Preface,

This site would not be possible if it weren’t for my Mother who had the vision to save all this old slot car stuff. It was around 1980 that she gave me a scrapbook full of all the old 1962 Ford-Aurora contest stuff. At the time I never realized that I would someday relive the race and get involved with racing ho slots again.

In 1998 at the Englishtown N.J. Car show I was putting my scooter around and taking in the sights and out of the corner of my eye spotted some old time slot cars on display on one of the vendor’s tables. I just had to stop the scooter to take a look at what I had not seen in over thirty five years. I introduced myself to Mario Pisano who was the vendor of the old slot cars and to this day we have become friends. A few months later I got a call from Mario who said he would like to stop by with a guy named Bob Beers. Mario said Bob was known as “MR. AURORA” and was a serious collector. I agreed to a meeting not quite sure what to expect and had a hard time convincing myself that these grown men were actually collecting these old ho race cars. At the meeting Bob gave me a few books that actually had my race history in detail. This peaked my interest and actually attended the Parsippany Slot Car Show a short time after the meeting. When I saw the amazing amount of old slot car stuff I was in disbelief that the hobby was still alive and reborn. Unfortunately I had some negative feelings about the Aurora Company for which I will explain in a future writing and my interest weaned.

While working in the summer of 2001 I got a call on the intercom that a Bob Hardin wanted to talk to me ( I said to myself - who the h is Bob Hardin). I met Bob and we spoke in depth about his involvement in the hobby and he was inquisitive about my racing history. After a half hour or so talking about ho slot cars old and new Bob left. Bob called me early in December and said that he had located an old Aurora Tub Track that was located in Fairlawn N.J. and would I be interested in it. I told Bob that I really didn’t know what a Tub Track was and he provided me with a picture of the layout. It looked kind of interesting and I agreed to take a look at it. Calling upon Bob’s experience with the hobby I asked him if the asking price was fair and he gave a thumb’s up. I gave the owner a small deposit and ended up picking it up in January of 02. I had plenty of room in the basement and thought it would be neat to have a little antique track down there. Bob provided me with a car and a controller and as I cruised around the track I thought “can I really race these little cars after a 40 year layoff” - I was somewhat amazed that although naturally a little rusty I still retained some driving skills.

To be continued...