Slot car addiction
A work of art
with Brett Jurmann
In recent issues we have looked at some home tracks, including my own plastic-based track and the routed wood rally track of Gary Blayney. Well, two Melbournians have taken it to a whole new level with their routed race track – Dippa’s Raceway.
Tony and Rob di Pastena are two brothers with a passion for doing it just right. Being in their fties, they are pretty typical of the baby-boomers responsible for the resurgence in the hobby in the last 10 years. Rob is a professional tness trainer with a string of celebrity clients, and Tony is a telecommunications specialist with a creative bent towards audio recording. Having spent 30 years of working corporate jobs, raising kids and paying mortgages, they felt it was time for a little semi-retirement indulgence. Unfortunately, the boxes of old Scalextric cars they had stashed away during that time were now in poor condition and no match for the modern tracks and the new wave of components, bodies and electronics available today. A whole new generation of slot car products, including digital race-control systems, has enhanced the hobby and turned it into something baby-boomers will engage with long after the childhood reminiscence has worn off. The brothers rekindled their childhood with new slot car sets, but Melbourne’s changeable weather played havoc with the plastic – resulting in intermittent connection failure, rails tarnishing and track buckling. Not wanting to let the problems interfere with their fun, they knew they needed to get their hands on something closer to a commercialquality routed-wood track. They took a ride to see Peter van Horssen, the creator of the ‘Mr Slot Car’ and ‘Mr Trax’ businesses at the Melbourne Mobile Raceway in Hallam. Peter has been constructing small commercial tracks for his own mobile track rental business for some time and his expertise in slot cars and building routed wooden tracks is second to none. To the brothers, the quality of his work and attention to technical detail revealed someone who was passionate about his craft, and could realise their slot car vision.
Wanting to have something at home and the option of home visits, Rob and Tony each ordered a custom-designed two-lane track, both measuring 1.2m x 4m. The unique features in Peter’s track design include standard MDF (Medium-Density Fibreboard) construction, heavy-duty folding legs, durable track surface coating, bordering inlay, in eld artwork, Mr Traxbranded polycarbonate ex fencing, magnetised electrical braid (Magnabraid) and track-spacing wide enough to accommodate both 1:32 and 1:24 scale slot cars. Each track comprised two sections so it could be easily stowed away and transported if necessary.
The nished results were magni cent and Peter packaged a set of hand-controllers, transformers and additional cabling. Jumping in boots-and-all, within those 12 months they’d spent a large sum on cars, accessories, spares and essential parts. They were totally hooked, reliving their childhood passion and being wooed by new generation of slot cars on the market. In particular, the huge range that Scalextric has to offer, especially the muscle cars, made them popular with Rob and Tony.
Carrera, Slot-it, NSR, Sideways and Scaleauto were also added to their collections, but after a while they felt their home tracks were just not long enough to maximise the speed of these cars. Then Rob had a sudden rush of
blood to the head and decided to double the length of his track to incorporate a 7.5m long straight. They consulted with Peter to see if he was prepared to extend Rob’s track by adding to the middle sections. He thought it was a great idea, although it did present him with some unique challenges.
With his skills in electronics and design, Tony began sketching out a number of ideas and came up with the ultimate con guration: a track that offered interesting race challenges and enough in eld space for scenery – lots and lots of scenery.
For Rob, it meant having to completely rebuild a new shed to cover just over 60 square metres of space. Within a month he had a fully insulated and air-conditioned Stratco garage with a cooldeck roof, ready to house the proposed new track and slot car workshop. Cha-ching… there went another $40K!
Peter approved the designs they presented but he wanted Rob’s track back in his workshop so he could ensure that all the measurements lined up with the proposed new sections. The bulk of Peter’s tracks are hand-built, while the routing and special track joins are precision cut using CNC machinery. This is the most critical stage of the process because both the depth of the guide slot and the magnabraid routs have to be aligned perfectly to meet each section. It took a bit of trial and error, but he nailed the process.
When the nal CNC cuts and routed sections were completed, the priming coat and racing surface paint were applied, then the inlaying of track bordering and ripple strips were added. The nal stage was the installation of the braid, wiring con guration and controller sections.
As a cross-over wasn’t incorporated in the design, Peter came up with a track compensation section calculated to ensure both inside and outside lanes are of equal distance. This was the rst time Peter implemented this track compensation idea using Tony and Rob’s layout as a successful working prototype, although he normally incorporates cross-overs and/or gureeight con gurations to solve this issue. Peter is renowned for his six- and eight-lane commercial tracks, but for the last six months, the popularity of the modular wooden track layouts began sparking a huge interest from customers both here and abroad.
Fast forward another six months, and Tony and Rob have continually added all the scenery and trackside buildings to create a race circuit in miniature. Check out the sheer volume of pieces in the pit buildings, grandstands and garages. Tony was preparing to add a scenic backdrop when Rob suggested they commission one of his personal training clients Lydia Ciconte, to do it. Lydia is a well-known local artist and her works sell for $30K to $50K a piece…. so Rob now offers her free tness training for life!
You can see Lydia’s other works at lydia neart. com.au and Peter van Horssen’s slot track business is showcased at www.facebook.com/ MrTraxcustomtracks and www.mrtrax.com.au
Check out details, prices and video clips to see what they have to offer. Any way you look at it, the Dippa brothers have turned their hobby into a work of art.