Before SR1, there was another cool track…
It was way back in the 1970’s and my awesome Step-Dad bought it for me after I raced on it in downtown San Jose. That track was a 4-lane Tomy sectional track on two 4×8 sheets of 3/4″ plywood, installed in my family’s single-car garage on Camden Avenue in San Jose. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of that track. But I recall spending many nights and early mornings racing on it with good friends. We didn’t have timing/scoring systems way back then but we somehow always knew who was ahead.
After a 30 or so year layoff, I got back into the hobby and my wife and I built Stewart Raceway I. Little did I know then that slot car racing would, once again, become a passion.
Stewart Raceway I was a 4-lane, 59-foot, Tomy sectional track on a 5×10 table installed indoors. It was quite a project considering it had lane-direction switches and a hot test-track on each driver’s station, as well as support for all three popular track timing systems: Trackmate, SlotTrak, and Race Coordinator.
The track was actually pretty smooth but, being a sectional track, had a lot of joints and the typical noise you get from cars going across the joints. Still, the track was frequented by many of the well known Bay Area slot car enthusiasts and even hosted quite a few group races over the years.
Some time after we built SR1, I also got into Fray T-Jet racing. While SR1 was exceptional smooth, Fray racing is now run on predominantly routed and very nearly continuous rail tracks. You can test & tune on a plastic sectional track but to get the car totally dialed in, you need to test & tune on a routed track.
Long story short, I needed a routed track. So I put SR1 up for sale. Fortunately, a great guy from Colorado saw my ad somewhere and arranged to swing by and take a look. He didn’t even cut any laps, he flew out a week or so later, rented a moving truck, and drove the track back to Longmont, CO.
As far as I know, he’s still enjoying racing with family and friends.
Track Specs:
| Track Length 58.8125 Feet |
| Lanes 4 |
| Turns 9 Right Hand 5 Left Hand |
| Track Power Single Mastech HY3010E, Variable Regulated DC Power, 30V, 10A |
| Controllers Whatever works! |
| Software Lap Timer 2000 v4.5, Race Coordinator, SlotTrak, Trackmate |
| Table 5′ x 10′ |
