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THE COMMITTEE
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I've lived in Guildford for all of my 44 years and have worked at the Porsche Centre in Guildford for nearly 19 years. I'm married to Liz and we have a son named Jenson, (after Jenson Button). He is a typical boy and enjoys slot car racing nearly as much as me. I'm interested in watching most forms of four wheeled motor sport, especially rallying and F1. I also enjoy DIY and have had an extension built to accommodate my growing slot car collection. We also had a conservatory added so it wasn't all for me! I regularly race slot cars at my local club in Farnham with fellow committee member Gareth and others. It's great to put some of my collection through their paces and after two years of racing, I'm enjoying my hobby more than ever. Like most boys in the 60's, I received a Scalextric set for Christmas and hoped that every following year that I'd receive another car or accessory to go with it. Unfortunately I was a destructive child and the cars soon lost the will to circulate the track any more. But I still hung on to my original set 65 - minus it's penalty chicane. In the autumn of 1989 I asked my local toy shop how I could locate some of the older cars to refill my set and he suggested a local toy fair. There I met Graham Perris who thought it would be a good idea if I joined the NSCC. Now I can't blame anybody else but myself for the current size of my collection, however through the club I have met some interesting people and made some good friends. I joined the committee late in 2002 as trade advertising sales contact so please let me know if I can help at all. |
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My introduction to Scalextric came at the tender age of five when Dad arrived home with an early 1960's Competition Series set. Several weeks later I managed to get a go, my various uncles and older cousins finally agreeing to let me be more than just a corner marshall! Some 30 years later, in 1992, I spotted an advert in Model Mart for the NSCC (in those days, The National Scalextric Collectors Club), sent off my membership money and turned out the loft to retrieve the original set. It still worked, although the cars needed new tyres, and an obsession began. As a result, my collection has steadily grown to around 900 cars, buildings, track and assesories, but mainly Scalextric cars, most being the type of full size cars I either owned or can remember from the 1980's, and my bank manager has never forgiven me. Then, in a moment of madness, I volunteered to join the NSCC Committee, being given the role of Swapmeet Co-ordinator. As a result, I can be found at most NSCC events (and one or two of the open ones) either manning the club table, of having a rummage for that elusive spare part or car in need of restoration - my favourite part of this hobby. Those of you who have not attended a swapmeet do not know what you are missing - slot car heaven and a good place to join the NSCC. Check out the 'Event Calendar' section of the website for details of forthcoming events.My other interests include West Ham United FC (being born in Plaistow this is only natural), and running the local Slot Car club here in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where I work in the offices of the Sugar Factory. |
 TONY SANDOM |
My
roots in slot cars go way... back to the 60s when with my father
we first ventured into a small shop called the Model and Hobby Consortium
in Crofton Park, SE London (They later moved to larger premises
in Catford, where I worked for a short while). The first shop being
small didn’t stop them from putting a track in it and running
races through the night. Well, I was hooked as was my late father,
of course then it wasn’t Scalextric that was the main attraction
in fact I knew nothing of that type of racing. I began too get further
and further involved, joining a local club that was based in Sydenham,
who had as I remember it a cracking track (which I played a small
part in helping to build).
I
never really ventured into the bigger world of slot racing due to
the cost! As I remember parts were so expensive (a balanced armature
costing £20-£30 and in the 60s this was a good weeks
wage). Moving out of London proved to be the undoing of all of this,
with no clubs of any worth within a 100mile radius of Wigan (yes
I know the pier (it does exist)) all my cars, spares and box were
relegated to the loft and forgotten about.
Moving to Loughbough in the 90s brought me into contact with a friend who in passing mentioned a slot car club. I was off like a shot and walked into the club room of 'Quorn Slot Car Club'. Whilst this wasn’t quite what I had in mind, I soon found out that this type of racing is just as exciting as our bigger cousins the wing cars but far less expensive. It wasn’t long before I was up and racing again. Unlike most if not all of the committee I do not collect cars, not that I do not find cars unattractive its more to do with finance and where do I start. I would rather race the life out of them as they were intended. One day I might just begin to collect and in truth I suppose this has already begun as deep in some distant cupboard there are one or two special cars that have never seen a track or ever will Mmmmmmm.. |
 PAUL ATKINS Promotions |
My passion for everything to do with slot
cars can be traced back to when
my girlfriend asked what I wanted for my 21st birthday. My all time
hero
was, and remains, Nigel Mansell. It was unlikely he'd turn up at my
house
and race me around the streets of Portsmouth so I opted for the next
best
thing - the F1 Scalextric set - which triggered the spark that has just
grown and grown. Twenty years on, I now have a collection of over 600
models - not toys. These are mainly English Scalextric but I also have
a
small selection from other manufacturers. I am a collector that races
slot
cars, and although I hate taking my cars off the shelf and out of their
boxes, I do like to see slot cars race, which is why you can find me
coming last at the three different race clubs I attend regularly.
I first joined the NSCC in 1990 but let my membership lapse until I rejoined in 2003. Since then I have read the journal with great admiration for the people that hold the club together, and decided I would like do what I can to help. When the PR Officer position became vacant I was more than willing to step up. I have meet many great people at different NSCC events and am hoping to meet many more of you at the swapmeets and special events we hope to be running in the near future. Apart from Scalextric I am married with two children and my youngest being a boy is also now getting into racing. I work as a maintenance engineer as I have done, since leaving school and I've also suffered my whole life supporting West Ham United FC. |
 MARTIN KAY Webmaster |
I first encountered Scalextric
in the late 60s when I played with my brother's small set. This consisted
of not much more than a small oval of track with a couple of wiggles,
and cars such as the C0056 Lister Jaguar and C0058 Cooper. We also had
a hump back bridge and a blow-out set, and a Smoothflow transformer
with a reset button that was forever popping up. Probably something
to do with our house being one of the last in the street to be re-wired
from round pin to square pin plugs! Later on the set passed into my ownership and my parents allowed me to get some newer cars, such as the C123 UOP Shadow and C124 Ferrari. However interest in Scalextric waned in teenage years although it was James Hunt's 1976 championship win that got me interested in the real thing, and I became an avid reader of Motoring News and Autosport and watching races on TV. Not just F1 but things like the Saturday afternoon rallycross from Lydden Hill as well. In fact in the early 80s I worked at the RAC Motor Sports Association for 3 years and got to help as a "roadie" at a couple of Lombard RAC Rally HQs and also at one of the Brands Hatch British Grands Prix. While working there I also took part in a 24 hour Matchbox Powertrack publicity event at a car dealership in Buckinghamshire, which led to me acquiring some second hand Powertrack kit and I occasionally used that as its size made it more practical for the smaller accommodation I was living in during those bachelor years of working for large organisations as a computer programmer, and later, IT project support consultant, and intranet and web site designer. All this (and chasing girls) inevitably pushed slot cars well to the back-burner and it was only really after I was married, had a house, and our son and daughter came along, that the Powertrack got fished out of the loft again in the early Noughties. One thing led to another, and we built a "proper" Scalextric 4-lane track, which then got converted to a digital one as soon as they were available, which led on to creating the "digitalslotcar.co.uk" web site to provide information to prospective digital racers, which in turn led on to a side-line of actually running a small Scalextric shop and public track hire service here in the West Country. On the back of this I also met up with former members of the now defunct Weston Park Raceway and joined their new venture Gordano Scalextric Racing Club, dedicated to racing original cars in out-of-the-box configuration, which has been going strong since 2005, and which means I have come full circle, as my UOP Shadow and Ferrari are now able to stretch their legs in competition again for the first time in 30 years! |
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