DEFENSE OF MY RANKING OF RETRO RACERS

How far the intolerance of some retro racers can go?

December 21, 2009 - As could be expected my ranking of retro racers has been ridiculed by PdL and his closest friends. The "scientific" refutation of the list is worded by die-hard fascist PdL as follows: "I guess Jean-Pierre is now in stiff (if you pardon my French) competition with Tiger for how many women he "had". Between the two of them, it makes for good entertainment if TV is really that bad. As far as his "ranking", one has to figure out how he comes to a conclusion that is complete and utter fantasy. But hey, what else is new from "le bon Jean-Pierre?" Can a refutation be more ridiculous than that? I am a professional econometrician, formed in the States, and by profession always involved in all types of statistics. So, when I make a ranking, it's based upon serious assumptions. I found three major sources about retro racing: the BPR D3 races (culminating in the Checkpoint Cup), the IRRA Sano races organised by Mike Swiss and the IRRA R4 races organised in Colombus, Ohio. When I compared the quantity of entrants, the R4 races seemed more interesting than the Sano races, but less than at the  D3 Checkpoint Cup. Level of entrants at Ohio (the quality), however, seemed seriously lower than at the D3 Checkpoint Cup  and at the Sano races. As retro races don't belong to model car racing, but to scale racing, in ISRA style, but with vintage style chassis, and as the number of IOC events for scale races must be equal with those in wing car racing and in model car racing, it was impossible to consider the three types of scale racing, but maximum two. So I used rational logic to drop the R4 races from the list. In the words of PdL that becomes: "Trying to put any logic in this man's brain is futile. He is quite intelligent but one has to believe that substance abuse and the reading of too many extremist books have seriously hampered his selective mathematics. Hey, I had 3,000 women once too, but they all said no. Do you think that it was a sign?"

Clearly a pure emotional reaction without the smallest arguments (as always when PdL states something). The only serious criticism came from the hand of Howie Ursaner. He mentioned that the top 10 of the Coupes races (GT) at the 2009 Checkpoint Cup was wrong, as it were the results of the B Main, not of the A Main. I immediately corrected the error. Unfortunately Keith Tanaka didn't publish the results of that A Main. More than that Howie won from Warmack and Trujillo was not found. Moreover finding results of D3 races is a serious puzzle as nobody saves historical files of complete results. Same problems for the Sano races where the results are spread over a long list of threads on Slotblog. It's obvious that there is no easy way to find all those results as nobody publishes them on an apart map. 

Intolerance of some of the PdL lackeys transgresses the borders of what is imaginable. One of those highly educated spirits even found that JPVR should be sued before court for plagiary as most of the racers pics were copied from Slotblog. But where we are going with such intolerant people??? I just try to inform my readers, especially the Europeans, of what is going on in American retro racing. Instead of appreciating the efforts I do to promote retro racing I am continuously attacked by always the same clique. Attacks are purely emotional, not based upon bare facts. Another criticism is that I should have firstly to contact the the retro racers themselves before making the ranking of retro racers. Consulting them for what? To witness once more their unbelievable sense of childish hair splitting? No, thank you.

Meanwhile number of critical mails on the address of PdL and his lackeys grow from day to day. I restrict myself to only two. Victor Ferguson from True Scale wrote me: "JP, I am sorry that PdL again has not left you alone. I hired an attorney (about 5 years ago) to stop him from bothering me. Anyhow. I would like to help you with your IMCA CanAm racing plans... Let me know if I can make the bodies for you. Free to IMCA of course.
Regards and Happy Holidays,
Victor Ferguson".
Nelson Swanberg - I don't know exactly who he is - wrote: "JPVR. Thank you for all you have done for the slot car racing hobby and sport. Don't let the ingnorant and uniformed people on the slotblog get to you. It is interesting to read your posts. Ever onward.
Nelson Swanberg".

If I should have one thing in common with PdL it's my love for slot-racing. During more than a quarter century I did great efforts, also financial efforts, to promote all types of slot-racing. My complete lack for diplomacy let me make several mistakes, that's sure. But I continue to defend my strong belief that all innovation, all social change, was always a direct consequence of strong controversies. So I cultivate controversies. That, however, works if your opponent is an intellectual person. Others feel themselves continuously attacked and loose themselves in pure emotional gossip. And if I may help PdL I should say that my friends maintain that it were much more than 3000 women. What this has to do with slot-racing, only the pathological jealousy of PdL can explain. And yes I had my own F1 team on the track, PdL just his small clothes stand. Difference! [JPVR]

