Digest 32

Here’s your bite-sized catch-up of the latest slot car and motorsport news…

We have a feast of new releases and pre-production images, a magnificent track build, proxy and club racing updates, plus a fabulous feature about Snetterton – the BTCC is visiting Norfolk next weekend.

Slot Cars

• Velasor Bugatti T13 Box Set This stunning set is now available from artisan slot car manufacturer Velasor. The five-car set features reproduces the Bugatti team that made history by taking the first four places in the 1921 Brescia GP. Also included is the back-up car of Monés Maury.

• RevoSlot Ford Escort Mk1 The first look at the new RevoSlot Ford Escort Mk1 cars. Available for Pre-Order at Pendle Slot Racing are the first three liveries and white kit. Due August/September.

• Carrera Classic Nascar Just arrived from Carrera are a pair of classic Nascar models – the Plymouth of Jabe Thomas and Benny Parson’s Torino Talladega. We take a nostalgic look back to the 1971 Winston Cup season over in the News forum.

• SRC Porsche 914/6 GT Monte Carlo Rally 1971 This could be your last chance to buy an SRC 914/6 GT slot rally car. The new limited edition run of Björn Waldegård’s 1971 Porsche in ‘night edition’ and ‘Chrono’ spec is only available on the SRC website and will ship on 19th August.

• Avant Slot Mitsubishi Evo X New Releases There’s more sought-after slot rally cars just arrived from Spain. Avant Slot have produced a cracking Red Bull livery, plus another Repsol car from the 2016 Spanish championship – this one driven by Alberto Monarri and Rodrigo Sanjuan to first place at the Rallye La Nucía-Mediterráneo.

• BMW 330i M-Sport BTCC 2020 Scalextric have now released their latest BTCC car, Colin Turkington’s 2020 BMW 330i M-Sport of West Surrey Racing. After championship wins in 2018 and 2019, Turkington was looking for a hat trick of championships in 2020. The Ulsterman won two races at Snetterton, but ultimately just missed out to Ash Sutton in the final rounds at Brands Hatch.

• Ford Lotus Cortina – Jordan Racing Team This time a classic touring car, Scalextric have shared this image of a pre-production sample of Mark Sumpter’s Historic racer – due Winter 2022-3. Like all their classic Fords, this is likely to be a popular release.

• Chevron B16 RS Slot Racing’s Chevron B16 kit has been two years in the making and is sadly, Martin Field’s last ever master. The first livery represents the Levi’s International Racing Team entry in the 1970 Le Mans 24 hour, driven by Julian Vernaeve & Yves Deprez. Other liveries are expected.

• Fly / Gaugemaster Le Mans Collection Three Ford GT40 models have been announced as additions to the Gaugemaster Le Mans Collection series. The #63 and #15 are from 1966 – Dick Holqvist wrecked the silver Scuderia Bear car in practice and the well-known Ford France car retired in the sixteenth hour. The #12 Mike Salmon/Eric Liddell ‘Strathaven’ Mk1 raced in 1968, breaking its gearbox with four hours to go.

• AFX Ford MkIV Le Mans 1967 Just arrived from AFX is this sensational Le Mans winning Ford in 1:64 scale. It’s the second ’67 Le Mans livery, following on from the original Sebring car. HO slot cars don’t come much better than this!

• AutoWorld Pro Stock Tribute Available only from the AutoWorld Store website are a pair of modern 4-Gear Pro Stock dragsters featuring throwback liveries that are tributes to Pro Stock legends – ‘Dyno’ Don Nicholson and Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins. Perfect for any HO scale drag strip.

• Robert Schleicher’s Model Car Racing The latest edition of Robert Schleicher’s Model Car Racing magazine has just been published. With a mix of news, track plans and features, this legendary title is still essential reading for slot car enthusiasts worldwide. You can find out how to read a free trial version in ePilot’s magazine thread.

• DP Slot UOP Shadow DN3 Anthony has a thing for Shadow race cars – and he has shared images of this lovely DN3 kit in the 1:32 scale forum, with a DN2 Can-Am build to follow.

Tracks & Scenery

• Infinity Motorsport Park Ken’s custom track in Toronto is a fantastic, compact layout, and you can follow the whole build in our Tracks & Scenery forum.

• These Slot Car Tracks Are Functional Works of Art Road & Track magazine talk to David Beattie about his company, Slot Mods, and the incredible slot tracks he builds.

