WOW! Another 5 years have passed since my last post here. COVID stuff is history. Politics have reached an all time low in my opinion, total gutter sludge anymore! Thankfully we have slot cars, therapy for us to try and maintain our sanity! Since that last post in 2021 we have lost another long time slot racer. Another of the Three Godfathers, Jerry "Gearloose" Palfenier passed away. Like Bob McFarland, Gearloose was actively racing right up to the end. He actually won one of the last races he ran in.
Last month we raced our last race at Bob Nakamura's Springwater track. Things have changed at the church where the track was located. It must be removed from its current location in the basement. Ken Palfenier has purchased the track but its future is yet to be determined. Ken also purchased my old Too Bad Motorplex track from "The Farmer" Bryan Dickerson and moved it to his house in Beaverton. It has not yet been reassembled.
Racing down south is still going strong. Bob Hanna held an OSCAR Sports Car race in celebration of his Spare Time Raceway track's 25th anniversary. Turnout for the race in Roseburg was great with 20 racers from all over! Rich Vecchio will be holding an IROC race this summer on his Electron Raceway also located in Roseburg. Moving north to Eugene/Springfield, Pelican park is still open to racers on Wednesday nights. The bad news is their building is currently for sale so they may be in need of a new location to move the track into. Salem has a new HO track as well as a new 1/24 track. Paul painter has completed a beautiful routed non-magnetic HO track and is holding races on Tuesdays. Ron Martin purchased the commercial 1/24 track from the previous owners in Junction City and moved it into his building in Salem. He is currently holding races on Tuesdays, alternating days with Paul Painter. East of the mountain (Hood of course) Tom Street's track is still in operation. They race Flexi classes on Thursday evenings as well as the traditional Saturday OSCAR races. Jim Mitchell has his commercial 8 lane routed track up and running in his new shop building in Powell Butte (just southeast of Redmond). Jim is putting together his race program and has plans to add a second commercial 6 lane track inside the building next to the 8 lane.
The racing in the Portland area is really busy! Al Christensen continues to hold NASTE Odd Thursday Night races. He just completed the 30th consecutive year of the NASTE Point Series Championship! Gary "Howie" Howard is still running races at Rapid Raceway where he has completed over 25 consecutive years of racing excellence! Bob Nakamura has only his Gorge Raceway left at his house in Troutdale. Bob will be planning his full season race program for that track, including some races through the summer this year. Rob has been holding odd dated Monday night races on his Redline Raceway track in Vancouver. Those races have become quite popular (I'm sure his chili dogs have something to do with that!). Rob has shut down for the summer but is planning to start back up in September. Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway has had a limited schedule for a couple years now. Next year current plans call for one OSCAR race in November, followed by a PASER Can Am race, and a final race in April. As always the track is available most of the time for practice or tuning, requiring just a phone call to set up a date and time.
A new sanctioning body has been added to the PDX area. Bob Nakamura has created Columbia River Slot Car Racers which will cover the rules for racing Flexi and Womp types of cars at Rob's Redline Raceway, and classes based on 2NASTE chassis for racing at The Gorge Raceway. Just like PASER and Northwest True Scale, the CRSCR rule set can be used at any raceway.
I have dug out the last 200 slot cars from the "Goose" collections. I have started selling off the last of them. I am hoping to be done by the end of the year! Then I will start on the used 1/32 and 1/24 stuff I want to get rid of. I just have too much stuff and too little space! Diane and I are currently having our rear deck replaced with a concrete patio, the north side fence line replaced, and concreting the area between the driveway leading to the shop and the fence.
It's funny how my urge to sit here and type under this heading on the Forum hits me about every 5 years......Hopefully in another 5 years I will still have some brains to work with..........Really no biggie, my brain power could be questioned here already! Although I can still punch keys!