2010 IMCA WORLDS & F. GIANOTTI CANAM: FULL HOUSE

Despite Operation "IMCA Damage" started by PdL and supported by street cat NDW

December 21, 2009 - Still one week and subscriptions for the 22nd IMCA Worlds will be closed. But already now all 80 places are gone. There are 32 Pros contesting the 22nd IMCA Sprint Worlds Pro with 32 handout BMW M1 cars, assembled by the reigning world champion Michael Niemas and assigned by blind lottery. Contrarily to the previous edition all cars are now equipped with well broken in ProSlot PS4000-IMCA motors so that all racers have the same chances to win. The 48 Semi-Pros (including amateurs) contest the 2nd IMCA Sprint Worlds Semi-Pro with 48 own Ferraris F40 which could be freely chosen from a list with 48 cars. Here five racers have still to choose their F40: Dennis Vogel (NL), Fola Osu (NIG), Harry van Avensaath (B), Roger Schmitt (USA) and Laura Schmitt (USA). Three new comers - Dave Fiedler (USA), Mark Craven (USA) and Terry Schmid (USA) - will receive an F40 assembled by Michael Niemas. Semi-Pros must by present on Friday April 2 by 6pm, Pros on Saturday April 3 by 11pm. The 12th IMCA Production Sprint Worlds go with handout 1/32nd NSR Moslers and are split in two sections, one for the Semi-Pros and one for the Pros.
On Monday the 9th Endurance Worlds (preceded by the 5th EEC) are contested with 1/24th scale models of the FIA GT cars having been seen at the 2009 Spa 24 hours). Here there are three or four racers per car and 24 cars at the start. Teams USA II (#50 Ferrari F430), Czechia (#1 Maserati MC12), and England (Nissan 350Z) will receive a competitive handout car assembled by Niemas, team USA I (#4 Corvette Z06) a competitive handout car assembled by Raymond van Campenhout. Those cars will be competitive at the highest standards.
On Tuesday 32 racers will contest the four rounds of the 7th Franco Gianotti Trophy contested with 1/24th model car copies of 32 1969 CANAM big bangers. Here no less than 10 Americans will be at the start in a competition with 8 former world champions. That there will be so many Americans at the start after Operation "IMCA Damage" launched by PdL proves that his operation was a major failing. It's hard to believe, but when I offered 12 American racers on PdL's web site (Slotblog) a free plane ticket to the CANAM races, PdL managed it in such way that by the end it rained pure insults at me in person. Here he was (of course) fully assisted by IMCA reject NDW who wrote at a given moment: IMCA was fun in the past and got a lot of respect it really DID deserve. These spasms of a vanishing IMCA are sad... but perhaps serve the purpose of showing it's true face before IMCA dissolves out of the slot-race map. Exit IMCA."
PdL and homeless street cat NDW started their operation "IMCA Damage" with the statement that all IMCA races are fixed, continued it by blaming that IMCA pays since 25 years money incentives to racers, and finished it by digging in my personal life story. In this operation Belgium was presented as a corrupt underdeveloped banana kingdom (PdL: "The man is simply a small crook with a talent for telling tall stories, one who rode a (brief) wave of financial success based on simple intellectual fraud. Madoff was eventually caught, JPVR escaped bruised but free, because the justice system in Belgium is like nowhere else on earth.").

PdL, the same die-hard fascist who pleads the extermination of all Muslims by the American military (in the same style as Adolf Hitler pleaded the extermination of all Jews), found in the F1 historian Mike Lawrence a companion when the last wrote: "J-P van Rossem, who had his moment in Formula One, illustrates what is wrong with Belgium. It is a deeply corrupt country, and also a very boring blot on the map (unless you like graveyards from the First World War.) Nobody would notice if Belgium was broken up and bits went to France, Germany and the Netherlands, where they belong. A country whose chief claim is that it invented the chip, when it did no such thing, and who can create Spa and then see it disappear from the calendar does not deserve to exist. Nobody would miss the nation of Belgium. Bruges would still be Bruges except that the French would run it so the quality of the cuisine would improve. Let us make a New Year's Resolution: get rid of Belgium." Such hateful talk was immediately applauded by a bunch of American slot racers such as: Michael J. Heinrich, Nesta Szabo, Dennis David, Peter J. Linszky, Al Thurman, Paul Wolcot, Rob Giorgi, Gary Stelter, Barney Poynor. Eventually the whole thread had absolutely nothing to do with slot-racing, but was consulted more than 3,000 times.
The most ridiculous reply came from the hand of NDW. When the Inquisition Committee around PdL discovered in the several biographies on JPVR that he had seduced 3,000 women, among them the most beautiful in the world, it became on Slotblog "3000 prostitutes". More than ten years ago I wrote a small novel about it under the title Vrouwen 2169. And what wrote NDW: "3000... listen to this: mid 2008, we were at a race, JP was chatting, saying he F...ed 2200 women... Good, end of 2009, it's up to 3000.. 800 in 1,5 year.. which is about 500/550 days... you do the math." Let's put things clearly. For me NDW is less than dust. He is certainly the very last person to who I should say one word about my personal life. How many women it were - I was young and sound - is without any importance. Not for NDW, who is so unattractive, that women even don't see him standing. I guess NDW found somewhere the book Women 2169 in my library. Instead of telling the truth about it, he tries to prove how important he is: the great JPVR even spoke to him on the women JPVR fucked. Ridiculous! I don't speak with uneducated street cats of his level. NDW is symptomatic for the low level of Slotblog.
After the dozens of scandalous articles on JPVR at Slotblog, I received a long list of e-mails by racers shocked by those stupid articles. It's best worded by Paul "Split Heath (NZ) when he writes: "I  was reading your editorial about PDL and his lackeys. Why should you have to answer to people that are obviously envious. Why should people question you on past business. If you took risks and made good money who cares? That is your business. Those people need to get a life."
So the whole operation "IMCA Damage" stayed without effect. We note not only "full house" for the upcoming IMCA Nats, we have the strongest entry field ever seen. And with his envious articles PdL signed for an absolute all-time low in the history of slot-racing. But is "all-time low" not synonymous for PdL? [JPVR]

