EL Cajon Raceway has closed...

ECR

Slot car tracks are a lot of fun when they're open!  But unfortunately, the one thing that you can eventually expect is that they will have to shut down.  El Cajon Raceway (ECR) has been around for few years as a 24th scale shop, and they only started racing HO in the middle of last year.  But unfortunately at the end of this past April they had to close. So as they say: "Another one bites the dust".  It was fun while it lasted, and Tim the owner had recently installed two very nice custom HO Tracks, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  So all I can say is when you come across a nice slot car shop you should enjoy it, appreciate it, and support it or it probably won't be around for very long.  Nobody expects to get rich running a slot car venue, they're usually doing it out of love of the hobby and a desire to create a solid steady "Racing Scene".  But rent, utilities, and insurance costs money, and unless a shop receives good support from racers, the chances are high that it won't be around very long.

Bowman 4x16

San Diego's Finest, and Fastest...

 

Tim Bunch, Bob Thurman, Leroy Vega, Art Tarver, Tom Snedon and Neil Kuhns.

Not too long ago there was a gathering of some of San Diego's finest, fastest, and okay oldest (LOL) slot racers. This rare group of real fast guys from the gold era of San Diego slot racing got together to trade stories and reminisce about past slot car adventures.  I remember racing Group 20 way back in 73 and 74 with Rene Romero, Bob Johannes, Dennis "Foamy" Hill and all of these guys on the big Engleman at the old Armed Services YMCA in downtown San Diego.  These were the fast guys, and many a weekend they'd jump into a car or two and make the 100+ mile trek up to LA for some real hard-core racing against the slot car legends in Long Beach, LA, and the OC.  It's kinda funny now because I never rode up with them to race way back then (I did go up once see the Can-Am cars at Riverside in 74), but now - many years later I find myself driving to LA almost once a month for that very same reason - except now I'm going to race Super-Fast HO cars with one of their old rivals - John "The Jet" Cukras and batch of other fast HO racers in LA.

Oscar "Big O" Morales - R.I.P.

It is with great sadness that I bring this news.  Our longtime SCHOR racing buddy, Oscar Morales aka: "Big O" and "Bugman" passed away at his home this past Wednesday evening.  Oscar was a true character, a little gruff on the outside, but a genuine friend and a truly nice and very funny man. He grew up slot racing in L.A. and could talk for hours about the cars, tracks, racers and history of both the HO and 24th scale So Cal slot car scene.  He was at the "Big Shot" race just two weeks ago laughing, racing, and having a good time. SCHOR and all of slot racing just won't be the same without him.

R.I.P.  Oscar

RACE RESULTS: BIG SHOT 2 at Buena Park Raceway

If you didn't make it to Mike Low's Big Shot 2 Shootout at Buena Park Raceway last week, then you missed some real fun and fast racing on Mike's AMAZING and all new Brad Bowman built HO track.  It was designed so that it could be placed on top of the 24th scale flat track at BPR.  Here are the results and some pics (for those of you not on the Slotblog). It was a long race day but we definitely had a good time, and I can't wait to race on the BP2 Bowman track again.  A big thank you to Mike Low for putting on such a cool event.

Mike's new and Amazing HO Track 

 

The ironmen (raced every race): Gary Morgan, Glenn Gordon, Dale Yamashita, Mark McVittie, Francis McEntee
Most podiums: Dan Cronin (2), Rick Jocham (2), Gary Morgan (2), Glenn Gordon (2) 
Best HO rookie; Eddie Shorer, 3rd in FrayJet and 5th in Superstock
Best walk up racer (give me a car, any car, and I will drive the heck out of it!#%$?): Alex Freund, 3rd in Superstock
Best slot car raceway; BPR 

...............................................

SCHOR MODIFIED RACE...

...............................................

SCHOR SUPER STOCK Race...

...............................................





Modified Podium 

Super Stock Podium 

Fray Jet Podium

        

Gravity Car Podium

Wow what a long day!
Wow the racing was great, a lot of close dicing.
Thank you to all that supported the race, Debbie and the staff at BPR, all the racers that came and raced.

Mike Low

Cry like a baby, drive like a girl, walk like a man. 
Give me enough rope and I'll build a fast car

SCRRA Racing at BPR

SCHOR Racer and true Slot Car Legend - John "The Jet" Cukras is now running and racing in the SCRRA (Southern Califonia Retro Racing Association).  This is some very cool slot racing that features slot cars based on the "Retro" designs from the hey-day of serious slot racing.  Many of the great old slot racers of those early times have come back out and are building and racing again along with him.  Check out SCRRA, you don't want to miss it. 

