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A story by Mickey Hurtado
Im guessing it was December of 2000 when I read in Car Craft magazine that the old Model Motoring line of slot cars had been reintroduced. I called the local hobby shop as well as a few others and at the local one I found out that in fact they did sell them. Naturally, I ran down to check out the goods. Prior to the trip down, I climbed the ladder into the rafters of my garage where I had stashed one of my prize possessions, my old Model Motoring slot car set. I rummaged through it as memories of running for literally days on end in the basement of the home where I grew up in Lansing, Michigan went through my head. My Uncle Alfie (21 days younger than I) would come over to spend a week or so at a time. He would bring his cars and I would have my cars ready. Although I had considerably more cars than him, he always managed to have at least one car that would be faster than my fastest. Some things never change. I supplied him with most of the good parts which I procured from The Hobby Hub in the Frandor shopping center or the Bike shop which as I recall had a huge 24th scale slot car track. I also mail ordered from The Auto World catalog and received my parts a few weeks later from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
On my first visit to the local hobby shop I met with my now friend, Rob Bowman. One or possibly both of my boys accompanied me and after sizing me up, (determining I was cool) he invited me to race with he and some friends at Scott Dunlaps in Ontario, California. That was no problem. Since I live in the same city. The first Thursday night I missed. I called Scotts number for directions but no one answered since they were all out in the garage. I must have let a few months go by. The next time I was invited, Scott lived in Rancho Cucamonga. By this time I had invested heavily in the little jewels we call tjets. I had purchased probably 10 by then. My first night out at Scotts I was disappointed to find out that the race was run with magnet traction cars. I preferred the slipping and sliding that tjet racing had become known for. I still had a good time. With a borrowed car and controller I held my own. The others determined that I had a good hand with the right controller and car. HO scale racing had come a long way since the days of the tjet, which began in the late 60's.
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