2010 IOC RACES & NEW NORMS FOR PROS & SEMI-PROS

November 11, 2009 - The IOC-Races for 2010 have been fixed. For wing cars it are mainly the same races as the previous years with three top-events where the winner collects 30 IOC points. The sole difference with 2009 is that the ESROC G7 Nats are now a rank 1 event (with 30 points for the winner, no longer 20 points). There is only one race in rank 3 with 10 points for the winner: the OMO G7 at the USRA Div I Nats. The G27 Light Worlds have been added to the list of wing car IOC events.
For (ISRA) scale cars the two top events are the 132F1 Worlds and the ES24 Worlds where 30 points go to the winner. New is that at the BSCRA 124 Nats the three classes are now rank 3 events, which corresponds with 3 times 10 points to win. New are the Finnish Scale Nats (rank 2), replacing the German Masters being no longer organised. The ISRA ES24 warm-up race is still an IOC event, but now of rank 3, no longer of rank 2. The former Swedish Masters are no longer contested at Hjarup, but up from 2010 in Copenhagen. The name changed into "Scandinavian Masters". Compared with the wing car races, no individual scale racer can win more IOC points than an individual wing car racer, but as there are two team races - existing not in wing car racing - more scale racers can win point than wing car racers. The Sano IRRA retro Canam has been added as new event for scale racers.
For model cars the situation has been simplified as only the Plafit races (Denmark, DPM, Spain, Italy + the final ranking over the four Plafit races) and the races at the IMCA Worlds are considered as IOC-races. The Plafit PANAM as organised in Canada is no longer an IOC-race after the very poor entry of last year. The Mello Yello Junior Worlds is no longer organised, but has been replaced by the (Citation Cup) Sprint Worlds for Semi-Pros and Amateurs. The OEPS F1 Words in Trier has been added to the list of IOC status model car races. Should there be only one racer per car in model car racing, then a same number of points should be won by model car racers as by wing car racers. However, in model car racing there are three racers per car at five of the twelve selected IOC model car racer. That doesn't imply that a hypothetical racer winning the 14 model car racer could win more points than perhaps the hypothetical racer winning the 14 wing car racers or the hypothetical scale racer winning the 14 scale races. In the three situations the same number of points will be won. However, there will be much more model car racers winning IOC points as in five model car races there will be three racers per team instead of one.   

WHAT WITH IOC-POINTS AT NO SPECIFIC IOC-RACES?
The principle is maintained that for races NOT in the list with 42 annual IOC-races IOC points can be won if there are enough former or actual world champions at the start. However, the Laster-Campbell viewpoint on "world champions" has been modified in the course of 2009. Following this enlarged view there are 4 world champions in wing car racing (G7, G27, OMO G7, G27 Light), 4 world champions in scale racing (ES24, 132F1, ES32, Production) and 4 in model car racing (124 Sprint PRO, 124 Sprint SEMI-PRO, 132 Sprint, 124 Endurance). So the conditions to attribute IOC-points on races not directly considered as IOC-races are now as follow: (1) same IOC-points as a class 1 race, with 30 points for the winner, if there are more than 12 world champions at the start, having won more than 24 world championships; (2) same IOC-points as a class 2 race, with 20 points for the winner, if there are less than 12 but 6 or more world champions at the start having won at least 16 world championships; (3) same IOC-points as a class 3 race, with 10 points for the winner, if there are less than 6 world champions at the start but having won at least 8 world championships but less than 16. The list with recognised world champions can be found here.

NEW NORMS FOR PROS & SEMI-PROS - NO LONGER AMATEURS
In the past a racer was considered as a PRO if he/she collected more than 100 IOC-points. This norm is now increased to 120 IOC points or more. That implies that the number of PROS has be decreased from 122 to 105. By increasing the minimum norm, races, exclusively for PROS, will be at a higher level than before. At the last IMCA Sprint Worlds too many racers with a PRO-status were unable to follow the real top racers on fighting with equally performing cars. In the past a racer was considered to be a SEMI-PRO if he/she won less than 100 IOC points but more than 25. That norm has been changed and is now less than 120 IOC points. There exists no longer a class of AMATEURS; there is only a distinction between PROS and SEMI-PROS. This implies that the number of SEMI-PROS increased from 240 to 1169. Compared to the situation of end 2008 the new PROS are Desmond Dekker, Sebastian Nockemann, Caroline Schnitzler, Gilles Dohogne, Björn van Campenhout, Andre Linberg and Ramon Trimborn. Among the racers having lost their PRO status we note (a.o.) Gustav Heymann (RSA), Francesc Reyes (E), Dennis Vogel (NL), etc. [JPVR]

