The Jerry Schmoyer Slot Racing Story
I started racing slot cars in the late 70's with my three brothers. My
first car was a Porsche 917-10 RC Cola AFX car. It was to be the only
non-magnatraction car I would have until adulthood. We had a track
occasionally set up in the basement and I would routinely get my butt
whooped by my older brothers. They always seemed to have the newest
types of
cars. They would race Super Mags and G's While all I had was
Magnatractions.
Needless to say I wasn't very competitive. We didn't know much about
tuning.
We cleaned them, ran them, and cleaned them until all the brushes and
springs were lost in the carpet. I joined the Navy out of High School
in 1985
and would occasionally pull out my old box of 13 cars, 5 running and
the
rest in pieces, and run them on my broken AFX tracks from the Data Race
set.
But I didn't seriously get into the hobby until 1998. I came back from
a six
month cruise and used the wonderful internet to search for slot car
stuff.
It was here that I first heard of Thunderjets and decided to order my
first
four used ones. A red Lola GT, white and yellow Ferrari 250's and a
white
Jag. I quickly migrated to the DL and sent a request searching for
racers in
the Va Beach area. To my surprise there was a racer in the area who I
learned to be more of a legend in the sport than I knew at the time. He
called me up and we quickly got together. He was Tom Bowman. He took me
to
the magnet racers spot in Gloucester, VA and I was hooked on racing and
building. BUT it wasn't until he broke out some of his old Tjets and
made my
mouth drop as to how good they could be. Note this was before sponge
silicone rear tires and heavy front ends were in fashion. We became
building
buddies and competitors at the same time. We were always racing and
sometimes they were even close but he would always win. Every now and
then
he would pity and let me win but not often. One day I will win
outright. So
I keep trying. We started some good trends by adding weight to the
front and
even testing Wizzards tires before they went into production. Now Tjets
are
it for me. I will still race the magnet cars on occasion but there is
nothing like putting in the work necessary and doing the fine tuning
necessary to make a car fly. With the new JL's here I will enjoy Tjets
for a
long time to come and may even get to enjoy a part of my childhood I
missed
by being born a decade too late.