MMmMy father was a Naval Aviator during WWII, had a "hopped up" '34 Ford roadster after the war, and was a professional model builder for a structural design firm for several years. My grandfather was an auto racer during the Great Depression and for a few years after the war. There was little doubt that I would follow both as I grew up. I built models as a kid, raced slot cars, and then graduated to real Stock Car racing and Hot Rod building. For the most part, my "day jobs" were much less exciting.
I raced real Stock Cars during the summer, and did slot cars and a LOT of model railroading and other model building in the winters. I ended my race driving "career" at the end of the 1973 season and moved to being a pit official, flagman, and fill in announcer. I also started building Street Rods in the winter of '73. I had started doing a little race and car show announcing in 1972 and promoted drag races and car shows. I got married in '76 and in '77 moved to the announcer's postion full time at the local speedway and did fill in work at other tracks. In 1983 I became the announcer for AARA vintage open wheel touring group as well. I was a racing announcer, historian, and writer until retiring from racing at the end of the 2012 season after 39 years behind the microphone.
Real racing was great, but the winters were long. In the late 1970's I discovered "slotless" HO racing when I bought an Ideal Toy "TCR" set. TCR stands for "Total Control Racing" and it was as close as you could come with model cars in those days. This was a new departure from typical slot car racing, and with the Jam Car was even more fun. I quickly bought a second set. But eventually cars and parts got hard to come by, and like many others at the time, I moved to the even more realistic Radio Controlled car racing.
In the Fall of 2013, while recovering from five artery heart bypass surgery, I ran across reference to TCR racing on the Hobby Talk forum. I had returned to slot car racing several times after hanging up my crash helmet, but until that point I had figured that "slotless" racing was long dead, never to return. This discovery began a months long research into what had happened since the late seventies. A few weeks into this research, I was directed to "Slot Car Dan's" extensive and very informative TCR website at; www.tycotcrracing.com . If you're interested in anything slotless, I advise you to check that site out! Dan is VERY knowledgeable and helpful. Without his guidance, I'd still be stumbling around figuring out these things!
On the strength of what I absorbed on his website, I began to collect mostly the later Tyco TCR slotless cars, track, and controls. I put the word out among my friends who I race T-jets with, visited a few shows, checked out eBay, and a couple of websites. And before long a somewhat motley collection of used stuff and few nice items began to grow. Eventually because they were so similar, I added the old Aurora Speedsteer cars to the pile. By adding width to the Speedsteer front bumper, these cars will run on my Tyco TCR track with no other modifications required. I have not gotten into any other brand of slotless cars so far.
At this point, I am "negotiating" with the wife for more "real estate" to build a bigger track, possibly a road course. Other ideas wil be looked into in the future added here as well. ...Stumpy
y grandfather was an auto ra
I raced real Stock Cars during the summer, and did slot cars and a LOT of model railroading and other model building in the winters. I ended my race driving "career" at the end of the 1973 season and moved to being a pit official, flagman, and fill in announcer. I also started building Street Rods in the winter of '73. I had started doing a little race and car show announcing in 1972 and promoted drag races and car shows. I got married in '76 and in '77 moved to the announcer's postion full time at the local speedway and did fill in work at other tracks. In 1983 I became the announcer for AARA vintage open wheel touring group as well. I was a racing announcer, historian, and writer until retiring from racing at the end of the 2012 season after 39 years behind the microphone.
Real racing was great, but the winters were long. In the late 1970's I discovered "slotless" HO racing when I bought an Ideal Toy "TCR" set. TCR stands for "Total Control Racing" and it was as close as you could come with model cars in those days. This was a new departure from typical slot car racing, and with the Jam Car was even more fun. I quickly bought a second set. But eventually cars and parts got hard to come by, and like many others at the time, I moved to the even more realistic Radio Controlled car racing.
In the Fall of 2013, while recovering from five artery heart bypass surgery, I ran across reference to TCR racing on the Hobby Talk forum. I had returned to slot car racing several times after hanging up my crash helmet, but until that point I had figured that "slotless" racing was long dead, never to return. This discovery began a months long research into what had happened since the late seventies. A few weeks into this research, I was directed to "Slot Car Dan's" extensive and very informative TCR website at; www.tycotcrracing.com . If you're interested in anything slotless, I advise you to check that site out! Dan is VERY knowledgeable and helpful. Without his guidance, I'd still be stumbling around figuring out these things!
On the strength of what I absorbed on his website, I began to collect mostly the later Tyco TCR slotless cars, track, and controls. I put the word out among my friends who I race T-jets with, visited a few shows, checked out eBay, and a couple of websites. And before long a somewhat motley collection of used stuff and few nice items began to grow. Eventually because they were so similar, I added the old Aurora Speedsteer cars to the pile. By adding width to the Speedsteer front bumper, these cars will run on my Tyco TCR track with no other modifications required. I have not gotten into any other brand of slotless cars so far.
At this point, I am "negotiating" with the wife for more "real estate" to build a bigger track, possibly a road course. Other ideas wil be looked into in the future added here as well. ...Stumpy
y grandfather was an auto ra
As an old Stock Car driver who had moved behind the microphone as an announcer, I got the opportunity some years ago to try a vintage Sprint Car at an Antique Auto Racing Association event in Washington Courthouse, Ohio.
The car was much different from the Stock Cars I had driven and I had to learn a new way of driving. For instance, that chrome bicycle pump beside my left arm on the side of the car is the fuel pump! As you went around the track, you had to give it a couple of strokes on the backstretch every lap to force air into the top of the tank (in the tail right behind the seat) to push fuel to the multiple carburetors! There was a Fuel Pressure gauge on the instrument panel, but you didn't have time to look at it!
The car was much different from the Stock Cars I had driven and I had to learn a new way of driving. For instance, that chrome bicycle pump beside my left arm on the side of the car is the fuel pump! As you went around the track, you had to give it a couple of strokes on the backstretch every lap to force air into the top of the tank (in the tail right behind the seat) to push fuel to the multiple carburetors! There was a Fuel Pressure gauge on the instrument panel, but you didn't have time to look at it!
As with modern Sprint Cars, this 1947 built car has to be push started. The fellow walking beside the car is it's owner Don Anderson of Tipp City, Ohio, and I don't know who is more nervous, him or me! The Pushmobile, which I also drove at times, is owned and driven by Hugh Burton of Orrville, Ohio.
This car raced and won at Winchester, Salem, and Dayton's high banked speedways as well as Fort Wayne and many others in it's heyday, but it wasn't going to go nearly that fast this day! The alcohol fueled Mercury Flathead V-8 had plenty of power, but with those tall, narrow wire wheels and no rollcage over my head, and on a very loose dirt track, I wasn't about to see how fast it would go. Just keeping up with the other cars was thrill enough!
This car raced and won at Winchester, Salem, and Dayton's high banked speedways as well as Fort Wayne and many others in it's heyday, but it wasn't going to go nearly that fast this day! The alcohol fueled Mercury Flathead V-8 had plenty of power, but with those tall, narrow wire wheels and no rollcage over my head, and on a very loose dirt track, I wasn't about to see how fast it would go. Just keeping up with the other cars was thrill enough!