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| August, 2003 - Next time, I'm shipping my stuff. I left for Butler, PA on Saturday morning - my flight was scheduled for 6:05 a.m. I got to Denver International Airport (DIA) early enough, but it wouldn't of mattered if I was late anyway. My slot car potions, lotions, tools & gizmos were just too much for DIA security to let by! I had planned on finishing up my Outlaw Drag Car in my room once I hit Butler, so I brought A LOT of stuff with me... The spools of wire, gauges, magnets, pounds of tools and multiple bottles of liquids somehow drew the close attention of security! Security proceeded to rifle through my slot car stuff for about 45 minutes! Needless to say, I missed my flight. Just an inconvenience really, as I was on a flight 3 hours later, but a hassle nonetheless. Proof positive that the effects of terrorism are widespread... One gripe I do have is that their repacking of my 'stuff' resulted in the breakage of my camera, where the additional lenses go on. The lenses still fit on nice & tight, but I don't think I have any recourse...? Bummin'. I finally got into Butler at about 9 p.m. Denver Time. I had to fly into St. Louis on a big jet, then wait a bit and fly into Pittsburgh on a 44 seat commuter plane. Here's a cool picture I snapped out the window of the commuter plane, somewhere over Missouri: I love flying just above the cloud layer - some very interesting views from there ;-) Anyway, like I mentioned, I got into Butler at about 9 p.m. Saturday, with Show & Races cranking up the next morning. My Outlaw Armature was wound, but I still needed to Balance & Epoxy the Commutator Plate, as well as finish the other 3 cars I planned on running. I had thought about making the trip out to Butler since the event was announced, but had only made my reservations the Tuesday before, so I definitely wasn't prepared! I overnighted parts from Neil's Wheels and BSRT (Thanks to Neil and to Gary's folks - Scale was shut down for a week, so I got my order in last minute - everything arrived as promised from both vendors!). I was literally putting untested cars together the night before the race! TIP: Don't Drink when Building Slot Cars in Hotel Rooms! A few hours & Coors Lights later, here's what my room began to look like: This is only what was on the table (the table got much worse). One of the beds in my room was a mess of little parts tubes, chemicals, cellophane wrappers, tools and a pizza - you get the idea... By the way, that's Clint Eastwood riding up on the TV (High Plains Drifter) - it was 'Clint Night' on AMC - perfect! The cars I prepped (blindly, with no track) were a Factory Stock TJet (Willys), Factory Stock Inline (Super G with a 240Z Body), Pro-Door Slammer (BSRT G3 Inline with completely 'off the shelf' parts) and my Outlaw TJet ('36 Ford Coupe Eldon body). It took almost 3 Westerns to complete them. My only saving grace was the Time Zone change - I got done at about 2+ a.m. Butler time, which was 'only' Midnight+ for me (Denver time)... I kept waiting for someone to knock on my door about the noise. I was 'hogging out' my 'Door Slammer' till 2 a.m. with the Dremel - oops! I woke up a little late. After scraping dried epoxy and solder off the table in my room, I slammed a small pot of coffee and got down to the show at about 9 a.m. There was Rocky 'NewbombTurk' Marciano, passing out tickets and pressing the flesh. I don't think Rocky really expected me to show up! He was so freaked out he jumped up and actually gave me a hug! Just don't ask him to sing 'Volare!' without a nose plug handy! ;-) Honestly, Rocky is a great event host - he made sure everyone had the best time possible! Anyway, I got my ticket & hand stamp and made my way into the show. I had heard attendance might be down a little this year, but it looked busy enough to me - four long rows of tables were completely covered by vendors and it was shoulder-to-shoulder to get a glimpse of what they had... Everyone seemed like they were having a great time, chatting up slot cars, sharing stories of collecting & racing... just what I would of expected! Rocky introduced me to a few folks, including Joe Murray. Joe is one of H.O.D.R.A.'s main gears, supplying the Super Nice Routed Formica Drag Strip every year for all to race on. Complete with Standard & Sportsman Tree Lighting & Trackmate Timing, Joe has really done a number on making it what has to be one of the nicest Drag Strips in the country - AND it's Portable! More on that later... Now, being from Colorado, I don't get the opportunity (like a lot of you do) to get to shows too often. Seeing the (scale) 'miles and miles' of HO Slot Cars was awesome! So many to look over! I got to see many old cars that I've been thinking of adding to my collection up close & personal, as opposed to just some picture on eBay! There goes the kids' college money - again! ;-) Cool old Tyco's, Lionel's, Atlas