• Slot Track Scenics Diorama Rallyhub walks us through another figure-painting masterclass to create a new picnic area for a brand new layout he’s working on. Three Slot Track Scenics kits are used.

Slot Car Racing

• 2022 GT3 Proxy – Round 7 This high-profile international proxy returned to Canada last week – you can catch all the qualifying news, plus full video coverage of the race over in the Proxy Racing forum.

• Extreme Slotting 2022 – Round 2 The Rally-Raid cars have been put through their paces this weekend in the harsh surroundings of Norfolk. You can follow their progress in the event thread.

• Your Club News This week in our ‘Your Club’ forum, there’s the latest race reports from Norwich, New South Wales and Worthing HO slot car clubs.

• Scalextric Margate Race Weekend Looking for something to do next weekend? How about combining a trip to the Kent seaside with some Scalextric racing at the Hornby Visitors Centre! There’s a Formula-E Spark Plug set to be won for the fastest lap time over the two days. The cost is £2.00 per go, per person. No need to book – just turn up and have some fun. There’s also the museum, shop and café to enjoy. More details on the Visitor Centre website.

Feature

Snetterton

• With the best will in the world, we can’t claim that Snetterton has quite the charisma or history of legendary tracks like Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps or the Nürburgring. But since it opened as a circuit in 1953, the Norfolk track has been a popular venue for top level national racing, with headline events for the BTCC, British Superbikes and British GT/F3.
• Snetterton The British Touring Car Championship returns to Snetterton next weekend for rounds 19, 20 & 21 of the championship, with Colin Turkington leading by a slender five points from Tom Ingram, with Ash Sutton just one point further back.
• BTCC Track Plan Obviously we’ve got a Scalextric layout plan for the Snetterton 300. Well, you wouldn’t expect any less, would you?
• BTCC Track Posters We’ve also got BTCC track plan posters, not just of Snetterton, but for all the BTCC tracks, and they’re all free to download in A4, A3, and A2 sizes.
• Original Track As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve got plans for the original circuit, as part of our modern restomod of the classic 101 Circuits for Scalextric Drivers magazine.
• 101 Circuits Poster And of course we’ve got that page as a poster too, along with all the other feature pages.
• Model Roads & Racing The July 1964 issue of Model Roads and Racing has an article about Snetterton, plus track plans for Scalectric, Airfix, Wrenn and SRM.

• Airfix Catalogue The 1968 Airfix Motor Ace catalogue also has an Airfix track plan, as well as some fantastic Michael Turner artwork.
• British Racing Greens But wait, there’s even more, because our section on the airfield circuits of Great Britain has a short history of the track – along with aerial photos highlighting both the original and the modern layouts.
• I think it would be fair to say we’ve got Snetterton covered.

Video

• Keep Off The Grass! Not Snetterton, but Goodwood – and there’s always plenty of little vs large shenanigans in the St Mary’s Trophy. With just over a month until the 2022 Revival, we need no excuse to share this great footage from last year’s event. Tickets are still available – or you’ll be able to watch the weekend unfold via a live stream.

Motorsport

• Nascar at Michigan You can watch the June 1971 race from Michigan in the Carrera Classic Nascar thread – but to find out what happened this weekend, head over to the Nascar YouTube Channel for the highlights.

• Brands Hatch Mini Festival Who doesn’t love a Mini? Brands Hatch hosted pocket-sized racing all day Sunday on the circuit, with huge Mini-themed displays and attractions off it. An event to inspire some 1:32 scale Mini racing at home – or even a new club class!

• Rally Finland In may ways the spiritual home of world rallying, Finland hosted round eight of the 2022 WRC over the weekend. A hugely exciting battle went down to the wire on Sunday afternoon. You can find out what happened – and watch plenty of the highlights – on the WRC website.

• Max Piastri and the F1 Silly Season There might not be any Grand Prix until the end of the month, but F1 has been in spotlight this past week after Sebastian Vettel’s retirement plans triggered an entertaining start to the annual game of musical chairs. Sky F1 journalist Matt Morlidge explains all.

• IndyCar on the Streets of Nashville Enjoy the backdrop of Music City and some eventful street circuit racing in the latest instalment of the 2022 IndyCar season. Six minutes of highlights are waiting for you on the IndyCar YouTube Channel now.