Reviving ‘60s Hobby — Slot Car Racing

SWISHER - Zip, click, zoom. Up, over and around. The little 1/32nd-size slot cars eat up the 10 curves on the 57-foot long track in less than five seconds, a scale speed of about 250 miles per hour.

No wonder guys like Jerry Hightshoe, 68, of rural Swisher have revived a hobby of their 1960s youth - slot car racing.

"I wanted this to be a true driver's course," says Jerry, retired administrator from the College Community school district, who started building his basement track in 2001. It was race-ready in a year but, as with model railroading, always seems to be a work in progress.

"We're more into racing than the scenery," says Bruce Gardner, 64, of Iowa City who joined fellow slot-car racers Art DeArmond, 63, of North Liberty and Craig Margulis, 57, of Iowa City, in a recent practice session.

That was just perfect for Jerry's four-lane track, a standard for home-built layouts while many club tracks in public buildings have eight lanes.

Jerry, however, hosts racing one Sunday a month for two clubs that grew out of the original Iowa City slot car club formed in the mid-1960s. Jerry had joined in 1968 but lost interest, like most others, by the late 1970s. By 1990 or so the hobby experienced a resurgence and participation grew into ERASR (Ecurie Road America Scale Races) and IMAR (Iowa Model Area Racers). About 10 regulars in each club can be found hooking up pistol-grip controllers to a track to race in one of eight classes for ERASR and ten classes for IMAR.

You'll see everything from stock cars and equally-prepared IROC Camaros to Porsche and Ferrari LeMans-style racers and open-wheel Formula One missiles. Cars "out of the box" these days cost $35 to $60 each while home-built cars, which tend to be lighter and faster, run $35 to $50. Since they're electric, "gas" costs nothing, although parts like tires ($4.50 to $9 per pair) contribute to expenses.

"You don't have to buy new," Craig says. "When I started, I bought a lot of used cars from other members."

Building, rebuilding and modifying slot cars can be just as addictive as working on real cars, although not on nearly the same scale, says Art, owner of Riverside Sports Cars in Swisher where he restores classic cars.

Jerry's slot-car track sits on an 8-by-16-foot table, its 57-foot (about a third of a mile at scale) lanes within an inch of each other in length. That makes for very competitive racing, winners often determined by a few thousandths of a second on the computerized timer.

Each club keeps weekly stat sheets and determines season winners in each class - all for fun, not for money.

"We have a great time," Jerry says. "Everyone gets along. No fighting. No money."

If the 248 and growing spectators were real, they'd probably cheer. But, they're actually model construction workers Jerry buys in bulk, modifies and paints while he's watching television.

Yep, like real in life, even when Jerry's not racing, it's on his mind.

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