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My name is Stumpy Stone from Eastern Ohio and I'm new to this forum. I started slot car racing in 1961 with an Aurora "vibrator" set, advanced to a Strombecker 1/32 scale set in 1963, and then started racing on local hobby shop tracks in 1/24 scale in 1965. I got a chance to drive a Stock Car at the local dirt track in 1967 (a '39 Ford coupe that was getting real tired) and raced slot cars in winter. The real race cars took more and more time and money and I got away from slots after 1971. I finished my last season as a driver at the end of 1973 and became an official, then flagman, and then announcer. I worked different speedways over the years and spent 30 years with the AARA a vintage oval racing group as well. I retired from announcing after 39 years.

In 1977 I bought an Ideal TCR set and it was so neat that I bought another one. This lasted until I bought my first radio control car (a Bolink) later the same year. Stuck with that for twelve years. I returned to slot car with 1/32 scale in 1999 and raced them though 2006. I got back into HO T-jet and AFX racing with two clubs in 2009 and have done that ever since. In mid-2013, while recovering from five way heart bypass surgery, I "rediscovered" slotless racing, starting with some old Tyco TCR stuff and a few pieces of Aurora Speedsteer. That interest has grown since then and I really get a kick out this unique form of "vintage" racing. I was racing at Tom Delauder's Monkey Wrench Speedway this past Saturday and it was suggested that I should get on Home Racing World. So here I am!

By the way, are there any other slotless racing fans around?

Terry "Stumpy" Stone Martins Ferry, Ohio (a very young 65 years old) :banana-dance:

Stumpy! Great to see you here!
Saturday at Gonegonzo's (Tom Delauder) was definitely a good time!
I have never had an opportunity to race the vintage slotless cars - but would definitely be interested in seeing pics and hearing more detail! :D
Again - welcome aboard!
:handgestures-thumbup:

:text-welcomewave:
nice to see you on board
I am also new on this forum and I am already finding it great

Welcome Stumpy.

I had a TCR set myself. I only have a small door sized regular oval now, but get out the small ones once in awhile.

Hey Stumpy, I know you ....from elsewhere ;) Welcome to HRW, the folks don't fight much here :lol:

I love it when somebody comes in and tells their slot car history. You and I are about the same age and our slot car history is very similar. Its remarkable how many of us "old heads" are around and telling the same stories.

Welcome to HRW. Your friends were right, this is the place.

Todd...Yeah, racing at Monkey Wrench is usually lots of fun! Sorry about the problems with classes Saturday. I made up a special website when Tom and I created the Outlaw Modifieds a couple of years ago which explains what we were up to and the rules for the different classes. You can find that at: http://hovalracing.weebly.com .

There are two places you can check out slotless HO racing. The real expert is Dan at http://www.tycotcrracing.com , but you can also check out my website about these cars at http://slotless.weebly.com . Slotless HO racing is different from the modern "digital" lane changing slot cars. Slotless cars can change lanes anywhere on the track, not just at a lane changing section. Unfortunately, they appeared about the same time that radio controlled race cars started to become popular, so slotless' popularity was short lived.

If you go to page five of my Slotless website and scroll down you can see a photo of what can happen to a damaged Aurora Speedsteer semi when I start using my imagination! It handles like a regular car on the slotless track! Aurora's AFX and the Speedsteer variation were the originals that Auto World copied for their X-Traction Racing Rigs line. Most of the bodies are interchangeable.

Stumpy in Ahia :character-oldtimer:

Let me see if I can answer several posts at one time..... I think one possible reason there are so many "old heads" in slot car racing is that in our "senior" years we are recapturing the past. I can tell y'all that at my age, I feel things that I never did when I was young. Heck, there are some mornings that I get out of bed stiff and hurting. I sure didn't feel like this when I was 25! Much as I'd love to climb back in a race car, pounding around a dirt track would make it damn hard to get out of bed the next morning. And that's if I didn't get into a nasty tangle! But I can still race the heck out of the little cars! :banana-dance:

As for photos, I didn't have time to take pictures! Heck, every minute I wasn't working two or three jobs, I was working on the damn race car. The extra jobs had to be worked to pay for my racing. A little later on I started to get "rides" in other goy's cars and it got a tad easier. As a racer from the thirties told me at a vintage meet some years ago: "Take pictures? Hell son, we were too busy doin' it!" I understood completely.

The stories I could tell? Well I suppose that would take a book, and I've probably forgotten a bunch of them. When you get to this age, your brain works like a huge hard drive trying to be accessed by a really slow processer. That's why ! quit announcing at the end of 2012. I just couldn't come up with some things spur of the moment, but would recall them two minutes later. When you're the so called "expert" that the crowd are listening to, you don't have time to stumble and still do a good job. Of course, I can still write (and do a lot) because nobody sees you sit blankly at the computer until you remember a word or name. They read it straight through and never know! :D

By the way, Smokey Yunick was one of my heroes. That looks like a photo of him at Indy in the sixties. Good choice for an icon!

Well, I gotta' get off. Got to get up early and go to the hospital for lab work at 7AM tomorrow. Race carefully y'all!

Stumpy in Ahia :character-oldtimer:

Stumpy ,

Welcome to HRW . I've been on here for years and you can find it wealth of HO slot car information here . If nobody has an answer , there is usually someone who will beat the bushes to find it .

I'm glad you had a good time Saturday as well .

Tom D / aka Gonzo

Welcome! Another stone in the house..... There goes the neighborhood!!