History of the Intercontinental CANAM '86

When in 1985 - after 20 years of absence - I re-turned to slotracing I found a completely chan-ged world: half of the racers opted for wing cars, other half for scale cars. The gap between both worlds was deep: wing car racers were not aware about what scale racers were doing and vice versa. Moreover wing car racers followed the American/Scandinavian example of cars at 1/24th and scale racers followed the British ex-ample of cars at 1/32nd. In May I created IMCA (International Model Car Association) with as first goal bringing both worlds together. I launched a series of 43 races, spread over twelve meetings with a real Ferrari 308 GTB as first prize, 3 Peugeots 205 GTi and 6 Hondas S800 as additional prizes. I paid international racers their plane tickets and gave them on top a starting bonus. The series was called Pinky Point and something never seen before. All the best racers from all over the world were interested and IMCA created the most representative entry fields in the history of slot-racing.
One of the highlights of Pinky Point were the 12 CANAM races, contested with models of CANAM race cars seen in competition between 1966 and 1974. Half of the races were contested with production chassis at scale 1/24th, the other half with Eurosport chassis at scale 1/32nd. At each meeting entrants were asked to race both classes. So it was the first time since the roaring 1960s that wing car racers and scale racers were involved in a direct competition with the others.

THE ES/32 ROUNDS - The Canam races were at the origins of a radical change in the ES/32 class. When scale racers discovered the open cans of the motors as used by the wing car racers, it took little time before they were won for the open motors with cobalt magnets. The new series with CANAM cars was announced in a special issue of EuroSlot released on January 1986. Already in February ProSlot released the ProSlot PP Mk1 chassis with the open motor. The One-o-One as manufactured by Dave Harvey and the OPP as made by Ian Jensen were at that moment the best chassis on the market, but in no time ProSlot blew them away. At the first CANAM race for 1/32nd cars the already modified ProSlot PP Mk2 conquered 8 places among the top-10. Those chassis were built as a close co-operation among Dan Debella (USA), Raymond van Campenhout (B), Jan Limpach (USA) and Jon Laster (USA). At the second CANAM race for ES/32 the new chassis was good for a 1-2-4-5-6-7. Meanwhile Csaba Szekelyhidi (USA) had developed his own Camen Zeke Mk1, finishing 3rd. At the 3rd Canam round for ES/32 there were already new versions of the ProSlot  PP at the start, from Mk2 up to Mk5A. A 1-3-4-8-9-10-11 was the result with the first OPP only as 12th.
Up to then there had never been a direct confrontation between the several ProSlot PP chassis and the handicraft Italian chassis as released by Giovanni Montiglio. At that moment, mid 1986, the Italians ruled the ES/32 world. So the World Championship at Valkenburg (NL) was the ultimate clash between the total new American view on ES/32 and the settled Italian view (the Britons were greatly absent). Debella gave a ProSlot PP Mk5B to Italy's youngster Sergio Mares-ca and Georges Baikry and entered a PP Mk6A for himself and Jan Limpach. Csaba was there with his Camen Zeke Mk1 and Jon Laster with an own Camen 035. The Italians were confident that they could beat those new American chassis since Giovanni Montiglio, Bruno Novarese and Pietro Razzano showed all with the famous Montiglio Flexi Inox chassis.  The race, however, was won by Sergio Maresca and the ProSlot Mk5B. Debella was 4th with the Mk6A. Montiglio and Novarese were 2nd and 3rd with the traditional Montiglio Flexi chassis. Up to then the ProSlot PP chassis had won 3 of the 4 CANAM rounds (only the first round was lost from the Heerwegh MkII). Montiglio was out on revenge. He thus showed for the 5th CANAM ES/32 round with his  Montiglio Flexi Inox. Dan Debella, Willy Heerwegh and I were all present with the latest ProSlot PP Mk6A, but we were defeated by the Italian. After having started with the wrong controller on the wrong lane, loosing some 12 laps, I finished 2nd, 20 laps behind. More important was that meanwhile Jan Limpach had created a production car, EuroToy 32PR, with a simple Mura G12 motor, able to follow the best ES/32 cars. In Czechia they immediately made a copy of it and sold it under another name. The EuroToy 32PR was by far the best production car at scale 1/32nd ever released.

