Commercial Raceways Explode upon the United States The first indoor rail car raceway in the United States is credited to Tom Cook of Kalamazoo, Michigan. This was followed in 1961 by an actual slot car track on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles built with the help of Autorama's Jack Tate and at Polk's Hobbies in NYC. Polk's Hobbies was involved with Fred Francis in the development of his Scalextric cars which initially allowed them exclusive rights to sell them in the United States. Nat Polk, one of the owners of Polk Hobbies, recalled having sets flown over from England to meet demand. Most of the early commercial tracks were coin-operated tracks with an hour of track time costing anywhere from $1.50 to $2.50. By that time, even Kalamazoo had converted to slot and soon slot car racing exploded upon the American consciousness.
What had more or less been invented in England developed a very American flavor. Gigantic tracks of 200 to 300 feet in length were built including one 408 foot behemoth at Motorama Raceways in Van Nuys, California and an even larger traxk in East Meadow, New York that was said to have measured in at 475 feet. Raceways with five tracks and a drag strip were not uncommon.
In late 1962 or early 1963 American Model Car Raceways out of Burbank, California was formed and soon business was booming designing and manufacturing 8-lane commercial tracks that were sold to too eager raceways all over the globe. Each of their layout designs were assigned a particular color - Red, Yellow, Green, Black, Orange, Purple, and finally Blue and though they also had names such as Monarch, Sovereign and King the name and color became synonymous and anyone who raced regularly knew what the track was by naming either. For example, the "Orange" was called the "Monarch" and had 8 lanes of 100’ each. The Red was the "Imperial" and was 150’ per lane. The "Sovereign" was American’s "biggie" - a 220’ dream which ultimately became known as the "Purple Mile." Of all the tracks American made, the single most popular design produced was the final model they sold - the "Blue King" - and was nearly identical to the Red Imperial except for a few up-to-that-date changes to increase speed and general flow of the cars. In fact there were those pro racers that could almost drive the circuit blind-folded for it was on the King that the World record speeds were kept. AMCR was soon joined by Altech, Ascot, R & J Custom-Line and Stan Engleman.
A number of organizations were established to for the purpose of developing common rules for competition. The big three were MINRA, NAMRA, NASSRA while in England ECRA was paramount. Later these organizations were joined by USRA in the United States and IMCA in Europe.
Club Tracks
Back in England the last of the major British clubs had converted from rail to slot with the Oaklands Park club being the last of the holdouts. MRRC brought out their "Wide Slide" track system 1960. These were wood sectional pieces sprayed with hot metallic zinc covered and again with paint save for a contact strip running along both sides of the groove. In 1964, Ecurie Spa, one of Britain's top clubs at the time staged a 24-hour race, which was won by the Northampton Model Car Club. A slot car race sponsored by Guards Cigarettes called the Guards Trophy for Model Cars was held in conjunction with the Racing Car Show. The entry list was limited to "amateur" model drives which at the show meant drivers of full size cars or members of firms exhibiting at the show. Graham Hill won the race two years running.
By 1966, there were some 3,000 commercial raceways in the United States and over 200 in Europe. They sold the latest cars, controllers and parts to hordes of enthusiasts, resulting in the slot racing industry generating annual sales in excess of $500 million for three years in a row. Slot car racing had entered its golden years.
While commercial tracks dominated the hobby in the US, or at least in the eyes of the general public in there were many clubs with tracks where the competition was just as intense. One such club was the Miniature Electric Scale Automobile Club (M.E.S.A.C.) in
Inglewood, California and their legendary 190-foot 6-lane track that could be altered into 8 different configurations through the use of a four-inch wide sliding board that had 12 lanes routed into it, 6 straight and 6 curved. The circuit had the look of an English club track in that it was completely detailed with the famous Martini & Rossi bridge a signature feature. There were even operating pits that the racer was required to use in longer races, by way of railroad type points. Race control was conducted in an elevated room offering a commanding view of the activities.
