Mad about racing and cars

My name is Dave the Racerhead. I got hooked on racing as a pre-teen after seeing a photo of the Ford GT winning LeMans in 1966 with a 1-2-3 finish. This was also the golden age of slot car racing, and there were two slot car tracks within easy walking distance from where I lived (on a historic highway). It was instant love. Racing on the brain.

I was racing slots (and painting lots of them in HO scale) for quite some time until one day RC cars happened. They made engine noises and smelled like fuel. What more could you want? I was racing 70mph 1/8th scale RC cars all over the place and painting lots of them.

One of my slot buddies was into time trials on race courses. He took me on a frightening and memorable lap or two in a Corvair at Bridgehampton, the race track that was on the tip of Long Island. A historic track where Trans-Am and Can-Am cars played. It was great.

Making noise and wearing real racing stuff

One of my RC racing friends decided to try karting at the local kart track. I discovered that karts were cheaper to run than my RC cars and I could sit in it. By the time I stopped, I had raced at tracks like Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, VIR and Road Atlanta (top). Each lap at Road Atlanta is very, very fast, exciting and memorable.

All the while I was starting and expanding my own miniature museum of 1/43 scale racing replicas. I got into collecting 1/43rd scale race car replicas in the early days of the hobby and so Solido and Vitesse were big names at that point. The collection is now a relatively modest 600 or so (filling 6 wood and glass cabinets), of which I’ve now built around 40 cars from kits offered by Marsh, Formula, Starter, Provence Moulage, Tameo, SMTS, SRC, Esdo and Renaissance, amongst others.

I’m delighted to share our mutual hobbies now that I’m an ex-racer.

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the racerhead dossier

the racer  Two years racing a short track 2-cycle sprint kart, 15 years of 100mph roadrace karting.

tracks kart-raced  Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Summit Point (main track and Shenandoah), VIR (North Course), Pocono Raceway (full road circuit), New Hampshire International, Bryar Motorsports Park, NJMP (both tracks), Westhampton Kart Track, Oakland Valley Kart Track.

rental karts, indoors  Grand Prix New York, X1 Boston, and London;
outdoors in Orlando and Tampa

car track days  Lime Rock, Bridgehampton, Spa Francorchamps (It was great. Read more)

autocross  Metro NY area

the spectator  USAC Champ Cars at Trenton Speedway, Pro Formula Atlantic at Bridgehampton, Matras, Ferraris, Mirages and Mark Donohue in the 917/30 (and Gilles Villeneuve in the rain at Watkins Glen that mythic day). Hunt in the Hesketh finishing second and Greenwood in his Super Corvette at the Glen, crazy-fast GTPs at Lime Rock, Posey and Stuck in factory IMSA CSLs also at Lime Rock. Audis, Peugeots and Rebellions at the Sebring 12hr and the LeMans 24hr. BTCC at Oulton Park, CART Chaparral 2K at Watkins Glen, CART at the Meadowlands, the first Indycar roadrace at Indy, NASCAR short track at Riverhead, NHRA at Englishtown, plus….. (I may be old[er], but I saw the really good stuff)

the racer-hobbyist  Slot cars, RC cars (1/8 and 1/12 gas) and now 1/43rd scale race car collector/kit builder

the racing collector  2 racing tire “tables”, a couple of Goodyear blimps and a Transformer that turns into a Porsche 962

the model car dealer  Formerly, that is. From 1989-1995 and from time to time thereafter

the human  I found time to get married and sire four children. Go figure