In September, two months after the IMCA Worlds in Valkenburg, there was a round of the European championship for ES/32, and we decided to send some of our best racers to there with the ProSlot PP Mk5B. They realised a 1-2-4-6 with Georges Baikry, Sergio Maresca, Willy Heerwegh and Jan Limpach. It was the first time of the year that the Italian machinery was beaten so sharply. This time Montiglio was only 19th. Beaten too were the Britons who had mounted G27 motors in their Awideck, Harvey, OPP and 1-0-1 chassis. Dave Harvey himself was only 26th on 51. So the Britons asked for a revenge race. Although the CANAM PP series was already over we accepted the challenge and added one more round in November. The Britons, however, refused to race Canam bodies, since they had no experience with it. So we allowed them to race their Betta Ferrari 512S bodies.
The race was organised on November 22, 1986 in Antwerp. There were 50 entries, the strongest field seen since the 82 and 227 entries at Val-kenburg. The Britons came with their best racers: Dave Harvey and Steve Walker with a 1-0-1, Ian Jensen with an OPP, Tim Ryan and Monty Yarnell with a Ryan Flexiboard. Of the Americans only Dan Debella and Jan Limpach used the ProSlot PP Mk6A, just as Sergio Maresca(I), Chuck Ingram (CDN), Chantal Aerts (B), Celso Duarte (BR), Olivier Demoget (F),  Dominique Bellenger (F) and myself. All other ProSlots were Mk2B and Mk4. Jon Laster (USA), Ralph Klose (D), Bruce and Tracy Adamson (CND) and Tim Murphy (CDN) raced all the new Camen 035 as built by Laster. Surprisingly Willy Heerwegh, defending his first place in the Pinky Point ranking against Maresca, didn't start with a ProSlot, but with a Camen 035.
The Italians were present with their best racers. Montiglio, Michele Scarpato, Alberto Capra, Franco and Corina Gianotti, Silvio Giacobbi, and Giorgio Brenna all showed with typical Italian handicraft machinery. It was the one but last round of the Pinky Point series.
Jon Laster took TQ ahead of Maresca, Montiglio, Giacobbi, Harvey, Scarpato, Ian Jensen, Aerts, Ryan, Debella, Ingram and myself. Especially the Britons, having worked the whole night on their machinery, were motivated to win. But Maresca was once more outstanding, offering ProSlot a new victory. Dave Harvey finished 2nd at 11 laps, 8 laps ahead over Montiglio. Then came Chuck Ingram and Jan Limpach on ProSlot. Ian Jensen was 6th, Steve Walker 8th. Jon Laster was first Camen man on rank 9, ahead of Capra and Heerwegh. For the last one his 11th place was a real drama. Having been on the lead of the Pinky Point standings since the second round, at once his advance over Maresca was down to 5 points with only one round to go. So there was a tremendously high chance that youngster Maresca should not only win the Peugeot 205 GTi for the first youngster, but also the Ferrari 308GTB for the overall winner. It was enough that Maresca should win the last round to win the Ferrari. Hero of the last Pinky Point round was Chuck Ingram (CDN), beating Maresca, so that Heerwegh was the eventual winner of the Ferrari. That last round was not contested with CANAM cars, but with new IMSA prototype bodies.

Main final of CANAM round #7 with ES/32 Canam cars. F.l.t.r. Dan Debella (USA), Jan Limpach (USA), JPVR (B), Chantal Aerts (B), Willy Heerwegh (B) and Jean-Luc Orban (B). The round will be won by Dan Debella, here the fastest away after the start.a

The 1986 IMCA World Championship inValkenburg (NL) was contested with CANAM cars, as well in Production G12 as in ES32. Here the semi-final of the CANAM race with 1/24th scale cars. F.r.t.l. we recognise Lasse Aberg (S), Giovanni Montiglio (I), Ja, Limpach (USA), Bruno Novarese (I), Dan Debella (USA), Jon Laster (USA), Georges Baikry (B) and Celso Duarte (BR). Next to Duarte is Sergio Maqresca (I) who qualified already for the main final. It's round #9 of the 1986 CANAM series.

THE MODEL CAR 1/24 ROUNDS - The Pinky Point CANAM races of 1986 were not only the start of a technological revolution in 1/32nd scale racing, they induced only a revolu-tion in 1/24th scale racing. Of the 12 CANAM rounds 5 were contested with new ProSlot/Euro-Toy G12 cars using already such types of chas-sis as later used in ES/24. All those rounds were contested with one-make-chassis and were a prototype of racing with equal arms. Contrarly to 1/32nd racing one used here very detailed lexan bodies, not the flat ones as in ES/32 racing. Bodies were of PETG and were considered as model cars (racing with hard plastic bodies started only in 1994, when the PlaFit chassis came on the international market; nevertheless there was already one CANAM round, at Châtenay-Malabry, contested with hard plastic [HP] bodies, where K&B chassis were the most used). The first of those races was also consi-de-red as the real first world championship with model cars. Compared to the actual hyper detailed model cars, they were rather rags, but it was the primitive start of model car racing.
For that first CANAM round Jan Limpach built me a fatastic car, probably the best I ever drove. Although I had certainly not the racing abilities of Limpach, Debella, Csaba Szekelyhidi, etc., I won that race, 11 laps ahead over Debella and 20 ahead over Limpach.
The following race with 1/24th CANAM cars was contested at Châtenay-Malabry in France. It was undoubtedly the best race ever by Dominique Bellenger who let Heerwegh, Limpach and Laster all behind him. The strange rules in qualifications where one could never be more than 10 % slower than TQ provoked that no less

