Jim Cunningham Spreads the Slot Car Gospel





Nice article in the Arkansas Times about Jim Cunningham of Nomad Raceways, following his move from Southern California to Little Rock Arkansas, and his quest to spread the slot car hobby to new enthusiasts in Arkansas. – Paul K @ OWH

https://slotcargallery.com/slot-car-...ot-car-gospel/

Following is an excerpt and link to the full article:

Jim Cunningham Spreads the Slot Car Gospel

By David Koon – July 1, 2019
Arkansas Times
https://arktimes.com


Photos by Brian Chilson – Arkansas Times

Though Jim Cunningham’s home near downtown Little Rock is packed with cool stuff — including a huge steel rack full of vintage racing bikes, the toy car he bought the morning JFK was killed in Dallas, and a hairless black cat with the loudest meow you’ve ever heard — it’s the big slot car track that draws the wows.

The track writhes, black and sinuous, over pretty much the whole floor of Cunningham’s huge living room: 16 feet by 9 feet, with 65 feet of two-lane track poured into the space, wrapping in and around and through. Visually and technologically, it’s about as far as you can get from the little Tyco slot car set you may have received for Christmas as a kid.

Since moving to Arkansas from Southern California a few years back, Cunningham has been on a mission to spread the word locally about the hobby that has been his passion for over 50 years, drawing in both seasoned slot car fans and creating new ones. His business, Nomad Raceways, rents out portable slot car tracks in 10 sizes, from tabletop to huge (one of Nomad’s portable tracks is currently on a global tour of real-life race tracks with car maker Acura, to help promote the new Acura NSX supercar).

Cunningham also heads the Central Arkansas Slot Car Racers club, made up of around a dozen people of various ages who get together at his home or travel to the handful of other large-scale slot car tracks around the state to hang out, show off their cars and race.

For his part, Cunningham makes a convincing case that slot cars aren’t just kid stuff. Even without the fancy digital simulations his track can do, he says slot cars are a genuine motorsport, and quite possibly the safest and most affordable way to get the thrills and competition of real-life racing.

Read full story with more photos here:
Jim Cunningham Spreads the Slot Car Gospel

https://arktimes.com/entertainment/a...lot-car-gospel