and of course, Aurora classics. Here's just a few pic's of what was there: Here's a great "Bucket o' Fallers" - I tried to grab business cards from everyone and jot down which pic's belonged to who, but I missed a few. If this is your collection, drop me a note - I'll put 'Your Name Here...' ;-) I love the VW Kombi Bus! Some of these were 'Pre-TJet' original 'Faller Style' chassis's... Above is another nice collection, some decent trucks and you can see a Tan Station Wagon on the upper right. All of these were in real nice shape... Above is a great condition Atlas set - jeez the artwork on the vintage boxes is AWESOME! I snapped some good shots of the art from some of the boxes - look for them in the Galleries section of this site soon... This one is a little blurry, but another great example of a nice, collectible Atlas set... Here's a shot of the display case from Kevin Crowe (hiding behind the case). His outfit, 'The Winning Edge' makes some AMAZING and innovative tools for Serious (obsessive?) TJet Racers... How serious? At the top of the photo is Kevin's Dial Indicator Based Chassis Setup System! This $118 masterpiece will test for gear wobble, chassis straightness, axle run out, commutator straightness and more. I was so impressed, I had to have one! I actually bought a few of Kevin's tools - all are impressively machined, with incredible attention to detail, then gold anodized. His instruction manuals are well written too! I'm looking forward to building ALL of my TJets, Road & Drag, to a new level of exacting tolerances in the months to come! Even picking out quality V.H.O.R.S. armatures will be easier with this setup. Look for a performance based review of Kevin's Chassis Indicating System in the coming weeks... ;-) Unfortunately, there's a lot of photos from the event which will never make it to the site, there's just too much to go through! But here's some more 'show shots'... This very cool diorama was on the concours' table! I must of spent a solid 5 minutes marveling at it... Some of the cars in the 'Junkyard' weren't junk at all! Here's a close-up, well as close as I could get without glare... Hey, is that my '36 Ford Outlaw in the upper right? Nah, one burned armature isn't enough reason to call the wrecker just yet... ;-) Not the best photo (Eric just moves too fast!) but here's Eric 'Gump' Wulfecotte (counting my money?) and Alan Galinko (explaining something to someone...). I get the feeling these 2 guys are a fixture at shows throughout the east... Eric has some very slick 'Gump's Runners' Slimlines with a nifty NEO magnet setup that probably make them amongst the fastest Slimlines available! Above is one of the nice display cases that Bill Houck from Maryland Miniatures had at the show. Check out the turquoise Lionel, two cars over from the VW bus... At first I thought it was a '65-'66 Ford Galaxie. Here's a close-up. Oops - turns out it was a nice example of a Pontiac Bonneville! (at least I think that's what it was...?) This vintage Lionel had the turn-able front wheels and rear guide pin - the chassis model escapes me at the moment... This little 'Row of Three' will set you back a few Ben Franklins! ;-) Here's a few more of Bill's cars including an Olive Thunderbird. I like this shot - just a nice selection of TJets. There's even a few T-Bikes in the back! Needless to say, Bill's cases were a little lighter for his drive back home ;-) I didn't ask around, but it looked like most vendors had sold quite a few cars & parts by days end - of course that means a few collectors & racers must of gotten some good deals & filled some holes in their own personal collections! Ok, last page of 'show shots'... I'll go through my photos and add another page or two at a later date. A little fuzzy, but it's always nice to see original Aurora display cases & such - keep in mind, I'm 'stuck' in Colorado so I don't get to see this stuff too often! You Eastern & Southern guys probably all own one of these! ;-) I hadn't seen a Tyrell Elf in a few years... I keep buying race tools & parts; I need to buy more cars and a display case... Nice custom modified from Jim Hoar over at Sebago Speedway. As a boy growing up in Connecticut, my dad used to bring us over to Danbury to watch the modifieds run - this one looks just like I remember them! Jim also had some interesting & award winning 'Hot Wheels' conversions (numbers 3 & 11), but this picture doesn't do them justice - also too fuzzy. Another great modified on the left. Well, that's it for my little 'show' show. There were plenty of folks present, sorry if I missed you. Check H.O.D.R.A. for the complete vendor list if interested. OK, Race Time! I think I sent email to Rocky on a Tuesday, letting him know I was going to fly out. I mentioned that I was just going to come watch and meet some folks - bringing no cars with me. He replied back that I should bring a Factory Stock TJet & Inline just to participate. Ok. Well, you