Track Owners Association, Inc. Featured Raceway
December 1998

Go Slot Car Racing !!

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Terrence Iwamoto's
AUTOMOBILIA RACEWAY
1130 N. Nimitz Hwy. - Unit C100
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
Phone: 808-539-9377
Fax: 808-523-1994

A smiling TERRENCE, (front row, center). On left is employee RUEL DIAZ, MINI 4WD SPECIALIST(gentlemen in white shirts) REPRESENTING OKAMI, the after-market High Performance company from Japan which Terrence is U.S. Distributor Representative. (to Terrence’s left) MR. KIMURA, owner of OKAMI CORPORATION. These gentlemen from OKAMI fly from Japan to Hawaii four times each year. Mr. Kimura is such a celebrity the youngsters at AutoMobilia Raceway line up to get his autograph.

Is this young racer excited or what? With "Open" Mini 4wd cars crowds like this happen every day at Automobilia. Exhibition race at Spring NRW products show.
Automobilia's smaller Tamiya track in their slot car raceway showroom. A sampling of the 70-plus Mini 4wd cars lined up for Automobilia Raceway's first big race last February.
Enthusiastic youngsters staging for the start of a race. Just your typical weekly race at Automobilia Raceway !!

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MONEY – MONEY – MONEY

AUTOMOBILIA’S MINI 4WD PROGRAM
CONTINUED FROM THE NOVEMBER TOA NEWSLETTER

This story began last month and is being continued here because there was just too much information to cover. As stated in November, our sincere thanks to Mr. Terrence Iwamoto of AutoMobilia Raceway in Honolulu, Hawaii for sending us a large envelope containing additional story information and pictures for this issue.

In addition to Mr. Iwamoto’s four-page letter was a 12-page Tamiya catalog, 15 pages of Mini 4WD parts and coverage of AutoMobilia Raceway, which had been downloaded from his website. There was also a two-page race schedule, five pages of downloads from Model Retailer magazine, and five pages of newspaper articles and promotions.

The Focus article in Pacific Business News, written by staff reporter Frellie Campos and the picture on page 3 of Terrence working with a man and his son really tell the whole store. In the background is one of Terrence’s 24th scale tracks by Silky’s Customs with a caption that reads: "The model car racing business, started by Mr. Iwamoto, was grossing $15,000 to $18,000 for the first few months after it opened last September. Now, not even in operation a full year, AutoMobilia is pulling in $40,000 PER MONTH!!!

THE KICKER – HOW TERRENCE IS MAKING THIS KIND OF MONEY?…

Terrence was willing to adapt to change in the marketplace. For forty years many of us have become immersed in the philosophy that "if it ain’t got a guide flag and runs in slots cut in a race track, it ain’t slot racing!"

OK…so this is not "slot racing" as many have come to know and love the hobby and the sport.

But it is model car racing – and in a form which is making piles of cash for quite a number of people! We discussed the Tamiya system in the last issue and this time Terrence backs up his story with pictures. When was the last time you enjoyed having this many kids in your store for an afternoon racing program?

While we waited for pictures and more items to arrive from Hawaii, we called and talked with Tamiya’s Director of Sales, Mrs. Kathleen Winnie. At the time she and her staff were already working on Tamiya’s budget for the coming year. (Never hurts to be well prepared ahead of time, eh?) Even Mrs. Winnie was surprised at the sudden boom in sales – especially in the US. Four years previous, Tamiya had burst on the scene with the Mini 4WD program in Japan. Now, with additional hop-up parts and dozens of new models available, it surged again there as it has in the States. She faxed us some literature and will be sending us additional information soon.

Should any TOA member wish to add this exciting money making program to your store, contact either Terrence (on their nickel) at 1-888-946-5264, or Kathleen at Tamiya – 1-800-582-6492. For those of you with e-mail, write to her at kwinnie@tamiya.com.

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