DAVE FIEDLER, DOUG MATTHES & URSANER BEST RETRO-RACERS

JPVR AND THE GREY OBEDIENT PEOPLE OF SLOTBLOG BEING OBSESSED BY JPVR - ANALYSIS & CONCLUSION: IT'S MAINLY A GOSSIP BLOG

December 16, 2010 - There is a country in the world producing more weapons than the rest of the world, investing more in military than the rest of the world, having during more than a century being involved in nearly no wars (due to the Monroe doctrine), but having started since 1950 more wars than all other countries in the world (SIPRI). That country is the USA. During two centuries that country had a sound and innovative economy, but already twenty years ago - due to a too low scale elasticity - growth diminished and wealth became inferior to that of leading European economies. Most of American citizens based their personality upon the nation's power, being in military terms the highest of the world. It let Americans dream that they were better citizens than all others, especially those of small countries. Then came 9/11. Despite an overwhelming military power the mightiest state in the world could not prevent that a bunch of fools, financed by the most dangerous person in the world, Osuma Bin Laden, could attack this mightiest state in its very soul. It was the start of a major frustration and of a war they never could win: Bush's war on terror. American frustration grew when the military could not catch the public enemy #1, and when an Ersatz war was unchained in Irak. They did it without permission of the Security Council on base of lies around the mass destruction weapons which Saddam Hussein never possessed.  
The frustration of the American citizens grew when the housing crisis made several of them loosing their most holly possession: their houses. American banks, having been enforced to give 100 per cent mortgages came in serious problems when it appeared that most of their credits were no longer covered. When Lehman Bros went bankrupt it was the start of a world wide financial crisis. Unemployment grew overall, but most in the States, where they count actually more than 15,000,000 unemployed. Contrarily to most European countries, there is nearly no social security in the States, what contributed even more to the frustration of a whole nation. That's the background against which one has to read the threads on Slotblog. After having been fired from the OWH, Philippe de Lespinay, started an own forum: Slotblog. It's at the first place the playground for frustrated mostly older racers, wild about pure gossip.

MIKE LAWRENCE ABOUT ONYX F1 AND ITS AMBITIONS
A splendid example of gossip, used by Slotblog, in its "fight" against JPVR, is the cited article of Mike Lawrence, a British F1 historian, specialised in highly controversial articles. In the cited article Lawrence writes: "Van Rossem became a regular guest on TV chat shows in Europe and the money rolled in. In early 1989, within three months, he bought a $4 million yacht, a Lear jet and the Onyx Grand Prix team. That is some shopping spree, and these acquisitions were added to his collection of very important paintings and a garage which included a 1950s Ferrari Testa Rossa and other delectable cars." The yacht cost not 4 million dollars but 89. It was the Destiny, build in Sweden. I never bought it. The yacht was only hired for a period of two weeks during the Monaco Grand Prix.  I never bought a Lear jet in my life. At Dassault in France I leased two Falcon 900 planes, worth $ 40,000,000 each - no toy planes as the Lear jet - but I never bought one of them. I used them just for myself and for the F1 team. At one of the flights we brought Nigel Mansell with a Falcon 900 back to England. I never bought a 1950 Ferrari Testa Rossa. I paid Régis Fraissinet, the multiple French hill climb champion, living in a superb villa close to Paul Ricard, with around the villa a real race circuit, 1,000,000 FF for a replica of the Testa Rossa having been assembled in Cannes by the Garage P3 in 1987. Everybody, except Lawrence, knew that it was a replica. I raced it a couple of times at Spa Francorchamps.
Lawrence writes: "Onyx Grand Prix began 1989 having to prequalify for races, and it was struggling for sponsorship which is why van Rossem could buy more than 90% of the shares. Renamed Moneytron Onyx, it took a podium finish in its first season when Stefan Johansson took third in Portugual." I bought not 90 per cent of the shares, but all shares, and this at a rather low price. The cars were never renamed Moneytron Onyx, they stayed simply to be Onyx ORE1, Onyx ORE2 and Onyx ORE3. The team never had to struggle for sponsoring money. Stephan Johansson brought Marlboro in as sponsor, Bertrand Gachot came with € 125,000 (5,000,000 BF) he received from Jean Blaton ("Beurlys") and the team had sponsoring from "P'tit Lou", specialised in high fashion clothes for children.
Lawrence writes: "Van Rossem had ambitions for the team and the founders, Mike Earle and Joe Chamberlain, were set a number of tasks: they were to find a site for a new factory which would have to be at least as large as McLaren; they were to instigate the building of a wind tunnel; and they were to sign the very best drivers and I mean drivers like Senna, Prost and Mansell." Onyx was located in a castle-style British house I never saw in my life. Earle and Chamberlain could locate the team where they wished. They were NEVER asked to find a new factory, a fortiori not to use an own wind tunnel as we could use McLaren's. We never contacted nor Ayrton Senna neither Nigel Mansell to drive for Onyx. Their wages were much too high for a small team. What's true is that Gerard Berger showed interest to drive for Onyx in 1990 and that by the end of 1989 I had a meeting with Alan Prost at the Paris Hotel Concorde, where Prost asked me if I was intended to sell the team to him. I also had contacts with Henri Pescarolo, but he had not enough capital to buy a F1 team. For the rest we were not third in Portugal, but third in Portugal. But what is in a name?