know how these things go, it took me about 12 hours to figure out that if I Blue Labeled this and Red Labeled that, I might have enough time to build some more cars. Next thing you know, you're building them the night before the race! I love Slot Cars - I've never lost a race and felt bad about it, or got angry over it. I mean just getting out there and racing is the best part of all! ;-) Racing was scheduled to get underway at 2:00 p.m., but I think we started a little late. I had spent most of the night and a good part of the morning focusing on finishing my Outlaw TJet car, which ended up not seeing a single run! More on that in a bit... After running up & down the stairs all morning, gluing and epoxying, my now infamous 'room table' was back in full swing. It was again covered in parts and now sticky from 1 part of my 2 part epoxy ;-) Finally everything was set up, so I put my racers in an Arturo Fuente cigar box (remember, I'm traveling!) and headed down. Joe, Rocky and John Lancaster had pretty much finished setting up the track. If you're hitting us by modem, sorry about the load time on the picture - but it's a big tree! The H.O.D.R.A. track was built by Joe Murray and has 'real' drag features, like Pre-Staging lights, Red lights, etc. It also supports both traditional and sportsman sequencing of the lights - sweet! This wasn't my first time Drag Racing, but it was my first H.O.D.R.A. event in the land of H.O.D.R.A., so doing everything 'The HODRA way' was a little new to me... Rocky (in Orange) and Joe called for the various cars to be tech'ed. This took about 30-40 minutes. The two black objects on the table are Jewelers Loupes... The tech'ing was rigorous, with wires on EVERY 'Factory Stock Class' car being meticulously checked for evidence of de-winding. A few cars were sent 'back to the trailers' (no names will be mentioned!) for a variety of reasons. The 'Pro Door Slammer' class was almost halfed after tech due to ohm values not meeting minimums. My 'Door Slammer' was a BSRT G3 with one of Bob Armstrong's Nu-Racer Camino bodies. The Nu-Rora Camino and Mustang kits are pretty detailed, I really felt bad grinding the rear wheel wells 'all to hell' just to fit my .490 Wizzards under it! I used an 'off the shelf' BSRT 'Green Wire' arm which I got from Neils Wheels - it ohm'ed at 3.5 so I made it though tech just fine ;-) A little fuzzy, but there's my Door Slammer. I didn't get a chance to paint it or really do much of anything with the body before traveling. Alan took one look at it and says 'if only that Nu-Rora guy could see what you did to his Camino!' He was right - if the wheel wells were any larger the back of the Camino would fall off onto the track! Sorry Robert! ;-) Fact is, the only car I had any real hopes for was my Outlaw TJet which turned into a total misadventure - but hey, it's all about having fun anyway! I'll come back to my Outlaw in a moment... Here was the lineup of racers for the Factory Stock TJet Class. See the one without the wheelie bars? Yep - that's mine! Willys Sans Wheelies! All I really did was 'tweak' a brand new NOS chassis and throw a body on it - I just wanted to enter something. Well, I guess most of the guys noticed during tech that when I built the car the night before in my room, I neglected to oil it!! Does anyone mention it to me - Nooooooo! They let me launch it instead!! Staging light lit... Amber, Amber, Amber, Green! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL! Oops. I don't think I have EVER seen a TJet move slower - even a cranky old Vibe would of blown it away! After a good many laughs and a few drops of oil later, the Willys finally, quietly and unspectacularly made it down the track. Factory Stock. As it turned out, Wheelie bars were not only not included, they were never needed! ;-) All of the other cars ran very smoothly with no glitches. Figures! ;-) Next up were the Factory Stock Inlines (FS/I). Like the FS TJets, just about anyone can run this class. Patriot & Panthers (I think) aren't allowed, but any GPlus (or superceding variant), Tyco, Lifelike, etc. can race here. My choice was a Super G Plus... Always Aurora! I bought a nice 240Z MagnaTraction (just for the body) earlier in the day for this class. The body was a little hashed up, with 'just about to snap posts' on it, so I figured grinding it to fit the SG+ chassis would be ok. You know, every time some goof like me grinds another Aurora 240Z, the value of yours increases! I digress... Here's a few of the cars from the FS/I lineup. Knowing that we were drag racing made me think about whether the Z was a good body choice. I know it's always supposed to be about speed, but I like the 'Vintage American Drag' look when it comes to Drag Racing. The Vette had it, my Z did not. I mean, would someone really really Drag Race a Ford 'J'? Savvy? Oops, spoke too soon! Not sure what was going on here, but the picture was in my