Slot Car Racing Around the World
Four Wheels and a Guide Flag
During the 1960s when the slot car craze was in full swing the United States could rightfully be considered the center of the slot car universe, fast forward 50 years and Italy along with Spain can be described as one of the centers of multi-polar slot car world, with flexi and retro racing centered in the United States, Eurosport in Eastern Europe, 1/32 and 1/24 Scale Racing in Italy and Spain with a strong push for composite chassis LMP racing in Germany and 1/32 Scalextric racing in the United Kingdom. The slot car scene is of course is more diverse than that with scale racing taking place in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Flexi racing in Spain but each type of racing has a distinct center of gravity. In this article we will attempt to travel this multi-polar slot car world stopping at various spots to discover the richness that makes up our hobby.
At a high-level the European Slot Racing Organization Committee, ESROC, is the organizing body of the annual Wing Car European Championship race. It organized its first race in 1970 and has cooperated with the former NPRA (National Professional Racers Association, Brazil) and USRA (United Slot Racers Association, USA, on a three-year cycle (Europe – Brazil – United States) to host the Wing Car World Championship race. The venue being chosen by general agreement of the World’s top wing car races and the clubs/raceways that are deemed capable of holding the race. After the 2017 race in Europe it will be Brazil’s turn to host the race in 2018.
