Slot Racing's Boom and Blight

Extremely well reasoned and written. It's fascinating and convincing too. As you say, Don, mainly focussed on the raceway side, in fact it kind of implies that this is the only part that really matters economically. As one of those kids who got a set for Christmas I can see why - a few days or weeks of ecstasy then something breaks down or you run out of people to put your car back on the track, you get fed up of doing it yourself and your race car set gets dumped in a cupboard.

The article puts the blame mainly on the shoulders of a 'get rich quick' mentality in the commercial raceway business, which brings poor planning with it and leads to a boom and bust situation that already seemed to be in its early stages in California in 1965. A convincing argument which became stronger in the following years, as it got more and more expensive for a slot racer to keep up with the fast guys.

Andy

I have lived through a number of slot racing's boom and bust cycles. I got started with HO cars in 1961 and had an AC Gilbert 1/43rd track in 1963. A couple of friends had large HO tracks where we ran our cars, but we never did any formal racing. By 1965 commercial 1/24th raceways had started to open up all over the US. I raced on many of the tracks in my area until I went into the Army in 1968. By the time I got out of the army in 1970 most of the commercial raceways were closed. Since I was not around during the decline in the late '60s I could only speculate on the reason for that. I have seen that people tend to get into the hobby with unreasonably high expectations. If people enter formal races those expectations might quickly be dashed. Some people will improve their driving and car building skills and stick with the hobby while others will soon drop out.
I only entered a few races in 1970, but getting to the one track that was still open became too difficult and I stopped racing. Before the Internet information about home tracks, clubs and commercial raceways was difficult to find. I did run HO cars on a home track for a few years until the owner moved and the track went into storage. Nearly twenty years went by, one of my old friends set up part of his HO track so that his son could use it. That got us started again. By that time I had my own house and the old track was set up on my basement floor. Soon there was a resurgence in 1/24th commercial raceways, a track opened near me in 1991 and I raced there until it closed at the end of 1997. I had raced at a number of tracks in the Northeast US during that period.
Commercial tracks tended to be very popular when they first opened up. Many enthusiastic racers would soon burn out and move on to other hobbies. The die-hard racers would only go to the track on race nights. It became difficult to get new customers in the door. Commercial raceways had always had a problem during the summer months when many people had other things to do. In any case the second boom was clearly over by the later '90's. At that time I had replaced the HO track with a MaxTrax on a table. The Internet had become popular and the first club style race was held on that track in 2002. After the closing of my local 1/24th commercial track some of the racers started running on their own 1/32nd Scalextric tracks. I consider that to be the time that home 1/32nd club racing became more popular in the US. Home and commercial HO racing had been going on for some time, without the Internet I had not been aware of it.
Home HO and 1/32nd racing seems to be fairly strong in the US today. Young people do not seem to be very interested in the hobby, most of the "new" racers that I have seen are people that were returning after a few, or often many years. Of course, there is more to the hobby than formal racing, there is also collecting and informal running with family and friends.

Don, I think summer of 65 was when there was the most interest around here. When school started in the fall I was pretty much done and with school and newspapers, etc, there just wasn't time. By summer 66 I had a drivers permit and a motorcycle (Honda 65). I had a part time job and didn't race at all. I think summer of 66 was still pretty strong, but by the time school started interest dropped again and I think summer of 67 was when the little track here got pretty slow and changed hours and a year later it was closed I figure our timeline was about ayear behind the west coast. In just 2-4 years it went from the "fad" level to serious racer/hobbyist level. I use the term "fad" for lack of a better term.

I am 72 and probably us kids that are now 70-74 made up most of the group that were part of the "fad". It was a great timne to be a kid..

Here in the UK I only ever went to one commercial track, Wonderland in Southend on Sea, but at the time I started '69 we were lucky as there were two establishments in town where as most UK towns wouldn't have a track. During the summer season when I first started going to Wonderland you would always find holiday makers and day trippers who visited the amusement arcade downstairs popping up to see what was there and then pay the few bob to have a go. By the time I stopped in '75 or '76 you hardly ever saw anyone up there apart from the race nights. I'm sure it only stayed open thanks to the arcade below. Wonderland Amusements was one of the first if not the first to have an electronic game installed, the original Atari Pong, placed right at the base of the stairs going up to the tracks, a portent of things to come.

There are two tracks in the photo on the Wonderland advert above both built by Laurie Simmonds of MRDC fame. Everything to the right of the little bridge in the middle of the photo is the infamous Blue track with a massive banking. If your car wasn't fast enough it simply fell out of the slot. The controller stations are above the banking which was extremely fast and from the banking the cars ran off to the left of the photo to a big hairpin which was were many a car came to grief after braking too late. From the hairpin there was a short straight before the cars turned left to run along the humped straight (I believe the humps were later removed) and then crossed the bridge to a left hand hairpin at the far end followed by a very steep drop onto the long straight (in the photo the drop is hidden from view by the bridge) which led back towards the banking. In the days of Group 20s I don't think it was possible to drive over the crest of the drop at far end as the car grounded so I seem to remember that most tried to jump it and landing back in the slot was a bit of a lottery. My parents wouldn't allow me to go to a race evening so it may be that the regulars had got the drop sorted out.
The track on the left is the Yellow track which had very steep ramps. Those that I did see use this track also tried jumping the crests as the cars tended to ground. I must have been about 12 when I went there and the hairpin visible high in the air beyond the Blue track was over my head height so I couldn't see the cars when they were rounding the hairpin.
I did see mention somewhere that the two tracks could be inter connected but no one that I know who raced there ever remembers that happening.
Both tracks were dismantled when Wonderland acquired the ex Tottenham AMF King track. I seem to remember that at one time there was still a second track made up from bits of the two old tracks which was used when they ran a 1/32 F1 series for cars with a Mabuchi 13UO for a while. Maybe a more regular visitor can confirm that.

As others have said Wonderland seemed very commercial and MRDC seemed a lot more relaxed and welcoming to me. I used to go to MRDC on a Saturday morning and pay for an hours track time and if you didn't get there when they opened you had to wait for what seemed like forever to get time on a lane. I could rarely get round a full lap with my 1/24 Monogram Chaparral but looking back the rear sponges were completely shot and I knew nothing about car set up. As far as I remember I didn't go to MRDC for a couple of weeks and when I went back the place had gone.

I was told that the two tracks could be connected for race events but it would have meant moving track sections around which would have been a lot of work and I know several people who raced there regularly and they all say they never saw the two tracks joined up and weren't even aware that it was possible.
It wouldn't make sense to join the two tracks except for a race. If you run the Yellow and Blue tracks seperately it is possible to have up to 16 people paying for track time. If you join them together you immediately halve your income.
This is the only other photo of Wonderland that I have been able to track down. It was taken from the window end of the room. I thought at first that it only shows one track but I think the two sections with the bridge over in the foreground are part of the Yellow Track and the Blue track is lost in the shadows.