[whimsical music]
- Get down by the fence, you can watch them go by.
[whirrr of electric slot cars]
It's just a cool feeling.
I like loud noises,
especially when it's coming from a hot rod car or something.
? ?
[whirrr of electric slot cars]
Slot car racing has been around for,
I'd say, 30+ years.
['50s style TV cop show music ]
It started back,
I would say the late '40s, early '50s
by guys having motorized cars
that they raced on a track with a hand controller.
[whirrr of electric slot cars]
? ?
Well, we usually try to race once a month on Friday nights.
And again, depending upon weather during the winter time,
we've had four people all the way up to 15.
The track is Tosa Raceway Park.
The table is seven by 14.
Seven feet by fourteen feet.
The track surface itself is six by ten.
[whirrr of electric slot cars]
Every time I redo a track,
I come up with something new to build walls
or come up with a different design of how the pits would be.
The fencing is rain gutter guard.
This fencing right here,
the plastic is vinyl siding that I cut in strips.
It's nice and flexible.
It's easy to bend.
All the lighting on here is LEDs,
which helps a lot.
I mean years ago,
that's all they had was just regular 12 volt.
It was quite training on the power system.
But now,
I can run hundreds of lights with just a single source.
It's like a model railroad,
where you can always add, subtract, build something new.
[whirrrr of electric slot cars]
It's almost like real racing,
where you do let off a little bit in the corner
and hit it again.
[whirrrr of electric slot cars]
Depending upon which track we're on and the car,
sometimes if it handles decently,
you can just keep it pretty well full throttle
all the way through.
[whirrrr]
The cars get wrecked and they're all fixable.
No matter how bad it is, they're all fixable.
And so is the track itself.
[clanking of a crash]
- Give me a push.
[sputtering whirrr]
- Aww man, that's two.
- Well that's why I put them up with Elmer's glue so they break.
I got four sprint cars.
I got 12 jalopies.
And probably eight, eight or nine sportsmans.
And then probably six to seven stock cars.
As you can see in the case,
I have a section for just my dad's stuff.
You know, it's just great.
I mean we built a lot of cars together.
We built a lot of tracks together.
And it's just in memory of him.
After he passed away,
I was bound and determined to keep this thing going.
[whirrrr of electric slot cars]
To this day, I never thought it would be like it is today.
I don't foresee myself getting out of this in the near future.
I mean it'll probably be till the day I die.
But it's just a lot of fun.
And it's fun to build this stuff.
And it's fun to be with everybody that comes over.
Come down here and you think of what you can do next.
It's just...
[whirrrr]
It's just fun.
That's all I can say.