# Putting a Kid's Series Together



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Since the Kid’s Race was held back in May I have been asked several times if I would mind repeating it at a different location. I have been struggling with the City of Fresno to help fund this type of activity, and unfortunately have been running into conflicts each time the subject has been breeched. The biggest concern now is that my track will be damaged as it was for the last kids race, and Parks and Recreation is hesitant to accept liability of something like that were to happen again. As I have poured a lot of money and time into producing my Sequoia Speedway I am as well. But I believe I have worked out some details with my co-promoters that could bring not only a kid’s race, but a kid’s series to local slot car racing.

I recently purchased a used Tyco Super International from E-Bay; this layout was complete except for cars and controllers. Two weeks ago we set up the 4-lane track and raced our remaining LifeLike NASCAR stockers on it, and practiced with a few other types. In trying to find a car that would work for kids as well as be maintainable it was suggested that we use the Tomy Turbo chassis as a base for this new kid’s series. We brainstormed over a week’s time and decided that by adding a bit of an International flavor to the series we could also educate the kids in the process. Sunday I got the thumbs up from one of my bosses to begin trying to put this series together.

My plan is to obtain at least 12 Tomy Turbo open wheel cars, the “Indy” type bodies. Each of these 12 cars will repainted to represent one of 12 countries of the world, much like the A1GP cars in real life are. The cars will feature the colors of that nations flag in a unique way; every attempt will be to duplicate the scheme of the A1GP car for that country as shown in the 2006 season. Limitations are realized, but each car will be uniquely marked. The series will involve a weekly series of 4 races on varying length road courses and a single oval. My goal is to begin the series the first Friday in August, which is also the first day of August. The series will conclude on the 28th of August, and our kids return to school on September 3rd. Cars would have to be in-hand no later than July 18th to be ready for this series.

For a child to be considered for this series they must write a 200 word essay about the country they wish to represent in the race. We have strongly suggested that they write more than one essay for each country that they are interested in, as the essays will be judged by my boss and our Head Start Instructor to determine which person will drive for which country. The countries decided so far are: United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, and India. 

Additionally if we get more than 12 cars then I will add more representative countries. As with the previous race the kids will be involved with painting the car they have been chosen to race, that way they have a hand in the identity for that car. I need to make the statement that these cars will not be given out to the kids after this series is over. Instead they will be stripped of their paint, refurbished with new pick-up shoes and tires and another series will follow it. This way we can keep this type of activity alive longer without having to repeat the appeal for donations. There will be no entry fee or any other costs to any kid involved....other than writing the essay.

Please know that this is a private effort and not being made under the authority of Fresno Parks and Recreation. While my supervisors have given permission to organize this event they have asked me not to use my position with the City of Fresno to secure donations. If you want details on how to be involved drop me a PM and I'll let you know.


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## Yoshi Nagura (Feb 9, 2008)

I'm gald they went for this one Pete, man you put enough work into the proposal they better have. I'll kick in a car or two, let me know what source you want it from, but you have to make the first excess car from Korea.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Yosh, Scale Auto: $16, Lucky Bob's $14. Doesn't matter to me, tomorrow I'm ordering the first 4 from Lucky Bob's. Korea is second on the extra list, China is first.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Congratulations Pete! This is GREAT news to hear for sure! I'm glad you were able to work something out and I actually like it the way the kids have to have a little more "skin" in the game before they can play! Totally cool and a great idea!

Now how will you be handling "security" for transporting the track from your vehicle to the location in the building and then ensuring that no hooligans decide to play football near the track? Hopefully these details are covered as it seems these were the issues that shut things down before.

I'm really glad to see the effort being put back into this again! Shoot me a PM and tell me what you need and how I can help out in this effort and I'll let you know what I can help out with on this project.

PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

PD, the track will be a temporary course using the Super International and possilbe a Long Beach set I plan to buy. Sequoia will not be making the trip. We'll have temporary fences, etc in place. Security is simple: if you're not part of the race then you're not allowed in the racing area. The kids that will be racing will get the word out as to how much fun the series will be, and it should grow from there for the kids that want to behave and be part of this. 

