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The Lost Tracks...


axman

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Here's one for the horsepower freaks... The Nundah "pinched" Blue King Noel B helped me run around 1992. BZh3FYb.jpg

 

Kim,

 

Where is Noel....they all have hair? The only guy I recognise is Werner marshalling at the corner on the right?

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

Edited by Springbok Racer

'The older I get the faster I was.'

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Jan, thats not Werner marshalling the corner on the right.. Its me with long hair! But there is a funny story about the guy standing behind me with his back to the camera.

"Cookie" .. a crazy wing car racer... and very good slot car mechanic teamed with MIchael Crimmer for a 12 or 24 hour race at Nundah. Michael painted the concourse winning body and Cookie prepped the chassis. During the raced the car broke a motor mount.. quicker than anyone could believe Cookie soldered the motor back in and had the car back on the track. Astounded that the repair was so fast Michael stopped the car to look at it... Oh nooooo could be heard ( and I'm sure sobbing) Cookie had stuck the soldering iron straight thru the concourse winning body to solder the broken bracket... They never teamed up again...

Edited by axman
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Another track, this time was built to go in a long skinny shop in Beenleigh Queeensland. If you're ever tight for space the "double decker" concept works well. By slightly off-setting the donut it enables the bulk of the track to be pushed up hard against a wall but still give easy marshalling acess.. After Beenleigh closed this track for many years was the "2nd" track at Browns Plains. The main track is one of Garry J's awsome Blue King tracks with eliptical corners. Somewhere on the site there's a post that Browns Plains has just re-opened with new owners and a total refurb... be good to see photo's.

 

lNLW6Pi.jpg

Kim this looks like the track that I had a drive on in '95 when I came up to the Gold coast for a holiday & as you do always throw in a slot car just in case you stumble across a track.

The track was at Ashmore just near Southport,the lovely young lady who worked there was trying to get me to do the corner at the end of the top straight flat.The left side of this track was very similar to my home track at Thirroul,& you coulden't do that one flat,especially with my flexi's with Hershman set ups.

I eventially did it at the end of my time,but I think my eyes were closed waiting for the bang. :blink:

Cheers Jimmy :D

To finsh first,first you gotta finish

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Here's one for the horsepower freaks... The Nundah "pinched" Blue King Noel B helped me run around 1992. BZh3FYb.jpg

 

Kim,

 

Where is Noel....they all have hair? The only guy I recognise is Werner marshalling at the corner on the right?

 

Cheers,

 

Jan

 

A question, Kim;

 

Did you build a duplicate of this pinched BlueKing?

 

The guys who ran Chequered Flag Raceway, at Prospect(top of Launceston) - Steve Johnson(spelling?) and 'Rosco'..? turned up a container with a Blueking they bought from QLD, supposedly after a 'Titles'. This was @'94ish. They replaced a big Englemann they had from you with this Flashtrax King, then proceeded to short term rental setups of the Englemann at the Ferry Terminal at Georgetown.(Seasonally). Finally relocating that track to Hobart, under Woodies Roller World, where it did sterling service for @5 years under Les Fennels management.

 

The Englemann was stored for a while at Phil K's place in Campania, before being on sold to Pete Cherry, who ran it in shortened form back under the Roller World. After a closing of lease, 'Last Hurrah', this track ended up back in Melbourne, went to WA for a holiday, and was then aquired by Pete Van Horsen a few years ago. Pete used to stop in at Les' track when he was in town on other (civil eng. business).

 

The BlueKing , which looked identical to this one, pinch and all,was relocated after a change of Lease. It went, along with the other Launceston short track, onto the second floor of a failed department store on the corner of Charles street in Launceston, where it was the scene of many 12hr enduros; till increasingly unreliable lane circuitry resulted in timing problems, and was blamed(??) for motor failures. It quickly lost favour with clientele, and when the centre closed, was taken over by a local 'gun' racer; Luke Williams. After this it was run sporadically at a locale at the Elphinstone Showgrounds; but with the cyclical demise in slots popularity, dusty conditions, and having to disassemble it to suit the Show management, it went into storage. Not much heard of since, but rumoured to still be in storage, albeit in unknown condition.

