sadly Neither the Chassis OR ANY of my 26D's I was and had been running Quite successfully, in Club Racing, on the Old Super Smooth Wonderful old "10 Lane Flat Track" at what was then, Simply "Waitara Slot Car raceway", (many years prior to it becoming HSC), built by the Owner at the time, Kevin Thurston.
A Truly Wonderfully Nice Person and rather Excellent Cabinet Maker, (the Flat track, was almost billiard table smooth, tricky and very fast), who also 'Gets a Mention' in the Same Issue.
So Have to say, it Was Great FUN,.. Re-Reading of My Very First 'Exploiits' Into the (at the Time, Still Very Fast Paced) 'Crowd' of NSWMRRA Racing
As a bit of a 'Personal' History/Experience rave/story,..
I had (probably, like many) dabbled with Various incarnations of Early Scalextric, but partly through a 'connection' with a part of the company Dad worked for at the time and a Father/Daughter Combo who raced Slot cars Waaay back being as I recall Burt Kynoch and his daughter, whose name I forget.
After my First 'Commercial' Car Purchase, A Lime Metallic Revel 36D Sidewinder type thingemy,.. an 'Elva' ?? Body perhaps?,.. Not sure,.. awful,.. Inexperience perhaps, but on reflection would suggest one could have chosen Better 'Platforms' to have developed,.. lol,.. Like My Friends,.. Testor !!,..
Anyway,.. to cut a typically Long Story Short,... To 'Move Up a Bit' and to help getting some experience of a Much Faster Far Better Handling Car,.. Bert Gave Dad one of their Older Cars to give to me.
Something that I am Sure Steve King would have Loved,..
,.. Being a Very Neatly 'Modified' and arguably 'typical' of current Theory/Practice at the time, it was a Very Nice Modded "Dynamic" Sidewinder" Chassis, with a Hand-Wound & Balanced "Kynoch" 36D , with Light Weight Body Out-riggers and a Dynamic 'Mirage' Body !!
He also gave me my first MRC Controller, which I used,.. for Years !!!
Wow,.. What a blast it was, at the time !!
Relatively quickly and through Kevin actually Recognizing the 'Kynoch' car and chatting with Dad, he suggested if I was interested I should come Club Racing,.... and ,..... so it All began !!,..
That car was soon realized to be (by that time),.. Old Hat/School and Metal and Wire Scratch-Built chassis with smaller Faster motors, were 'The Go'.
There was at the time a Really Amazing and large bunch of guys around Racing Slot cars, with Plenty of Skill and Experience, both at Club level And racing in the early versions of the 'Association', so Learning How to Do 'Stuff', (which at the time you NEEDED to do to actually be Able to Race), was in reality, relatively Easy and there were also Great Commercial magazines available from Overseas and at that stage, their Was ONLY One Class, OPEN's. In effect you could Almost run Anything, as long as it 'fitted' within the Basic Spec's,..
After managing to Build with some help,a Pretty reasonable Chassis to run at Club Level at Waitara and having also Recently gotten Into and Started 'Winding' my Own and at the time Only 'Staticly Balanced' Armatures, initially Only the 26D's Seriously, and had a Number of Good running Motors as well as some End Bell Melting 'Ballistically Stupid' ones as well,.. lol,.. #26's and 27/28 Doubles were good !!,..
and seemingly to be getting Better and doing OK etc, Kevin suggested I should 'Enter' and have a run in the upcoming NSWMRRA Event.
As there was a Vast difference in Age, Number and Skill levels of the Various and Many regular Entrants, there was Now the recently instigated, "Divisions", which Meant the New Comers, like Myself, could All Race and run together, with the Top 2 Drivers in the Lower Division getting a 'Move-Up', into the Lowest Division 2 race and so on, till one Arrived at what were the Pro's,.. in Div' 1.
So it was Great,.. as there was No Way, I could have raced with the Div' 1 guys at the time, when I first started !! Some of those guys Were ,... Quite Awesome !!
Anyway,.. as it turned out, both I and My Car and Motors, Were Competitive and I ended up In the Div' 3 Main,.. Either Leading or running 2nd for All of the Race !!,..
,.. thinking,.. Gee,.. this is a 'Bit o' Allright' etc,.. when,.. the (in those days,.. with HOT 26D's) Inevitable Melted Champion endbell, put an End to My Glorious 'Run', causing me to Drop-Out in the Last Bracket.
It Was as I recall, A Very Close race, against Dudes I had Never met or Raced against,.. in fact the Raceway was Filled with Very Fast and Furous Strangers,.. lol,.. Some,.. as it will be seen, also to become both Close and Very Long term Friends.
This Initial 'Foray' into the World of Serious 'Organised' Slot Car racing, was also my first meeting and interaction with a few people I have since managed to Race with Both then,.. and perhaps amazingly Still / again,.. NOW.
On the Day, I met and seemed to form 'some' kind of 'connection' with Wayne Bramble, Lindsay Byron and somewhat Especially as it would seem to Prove,.. One of My True, Close fiends, Mark Fox !!
So was a rather 'Special' Life Moment for myself at that age !!,..
Plus,.. I MUST Take this Opportunity to 'Gloat' over the Fact, that On This particular Occasion, I Did Actually Manage to Beat Both Mark and Wayne !!,..
I did Make the Move Up to the Div' 2 race and actually Did Start, but was with an Absolute Beast of a Wind, being some Stupidly Low number of turns of #25, that was a Sweet Motor but Not Up to the task of running That hard, for That Long and it similar Destroyed itself close to the end of the First bracket,... Race Over !!,.. lol
All in All A Fantastically enjoyable and Apart from the eventual 'Blow-Ups', (which I kinda figured,... May Happen), I was Chuffed !!
First 'Real' Race With ALL My Own Stuff and Came Home with a Trophy !!!,..
In Fact,.. I Still Have it !!,..
, see below
Such great fun,.. I look forward to reading more "Blasts from the Past"