A few of the clubs members worked in the aerospace industry and at least one by the name of Jim Russell went on to make a name for himself manufacturing slot cars under the Russkit banner. Besides the core group of members the club opened its doors to local hot shoes who were required to meet the clubs strict scale rules if they wished to race on the demanding course. Racing was held in at least five different classes and a championship trophy was awarded at the end of the year. Special events such as enduros were also held.
Drag Racing
Besides road courses drag racing also had a strong following. Cars in 1963 were powered by the larger laminated motors such as the Pittman DC-85A and Ram 850. Most were sidewinders with swinging arm pickups and chassis built using magnesium ladder type frames. The chassis required a clear Krylon spray coat to prevent tarnishing. Drag strips were powered up to 36 volts for top eliminator cars. The Miniature International Racing Association (MINRA) held its first International Drag Championships in October of 1963. The following year Car Model magazine sponsored their own 1st International All-Scale Drag Meet. For timing a Swiss-made Heuer Electronic Timer, accurate to 1/10,000 of a second was used.
Top dragracers of the period include Bob Braverman and Gene Hustings who also raced full size cars, introducing the first rear-engined dragster to Don Garlits who later perfected the arangement after a near fatal crash.
Husting also set a sub-one second time in a slot car drag racing meet that was said to have lasted 28 years.
The story to be continued ... In writing the history of slot cars there is a lot of misinformation on the web and often different individuals were creating racing systems oblivious to what was happening elsewhere. The period between the wars is especially murky. If you have comments about this article or just wish to provide additional insight please do not hesitate to contact me: Dennis David
The first indoor rail car raceway in the United States is credited to Tom Cook of Kalamazoo, Michigan. This was followed in 1961 by an actual slot car track on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles built with the help of Autorama's Jack Tate and at Polk's Hobbies in NYC. Polk's Hobbies was involved with Fred Francis in the development of his Scalextric cars which initially allowed them exclusive rights to sell them in the United States. Nat Polk, one of the owners of Polk Hobbies, recalled having sets flown over from England to meet demand. Most of the early commercial tracks were 
In late 1962 or early 1963 American Model Car Raceways out of Burbank, California was formed and soon business was booming designing and manufacturing 8-lane commercial tracks that were sold to too eager raceways all over the globe. 
Each of their layout designs were assigned a particular color - Red, Yellow, Green, Black, Orange, Purple, and finally Blue and though they also had names such as Monarch, Sovereign and King the name and color became synonymous and anyone who raced regularly knew what the track was by naming either. For example, the "Orange" was called the "Monarch" and had 8 lanes of 100’ each. The Red was the "Imperial" and was 150’ per lane. The "Sovereign" was American’s "biggie" - a 220’ dream which ultimately became known as the "Purple Mile." Of all the tracks American made, the single most popular design produced was the final model they sold - the "Blue King" - and was nearly identical to the Red Imperial except for a few up-to-that-date changes to increase speed and general flow of the cars. In fact there were those pro racers that could almost drive the circuit blind-folded for it was on the King that the World record speeds were kept. AMCR was soon joined by Altech, Ascot, R & J Custom-Line and Stan Engleman. 
While commercial tracks dominated the hobby in the US, or at least in the eyes of the general public in there were many clubs with tracks where the competition was just as intense. One such club was the Miniature Electric Scale Automobile Club (M.E.S.A.C.) in
Inglewood, California and their legendary 190-foot 6-lane track that could be altered into 8 different configurations through the use of a four-inch wide sliding board that had 12 lanes routed into it, 6 straight and 6 curved. The circuit had the look of an English club track in that it was completely detailed with the famous Martini & Rossi bridge a signature feature. There were even operating pits that the racer was required to use in longer races, by way of railroad type points. Race control was conducted in an elevated room offering a commanding view of the activities.
A few of the clubs members worked in the aerospace industry and at least one by the name of Jim Russell went on to make a name for himself manufacturing slot cars under the Russkit banner. Besides the core group of members the club opened its doors to local hot shoes who were required to meet the clubs strict scale rules if they wished to race on the demanding course. Racing was held in at least five different classes and a championship trophy was awarded at the end of the year. Special events such as enduros were also held.
