7 minute read
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH AND BACK
Feature
The Second Leg of a Three-Part Tour Exploring Diecast Racing Around the World
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by Christopher Kidder-Mostrom
At the beginning of July we started our trek across the world to look at the folks who are making racing happen around the globe.
We started out in Canada, then went to California before visiting Portugal and New Zealand. It was a lot of territory to cover in one issue.
This month we’re going to essentially go on the return trip. We’re starting “Down Under” in Western Australia, then it’s off to Germany. Finally, we’ll wrap up in Ontario, Canada.
If you look to the map on the left, you’ll notice the purple diamonds that denote the locations we’ll be visiting in this article. There are also red diamonds which represent the places we looked at last time. Next month, a third color of diamonds will be added so we can see the vast scope of our overall travels. Cool?
Well, with no further ado, let us proceed!
Perth, Western Australia
By his own estimation, Ivan Leung has at least 1,000 Hot Wheels at his childhood home in Hong Kong. However, he left those behind when he moved to Australia at the age of 18 to study, and to build a career in broadcasting.
“My day job is news editor and weekend news anchor for WAMN News Perth (online),” Leung says of his nondiecast life. “My main beat is state politics, crime, and local matters.”
N OTHER NEWS - Thunder Roo Raceway’s man on the scene is Ivan Leung (above). He’s quite comfortable covering what goes on at the track, since he’s a professional newsman.
When Leung escapes from the demands of his job, he maintains a model train layout to which he recently added a 6-lane drag strip for Hot Wheels racing. “You can see the Australian Express Passenger Train (or, XPT train) running around as the race goes on,” notes Leung. “It’s fun to combine the two hobbies into one.”
It is true that viewers can watch the trains go by throughout an evening of racing at Thunder Roo Raceway. The montage at the beginning of the race includes a train pulling into the station so that people can get to the races.
WHERE THE TRACKS MEET - One of Leung’s racers Commodores and Ford Falcons, comes face to face with the regional passenger train.
Fans will also notice the skyline of Perth out the window, making it clear where the league makes its home. Not that the name didn’t do that already: “The reason it’s called Thunder Roo Raceway,” Leung explains, “is because the Kangaroo is Australia’s most popular animal you can think of.”
As an Australian league, it isn’t a huge surprise that the most recent series featured Holden but the cars used in the league aren’t exclusively Australian models. “There is a vast selection of Thunder Roo Raceway? According all cars....American, Japanese, to Ivan Leung.
To those who follow some of the more established race series, such as Sub4ra’s ADRC, the Thunder Roo name will be familiar, as Leung is one of the sponsors of that circuit. “Sub4ra’s racing is a joy to watch, and so popular!” Leung observes. What does the future hold for Thunder Roo Raceway? According to Ivan Leung, "There will be some crazy team matches coming soon!"
Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
On this journey, we are proceeding in the reverse direction from last month. So, naturally we are stopping in Europe for our next track.
(WorldTourcont. on page 13)
In Beuren, a small village near the border of Luxembourg, Stefan Huwer coordinates the efforts of High Forest Diecast Racing.
Huwer (pronounced Hoo-ver) doesn’t yet have an active racing series on YouTube. However, he’s having a huge effect on the racing community through participation in other sites’ races, and by coordinating what may end up being the largest track debut event around the world: “The Diecast Wars of Germany”.
Twenty contestants from around the world (though primarily from North America) will all be modding Hot Wheels Volkswagen Golf Mk2 cars for a tournament that will result in a winner-take-all situation. They’re playing for pink slips!
Huwer selected what type of car the racers would all be building randomly from a list of 120 vehicles. He also determined that all modders must make their cars appear to be racing cars, rather than leaving the modders to their own devices appearance-wise.
There is a very active Facebook Messenger thread where Huwer and the participants work out the details of the entire thing. “It think it is still manageable given the small number of participants,” confides Huwer. That is partly due to help stateside. “Josh Paufler from Rust Belt Racing is my right hand man in the USA.” In otder to save on postage costs, and to ensure timely arrival of cars from America to Germany, most of the cars competing will be headed to New York and shipped all together to Europe.
A lot of notable names in the diecast racing community are participating in the tournament, which seems to be well-received despite the track not being finished yet. “It will be a road course with a little bit of custom,” claims Huwer, “I think”.
Like many who have recently gotten involved with diecast racing, Huwer and his sons were inspired to create High Forest Diecast Racing Germany, as well as Diecast Junionteam Germany, after seeing videos hosted by 3DBotMaker.
A longtime Matchbox collector, he had already been involved in restoring and customizing cars. “While looking for tips on YouTube, I came across 3DBotMaker,” Huwer remembers.
“So far I have not found a comparable racing community in Germany,” Huwer says explaining his efforts to spread the word about diecast racing in his native land. “I hope to find track owners near me soon.”
In the meantime, he can be found racing at Rust Belt Diecast Racing, and other courses on the other side of the Atlantic. His custom food truck will soon be making its runs near Buffalo, NY.
Stefan Huwer is a name you’ll be hearing a lot about in the next few months, to be sure.
Ontario, Canada
We’re back in Canada, where our journey started last month. This time we are at the Brantford base camp of Beaverworx Diecast Racing.
Here we meet Deenbag the mystery man behind the Igloo Proving Grounds. Deenbag is essentially a homespun Canadian version of Jeremy Clarkson... At least on his YouTube channel.
Not every diecast racing channel is strictly about racing. Some are about the story, or the community. And yet others are about the stats, and performance testing.
Deenbag has provided the world with a diecast version of Top Gear, if that BBC show were produced by the CBC in a remote advanced research and development base.
the tri axle dump truck driver relates. “The testing and doing the specs like we do seemed to fit that kind of format.”
At the beginning of each event, cars are measured in various ways. The calipers come out and car width, height, length, and wheel base are all dutifully recorded. As are the degrees of tilt that a car can stand before rolling over (perhaps the most useful stat when it comes to some kinds of racing).
“There is an Excel document and we are keeping track of the scores,” says Deenbag. “Plan is that when we get 20+ vehicles tested, we are going to open up the webpage and source the results as a growing database.”
As he database grows, so too does his collection. Deenbag sites “the ability to have hundreds of your favorite vehicles without the need of a hangar” as one of the primary things that attracts people to the sport of diecast racing. That, and “imagination”.
“We are going for a full 1/64 test bed for as many vehicles as we can. Some cars do not work on Fat Track, but will go down orange track. Raised vehicles like trucks don’t go down either very well, so they need something different,” Deenbag explains. “We are incorporating it all in one setting.”
As of right now there is a course with track, an off-road course with exceptionally rough terrain, and a jump track that is akin to a ski jump made for cars. What led to a track that is nothing more than a vertical drop into a jump over a gaping hole? “Curiosity, really. I truly wanted to know what vehicles would fly the best in controlled circumstances.
The cars take that jump and land on a much wider open field, and earn points for distance, stability of landing, and flair in their post jump landing.
In many ways the trucks that take on “The Stoned Road” have a much more straightforward test. They get points based on how far they make it down the track. Said track is filled with stones that in scale are about the size of pumpkins, which may seem a little absurd, but the rock size is by design. “I use a kitchen strainer and find a random pile of gravel to keep the size uniform. Much smaller gets stuck in the wheels, and much bigger flips them.”
