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The slot cars “vroom” around the magnetic track at Ace Hobby where amateurs, regulars and enthusiasts from around the world place their cars on the track to determine just who is the leader of the pack.
Owner Ron Shatzel took a few moments away from a Thursday night race series recently to answer a few questions and show off his place where kids and grownups come to play.
QUESTION: I’ve never been in your store before, tell me what I’m missing?
ANSWER: Oh, you’re missing all kinds of things. We’ve been in business for 61 years now. We started over on 18th and Pierce. About 10 years ago we moved over to 3019 Niagara St. We sell all kinds of airplanes, boats, cars, trains.
•••
Q: Not real ones ...
A: (Laughs) No, just models, scale models, plastic models you have to put together. We don’t do any radio control anymore, so we do slot cars now which are cheaper and much more fun.
•••
Q: Are radio controlled cars too expensive?
A: It got too expensive and too out of control, too many varieties, and everything changes too much.
•••
Q: So, slot cars are cheap?
A: In comparison to (remote control) cars. And they’re more fun. We’ve got quite a few different classes for racing both stock classes and modified classes. The stock classes we race on Saturday afternoon. It’s boxed stock cars, right out of the box, so anybody can get in. They look like the NASCAR cars you see on TV. You race the car as it is, right out of the box.
•••
Q: What would it cost you to just open up a car out of the box and drive it as it is?
A: Well a stock box stock car is around $47. Then we rent the control out or you can buy your own speed control type thing which is like $25 or you can rent it for a dollar for the race.
•••
Q; How much does it cost to race?
A: The racing on Saturday is completely free. You just have to have the proper car for the proper race.
•••
Q: You seem to have lots of interesting friends here tonight ... Tell me about “Yellow Dog.”
A: He’s been a customer since he was a little kid and able to walk across the street on his own. He’s a friend of mine too. He’s like the race director here and he organizes the proxy racing where cars are sent here from all over the world. Then he posts the results on the Internet so the people who enter the races can see how their car is faring.
•••
Q: Are they big prizes?
A: Bragging rights for the next week. That’s all you get. And we list it on the Internet as to who won, what place they came in, how many laps they’ve done.
•••
Q. Are your customers mostly men acting like children or children acting like grownups?
A: It’s men acting like they’re in their second childhood. They’re having fun. A lot of times they didn’t have the money when they were young or the time to do the things like this until later in life. There’s also a lot of kids into it, and fathers and sons ... We had a 6- or 8-year-old girl in here racing that was pretty good.
•••
Q: Seems to me you are having some fun too.
A: Oh, sure. On different nights I race. Usually I can’t race when there’s business hours, but after hours we have some different racing too.
•••
Q: Do you win?
A: Sometimes. Most of the time not. I used to (laughs) but everybody’s getting better now. Especially the younger kids. They’re better with the faster reflexes.
•••
Q: But do you practice all week long when there’s nobody around?
A: Oh, no, I have to work. That’s what I tell them anyway.
Features
Related Photos
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PHOTO BY DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Racers compete on the slot track at Ace Hobby on Niagara Street. DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
VIDEO: Inside Ace Hobby
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