I'll send you a PM with how you can help out later this evening PD, I have another meeting with the powers that be this afternoon with more details.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Cool bro! Sounds good! I'll wait for your PM.

TTYL!
PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

PM sent. Does anyone know what the record is for jumping an HO slot car and actually landing back in the slot? I managed 22.5" last night in a Humpy Wheeler style jump over 17 cars, and landed back in the slot. Now, I need to find my Tyco motorcycle...


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## medic57 (Mar 3, 2008)

Pete

Send me your address and I'll send you 7 Like New Life Likes T-Chassis.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

PM Sent.

I have some pretty big news regarding this event. We have a sponsor that has pledged a total of 10 cars, but we have to change the cars from the Tomy Turbo's to the Tomy Super G-Plus, and to allow real world Champ Car and Formula 1 paint schemes. I have agreed on the provision I get the cars no later than July 10th. I have scoured the slot car sites and found 18 unique paint schemes available, plus who knows how many from Patto's. This will be a combined kid's and adult series with two classes running together. 

There may already be Tomy Turbo cars on the way, if that is the case those cars will be collected and given out to the kids involved in this series. The Super G-Plus cars will be retained and refurbished between each series. 

Finding a sponsor was a fluke, getting 10 cars worth more than $200 a coup. This is the boost this series definately needed.

Here's what the newer SG+ Champ cars will look like, so this series will be around for a while:


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*super G's*

yikes nice score

i like super G's, but i HATE the rear tires.

i have lots of 0.059 bar stock for making my own axles, i could cobble up a bunch of 0.059 axles for pete. scale autos not far, i could also make a run and get crown gears. 

anyone care to estimate what crown gear and tire diameter would be good for petes track? ive found that PVTs on rabbit racing 220 hubs work out ok (pretty low rear end, about 0.430)

or pete would you prefer some more super Gs?

the other mike king


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

Thats great news Pete! And a plus for me as I dug up my extra f1 bods today and most were super g's! So I will ship these bodies to you most are already half stripped so I will have a llook see what decals I have I know I have th enew Mclearn Decals and Ferrari f1's will toss them in the box too.. good job mate have some fun...! ya now have spare wings to break.. Btw talk to Billiam before ya start he has a method of making the front wings a lot stronger...


Dave




Pete McKay said:


> PM Sent.
> 
> I have some pretty big news regarding this event. We have a sponsor that has pledged a total of 10 cars, but we have to change the cars from the Tomy Turbo's to the Tomy Super G-Plus, and to allow real world Champ Car and Formula 1 paint schemes. I have agreed on the provision I get the cars no later than July 10th. I have scoured the slot car sites and found 18 unique paint schemes available, plus who knows how many from Patto's. This will be a combined kid's and adult series with two classes running together.
> 
> ...


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## Yoshi Nagura (Feb 9, 2008)

Mike, only one race per ten will be at Sequoia, the rest will be on temporary circuits laid out on plywood and saw horses. We're casting scale concrete barriers with cardboard "safer barriers" clipped to them to lay outside of the corners to catch the cars. I'm building a large 4-lane "Indy" oval on a 12' X 4' board for a 500 lap race later this year, that will replace Sequoia for the main oval track since Pete's track is so short.