LAWRENCE ABOUT THE PORSCHE F1 MOTOR & THE 27 MILLION DOLLAR CHEQUE
Lawrence writes: "There was one other thing, they were to obtain the V12 engine which Porsche was developing. I wrote the proposal to get the Porsche engine, and my proposal was successful. On top of that there was to be the CART team, also with Porsche. Then van Rossem wrote a cheque for £27 million and the cheque bounced. Under Belgian law he was hurled into the hoosegow." The idea to switch from the Cosworth V8 engine to the Porsche V12 had absolutely nothing to do with Lawrence, who was not welcome in our stand. The idea came from engineer Alan Jenkins after Porsche scored some smaller successes with the Formula Indy Quaker State car. Jenkins and I went to Porsche in the greatest secret, already half way the 1989 season. We knew Porsche had plans to develop a new V12 F1 engine. After a couple of visits the price for a three year delivery of F1 engines was fixed upon $ 50,000,000 US. As we stood pretty close to a similar contract with the Rotschild bank, we made a conditional deal. We agreed to buy the new Porsche motors (1) under the strict condition that we could finalise the deal with Rotschild and (2) under the strict condition that by March 1990 Porsche should gave full evidence that the new engine was competitive. A certified bank cheque, not of 27 million dollars but of 17 million dollars was given to Porsche, but could only be redeemed for cash if our bank (BNB at Geneva) received confirmation that the two conditions were met. The cheque has thus never been presented at any bank and there has never be any complaint for an uncovered cheque. What happened is that at a given moment the Porsche lawyers pretended that we made the agreement unworkable as the contract with Rotschild was delayed a couple of times. Reason here for was that the Jewish lawyer Serge Klarsfeld sent by December 1989 a mail, as well to Onyx as to Rotschild bank, explaining that Jean-Marie Ballestre, the head of the FIA, had been during the war a real Nazi. Initially we believed that this was pure gossip but early January 1990, Klarsfeld sent us a complete dossier, including an authentified picture of Ballestre's membership at the Nazi party. As the Rothschilds are Jews, they refused to sign the contract as long as Ballestre headed the FIA. So, the delay was not intentionally as the Porsche lawyers believed, and eventually they never sued Onyx or me before any tribunal. Concerning the Porsche V12 motor, it never worked. It was, when it was launched in 1991, later a pure disaster.

LAWRENCE ABOUT THE FALSE FERRARIS & THE FALSE PAINTINGS
Lawrence writes: "When he was in the clink, it emerged that his amazing art collection was fake, as was his Ferrari Testa Rossa. You would imagine that van Rossem was looking at a lengthy stay inside. You would be wrong. We are speaking about Belgium. Though it was rumoured that Moneytron clients included royalty and heads of states, nobody came forward to complain." The art collection contained work of Karel Appel, Marie Laurençin, Paul Delvaux, Camille Pissarro, Salvador Dali, etc. All those works were bought at the Salle Druot in Paris with authenticity certificate. None of them was false and later they have been sold by the Belgian state - who had confiscated them, at normal prices. The rumour about a fake art collection was spread by Albert Mahieu, a former Belgian banker, who, after the Brazil GP, was fired from the Onyx team. If that are the sources Lawrence consulted, the less one can say is that he never checked is sources. Concerning the false cars there was something much more interesting than the Testa Rossa replica of Régis Fraissinet. On May 5 1989, just before the start of the Monaco GP, where my both Onyx cars (for Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot) had to prequalify, I bought at a public auction by Christie's the ex-Filipinetti Ferrari 512M for the sum of $ 1,301,358 US. The car came from Fritz Kroymans, the Dutch Ferrari importer. He gave Christie's all official paperwork proving that it was the original car witch chassis 1022/1032. Although the car was painted in the Filipinetti colours, Filipinetti NEVER owned such car. The auction master, however, confirmed the potential buyers that the car was fully original. In fact Kroymans bought the car from his country mate Ed Swart, well knowing that it was just a replica using some original parts. The truth was that in 1978 England's Michael Cane built the replica and that up from mid-1970 there was no longer a 512S with chassis 1022 or 1032. Kroymans could hide that information for Christie's. Although Christie's is responsible for the authenticity of the sold goods, it took until 1999 before they agreed that it was a false car - long enough to make that no more trial was possible - the case being barred by statues of limitation. How clever the Dutch swindlers!

