Weather started out stormy for Austin Slot Car Club folks coming down from Austin to Sisterdale this past Sunday to visit Spottswood motor park, my 2 lane routed track. By early afternoon, the clouds had mostly moved out and temperatures were pleasant enough to open doors and windows in the track room.
Russell M was first to arrive, with his pit box filled with a bunch of interesting cars, including a totally custom shorty Dodge Sportsman surf van, and a couple tiny Birdcage Maseratis from CG Slot Cars. Russ really should do a build thread on the van, the workmanship is incredible, as always.
Next to pull up was Brian H, and new ASCC member Melvin. Melvin came equipped with his day-glo green slot.it GT40, and Brian with a variety of cars from the current Group C and Ford v Ferrari club race series. It was very gratifying to see the track populated with fresh cars and drivers.
Randy A arrived with another Birdcage Maserati, a Policar March F1, and a club controller for Melvin as well of plenty of stories. John B was close behind with his Group C and Ford v Ferrari cars. Mark L took a wrong turn and showed up a little later, ran some laps with a slot.it Skyline and got a tour of the workshop.
It was really interesting to see people getting the hang of the track. I got some valuable feedback. The main trouble currently is the guardrail behind the long sweeping curve at the back. I’m going to look into a couple solutions to minimize scuffing cars as they hang their tails out. Driver stations seem good where they are, but I may swap positions of the yellow and green stations for better visibility. We ran only practice laps, so it remains to be seen how to handle corner marshaling during a race. I do hope the club can come out for a actual event, even if it is a non points race.
I really enjoyed having folks out to the track, to visit and run our little cars. Let’s do it again sometime!
Photos by Russell and John