Classic Mercedes Streamline Racer

1/24th Carrera 1937 Mercedes

The latest 24th scale Slot Car from John Cukras...

Cukra's -  McLaren Can Am  for D3

John Cukras and I were exchanging emails a few days ago, and right after we completed our discussions about HO slot cars he sent me these cool photos of his latest 24th scale creation that he built last Thursday.

John "The Jet" Cukras - SCHOR's "Legend"

The other day I came across this article on the Slot Car Museum website.  It's about The Legend himself, SCHOR's own - Mr. John Cukras.  A lot of racers (especially younger ones) don't realize it, but John "The Jet" Cukras, our SCHOR buddy who we race with all the time is a true legend in the overall slot car racing world.  Not only did he design the recently released and very popular Tomy/AFX MEGA-G car,  he also designed the original Aurora G-Plus car, and tons of other slotcar stuff.  But he is even more famous in the 24th scale world for kickin' serious butt "back in the day" on slot tracks nationwide.  And for his amazing hand-built chassis and the signature Mura Motors that he developed.

Check it out...

Slot Car Museum

International Slot Car Raceway at the Armed Services YMCA - Downtown San Diego

Probably the most well known and longest standing Slot Car Raceway in the history of San Diego was the big and super-fast 220 Engleman track located in Downtown San Diego at the Armed Services YMCA.   It opened around 1966 and continued to operate into the 1980's.  It was originally known as the "International Raceway Center", but the name was changed around 1971 to "San Diego Model Raceway" when it was taken over by the late Rene' Romero. Rene' was a wonderful and friendly guy who was the ultimate hobbist (slot racing, RC cars, photography and more) and was also a great track owner who kept this raceway going for quite a long time.  Some of the So Cal slot racers who "back in the day" called this track home include: Art Tarver, Dennis "Foamy" Hill, Leroy Vega, Bob Johannes, Tim Bunch, G Morgan, Jaime, and many many others.

Vintage Engleman Track at the San Diego YMCA

Slot Car History : San Diego - 1964 & 1965

=========================================================

Slot racing in San Diego started to take hold in or around 1963 or so.  This copy of the Pacific Telephone Yellow pages is from 1964, but the ads would have designed been ordered the year before. 

Below in the Hobby section we can see that Lee's Hobbycrafts at 54th and El Cajon Boulevard offered a 90 foot track and featured "SLOT CAR RACING" on Friday nights.  I hear that there was also a big Figure 8 track at ToyCo in downtown San Diego on 12th Ave, but there is no ad for that here. 

1.  Lee's Hobbycrafts

1964 Pacific Bell Yellow Pages
  
(click pic for close up)

***************************************************************

In the following year (1965) you can see that there were several more places offering Slot Car Tracks and parts as the hobby began to establish itself. 

So now we have:
 

1.  Al's Speedway on Adam's Avenue in Normal Heights; 

2.  Arch's Hobbies in Hillicrest 

3.  Arch's Hobbies on 54th St and El Cajon Blvd. (they took over Lee's Hobbycraft)

4.  Hal's Bike and Hobby Shop in the Clairemont Quad. 

5.  North Park Hobby Shop on 30th street.

6.  San Diego Model Raceways in La Mesa

1965 Pacific Bell Yellow Pages

(click pics for close up)

***************************************************************

Slot Car History : San Diego - 1966

The year is 1966... 
Slot Car Racing is taking hold all across America - and San Diego is no exception.

Since just last year (1965) an additional 10 Slot car tracks have popped up across the city.
In the telephone books HOBBY SECTION we now also have:

 7.  Hobby Stop Uptown with Slot Racing Supplies

 8.  South Clairemont Model Raceway

 9.  Sunset Cliffs Model Raceway

But there is also now a separate section in the telephone book called
SLOT CAR RACE COURSES, and here we see...

10. Allied Model Car Raceways on Waring Rd.

11. El Cajon Road Runner on East Main

12. Hobbies Unlimited on Euclid

13. Home Model Racing Center Opens with 2 huge tracks

14. International Raceway Center at the Armed Services YMCA

15. Le Mans Miniature has a track at 54th and University

16. Sunset Cliffs Model Raceway in the OB / Pt Loma area.

1966 Pacific Bell Yellow Pages

.