camera! Apologies to whomever this car belongs to! ;-) By the way, it almost looks like someone is throwing the car down the track - I must remember that for my Willys next year... The front row above represents all the Door Slammers that could pass tech. Out of the 9 or so cars that went to the table for tech, only 3 survived - 2 Lexans and me with a heavy hardbody! Rocky explained to all watching that the Magnet cars had to be stored on their sides while waiting for track time, so as not to create a flat spot on the silicone sponge tires. Something struck a chord, because everyone kept jokingly repeating it back to Rocky for the remainder of the day. When men (overgrown kids) get together, sometimes the goofiest things can become running jokes - I know you know what I mean ;-) What's even stranger is when those dumb things just keep getting funnier and funnier every time they're repeated... It's got to be that new math! The two cars in the back row are Outlaw TJets. Here are the rails that were present from the Top Fuel Class. I believe the Yellow Pennzoil was Joe Murrays, the Red Rail was Rocky's and the Top Fueler at the end was John Lancasters - someone email me if I got it wrong ;-) The rails are great to look at and even more fun to watch screaming down the track! The details on Joes Yellow Monster give this rail a nice touch of realism... John Lancaster's rail was equally nice, but for different reasons. A lack of decals but intricate engine give this Top Fueler a nice clean, even sleek appearance. These two ended the day going heads up for the trophy... If I remember correctly, Rocky's rail (like my Outlaw) was plagued by electrical troubles early on... Into everyone's life, a little rain must fall... When it comes to the factory stock classes, things always go easy. Once you start milking your little 4 wheeled cow for every bit of milk it'll produce, things get kinda, well, funny. The Super Pro Funny Car Class looked promising - well, that is until Rocky hit the track: There is definitely something to be said for a full grown man crawling around on the floor looking for his engine! Been there, done that! ;-) Seriously - this was a sweet looker that got just a little too hairy before the shutdown - airborne is more like it! To Rocky's credit, this little Patriot inline bruiser hit a best of 80 MPH before re-entry into earths atmosphere. Bob Lincoln would be proud! By the way, Joe Murray's Drag Track is really nice - the fact that he created it as a show stopping portable only adds my overall appreciation of the design. Overhead lighting at every optical trigger and a solid, stackable, storable design. For as much portable action as this track has seen, the racing surface is still like new.... Anyhow - I think Rocky smacked the edge of an upright as he screamed through the traps, sending him airborne. I'm sure he'll let me know if I have confused the details... Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not picking on Rocky in the least... After all, misery loves company! Above, perched on a cigar box, bear witness to 20 hours of work in the form of my Outlaw TJet! I scrambled, lost sleep and worked up to the very last moment with the goal if getting just one run in. One. Just One. The 15 ohm resistor in my Parma must of suffered a hit during travel. The 'orange stuff' on the back side of the resistor turned to powder on one end leading to a short. So when I placed my Outlaw onto the track it was at full throttle! The only trouble is that instead of spinning, the arm jammed... POOF! Back to the trailer. Actually, I think it was kind of funny - I have been joking about building a Road Flare for days - mostly because my recent rewinds had been working really well... I must always remember: NEVER TAUNT THE TJET GODS! ;-) The damage was actually pretty minimal - the wire fried, but the chassis went un-melted. Here's a pic of my custom wound Johnny Lightning 5 Laminate .35 ohm arm, post toastie: Note the fine craftsmanship, the way each wrap lays gently next to it's neighbor in perfect parallel harmony - the deliberate sanding and shaping of each lam end... Notice the foul smelling burn of 31 gauge double resin wire and 5 minute epoxy - eeeesh! One of the kids at the track smiled at me and says 'it smells like stinky fish'. Thanks kid! High hopes and hard work dashed in an instant! Man, I love slot cars - back to my favorite chair, right in front of my drawing board... ;-) There's always next year! Well, almost at the end. Results were posted at the H.O.D.R.A. site first, so I don't think anyone will mind if I repost them... -Results- Factory Stock T-Jet WINNER Alan Galinko 12.32mph 1.584 et New H.O.D.R.A. National Record 2nd Place Joe Murray 7.24 mph 1.097 et Factory Stock Inline WINNER John Kaufman 20.22mph .793 et (Chassis of Choice: Super G+) 2nd Place Joe Murray 24.36 mph (R.L.) .726 et (Chassis of Choice: Super G+) Pro Door Slammer WINNER Joe Murray 