For Lawrence, acting as judge rather than as a serious journalist, it was totally normal that I should have been put in jail for the uncovered cheque. However, there was never any trial about it, not in Germany, not in Belgium. Lawrence takes his desires for the truth. That Moneytron clients should have included royalties is too stupid for words. I am a convinced republican acting since nearly a half century against all what is so undemocratic as a king. And the clients should have complaint for what? O yes, we committed fraud altogether, but not more or not less than any other grandbank. The clients were fully aware how we financed major investment projects with in Chile duplicated shares. We bought them at 5 per cent of their facial value, and sold them to major investors, having not enough collaterals, at 10 per cent of the facial value. Profit 100 per cent, yes. But who was harmed by what we did??? Absolutely nobody. The duplicated shares were never cashed, they were only used as coverage of major loans. Once the loans were reimbursed the duplicated shares were simply destroyed. With that system we financed six investments of several billions, and in all six cases the accorded loans were fully paid back. Sure, it was an invention of the devil, but we all won hundred millions of dollars with it without someone was harmed. How it went wrong? For the seventh investment we imported from Chile a gorgeous amount of duplicated shares. They were supposed to be flown over to a Swiss bank in Lugano. There, however, they never arrived. Our clients, among them several new clients, had already paid. As it concerned a multi billion operation Moneytron came - early 1990 - in serious financial problems. Of course nobody of the clients complaint: they all new very well what we did.
And then I committed the biggest fault in my life. With Moneytron having closed its doors I had plenty time for other things. I decided to postulate a place in the Belgian Parliament. As leftist with anarchist roots it seemed deemed to fail. Nevertheless I became very popular and the pop-polls forecasted that I should win between 5 to 7 per cent of the votes. That caused a serious panic among the members of the establishment. Four days before the national elections Belgian justice paid a young (extreme-right woman) - Ann Holvoet was her name - to complain that she and two girl-friends paid a major amount to Moneytron, and that they never received their money back. So Belgian justice could start an inquiry and promptly they could put me in jail four days before the elections. It was a pure political manoeuvre resulting in the opposite of what establishment intended. I was elected with the third most personal votes of the nation, and with me three other candidates (all opportunists) won even a seat in the Belgian Parliament - one of them with ... 27 votes. But I collected 200,000 votes the surplus was enough to get him elected.
All that is a complete other story than that of a pure ponzi system as Noose wrote on Slotblog. How could it be when researches found that Moneytron's output was nearly the double of the input. Basing himself on the Lawrence gossip Noose called me twice the European Bernard Madoff. And then he's whining that I put two of my best lawyers on his insults.
I could accept that a judge condemned me, because there was fraud, yes. But not that one or other imbecile, having not the smallest knowledge of what happened, tries to condemn me ex post, based upon nothing than gossip articles. But let's continue with Mike Lawrence, in the words of PdL "being credited with a vast quantity of excellent articles books and publications, and searching on Google only brings respect and admiration for the gentleman." Here follow some of gentleman's Lawrence very objective remarks in the same gossip article: "Nobody would miss the nation of Belgium. Bruges would still be Bruges except that the French would run it so the quality of the cuisine would improve. Let us make a New Year's Resolution: get rid of Belgium." Exactly the same approach as PdL. As Belgium is a small country, get rid of it. Why not asking the American military to bomb it and to kill the useless and fully corrupt 10,000,00 Belgians, all swindlers à la JPVR or paedophiles à la Dutroux if we may believe the by PdL so admired Lawrence. Perhaps that's now a bit difficult after the first European president is ... a Belgian. But for a guy as PdL that may be no problem at all. Shortly after 9/11 he wrote on OWM that the military should kill all those Muslims. Just the way Adolf Hitler followed to kill most of the Jews. PdL is, politically spoken, one of the worst fascists. And that's why I nearly always disagreed with him. PdL is politically nothing more than poison. That he has (a restricted) host of admirers, says much about the critic-less heads of those naive admirers, supporting a die-hard fascist. Poor, very poor brainless spirits.

