OK all, here are some pix:
First heat line up: left to right: Pete, Glenn, Billy, John





Rob's Sportsman:



John's Sportsman:



Billy's Sportsman - the winner!! And with front tire damage, too! Can you see the custom braces Billy soldered onto the front axle? The braces saved the front axle, but one of the wheels did not survive a crash though!!



The entire field of cars:











[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/sportblazer350/album%202/000_0074.jpg[/img]

Jerry, owner and race director:

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/sportblazer350/album%202/000_0077.jpg[/img]

Carl in the pit area:

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/sportblazer350/album%202/000_0078.jpg[/img]

Pete, Rob, Mike, and Billy (the winner!) in the pit area:

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/sportblazer350/album%202/000_0079.jpg[/img]

The racing was very competitive and a lot of FUN!! Instead of the usual competitive atmosphere, you could hear more laughing and kidding going on during the race! The cars did take somewhat of a beating with their open front ends getting bent when crashed, usually in the deadly hairpin . . . but no one completely lost the front end, and our winner- Billy- broke one of his front tires. His car had a custom-braced front axle, which avoided any damage but left the front tires to bear the brunt of a crash.

All of the cars were basically stock in kit form, so all of the cars were very closely matched. Even with my car being run for 1-2 years now, so the motor was well broken in, Billy and Pete had cars that seemed a bit faster. But that may just be because they are "old pros" when it comes to racing - over 30 years a piece (going on 40 years a piece??). And both Pete and Billy can build and tune a car, as well as race good.

No matter how much skill and experience any of us have, all of us had a great time and the racing was for fun anyway. These cars are just the right speed - not too fast, so they are not a blur, and are a real handful to drive when raced! And we all hope for more out there to be able to make future races.

We had planned on two classes of racing, but there was not enough time to get a second race in. Future races will be as this one: racing starts at 8 pm, shop open for practice from 6-8 pm, third Thursday night of each month.

For me, I am glad that I had an idea that others adopted, and the group voted for, and really enjoyed as much as I did. I also wish to thank Pete for finding me here on this blog, and for resurrecting the Vintage Club at The Race Place. I think this time out we have a real vintage car club, enjoying every single aspect of the hobby. This race was by far the most fun I have ever had with vintage cars! And I had more fun marshalling from the far side of the track, the view from the top of the main straight into the banked turn, where you can see the entire track during the race. Watching you guys race was great! The cars look so cool on the track all together.

And you ask, what could have been even more fun than this? Well, someone said racing all eight lanes at once! We only had seven racers total, so we raced four at a time. Imagine the carnage with all eight lanes going at once! The marshalls will be busy for sure in that race!

Thanks again to all who made the first C.A.R.S. Vintage Club race, to all who purchased and built a car, and we hope to race with more of you next time.
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This was the first formal race for the C.A.R.S. Vintage Club. We meet once a month for an informal gathering to show off our vintage cars, run them on the track, sometimes we do very informal crash and burn races, trade parts, swap stories, share what we know, etc. The club is all about enjoying the vintage era slot cars of all types, and the preservation and restoration of them as well.
So now we also will meet on a second day of each month for those of us who wish to have a more formal race night. Not everyone in the club wants to race, so we decided to keep the club as it is, enjoy the informal meetings, and make an additional night for those who also wish to race. We had a great time racing, as well as all of the good times enjoyed during our regular monthly meets.
Our club has some who are regulars, and every month we enjoy visitors, onlookers from the regular racing crowd downstairs on the main floor (the Flexi and Wing car guys), as well as those new to the club. The track we race on is in a second floor open loft, so we are lucky in several respects: there is all the table space for a pit area, including chairs, that you could ask for; no rental cars allowed upstairs, so we avoid the little new slot car racers with rental tanks that could damage our beloved vintage cars; and we gather on a night (Thursday) which do not have any scheduled races, and we basically have the loft track to ourselves! It is really almost like a private club, and we thank Jerry and his wife for allowing us this time of vintage slot car fun!
If any of you are ever in this area, we would love to meet and greet you. We meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month HERE.