Slot Wheels -- Fans Of The Small-Scale Cars Get On Track At The Area's Few Remaining Raceways

Open the door at West Seattle Speedway & Hobby, a landmark since 1965, and shout: "You're still here!"

That's what most people do, with good reason: Slot car racing is going the way of the drive-in movie. Both still are great fun and have their followings, but they take up too much space for how few dollars they bring in.

Slot car tracks in Everett, Arlington and Maple Valley are gone. But West Seattle, Puyallup and Tacoma still buzz.

Round and round the little cars fly on waist-high indoor tracks, sounding like mosquitoes circling microphones. Bzzzzzzzz, bzzzzzzzz.

Depending on the track, the cars range from the size of a pink eraser to the size of an adult's palm. They're powered by electricity, and racers control them by squeezing a trigger. They're held to the track by a front-mounted guide pin - in theory, at least.

"Ohhhh noooo!"

Drive too fast around a corner, and your car will fly off the track like a flopping trout. Drive too slow, and it's worse: You can get passed.

People who do it regularly buy and service their own cars. But anyone can rent a car, a controller and track time for rates ranging from $3 for 15 minutes to $10 an hour.

Aficionados talk about the thrills. It takes patience and concentration and provides a nice competition that isn't aggressive.

But a peek into West Seattle Speedway reveals that slot car racing is much more. It's a gathering, primarily of men and boys, who share a love of mechanics and speed, albeit in miniature.

At a recent Monday night race on West Seattle's tiny HO-scale track, which has cars 1/87th the size of real autos, a 7-year-old squeezes the controller beneath the elbow of a man who's 47. Both are equally intent.

There's a regular United Nations of ethnicity. At some races, the adults represent half a Rolodex of professions: tugboat captain, computer consultant, engineer, minister, counselor.

Jill Johnson, a single mother, brings her son Luke, 7, in for some guy time.

"They're very good to Luke," Johnson said. "It's a great cross-section of humanity."

The Johnsons have a thrift shop race track set up in their basement, a holdover from the heyday of slot car racing in the 1960s. Today's cars are faster and more durable and so are the tracks.

Slot car racing was imported from Britain 40 years ago. Popularity runs in 20-year cycles, track owners say.

Men who were boys in the 1950s and '60s are the ones who come into West Seattle Speedway and shout, "You're still here!" Now they have their own kids or grandkids in tow.

Here is a sport where size is not necessarily an advantage. Mercer Island's John Berg, 47, still regularly outraces his sons, Thomas, 10, and Evan, 8. But Thomas is the master of repair, since his smaller fingers can manipulate the tiny parts.

Berg, who used to race full-size motocross, finds he gets the same sensation racing little cars around the track.

"You can actually create an adrenaline rush of unbelievable levels," Berg said.

The HO cars, which are the same size you buy with a toy store track, are gaining popularity because even the new plastic competition-level tracks can fit into a bedroom or garage. The Bergs follow a circuit at people's houses.

But when it comes to full-size slot cars - either 1/32nd or 1/24th scale, meaning you would have to blow up the auto 24 times to get it the size of a real car - owners of commercial tracks say only three remain:West Seattle Speedway, South Hill Slots in Puyallup and Buddy B's in Tacoma.

West Seattle Speedway has tracks for all three car sizes plus parts and service for any model car. Thomas and Evan's mother, Betty, says manager Fred Forrest should charge day-care rates because the place is such a popular hangout for kids.

Puyallup's South Hill Slots is more of a family affair. The Livernash family run their 1/24th-scale track, whose running length is 95 feet, out of a 1,200-square-foot garage.

The world's longest track is said to be at Buddy B's Slot Car Racing in Tacoma, in the back of a business park not far from Cheney Stadium. It took Buddy Bill and his wife, Ardie, 10 months to build their track, which at 242 feet, 4 inches is the same size as a Boeing 777-300.

In Everett, Super Slots Raceway lost its battle with rising rents, but Everett Scale Raceway has opened with a different kind of track for radio-controlled model cars, which require less room. The cost is about the same: $7 for a half-hour, which includes rental.

Women and girls and boys as young as 4 come to practice or race, said Chris Livernash in Puyallup. But the predominant patron is men in their 30s and 40s.

"It slows you down, it makes you patient," Livernash said. Then he confessed the truth:

"I think it's being with all the different guys at the track having fun, talking, working on cars and stuff like that." ------------------------------- Tracks

West Seattle Speedway & Hobby 4539 California Ave. S.W. 206-932-9620 Open: 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., except Monday and Friday when it's open until 8 p.m.; Sundays noon to 5:30 p.m. Cost: $3 for 15 minutes, including car, controller and track time HO racing Monday nights 1/24th scale Friday nights

South Hill Slots, Puyallup 12623 67th Ave. E. 253-845-1204 Open: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday Cost: $8 an hour to rent car and controller Racing 7 p.m. Thursdays

Buddy B's Slot Car Raceway 2031 70th Ave. W., Tacoma 253-565-0323 Open: 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Cost: $3 for 15 minutes or $10 an hour to rent car and controller; $6 an hour with own equipment

Everett Scale Raceway Radio-controlled model racing 2531 Broadway, Suite G 425-252-1600 Open: 10 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday Club racing at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday