Parts are parts, but pieces are hard to find is a saying I learned while working on IMCA modifieds on weekly basis. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I always took it to mean parts, being bigger and more available, were abundant, while pieces were smaller and less readily available, and therefore harder to find.

For the people looking for parts and pieces for their Aurora, Johnny Lightning and Auto World HO cars, Auto World has many parts AND pieces available, including rivets and other more difficult to find pieces. Of course not all parts and pieces will fit all chassis, but many of these were previously unavailable.
ThunderJet Parts
X-Traction/AFX Parts
4-Gear Parts

Tires are something every slot car driver and racer needs. Needs vary based on track, class and desired result. Racing, restoring and modifying are the most common goals. Finding your favorite tire and wheel combination can be a fun challenge. Try some of these for inspiration and experimentation.
Balls Out HO Tires and Wheels - All kinds of good stuff.
SluggoSlots - Silicone covered foam tires (silifoams) for Tyco, Tomy and T-jets, as well as the pieces to fabricate your own.
Jel-Claws - Slip-on silicone tires for a variety of HO cars.
Heister's Penn Valley Tires/Super Tires
RT-HO tires and wheels - CNC machined rims, silicone and silifoam tires for racing.
Road Racing Replicas - Tires and wheels mostly for restoration and modification of T-Jets and AFX.

Pickup Shoes are key to getting those sweet, sweet electrons from the power rails to the brushes and armatures. Depending on your setup and track you're running on, different shoes work differently.
Model Motoring - Reproduction stock T-Jet shoes.
Wizzard - The E-82 is a favorite T-Jet shoe among Fray racers. Wizzard offers options for many other cars, as well.
BSRT - A wide variety of shoes and many, many other cars, parts and pieces.
AFX - The stock AFX shoes.

There are so many other pieces and parts in all the different classes of HO slot cars that it's nearly impossible to cover them all. Fill in the gaps. Let everyone know what I forgot. Tell us all your favorite tires, shoes and other pieces or parts.

Here is a collection of all of the videos of the Fray in Ferndale 2012 I could find. Please reply or comment with links to other Fray 2012 videos you know about.

Individual Competiton, A-Main.
Video by Lenjet1.
No audio in the car, title or screen shots (first 12 seconds).

In the HO world, the last 15 years have brought the evolution of Fray-style T-Jet racing gain a really good head of steam and spur interest around the world, many manufacturers have come and gone, many, many tracks have come and gone, drag racing has made a reappearance, Auto World is making 4-gear chassis and silifoams became the norm for competition.

In the 1/32 world, since 1997 we've seen cars and tracks go digital, detail on bodies has been brought to a new high, and quite a few new manufacturers have emerged.

For 1/24 scale, between the late 90s and early 2010s, we've seen drag racing grow, retro racing has become a class, and collecting 60s and 70s cars is booming.

For all the scales, electronic controllers started showing up.

HO in the 1980s and early 90s had trucking, TCR and AFX, then the decline of trucking, TCR and AFX, the explosion of inline magnet car racing, and Lexan bodies became the norm.

I wasn't part of 1/32 or 1/24 in the 80s and early 90s so I can't really comment on that period, but I'd love to hear your stories.

What do you think we'll be seeing in the next 15 years of slot car racing? Digital HO? Mag-Lev? Wireless?

Several people have reported that they are going through racing withdrawals following their venture to the Fray in Ferndale. Many returned home on Sunday or Monday and are already getting together tonight (Wednesday) for story telling, practice and notes sharing.

In addition, there are proposals and calendars flying around for race events coming up as early as this weekend!

Now THAT is dedication to the hobby. Or maybe it's an addiction. Is there a slot car wing at the Betty Ford Clinic?

Reporting on the Fray in Ferndale in real-time has been a bit of an experience and very fun. I've learned a lot that I will carry through to the next race I cover. Here are my notes on this experience, as well as some background.

General Information:
- This site is less than one month old.


- There is a hunger for information about multi-day races while they are happening.

- It's difficult to get ahold of people at the Fray for several reasons.
     - Internet connectivity is allegedly limited in Ferndale.
     - Cell phone reception is allegedly spotty in Ferndale.
     - People racing in Ferndale are busy.- People from around the world are interested in the Fray.
     - This site was visited by people from Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Spain, France and New Zealand in the past week. They were all looking for Fray information.
- People from across this country of ours are interested in the Fray.
     - This site was visited by people from 39 of the lower 48 states, plus the District of Columbia.- Information about this site and the Fray information held within was posted to a dozen Yahoo! groups, as well as several forum sites. Days and times the link was posted led to the highest traffic moments. (not really a surprise)

Notes for the next event:
There needs to be a better way of organizing the information. Perhaps a forum setup instead of a single blog entry. This will hopefully allow for a better organization of the information and an easier way to reply.

There needs to be a better way to view the results info on a mobile device. Right now it's very confusing.

Establishing connections and specific date/time check-ins ahead of time will likely increase the information volume and regularity. Please contact me if you're interested in helping out with this at the next big race you attend.

If you have input on how things went, please send it along. You can email it or just reply to this thread.