But any SG+ cars will be appreciated, I just donated 2 of the 4 I had left that are virtually brand new, keeping 2 for myself to field my team. The used cars will be welcome I'm sure, as of right now we have 6 cars "in hand", with the 10 promised from Jack at Jamba Juice and 2 more I'm taking over tonight this is well under way. The pic was of the new body style we saw on the Tower Hobby site a few nights ago, they actually look like Indy cars. Also this is going to be a replacement for the LifeLike series since it's becoming increasingly hard to find tune up kits or replacement parts for them. The SG+ cars are current and have a lot of things you can do to them. It's a win-win switch.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

I fixed the image...not sure why it failed other than I was hot linking to Tower Hobby's image.. :X

Realistically the Super G+ was the only choice from the beginning, but I was facing having to buy a dozen cars and I would have rather done so at $14 each than $22 each. We're still going to involve some sort of essay for the kids to "qualify", maybe now it'll be about a slot car topic rather than a country their A1GP car would represent. We've already had a class where magnetic downforce was explained and demonstrated with Yoshi's Magnet Marshal, they seemed to understand that pretty easily. Now we're starting to cover how braking figures into racing, since these races will be at a full 12 volts and on flat road courses they will need to actually drive the cars.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Well after speaking with my boss we're going to stick to the A1GP type program for the kids series, especially since the essays completed are for countries to be represented. 

The first such country will be the reigning champion, Germany, I finished the body tonight:










These cars will carry no numbers but only be identified by their country of representation. A 12 year old named Kevin Burke will be driving this car in the series. I still beed to do some minor detail work but this is it for the first car. I have two others that will become Canada and France in the next couple of days.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Looking and sounding good Pete! Congrats to Kevin! Can't wait to hear how he does with the car!

BTW - Are you guys going to show the kids how to maintain the car? Things like cleaning the tires, watching for major wear on the shoes and changing them, etc.? Just wondering if that was going to be part of the "education" so to speak.

PD2:thumbsup:


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## BKracer (Sep 25, 2005)

:thumbsup:well done and good luck Mr.Mckay!!i hope(believe) that the experience will stick with the kids.you may be responsible for kick starting a new generation of slotters!rock on to everybody willing to share "our sport"(and their time)with the younguns!!


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

That is not a SG+ by the way


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

The body is from one Deane. The Turbo's roll down in front of the pods, the SG+ has those funky little tabs.

Paul, yeah, we're going to have a minimal tear down class where they have to replace pick up shoes and rear ends. The cars that John from Jamba sponsired will be here this week and I'll be very busy repainting them. If I could all the cars accounted for so far I get 16, and there are only 22 in the real world championship.


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

I meant the Oz-Jet car further up, sorry for the confusion.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Ahhh, yes. Those are the new Mega-G cars that are supposed to hit store shelves sometime after August 1st. Completely different car, even a redesigned chassis I'm sure everyone knows about. I don't think I'll upgrade to those cars for the as yet untitled World Grand Prix I'm doing for the kids and developmentally disabled adults. I think the SG+ is going to be a great SPEC car, and with John Berry's $250 donation to my series for a dozen cars, donations from Paul and Yoshi brought me up to 16 cars. I'd like to do all 22, we shall see. If not for the series due to start in August for subsequent ones to be sure. And who knows, I may also include adult racers in this if we can work out a system of classes so everyone gets a fair chance on the track.


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## Yoshi Nagura (Feb 9, 2008)

*I owe Peter an apology.*

I feel like a dope. I owe Peter a heart felt apology, I had completely misunderstood the reasons why John Berry had made the donations that he did, and what my donations were going towards. I was under the impression that he had abandoned the World Grand Prix idea to have a conventional Formula One season. I had pressed for that, but I did not realize that in Pete's mind at least, these were two separate racing ventures. I had the understanding that the dozen cars that John Berry had paid for were to go to my series when they were intended for his and his alone.

I have decided to stay my plans for an open wheel season, and to work with him in doing up the kid's series, with the hopes that somewhere down the road adults will be included in the events. I understand his priority and will mentor where I can, when I can. I will be turning over my extra cars to him this coming weekend for inclusion in the series.








So...bring on the World Grand Prix!


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Pete McKay said:


> The body is from one Deane. The Turbo's roll down in front of the pods, the SG+ has those funky little tabs.
> 
> Paul, yeah, we're going to have a minimal tear down class where they have to replace pick up shoes and rear ends. The cars that John from Jamba sponsired will be here this week and I'll be very busy repainting them. If I could all the cars accounted for so far I get 16, and there are only 22 in the real world championship.


