Washington vs. Oregon Spring Open - 1983

In the spring of 1983, Jimmy Watts of Tacoma Washington organized a drag racing event to bring together the Washington based HO Drag Racing Association and Oregon racers. Jimmy produced great programs for the participants. The event was publicized as a Washington versus Oregon match up. We Oregon racers were not well versed in HO slot car drag racing, the majority of our racing was of the road course type of racing. But we accepted HODRA's challenge.

My memory of the race is somewhat vague because I had to leave early for work that Saturday. From what I do remember of the race it was held on a track constructed of Aurora Thunderjet 500 track, and it was outside at Paul Fromm's house in southeast Portland. During the morning hours the track was fine, but as the sun got higher in the sky and the temperature rose, the track did too! I remember the track gaining some elevation in the form of humps, or small hills. This made the drag racing very exciting as the track warped and grew in the sun! If memory serves me correctly when it was all said and done, an Oregon racer by the name of Dave Nydigger had won almost every race in every class! There were approximately 9 different classes of cars, and Dave's entries were the baddest of the bad!

Dave Nydigger had the knowledge and ability to build incredibly fast slot car motors. He was totally amazing, whatever he touched ran like the voltage was doubled! He won everything, all the time! When Dave showed up for a race we all knew we were fighting it out for second place! Dave Nydigger was our Oregon HO racing hero and legend, and to me more than 30 years later, he still is.