Edmonton Slot Car Club

About Our Club

Our club is an eclectic mix of static model car builders, RC racers, 1/32 scale racers, scale model hobbyists and even bored gamers. We race 2 different classes of 1/24 scale slot cars that follow rules and regulations set out by the United Slot Racers Association (USRA).

One class follows the Division I category of cars with air control and spring steel chassis. The second class is Division II, with non-air control scale bodies and stamped steel chassis. We meet on a biweekly basis, and welcome anyone who has a desire to race slot cars. Even if you race on a commercial track somewhere in North America, if you're ever in the Edmonton area, bring your cars. There's more than enough power to handle them. We've had a past USRA Division I Group 12 champion run his cars around the track in 2.60 seconds!

Club Background

The club is the retirement dream of Ted Hutchinson, who as a teenager managed the first commercial track in Calgary. Between moving to Edmonton, getting married, and raising a family, he found time to build a couple of 1/32 scale tracks. The largest being a 4 lane, 65 foot battery powered track, using a modified scalectric lap counter.

History

1965

First track in Calgary, across from Western Canada High School.

1975

4 lane table style track particle board, battery 1/32 only (destroyed it).

1976 to early 90's

4 lane 1/32, 65 foot track, battery scalectric lap counter modified to fit.

Measurements

The track was custom made by Brian Crosby of Ogilvie Custom Tracks, in Walkerton, Ontario according to Ted's specifications. It was the 594th track to be built by Ogilvie. Dimensionally the track foot print is 30 feet by 12 feet and has a lap length of 110 feet. Each one of the lanes is powered by a Mastech variable power supply, pumping out up to 15.5 volts with a maximum 50 amps per lane. Along with this is a LCD readout of voltage and current. No shortage of power here!

Layout

The track configuration is called a "Grandstand" which shares similarities to the commercial Hill Climb track. Each one of the super smooth 4 lanes has a 4 3/8 inch spacing between the slots and uses standard 1/4 inch braid. The lap counter is made by Trackmate Racing, and timing is to 0.001 second. Racing can be set to either timed laps or total laps. The lap counter along with track power buttons controls race power during the race.

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