Super Bowl Slotcar Sunday
Matt Seinberg

I have two hobbies. The first is bigappleairchecks.com and audio editing. The second is slot cars, many of which I've had since I was twelve years old.

Some of my slotcars date to my adolescence.

The two sets, of slot cars from my youth, were given to me by my late grandmother Dorothy. They were put away in boxes sometime in the late 70s and not taken out until five years ago.

My daughter Melissa had seen the boxes in the basement and kept asking of them. My solution was simple. When we had our bathroom remodeled, I got an extra piece of 4’ X 8’ 3/4" plywood and put it on top of our air hockey table, where it resides, today.

Fast forward to today. I upgraded my track from original Aurora lock and joiner, to TOMY AFX, which snaps together quite easily. I made several different layouts, three of which were two lanes and the latest, which is four lanes.

My friend Rob and I made slotcar plans for all three days of the Super Bowl weekend. Friday night we went to the home of Pete, a mutual friend, who has a beautiful four lane custom routed HO track, which is fully landscaped. It has what Pete calls "Easter Eggs," hidden features in and around the track.

My favourite is the Batcave, which has the guardrail in front of it and the doors open. You can look down into the lighted tunnel and see the Batmobile! It is so cool.

Two friends from out of town joined us as well. Joe is from Kansas. Jim is from Florida.

Also joining us was Bob from Connecticut. He organizes and runs the slot car show on Sunday. Pepe and Alex, brothers from Bayshore, rounded out the weekend group.

Pete brought pizza and a great time was had by all.

We ran cars around the track, along with talking about the upcoming show. I left around 10:15 pm, as I was almost falling asleep. I had had a long day and could barely keep my eyes open. Rob caught me dozing off. It was time to go.

I went to work on Saturday and met the guys for dinner at a restaurant Pete went to all the time. Rob and I had gone to the restaurant, a couple of years ago, with our wives. Joining us, as well, were some other friends. A table of nine at dinner is always fun.

Afterwards we went up to the Huntington Hilton where the slotcar show was going to be and ran into some of the dealers that were going to be there. I had met some of the attendees in the past. It's always fun to shoot the breeze and hope they want to sell what we want to buy. Around 11 pm, Rob and I left, dead tired from a long day.

I woke up at 6:45 am on Sunday to leave the house at 7:45 am and get to the show by eight. Early admission starts at 7 am, but not all the dealers are set up by then. Besides, I didn't want to get up at 5:30 am, as did Rob. He was helping his friend Ernie at a table and selling a few items himself.

My plan was to talk to some of my friends, buy a few things, and be out by 11 am or shortly thereafter. There was a raffle at 11, which I didn't win, so I left. I gave Rob my ticket and hoped for the best.

I went home, watched some television and took a nap. Then my wife and I left for Rob's house to watch the Super Bowl, with his wife Liz, and another couple that we had not met. A full three days of slot cars and good friends.

Winners all around.

Oh yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years with a 31-20 win over the San Francisco 48ers. I didn't win any boxes at work either. Rob did win $1K and his daughter won $750.