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Article from the Houston Chronicle
Dizzying
speed
Pasadena
Raceway to hold slot racing event today
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By
JESSE SENDEJAS
This Weekend Correspondent |
Motor
sports |
started
slot racing as a kid growing up. "Especially if
you've got a fast track to race on like we do know."
Today's kids represent a new generation of
would-be slot car racers. Pasadena raceway is able to
introduce the sport to anyone - young or old - interested in
running slot cars. The raceway sells and rents cars.
Watson recommends those interested visit Pasadena
raceway today to see the best racers around at their
craft. For those who would rather trigger the cars'
90mph speeds, Watson recommends easing into the hobby by
visiting the track any afternoon or evening, Tuesdays through
Sundays. he said the Wednesday evening NASCAR races are
particularly exciting to watch.
With so much emphasis on speed, Watson said he
considers the deliberate and detailed work that goes into
building, tweaking and then racing the motorized mini-cars the
most enjoyable aspects of slot racing.
"I think the best thing about slot racing is
it allows you to work with your hands and your mind at the
same time," Watson said. "With slot racing,
you have to build your car, maintain it and drive it,
too. It takes a high degree of skill to race well, a
high degree of concentration. It's very challenging on
multiple levels."
For more information on today's meet or slot
racing, call Pasadena Speedway at (713) 946-2884. |
ONE
of the world's fastest race tracks is in the greater Houston
area.
It's situated in a suite, in a building located
directly behind Almeda Mall on the city's southeast side.
The best slot car racers in the state, nation and
world are headed to Pasadena Raceway for the first meet of the
Texas Slot Racing Association's 1997 season.
P.A. Watson, owner of the track at 10100 Kleckley,
said enthusiasts who race the six-inch, remote control-driven
cars are expected to come from as far as South America for
today's races.
In the ultimate "if you build it, they will
come" scenario, the racers are flocking to Houston to
race the establishment's newest track, considered the fastest
in the world by the United Slot Racers Association.
Watson, a slot racing aficionado since childhood,
said the hobby makes for a pretty good spectator sport for
those who can keep up with its dizzying speeds.
"It's better for spectators at the slower
classes," Watson said. "In faster classes, the cars
are traveling so fast its almost impossible to see them."
So, just how fast is fast? Watson set the
world record two weeks ago on the seven-week-old Hasse Nilsson
King Track 2000 |
course
that Pasadena Raceway just added to its original wooden
track. His car traveled the full 155-foot length in 1.6
seconds.
Watson has owned Pasadena raceway - formerly
located in Pasadena, thus the name - for 18 years and shares
administrative duties at the track with his wife, Kathleen,
who has been known to run a mean slot car in her day.
Few would be as accomplished as her husband,
though. Watson is the only four-time national champions
in the sport and also has three world professional titles.
But Watson said more than 100 skilled slot drivers will
be taking their best runs at his world record time
today. Those racers made the trek from California,
Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee,
Virginia, Washington and even Brazil to try the custom-made
track.
At least one hails from the Houston area.
John Mann is a regular at Pasadena Raceway and happened upon
the track one day while fetching a barbecue dinner for his
wife. Today he'll be going after the best times in the
race classes he favors, NASCAR and GTP, 1/24-scale replicas of
their full-sized namesakes.
"Once you get into it, there's a place to race,
you'll always come back," said Mann, who also |
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