Australian Slot Car Racers Association

I got a phone call back from an old friend recently, David Rittie who I have not spoken to for about the last 10 years or so and it was good to hear from him again. Apart from having retired then gone straight into build lightweight aircrafts as his current hobby but as with any who raced in the old days, slot car racing was imbedded so deeply that the brain never stopped and Dave has not lost the talent.

For those not old enough to have seen Dave race, he was a master of building and driving inline cars finishing second to Ian Bannister in the Brabham at G&D at Paramatta in 1969 and winning the Brabham in Wynyard in Tasmania in 1970.

After playing with retro cars for a while, I kept thinking of Dave who was actually good at driving inlines, I always hated them and build sidewinders back in those days but Dave had a good feel and understanding of how these cars went back them. Retro cars are a lot different to the inlines back them, work under very different conditions and have very different traction conditions yet they are similar enough for a person who was good at driving them to get the swng of the differences.

The other person I keep in mind is Ian Bannister who still works for Dawn Trading. At the risk of offending the rest of the world, Bannister was the best driver I have ever seen and I know that from having built his cars for him. Massive attention span coupled with a lot of knowhow and excellent reflexes made Ian the person who could drive a pranged car on a crap lane with lousy power and still get the best out of it for the entire bracket.

If retro or similar ever gets up and going properly I would like to get guys like this back into racing again, even if only casually as they are decent human beings and talented as well.

hutch-- wrote:If retro or similar ever gets up and going properly I would like to get guys like this back into racing again, ....

Maybe if you got them to have a go, it may help things to get going 'properly'. Reverse the thought process.

I remember watching Ian race a few times at Hilsdale, and Rockdale Plaza, and he was awsome, so focused on the car and aware of traffic he rarely deslotted.

There was another young guy named Garry Kee who was pretty good. Anyone remember him?

Eddie and Gary Kee were friends of Ian and Ian went back about 20 years after he retired to drive in a few races for Eddie. The problem is with guys like Dave and Ian that they are no longer geared to build the cars so either myself or some friends would have to build cars for them and even harder, the hand controls as I doubt Dave ever drove with a Ruskit/parma style control. With Ian I am not sure about if he ever drove with the later triggger controls.

The other problem is the racing scene would need to be a bit more reliable in terms of races, publicity and attendance as it is not there yet. You could not reasonably expect guys like this to turn up to a race only to find there was not enough people to race.

Great to hear they are Both around and 'Relatively' well.

You know,..there Was a Time there,..(for a Short while perhaps), that I was under the 'Delusion' that Retro, WAS "Up and Going",..'Properly'!

Perhaps either the Australian or NSW State Titles might be an 'Appropriate' option for them,....

If there is even Anyone actually 'Interested' in Running them by That stage,...