Featured TOA Raceway - Slots Of Fun

Our cover story this month was submitted by Mr. Robert "Bob" Dyer and his wife Elaine, of Slots Of Fun in Maine. Bob included a nice letter in which he writes:

I am a retired businessman and my wife and I recently moved to Maine from California. I have been a slot racer since the 1970s, racing at Ron Granlee’s former Speed & Sport in California when it was open, competing against some long-time "pros" such as Philippe de Lespinay and Monty Ohren. Ron was actually the person that got me started. One of my fondest memories is winning one of the Western States Championship races in the amateur class with a chassis Philippe gave me right before the race. I also received the "Most Improved Driver of the Year" trophy and was "bumped" up to Semi-Pro. That was the last race I won! When Speed & Sport closed business and other things prevented me from slot racing for many years. However I never forgot the excitement of slot car racing!

I found this track in Maine and my interest was re-ignited once more. I began racing again with some success. When the owner wanted to get out of the business I saw a lot of dedicated racers with slot boxes full of expensive equipment and soon no place to play. After much deliberation and talking with my wife I decided we could maintain the business so I bought it to keep a place where we could race. It wasn’t necessary to make a lot of money so we’ve kept everything as low budget as possible to keep the racing fun and inexpensive. Here I am, still doing my best to break even.

On Tuesday we stage 4" and 4.5" NASCAR and Drag Racing. All three classes are only $10.50 per person. Thursday evenings we have races for 4" Wedge bodies and Drag racing – this time at $7.50 for each person. We pay back 30% for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places and draw a number for 4^th place so everybody has a chance to win something. Oh yes…all race participants on Tuesdays and Thursdays receive free practice time. We are also open Saturdays and Sundays for the kids to rent cars. Every Sunday at 2 p.m. we have Novice Racing, charging $3.50 which includes ½ hour practice time.

As you can see by the numbers we’re not going to get rich but if we break even we’re happy. In this manner we are more like a "club" on a grand scale. We are very fortunate to have some good sponsors who help keep us going – Jim Whorff, Tom Watson, Greg Wilkinson, and Bill Centra – who purchase most of our race prizes. Jim Whorff of Whorff Construction Company will be sponsoring our big annual "Winterfest" race on April 11^th. We’ll be awarding over $1000 in race prizes. We also host two of the North Atlantic Race Series each year. We have received great sponsorship and want to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation and thanks to companies such as ALPHA, CHAMPION, ERI, PRO-TRACK, and REH. A special thanks also goes to Michael del Rosario of ERI. He has always been very helpful and supplied us with a lot of information and answers to numerous questions.

Our road courses tracks include a 157’ Ogilvie Hill-Climb, a 75’ Ogilvie Tri-Oval, and an Original 90’ American Black, all hooked up to an SRT race director system. Our 75’ Drag Strip uses the Commodore 64 (low-budget) system.

At present we are open Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 11 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Our active birthday party program is sold for only $70.

Best regards,

Bob and Elaine Dyer

We thank Bob for sending us this information so we could use it as our cover story this month. Yes…he did have trouble with the pictures and we requested some additional ones to use. He graciously spent a tidy sum of money – twice - to get these to us. In addition to the information he supplied us in his first correspondence here are some other interesting topics from his TOA Application Form:

Track time at Slots Of Fun is a very affordable $2.50/15 minutes and only $7.50/hour. In addition to "Slotto Bucks" merchandise certificates Bob also awards ribbons and box plaques. They do not qualify for weekly race events and the SRT system keeps track of racer positions so lane change cards are not required for lane changes.

If you’re lucky enough to visit Slots Of Fun, cars are always teched before races and his current racing customers rarely look for ways to creatively interpret their rules – a combination of USRA, Parma Challenge Cup and some of their own local regulations. The nearest raceway to them is 30 miles distant and although they encourage their customers to visit other raceways, at present there is no series races between the two facilities but the other raceway has been friendly and helpful. Slots Of Fun is wisely set up with two good distributors and report their best selling items so far have been manufactured by Parma and Proformance Racing Products.

We thank the Dyer’s and Slots Of Fun for sending us our cover story for May and look forward to meeting them in the near future.


Owner/Member Bob Dyer at your service	Lineup for start of 4" Busch Series Grand National Main. Where's the car on Yellow?

Hillclimb layout with eager enthusiasts ready to rumble!	90' American "Black" (in background), Jim Whorff and Tom Watson at the Hillclimb

Slots Of Fun's Tri-Oval with Hillclimb (l) and Drag Strip (r)	Spuds, Bruce, Jim and Ted "slippin' 'n slidin" their 4" Nascars on Tuesday night

Nifty scale drag cars set to go at the green light	Rusty puts a 16D stock car against a Koford winged car in bracket racing

Tom works before the next race below the colorful NASCAR wall mural	Drag strip (along the back wall), Tri-Oval, and American Black (in foreground)

Greg, Spuds, Bruce and Jim take their heats on the Hillclimb	Nice view of Slots Of Fun's Hillclimb with flat turns