 

The track you showed as the upstairs local track in Hobart, was run by Micheal and Sandra Vella, a couple of transplants from Sydney, who had it, both there and in lengthened form at Glenorchy for a good 10 years. I would like 10c in the $ for the money I spent in these 'pits' over the journey. :rolleyes:

Chris

H.M.C.C

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Wow.. good info Chris.. Thanks for the Tasmania connection. Yep, I'd say you had the Nundah King in Tasmania for sure.. To many sleeps ago to remember who bought it. Might have been Steve and Rosco. I dont remember having contact with again so I always wondered where it went. Structurally, it was a good track and because it was braided section by section it was easy to move. It was never a super fast King like one of Garry Johnsons but it was fun to drive and unlike a lot of Kings had a huge following in the lower powered classes like flexi throught grp 12... and no, I never built another one.

The "Engleman" I sent to Tasmania was a bit of a "bastard" version .. looking through my photo's I think I built 3 or 4. like that one. I know I sent an Engleman to Don Haines the Slotcar wholesaler at Cambeltown NSW, ( with a "flat bank") another went to Tuncurry Foster and another up to North Queensland and the one in post # 50 that went to Devonport..

Glad to hear Michael and Sandra Vella kept the business going.. they must be congratulated for re-introducing commercial Slotcar racing to Tasmania in the late 80's. They spent a year researching and had the best business plan I have ever seen for a Slotcar centre. With that business plan they got their finances in order and from what I gather ran quiet a successful centre. I''ve still got a copy of their business planit.. it was so good.

Thanks Chris for helping solve some of the mysteries of "the lost tracks"... It's so good to know that they just kept going and so many Slotcar enthusiasts were able to race on them despite all the moves!

 

* Egleman "bastard versions" I think the one you are referring is somewhere between a Kingleman (King on end Engleman the other) and a true Engleman that has no donut.

 

N7Jn58h.jpg

 

This is an early version of a 1/2 Kingleman 1/2 something else... that might have gone to Tuncurry Foster. In later years we went to MDF fencing. This one has laminated Masonite sides.. nasty stuff to work with. I used to come home looking like a black ant after a day of fencing.

Edited by axman
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bXIowql.jpgA lot of people dont realise how important Dave Smith was to Slotcar racing, especially in the 70's. Dave helped us as both trackowners and racers by breaking the stranglehold of pricing Aussie slotters were forced to pay at the time. On top of that he opened up the supply channels for all the exotic stuff that was just not available and promoted slotcar racing on a level Australia had not experianced before. I remember Dave organising trips for us to the Us Nationals, even visits to the Mura factory and on another trip to the hallowed ground of the Camen "factory" Dave was instrumental in getting track orders for me all over Australia so there was a big connection between the two of us. I recently contacted him and he's sending some archives of Slot pics and articles so hope to print soon. I've only got one of my sketches of the track so hoping some photo's come with Daves parcel. Edited by axman
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qPuYRsm.jpgThis is one of my favourite tracks... Flashtrax at Compton Road Underwood. This track was the main reason for a Slotcar resurgence in Brisbane during the 80's. The "Hillclimb" was a great drivers roadcourse with every possible radius turn. The start line was at the drivers panel and went straight into a huge almost speedway type turn... so every race start was awsome.. As power came on you'de hold your breath as 8 cars blasted round this turn in often perfect formation and then down this long straight... thru the banked turn and then the pack would be heading straight towards the drivers into a very fast flowing donut. From here the track got tricky... all 8 lanes of the 90 degree turn coming onto the top straight had exactly the same 250 mm radius.. (think about that one). How you got thru that turn was critical for a good run down the top straight into a "falling away" banked turn in front of the drivers panel. We ran many big events on this track and a few 24 hours. The other track had a huge Speedway following on Friday nights with Bomber Sedans (with roof wings) and Sprint cars fully "barred out" made from Womps. They were good days... Edited by axman
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  • 2 weeks later...

Who built all those tracks.. ? They seemed to be be mostly "Engleman style" and all had thin ply fences and frame work that looked like the stud wall of a house. ?... I know Martin Davidson had some one buildem cheap and fast... It was'nt a bad thing, it gave, mostly NSW new tracks and new racers.. Also it gave Martin another outlet to sell slotcar stuff. Unfortunately they were mostly "chainsaw" tracks because they had to be cut up when the business closed down. I can remember one day Martin ringing me and lamenting the loss of not just another track but also another Raceway that had'nt paid for their stock... There is a big mystery about what happened to Martin Davidson... one day he just disappeared. that a big story in itself...

Edited by axman
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Thats a very, very deep mystery story with Martin... I always found him a great guy to deal with... but ultimately he became... " The lost Slotcar Wholesaler" :ph34r:

And yes.. he owned Hornsby, and to his Huge credit, kept a Slotcar Centre going when all the wheels were falling of slotcar centres everywhere else. One day he literally just disappeared.

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