LAWRENCE & BELGIUM
But back now to all those other nonsense "the excellent greatly admired" Mike Lawrence put on paper. Lawrence writes: "After he emerged from prison and into parliament, further criminal charges were not brought. According to The Times and also the BBC, this was because when van Rossem was at university (where he obtained a PhD) he made money by writing essays and dissertations for fellow students. These students, who obtained their qualifications through cheating, are now senior figures in the Belgian establishment." There have never been criminal charges against me because I am helping students to write their dissertation. That are pure lies. Just as it is a lie that JPVR obtained a PhD at the Ghent University. There I finished my studies in economics (4 years) and in mathematics (4 years) - which I combined - and I won the first prize of the Internationale Jaarbeurs with my dissertation on the velocity of money in Europe. It allowed me to study econometrics at the Pennsylvania University, but I never finished my doctoral dissertation, having no PhD as Lawrence too gently pretends.
Another one: "In his cell, J-P van Rossem realised that though his imprisonment had been automatic since Belgian law bangs you in the slammer if you bounce a cheque above a certain value, there was a loop-hole. The law did not apply to Belgian MPs, those fine people who have voted Spa from the calendar. He therefore organised a political party and he, and two others on his ticket, were elected. There are only 150 MPs in the Belgian parliament, so van Rossem had a presence." Here Lawrence continues his false belief that I was condemned for the Porsche cheque. Of course I was not put in jail for that, four days prior to the elections, but just because I was politically dangerous. Moreover we were not 150 in the Parliament, but 212. Lawrence's "150" is a kind of retro-anachronism.
That Lawrence's knowledge about Belgium is less than embryonic is proved by this: "Until about 25 years ago, the South (which is where Spa-Francorchamps is located) was the wealthy part of Belgium because it had all the heavy industry. When heavy industry declined, the South felt the pinch and began to concentrate on things such as tourism." It's impossible to find on earth one historian - Lawrence pretends he is - telling such bloody nonsense. The truth is that in the late 1780s the industrial revolution started in the South of Belgium (Wallonia), but that, just as in England, it was based upon coal and steam engines. So, just as England - having been passed as market leader by the USA and Germany before the end of the 19th century - Flanders became up from 1880 wealthier than Wallonia. Dear Lawrence the Great makes only a small mistake of hundred years. He probably never read the Tractatus logigo-philosophicus  (1922) of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and certainly not the final sentence: Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber soll man schweigen. "Schweigen", however, is no business for a twittered as Lawrence. What he says is without importance, all he wishes to do is shocking his readers. Another Lawrence idiocy? Here it comes: "We lost Spa because the Flems, supported by eco-weenies, decided to shit on the South. The fact is that Belgian politics are riddled with a level of corruption that would be a scandal in many a Third World country." Apart from the fact that we never lost Spa, it's completely untrue that the tobacco vote went between the Flemish and the French in the Belgian Parliament. Should that have been the case the French speaking minority should have installed the alarm bell procedure. What was not the case. It was no vote of Flanders versus Wallonia, but of conservatives, helped by the greens, against progressives (sic).
That's thus the basic on which I am judged by the dummies of Slotblog. The reactions are purely emotional, certainly not based upon facts, because PdL, as well as his aftermath, know just NOTHING about the bare facts. Judgements are then: "Prison ! Are you on some kind of release program ? Please, tell us more ! " (Peter J. Linszky); "A rich 65 year old eccentric can't get enough interest in his area to have a race has to pay people from all over the world to come to his race, and then he cheats so his buddies can win ? Dat's a pizzer..." (same idiot); "You go ahead, call ME a fool, but YOU are the one who went to prison. Why don't you just stay in Belgium and play with your cars ?" (Paul Wolcott);"If you were such an upholding standing citizen of any country you claim to belong too, then we wouldn’t have to find such filth and trash of the things you’ve done". That's thus the general intellectual level on Slotblog. And of course the #1 slot-racing cheater in the world, obsessed by my person as no one else, Nick de Wachter, is continuously on the site to put more coals in the fire.

THE PURE HATE CAMPAIGN OF A FRENCH FASCIST
I have never been interested in the person Philippe de Lespinay is. All I know is that he or his firm sold clothes on several race tracks, that he helped to develop slot-racing cars in the early 1970s and that he released more recently a slot car chassis with only one screw. In the development of HO cars he certainly deserves a place in history of slot-racing. If I am well-informed he's also the man who developed the controller frame for Parma, which is used upon today. I know that in 1970 he immigrated from France to Spain (the Spain of the beloved fascist dictator Franco) and from Spain to the States. Having no university certificates he entered a toy consulting firm (Innova) where he developed a HO car for Matchbox. Later he worked for Riggen and was hired by Cox to salvage the Eldon program, which Cox (already in financial troubles after the collapse of the slot-racing boom) inherited from Dynamic. Although PdL launched new slot car concepts he came too late: the slotracing boom of the mid 1960s was definitively over. PdL later collected not only vintage slot cars, he also bought some 1/1 collectors cars, among them a Mercedes and a Chevron B34, cars being low priced on the market.
PdL claims to be a former top driver having won countless races, but if I look at the top-8 of the USRA Nats since 1971 he never appears in the top-8. I know PdL much better from his political threads on the OWH, where he was fired by Paul Kassens. The ideas he defended there were 100 per cent those of a die-hard fascist, claiming (among others) that the US military should kill all Muslims after 9/11. I was shocked by all the extreme-right political nonsense he wrote on the OWH and went several times with him in the clinch. The same was done by Zippity. His political arguments were those of a hyper frustrated would-be American supporting fully the idea of a Global Leadership of the USA. In this he went lots further than the guys of the PNAC think tank. Not able to produce clear ideas, his ultimate defense was always that JPVR had been in jail. On this point he never changed. Look what he writes now on his gossip site: "His editorial is so full of it, it is funny. I wonder why he is making such a fool of himself when it is so easy to demolish his lies one at a time, if I cared to do so. All he had to do is stick to the subject to regain some credibility, but no, he had to go into the politics of the evil United States against the world... By the way, the fake Ferrari was not the car he shows, that he never owned, it was a 250TR if I recall correctly, that he paid a mil + for it, and that was later sold by Bonhams for under 200 grand. Oh well never mind, what's the diff." Of course I never sold the TR58 to a certain Bonhams. The car, bought from Régis Fraissinet at 1,000,000 FF, was after the financial debacle confiscated by the Belgian tax people and sold for the equivalent of € 200,000 to a Belgian garage keeper, certainly not to the Bonhams PdL is lying about. I bought the car during the French GP when I put up at the residence of Régis Fraissinet. Jan Limpach was with me when I bought the car and on Friday Limpach and I, together with some local guys, raced on the track Régis had constructed on his domain. Limpach drove my 1,000 bhp twin turbo Lamborghini Countach - an impossible car - but failed to master it, going off the track and totalling it. Of course I never charged Jan for it. What PdL writes about the TR58 is bloody nonsense. Jan Limpach can easily testify that things went exactly as I wrote.
I never understood why there were continuously new threads on the PdL web site, where I was attacked by his lackeys. I believed that I could promote slot-racing on Slotblog, but the result was quite the opposite. It ended in pure emotional attacks from a complete group of PdL pale bearers against one single person: me. Just as all efforts I did to promote model car racing with the best racers of the world never existed.
I don't know what the motives of PdL are, but it's obvious they are directed by pure jealousy. It looks like JPVR is an obsession for him and his lackeys. Of course PdL dreamed about an own race team, about splendid collection cars. That someone of the same age as his, coming from a small country, succeeded - only with the help of his brains - all what he failed to realise, can certainly explain his strange behaviour. It's the behaviour of an aging man, not supporting that he never reached his ulimate goals. Slotblog is no forum helping to promote slot-racing. Slotblog is a forum to sing the glory of PdL, the father of D3 racing. Of course D3 racing is funny and worth to be exported to other countries, but that's not the interest of PdL. In Europe, especially in Germany, PdL is Mister Nobody. And that he cannot support. Especially in France, his home ground, PdL is seen rather as a pure clown and not respected for what he did for slotracing in the early 1970s. It may explain why he hates France as he does.  