38.41mph .494 et 2nd Place John Lancaster 37.47 mph .518 et Super Pro Funny Car WINNER Eric "Gump" Wulfecotte 67.26 mph .304 et 2nd Place Rocky Marciano 78.34 mph .287 et (late leave) Top Fuel Rail Dragster WINNER Joe Murray 68.32 mph .308 et 2nd Place John Lancaster 52.02 mph .380 et Outlaw T-Jet WINNER Alan Galinko 72.95 mph .310 et New H.O.D.R.A. National Record 2nd Place John Lancaster 27.41 mph .640 et Other... Alan Galinko Low ET for Pro Doorslammer @ .262 Rocky Marciano Top MPH 80.71 mph in SP/FC What's that? Is that MY NAME UP THERE?? Sort of... I won in the FS/I Class, but only because John Lancaster Red Lighted. I sort of feel bad for John because he has been an attending member for years and I show up and win by a 'default' - BUT - I'll take that dang trophy! ;-) It's a proud reminder of my great trip to Butler! My only Slot Trophy! I put it right above my Slot workbench, so I look at it often ;-) John L., No Hard Feelings I Hope! Ok - here's another photo; Above you'll see Rocky's Enormous Box! I mean this thing is Comically HUGE! This photo doesn't do it justice - no kidding, when this box is open it must be almost 3' wide and over 3' tall. I had to stand on a chair just to get this shot! I swear you could almost store a Yugo in it! Of course you'd have to find a Yugo first... Here's a little diddy I snapped just outside of Cranberry, on my way to the Pittsburgh Airport. I like to take a scenic shot or two whenever I travel just to remind me what it was like on a given day. Not a whole lot going on in Butler (or Cranberry), but it sure is pretty. Corny, eh? ...and one more 'out the commuter plane window' shot of PA - heck, almost looks like a Scenic Slot Car layout down there... (the ants metaphor is soooo overdone!) That's it - my Big Trip to Big Butler, PA! Oh yea, speaking of Big Butts - Alan, Eric & I grabbed a few 'cool ones' after the race - be sure to ask Alan or Eric about Butlers Karaoke scene next time you run into them... ;-) Check the Outro for 'Jerry's Final Thought' on today's HO Drag Scene... As I said at the very beginning of this article: Here, There Be Monsters... Anyone who follows this site regularly knows that I'm a huge fan of the Outlaw TJet. The 2 fastest guys running in this class today are unmistakably Alan Galinko of AG&G Hobby and Jim 'Sgrig' Sgrignioli of Yellow Jacket Performance. Each of these guys has truly done impressive work in making our beloved little TJet go so far beyond what the Aurora engineers could EVER of thought possible! I mean there must of been that time when an Aurora engineer first took a Mean Green, no a QuadraLam, and plunked it into a TJet chassis with a set of Super II Magnets. The first time an engineer did this and showed all his engineer buddies what he had done, they must of all thought it was pretty damn cool. They could never of imagined that one day, Jim & Alan would send TJets flying down the track at over 70 MPH... Not 70 Scale Miles Per Hour, but actual MPH! As far as I know, Jim was the first to hit the 70 MPH mark in his '55 NEO Bel Air 5 Lam. One of the real reasons I went to Butler this year is because I knew Alan was going to try and break Jim's record, which he did - and I got to see it! This is the car Alan sent flying down the track at a truly astonishing 72.95 MPH in .310 seconds, a '67 NEO Camaro 5 Lam. The car looks a little reddish here, but this is Alan's car at the line for the Record Breaking run. Jim & Alan will be going head to head in mid-September at one of Jims newly formed E.C.H.O. groups' Drag events - somebody BETTER let me know how it goes! ;-) Here's an email Jim sent me after I posted Alan's results on the HOWL: Hey John, I hear the Dept. of Transportation is looking for you. They need some custom made emergency road flares !! :o) How did you like your foray into the world of outlaw TJets ?? Alan's got some fast stuff. But, I'm only .006sec and 2mph off that speed for 20' 7.5". Alan and I will be going head to head in Sept. at the E.C.H.O. drags, and in Nov. at the U.S.D.R.A Nat's. These are the fastest TJets in the world. This is something you don't want to miss. Side by side 70+ mph TJets !! Yes, it is impressive to see a TJet go that fast. If anyone is interested in attending either event, contact me at cjs599@aol.com for more info and directions. Jim Sgrig It's all in good fun, but you can feel the tensions mount! If you're back East and want to get a front row view for this event, get a hold of Jim for directions! I can't make it, but IF YOU CAN - bring your camera and take some notes. Then email me a copy of both! ;-) I'll send a Killer Bee Racing shirt to the first person to submit an article with pictures! Postscript: There were a lot of great cars out in Butler this year with a lot of great racers racin' em! Rocky, Joe, John, Eric & Alan - Thanks guys, had a great time! I'll be back! | ||||||||||||||
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