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page 2: The other race was the one where we raced against the club from Fenton ? In the GT class I had set up a russkit special. Russkit chassis, French 16d hot motor and Weldon gears riding on riggen narrow fronts and grey sponge rears topped with a Lola T-70 body. For what ever reason it just was set up right to run on the orange track it didn't matter what lane I was in no one could catch me. The other club had come to practice and they kept seeing me practice and waited till I was deslotted to try and get a look underneath . One of their guys tried to duplicate but it didn't work and I ran away with the race and set new records on their track!! Well that's my history, when I left for college, my mom eventually gave away my stuff ( she had asked ) but back then being 18-19 and more interested in "life" I didn't balk. Of course, now, I wish I had saved all that.
Down in East Texas now, we have a few home tracks around and larger set ups over in Dallas area. What I recall from 1965-68 at GP, they 1st had 2 tracks , one was called "Sebring' which I first raced on then the got a "Lemans" (orange? 100' ) Which seemed the most popular then. I recall 2 races I seemed to do well in. One was a 1/24 Stock Car (pre-nascar) race/ 1st time held there. A friend and I ran Fords while everyone else ran either Dodges or Chevy's. I never was a good scratch builder but decent racer and visa versa for him, So he built the cars and I tuned them. We ran big 36C cans and taller tires and gears for longevity (500 lap race) Everyone else was running hot motors and small tires so they were faster but many had more mechanical issues while our 2 fords trudged on to win well over all the others !
Jeff, My 1st racing was at the MMR , I was 14 then I had a home strombecker track so I tried modifying one of my cars, it didn't do so well but it started me on the road to racing. At GP I started racing and running in the "youth class" for points. You had to win/place a lot to earn the points to be eligible for the GP race club as I recall. Once I turned 16 then the races on evenings with other older folk earned better points to get to club level. I recall lots of races I participated in ! Holiday season of 64 I got to work part time at GP ! That was just to cool for me then. Worked almost a year till the track was sold and the new guy let me go. My last year involved with racing I recall our club racing against another a club out of Fenton, Mo, racing on an American Orange track, One race was GP class cars and the other GT cars. I won the GT race. Life pulled me away from slots. I never knew about the Airport rack at all. my name is Paul Bass.
Jeff, Ive been reading through many of the posts here and came across your's in the "Who are You" in Slot Car Talk. I see you were also from the St Louis area as I was. I got into Slot car racing I guess about 64, I mostly ran at the Grand Prix Raceway (off of St Charles Rock Rd, I also recall 2 other tracks, a smaller one over in Overland area and another way down on ST Charles rack road ( a more older hobby shop one) My last recall of a big "track" ( 220ft?) was way out near Creve Coeur off Lindbergh Rd in a Bowling center. I also got to work at Grand Prix from 65-66 ( I think) What a time I recall the "Ruskitt Team coming to take us on. So may we have ever met ? Im now down here in East Texas area Paul