The CANAM races were also supported in real racing. Here IMCA's Formula Ford as raced in 1986 by Karl Frahm. Meanwhile all ProSlot Mk5 and Mk6 cars were sold under the label of EuroToy.

than 36 racers out of 60 were not qualified for the eventual race. Among the victims of that strange rule we counted Ralph Klose, Mike Swiss, Chantal Aerts, Dan Debella and myself. The day after, at round #5, we had a race with cars with hard plastic bodies. Number of entries was down to 20. The Americans Mike Swiss, Csaba Szekelyhidi and Ron Fleck missed the main due to a wrong chassis selection. That main was dominated by the Americans Jon Laster, Jan Limpach and Dan Debella, having all 3 opted for an ald Monogram chassis. Towards the end of the race Debella burnt out his motor so that Willy Heerwegh could take bronze. I raced an original Lotus 30 from Cox and finished 5th.
Round #6, in Antwerp, went again with PETG bodies in 1/24th. Dan Debella won the race with Limpach as 2nd and I as 3rd. He won also the 1/32nd race at the same meeting. 
Very impressive was round #9 in the Casino of Valkenburg (NL) where everybody had to race a G20 car. For the IMCA 124 Worlds there were no less than 227 entries. More than 150 racers received for free the new ProSlot G20 car in RTR Canam version plus a Parma controller. Only the 8th first pros, 8th first youngsters and 8th first amateurs were allowed to contest the 3 main finals. Since I finished 10th among the pros I missed the main, just as so many others (we were 48 pros, 20 youngsters, and 159 amateurs. Among the eliminated pros we found the two Gianottis, Csaba, Lee Gilbert, the two Magnanis, Bruce Adamson, Monty Yarnell, Mick Lawrence, Chuck Ingram, Willy Heerwegh, etc.
Round #10 in Antwerp, the last with 1/24th "model" cars saw 34 entries, among them Limpach (USA), Debella (USA), Aberg (S), Montiglio (I), Bellenger (B) and the best Belgians with Heerwegh, Baikry, Aerts, Patrice Dohogne and Orban. Victory went to Jan Limpach ahead of Heerwegh, myself, Montiglio and Debella.

THE FINAL RANKING - Initially there was a se-parate ranking for youngsters and seniors where in both categories the top-10 won res. 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point. That falsified completely the final standings, since Leo Vogel (NL) had only competition from Michele Scarpa-to (I), Sergio Maresca (I) and from Olivier De-moget (F). The two Italians were undoubtedly faster than Vogel: 2 super talents, but could not win the CANAM Trophy for Juniors since both entered only 3 of the 12 rounds. With 5 victories out of 12 Vogel scored more points than all the seniors, where there was a very close competition among Limpach, Debella, Laster, Csaba, Montiglio, Maresca, Novarese, Ingram, Heerwegh, JPVR, Aers, Baikry, etc. Officially Vogel won the Pinky Point Canam series ahead of Limpach, Montiglio, Debella, JPVR, Heerwegh and Maresca. Later the standings were done over: (a) the global standings of seniors and juniors all together and (b) the apart standings of the youngsters. We publish both standings below.
The global standings were won by Jan Limpach (USA), having won 2 rounds and collecting 8 podium places out of 12 races. Runner-up was Willy Heerwegh (B) with 1 victory and 5 podiums. Third was Dan Debella (USA) with 2 wins and 5 podiums. JPVR (B) was 4th with 1 victory and 4 podiums. The Italians Giovanni Montiglio and wonder boy Sergio Maresca won both twice, but missed the 7 first rounds. Jon Laster (USA) did only 6 rounds, winning once and 2 podiums.
Extremely efforts were done to attract as many youngsters as possible. Of the 660 entries 296 came from youngsters, 208 different racers in total. Of all those young racers only ...4 are still racing today: Olivier Demoget (F), Antonio Merlini (I), Rob de Hek (NL) and "Piki" van Rossem. At the 1986 CANAM "Piki" was only 7 years old, but he finished already 13th among 296 youngsters!

1986 IMCA WORLDS AT VALKENBURG - Of those 11 ES/32 cars no less than 7 used already the open can. Top left is the winning car of Sergio Maresca, a ProSlot PP Mk6A already using carbon fibre elements. Other ProSlot cars using carbon fibre are Limpach's (top, second car from the right) and my car (bottom right). There were 82 cars at the start.