Fantasy Drag Racing - HO Style
By Rick Howard
Just for grins, I held my own "nostalgia" drags at my place, using HO scale slot cars.
24 Top Fuelers (wedge styles complete with Garlits, Muldowney, Prudhomme, etc.) and 34 Funnies for 32 slots (round robin allows losers to drop into the "B" and "C" classes...and 64 Pro Stocks. I use only AFX style cars (better body styles) because the motors last longer than Tycos. I've had these cars since the mid-'70s (even ran a race in the police barracks while in U.S. Air Force back in '73 with some of these cars). Anyway, I paint them up to represent the stars of the past (which is the main reason I like looking at these web sites with old photos).
ANYWAY...I just wanted you to know that my "Clare Sanders/Jungle Jim" Monza F/C took his second straight 16-car field in F/C. I didn't want to lose the "Jungle Jim" moniker for this car, so when the real JJ died, I used Sanders name to fill the void and he's winning my races. I could send you photos of the race with captions.... if you think this is fodder material for your story column. Always thought it was neat to match up cars of yesterday against cars of today... For example, Ron Capps' 1998 version of the Cope car against Don Prudhomme's Army Monza from the '70s. Or Gene Snow's '74 version of the "Snowman" against Cruz Pedregon's green/flamed "Interstate Batteries" car, etc. No payouts or anything... just going for points and the right to wear number 1-10 on the windshield of the competing car. Hope Clare doesn't mind me using his name for a game (he doesn't - we asked! bp).
I just love drag racing.... whether toys or the real deal. Never could afford to run a real race car...but the slots made for an interesting race. We stayed up until 3 a.m. running those suckers down the track... only after watching the Chicago qualifying results on TV Saturday night. Only Jim White's "Hawaiian Punch" car had motor problems out of the whole bunch -- not bad for 30+ year old cars. Now, this 49-year old is feeling the pain from jumping up and down retrieving the cars from the top end all night!
Rick Howard
Rickie.Howard2@wpafb.af.mil