I can't wait for the Mega G's to come out - the bodies as well as the chassis are what will bring the HO scale closer TO scale. It ought to make others turn and look at the HO world again.

As for the tear down class that is cool Pete! Definitely something that helps in educating them on the importance of maintenance of the cars, but also on how simple it can be if they decide to purchase cars of their own. Awesome work bro!

6 more cars, huh? That's three more twin packs or just 6 individuals. That's probably less than $100 left to get donated or purchased - that can happen easily! Who else will be added to the list of helping out in this effort?

PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

We have time Paul, this first series is the telling series, to see who wants to put the effort into racing. The hardest part ofr me will be hand-painting all 22 cars. I painted Canada last night, my daughter wanted to know why I was putting a big red pot leaf on the side of a slot car. I think she got the point from my icy cold stare to back off.










Here are the first three: Germany, Canada and Netherlands. When the Scale Auto cars arrive they will become China, France, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Portugal, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Ireland, Switzerland, and the USA. I haven't gotten obligations for the final two nations I will have cars for, and for some reason I can't find my notes on which were to be next but I believe one was India.


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

pete - dang!! handpainting is tough! those 3 bodies looks great!!! :thumbsup:

Wes


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Yeah and I only have :::swears to self::: 19 more to go. 










Jamba Juice sponsored cars arrived today, they will be sanded and go into the paint shop in the morning, temps in the 110 degree range tomorrow should bake them cured by the time I get home from work tomorrow.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

The three you have painted so far look great Pete! Very nice lines and definitely look great! I love the comment your daughter made - that's funny right there, I don't care who you are! 
Just pace yourself with the remaining 19......as we always say around here, you can definitely eat a whole elephant, just take small bites and don't start with the butt first. LOL!

Awesome work bro!
PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Most of them will be easy, China, Portugal and the Swiss car are starting off red and will be done in less than half an hour. Countries like Mexico and Italy which have the same flag colors will be more difficult since I have to be creative how they are represented, same with France and Netherlands, the US and Malaysia too to a small degree. South Africa's flag has the most colors and it will be probably the hardest to do.


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## Yoshi Nagura (Feb 9, 2008)

Saw the China, Portugal, Swiss and France cars done today, very simple and very nice. Also saw the USA car, all I have to say is WOW. Pete has allowed PD2 and myself to "sponsor" coutries, so the two cars I donated have become China and Malaysia. 

We also set up and ran the Netherlands Zandvoort GP track in 2 lane configuration, this is a fast track with some very tricky sections. We wanted an idea of what we could expect for lap times, and we're looking at just over 2.65 seconds per lap on 12V. Remember these are box stock cars. So far this series is looking great.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

OK, last picture until I get all of them done. Cars now done are (front to back) Mexico, Portugal, USA, France, Switzerland, China, Canada, Germany and Netherlands. Portugal still needs a minor addition to the crest, the blue dots that are small crests on the flag, and Mexico and France need some driver details. Mexico was a real PITA, I painted the eagle and snake with a sewing machine needle. The USA scheme was inspired from a hat that I have. China and Switzerland are the simple schemes out of all I have done or plan to do. 










Top views...










Yoshi, I got your PM, the Malaysia car will now be Japan, and may be done tomorrow with Ireland and India.


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## jstudrawa (Mar 20, 2008)

Oh my God, those are amazing! If I can get my hands on an Italian one someday, hell yeah!

Amazing what you're doing for kids, sir.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Italy is on the list...actually here is the complete participants list I researched:

Those that are done or being done:
Germany, Canada, Netherlands, China, France, Mexico, India, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, USA, and Japan.

Those in planning:
Brazil, South Africa, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Korea, Lebanon, Singapore, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and Italy.

That makes a total of 29 countires. I plan one more, a World Car that is going to be airbrushed and pinstriped by a local motorcycle custom painter and will be awarded to the winner of a future World GP series. 

