NASTE News for January

Columbia Gorge Championship Opening Race at Springwater Raceway
Sunday January 05, 2020



The first race in the Columbia Gorge Championship series for Porsche 962s was run at Bob Nakamura’s Springwater Raceway yesterday. The race was a huge success with eleven racers competing. This eight lane Ogilvie track is huge and wickedly fast! Racing the Scholer nuts and bolts type chassis with Team Bluegroove .030” lexan bodies mounted was a real challenge. The racing was extremely close with these cars as they were all very close in performance. Not only did racers had to watch traffic and avoid on track pile ups, they had to carefully choose where to try and make a pass. Passing was treacherous, sometimes requiring a racer to hang back a little for several laps. 

Here’s what I really liked about this race: 

1. The race format. We raced 4 rounds of 4 minute heats on the four inside lanes of the eight lane track. This gave each racer just over an hour of on track, controller mashing race time. 

2. With these long heat races if a racer suffered problems (like me multiple times with crash damage, from a huge wreck in the bank, and later gear failure) there was time to make repairs in the pits and still get back into the race. 
 
3. The track. Super-fast and very challenging when it came to dealing with traffic. A good portion of this was because the Porsche 962s were not only fast, they were wide!

4. The cars. This is an awesome class Howie has put together. These cars are very evenly matched. They are relatively easy to build and they are durable. The Team Bluegroove .030” lexan bodies held up very well. 

There were a lot of on track close battles throughout the race. Almost every racer suffered some type of race related damage or breakage and had to pit for repairs. More than one of those races battled back from those issues to finish well. It was truly an awesome race!



 

Checkered Flag Raceway Re-Opens to Racers
Sunday November 24, 2019



On November 23rd 2019, Checkered Flag Raceway re-opened. Checkered Flag Raceway, long time home track to the PASER slot car club, was shut down last year and moved to its new location in Vancouver Washington. Now referred to as Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway, the opening race was held for PASER's Late Model NASCAR and Can Am Classes.

Attendance was good for the race with a dozen people on hand, with racing grids totalling nine entries in each class. PASER is the oldest active slot car club in Oregon, being formed in the early nineteen sixties. Two of its original and founding members are still active racers and builders and, are still the guys to beat!

The Late Model NASCAR Class was first to the start line. Stewart finished in first place with Dennis just four laps behind. Bob and Jerry filled out the podium in third and fourth respectively. In the Can Am Class Dennis finished first, followed by Ted in second, Zack in third, and Jerry in fourth.

I'd like to thank everyone that came to race, and I'd like to give a couple shout-outs! Dennis, thanks for making that long drive from Seattle! Zack, congrats on your third place finish in Can Am, especially considering this was your first time on the track, and for helping me out with the track official duties! A very special thanks to Bob for letting me become the new caretaker of Checkered Flag Raceway!

 

Oregon Donors take 3rd at 24 Hours of Tacoma
Monday November 11, 2019



The NASTE Traveling Race Team took 3rd place in the 24 Hours of Tacoma this past weekend with their best showing so far.  Hats off to the team of Chris, Zack, Ray, Tony and Monte. 

Driving a trio of cars in yellow for 8 hours each - a Mini Cooper, an Opel Kadett with lights for the night portion and finally, a Simca - the team stayed strong throughout the event with only a few minor repairs required.  By the conclusion they had run the second most laps but a points system knocked them down to third.  Well done team!

 

Springwater Raceway's Opens With The OSCAR Sports Car Race
Sunday November 10, 2019

Bob Nakamura's Springwater Raceway opened to racing with the OSCAR Sports Car Race on November 9th, 2019. The day started with the doors opening for practice at 7:00 AM. Racers travelled from Bend, Eugene, and Roseburg to attend this opening race. 14 cars were gridded for the start, each to compete in 48 minutes of racing.

Springwater Raceway is an extremely fast, smooth, and challenging race course. All of the cars entered performed very well on the track. The grip level was high and the car's tires could be heard squealing as the cars rounded the corners. Racing was close and intense!

In addition to the fantastic racing, Bob and Teresa treated us all to a great taco bar lunch! There's not much better than slot car racing and FOOD! Thank to Bob & Teresa for putting on an awesome event! 

Read more and see videos and photos here: http://naste.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1073





 

OSCAR Race at Tom's World in Bend Oregon
Sunday October 20, 2019

On Saturday October 17th I attended an OSCAR race at Tom's World in Bend Oregon.

The race was for the Super Stock Class of cars, which are very fast early model American sedans and coupes on scratch-built chassis powered by open super 16D motors. Think FAST and not quite excellent handling cars, on a very fast but very challenging track! What that makes for is a full day of AWESOME racing with a great group of guys! 




Read more and see more photos here: 


 

Springwater Raceway Inaugural Coming Soon!
Thursday October 10, 2019


Get those cars ready, here comes the Inaugural Race at Bob Nakamura's Springwater Raceway!
OSCAR Sports Cars

  • Doors open 7am / Tech 9am
  • Race starts at 9:30 - 4 times through with t minute heats
  • Lunch after 2 times through
  • $10 per racer
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2019
Location: Springwater Baptist Church
Address: 5527 SE Jenne Rd., Portland, OR 97236
Cell Phone: Bob Nakamura (503-319-9990)



 

NASTE 2019 IROC Series - Race 9
Saturday August 31, 2019



August brought us a few hot days and it was nice to spend one of those in Al’s basement playing with toy cars.  This was our second stop this season and as it’s a regular on our Thursday night schedule racers had no trouble adapting to the track or the cars.

Up first – the Slot.It Porsches.  Fast, smooth, everyone likes these cars.  Liking them the most was ‘The Mailman’ Terry Abbott taking the lead with a 71.9 lap total.  Our host Al was about half a lap back in second with Monte Saager staking claim to third – barely by a tenth over Dan ‘Doc’ Fritz.  In total six cars were within two laps of the leader – the chase was on!

click her to read more


 

NASTE Goes To The Races
Sunday August 18, 2019


NASTE members Monte and Victoria Saager also maintain membership in the Cascade Sports Car Club. One of the major Cascade events is the annual charity race and fundraiser, the Dash for Kids. A feature of the Dash is a kids ride around the track in actual race cars. It’s always a hit as they give them a race helmet, strap them into the passenger seat and away they go.

New to this year’s festivities were slot cars! Monte and Victoria set up a digital slot car track to give the kids something else to do during the day and it was a hit. There was constant action on the track as children of all ages gave it a try. Smiles were abundant and you could even hear 10 year-olds talking smack. My favorite were the two that were telling each other who was fastest as they kept coming off on every corner. It was quite the scene.

NASTE members Jeff Fields and Rico Locati came out to give us a hand and it was greatly appreciated. With 4 cars circling the track it was hectic. It was mayhem. But the kids were having fun and that was what really mattered. We even had Star Wars characters stop by.  No word on where they left their Death Star.


 

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Welcome to NASTE
NASTE provides slot car hobbyist’s with opportunities to further their interest in slot cars through social gathers as well as structured race programs. NASTE also connects with other clubs which provides even more options for racing.

NASTE was established in 1996 by a small group of slot car racing enthusiasts in the Portland, Oregon area that wanted something different. At first we raced on a short, 3 lane routed 1/24 scale track. The racing was intense! Click here to view the original site. Soon we expanded adding more tracks to the racing schedule.

Our goal is to make our racing inexpensive, with the main focus being on having FUN! Besides, we have learned that low tech can be very competitive! So, check out our cars and tracks and drop us a line if you have any questions or comments. And if you're in our local area, feel free to join us. You are more than welcome.

 

 

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