[woodcote]

   

The 2014 Scalextric World Championship was the penultimate year of the event and the last that had a proper international feel. There had been races in Australia, the Caribbean, Singapore, Holland, Denmark and across the UK. The final round took place at Worthing HO Racing on Saturday 20 December.

We'd brought our WHO/digital offshoot to the Barn earlier in the year - after a couple of years of Mike thrilling us with his digital rug racing. Mike and me had chatted to Adrian Norman at the UK Slot Car Festival in May and he suggested we host a round of the Scalextric World Championship. We'd provide plenty of local publicity for the brand, we'd get the Platinum set to add to the club's kit and the opportunity to attract lots of potential racers.

For a flavour of what hosting an event involved, here's the guide to the 2015 SWC:

2015_Scalextric_World_Championship_Set_Up_and_Rules.pdf Size: 623.29 KB  Downloads: 392

In the couple of months beforehand, around 5,000 fliers and posters were distributed to local venues, shops, cafes, schools, workplaces and all the local libraries in our part of West Sussex. Several press releases were written and sent out - and small articles were printed in all the Worthing and Sussex newspapers. This one from the Worthing Herald...

   

Mike and me did the rounds of local radio stations, including a trip to the BBC Radio Sussex studios in Brighton the day before the event...

   

The Saturday saw a very early start and a great turn-out of WHO helpers...

   

The World Championship track was the standard layout of the Scalextric Digital Platinum set - a small circuit that was the same for every World Championship round, together with the same un-fettled Super-Resistant GT cars. A set of precise rules & regulations came with from Scalextric and we played everything by the book...

   

Alongside the little Platinum layout, Mike designed a big track - based on the nearby Goodwood circuit - to showcase our WHO/digital formats with SSDC race management software, fuel burn and pit stops...

   

After a busy few hours setting up, we were ready... but would anyone turn up?