I have a couple more cars coming, they will be assigned countries requested by the donors. If anyone donates a car they can also request a country for the list, or if they want one not on the list I'll consider it as long as the flag won't make me go blind painting it. Some have been very simple; Switzerland, China and Japan have been really easy, but others like Mexico, Canada and Portugal have been a pain. Of those left on the list is seems that South Africa will present the biggest challenge. 

This is a kids series but there will be an adult class. Since at the moment I have 15 cars I've had to limit myself to that number of entires for the first series. 10 are kids, 5 are adult mentors including John Berry, Yoshi and myself. The adults have all agreed to a $5 per series entry fee, which will sponsor another car. Tomorrow I will be able to post the names of the kids who were chosen to race and the countries they will race for. It will be interesting.


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

Pete, Bodies are on thier way. use them to replace breakage and as you deem best.. cars look great! don't forget to do the A1GP demo car! lol.. 


Dave


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Dave the car I have in mind will be pearl blue with a red base coat, red and white stripes and bare metal foil front wings and suspension struts. It will be an eye opener. I've been looking at Yahoo images of the real world A1 cars and figured I'd make mine a bit more recognisable as far as the flags are concerned. Sometimes that makes them simple, as with China, Switzerland and Japan, sometimes not. I had planned on Portugal being a simple car but I did the crest on the flag. India on the other hand will not have their seal on their flag on the car, it is just to intricate for me to hand paint. I did do the UK car but I'm not really happy with how it looks. If I re-do it though it will be after this first series. 

We had another practice. this time with a few of the kids. I'm having to reconsider having 4 on the track at once, it's just too much work. They get excited and all of the training goes right out the window, so what we may do is run two at a time on the middle lanes of the 4-lane and let them drift into the outer lanes on reduced voltage. Other things like having anonymous chassis selection like Yoshi recommended will help curb the claims a certain car is better. The bodies will be removed after each event and ramdonly selected for the next event. I won't even know which one is better since there won't be any markings on any chassis. We may also allow for more than one driver per car like they do in A1GP, just in case one kid can't make the race the second driver can step in. This makes it more of a team sport and will allow more kids to become involved.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

The additional bodies look fantastic Pete!! WOW! I have to agree with Yoshi - the USA one is pretty nice looking! I have no idea how you do it, but "Steady Hands Pete" is awesome at painting HO bodies! Way too cool bro! I can't wait to see the completed field - it ought to be a great picture!

PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Actually I don't have steady hands, if anything the exact opposite since I have mild Parkinson's Disease. If I take my meds I can do that, if not, well let's just say that in Metal Gear Solid I can lay down some serious suppression fire. 

The last 3 bodies I ordered and paid for arrived yesterday. Those will become Indonesia, Austria and Brazil. That gives us 16 running cars. Other bodies have been pledged and will be painted, since we're swapping out the chassis between races we can have 28 bodies and still just have 16-18 chassis. For this first series we only have 8 kids , 2 will be driving the same car, alternating between races. We also have 3 pro class adult drivers, the best kid will run against the adult pro's. The announcement for the drivers will be in the WGP announcement string.


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## PD2 (Feb 27, 2003)

Pete McKay said:


> Actually I don't have steady hands, if anything the exact opposite since I have mild Parkinson's Disease. If I take my meds I can do that, if not, well let's just say that in Metal Gear Solid I can lay down some serious suppression fire.


WOW! Then that makes the work you do even more impressive bro! And I thought I had problems with painting and keeping a straight, clean line. That is an awesome accomplishment!

PD2:thumbsup:


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Car Preview:










Front Row: The America's - Brazil, USA, Mexico, and Canada.
Middle Row: Europe - Austria, UK, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany.
Back Row: Asia - China, Japan, India, and Indonesia.



















I have a friend with a really good digital camera who is going to take a picture of each car for the website.

I'll post better details of any car asked for, some of them are better looking than the picture shows.


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