Home Racing World

Well it's the weekend and time to enjoy some time off. And with Fathers Day I hope all you great Dads out there have a truly great one.

My Pop was a machinist and worked in the same shop his entire life. He actually started part time before WWII, served in the Navy and returned to the same shop. He eventually ran the operation and showed up for work long after "retirement". The company kept an office for him and when I came home for visits, I had to go there first to find him. Surrounded by the other "old timers" as well as current employees, just chatting it up.

His sense of humor would keep you on your toes and God help the person who tried to figure him out. One he found out he could push their buttons too easily, he would make a typewriter of them. :lol:

He was heavily into model railroading and of all things, fishing lure collecting. Oh, if you think I ever got the chance to USE any of those lures your sadly mistaken. :naughty: Oh no. "Get your own" he said.

He started my hobby like many other parents did. But he did it with his usual craftsman style. I was not going to have any race track on the floor. No way.

The local hardware store was another place he hung out. It was this shop that was also the local model train/slot car dealer. I would go with him and watch as he and others would tinker and build a bazillion boxcars and locos. But it was the Model Motoring track a couple of the others built that had me mesmerized.

So with the help of his crew, a track was built for me. It was a custom road course that sat on carefully trimmed wood. Just like the model railroads had roadbed, so did my track. Very strong and smooth and ready for scenery.

Which the veterans there helped with and boy was it nice. Not sure how many hours I raced on that track, but to give you an idea...it was given to me in 75-76. It was still there and I had a race event with friends the weekend before I left for the Army. Sadly it met its demise when our old house finally took a death blow from Mother Nature.

Years later I took my boys to visit the old farm and digging through the old place they managed to find a few cars. Still have them down here in The SkunkWorks. :auto-checkeredflag:

I was a very lucky boy and as most of you, still remember these times. And this weekend will be fun as I share more stories with my own children.

Hope all of you Dads out there have a great weekend. You deserve a day to be spoiled. I also hope you get some time with your hobby and maybe lucky enough to have family or friends to enjoy it with.

You said it! I salute my Dad, who taught science in the same public school building I went to. I remember him patiently accepting it in spring 1966 when at 13 I told him no, the home 1/32 Scalextric cars we had would be inadequate at the new commercial track down the hill from our house. In those pre-summer-income weeks, he took me to the best local hobby shop in the adjacent "big" city (Utica NY, A&J Hobby, source also for my nitro-laced control-line flying supplies). I picked out the best choice there, a Cox 1/24 Cheetah kit.

By July 8 (a Friday) things had progressed to a Testors Harrison Special which, with higher effective gearing given by a set of taller U-Go blue foam tires, I was able to come out of two rounds of heats, make the final in the first ever weekly race at the Whitesboro Motorama, and finish 5th of 6 cars on the big 220' LeMans track. I spotted my father, a WWII veteran and former heavyweight boxer, smiling between puffs on his Lucky Strike, proud of what he had seen!

My own mostly successful rewinds, Russkit pans, a Competition/Pactra Lotus 30, Pactra swing-arm chassis with Hemi, and my own scratchbuilding would follow, financed by his payment for lawns and being lab gopher in his summer school science classes. Happy Father's Day in the great beyond, Harold Phillips!

Great story Harry. I too was blessed by a great dad. He was a surrogate father to many other kids in my neighborhood who didn't have a dad to help them fix their bike or repair a broken model airplane. He built a wood three lane slot car track into a back room of our house. No fancy mdf for my dad. The surface was recycled 1/4 inch plywood. The slots were cut with a jig saw rather than a router. The puzzle pieces were then attached to framework made of scrap wood brought home from the saw mill were he worked. It had banking that emulated the commercial tracks of the day and an overpass to even out the lap length. Our house became a popular place to be and major hangout for the neighborhood kids. All thanks to my dad.

I am very lucky to be able to spend the weekend with my father, 88th year but still full of life. And yes like many he was the one who got me into the hobby. A machinest by trade and served in the Royal Navy on Her Majestys Torpedo fleet in the North sea and English channel I suppose the British version of the PT boats in the US Navy. Anyway i will celebrate his day with him.
My kids are all off camping for the weekend so my grandsons will celebrate with their dad at the campfire.
As for me , i plan on watching as much of the 24 hrs of Le Mans as i can.
Happy fathers day to you all
Bob

My Dad was born dirt poor 14 brothers and sisters he grew up playing music, hunting and fishing he never got a toy growing up as a kid new shoes was the gift mostly given

When dad turned 17 he got picked to serve apprenticeship at Granite City Steel as a heavy equipment mechanic a year later he got sent to Korea after he was sent home he met my mom and had 5 kids, we had a house in Madison Ill and that was where I started my love of slots, my oldest sisters boyfriend now husband would hit all the local hobby shops every Saturday and race his cars must of been 8 tracks real close back then, I was young so I marshaled mostly lol

My dad thought toys were a waste of time all that man did was work, I swore I would never be like that!

Here I am at 52 get up at 9:30 work in my shop till 11:30 eat, shower go to work till midnight come home work in my shop till 1 or 2 and do it all over.

Thx Dad you taught us well, wish I could of taught you to play

My dad died of cancer when I was in the Army I was 22

My dad loved planes and made models all his life. Stick and tissue when he was a boy. During WWII, he was a C47 pilot. I think he was happy flying something without guns, although he was on the receiving end on many an occasion. He preferred modeling private aircraft rather that military. After the war he finished college and became a safety engineer with one of the big insurance companies. He bought himself an MGA to go to job sites and joined a local sports car club. Because of that, the family would go to different racing events in the Buffalo, NY area on the weekends. Thus arrived the Strombecker set that Christmas and we were then hooked. The family relocated to the Boston area where he was a member of the Patriot Chapter of the IPMS until he passed at the age of 92 still building planes. I inherited all of his model making equipment which blew new life into an old hobby. He would have gotten a kick out of this proxy Racing thing....

My first slot car experience was when my Pop bought my brother (9) and I (7) a Strombecker set about 1965. It came with a dark red Ferrrari Testa Rossa and a light blue Jag D type. I remember he got it with Green Stamps and it came with the Le Mans start track piece. My Pop probably wanted to race it himself. We most likely ruined it racing in the basement and I have no idea where it went when we moved from Baltimore. In the late 60s we built an HO race track with scenery and lights that was built on a platform that slid under the bottom bunk on our bunk beds. My favorite car was a dark green T-Jet car (an Elva?) that I drilled holes in the headlight location and soldered in a wheat bulb for headlights. I really kept track time to a minimum on that car to keep from burning out that light bulb. I remember I called the driver "Matte' Matte' Chocolatte'". Who knows why. Good memories.

Doc, I was an honor to have spent some time there with your Dad. Great memories indeed. Now anytime I see a modern LMP I think about him.