The Ferrari TR58 which I bought from Régis Fraissinet, here seen at his domain. It was one of my minor collection cars, clearly a replica, built by the Garage P3 of Cannes. In presence of Jan Limpach I paid one million French francs for it, not $ 1000 plus as PdL writes. I never raced the car as I preferred to race my 512M, my ex-Shelby Cobra 7-litre roadster or my Ferrari 250 SWB. In one of the races at the Ferrari Club Pascal Witmeur finished on the podium with the replica TR58. It was never sold to a certain Bonhams as PdL writes. It was confiscated by the Belgian State and sold in 1999 for the equivalent of 201,859 euros to a Belgian garage keeper who never sold it again.

RETRO WORLDS CANCELLED BUT MODEL CAR CANAM '69 ALIVE&WELL

Too small interest on both sides of the barrier: project was my mistake

December 15, 2009 - The planned Retro Worlds were a nice project, however impossible to be materialised.  For American retro racing, and for their friends in a couple of English and Australian clubs, all the fun is building from scratch retro chassis being fixed under a limited list of lexan bodies. This formula is certainly attractive for the older racers, having been involved in scale racing in the 1960s or 1970s. Most model car racers, however, are pretty young, and are not interested in building chassis in the old style. Just as the American scale racer finds his greatest fun in building own chassis and race them, model car racers find their greatest fun in building superb bodies and racing them. A smaller group of European model car racers is also interested in making their own chassis, but then a modern one, without restrictions.
At the last IMCA Worlds I saw Howie Ursaner and Terry Schmid racing their CANAM cars: they went fast and it seemed to be a manner to race at much lower costs than with the actual hard-bodied model cars, so I believed it was worth to promote the D3/IRRA formula of cheap CANAM racing. Unfortunately European model car racers had strong objections against the lexan bodies, the free rear tyres and not fully reliable motors. No way to sell them that idea, just as it is extremely difficult to sell American racers the idea using hard plastic bodies costing more than hundred dollars. Of course IRRA could have been more flexible than they were, but even if they should have been, the marriage between American retro racers and European model car racers should never have been a success. The gap between those worlds is too big to be bridged. The idea of a Retro World Championship is thus unworkable, and instead of attacking some hairsplitters on the Slotblog forum, I had to blame myself to invest all that energy in a marriage being condemned before being able to be consumed.
Nevertheless it seems worth to try winning American racers for the European style of Canam racing, using superb GFK bodies on nuts & bolts chassis. The fact that some of those cars with a 160 grams total weight go nearly as fast as the retro cars weighting 60 grams or more less proves that those cars are it worth to be tried in an open competition. The 7th Franco Gianotti Trophy, with 1969 Canam cars, is such competition. There are still five places free, three for pros and two for semi-pros (3 McLarens M6 and 2 Lolas T70). Of those free places one is reserved for a good American racer and one for a good Canadian racer (both will receive a $ 1,000 travelling incentive and a RTR car assembled by the reigning world champion Michael Niemas. Although it's my strong believe that it's nearly impossible to improve those cars, racers using them are free to try (but NOTHING on the body may be changed). Racers interested to try can always send a mail to jppro@pandora.be. Subscriptions are still open until December 31, 2009.
For the 22nd IMCA Worlds, contested the days preceding the 7th Franco Gianotti Trophy with the 1969 CANAM cars, there are no more places free for pros, and only five for semi-pros. If the American and Canadian racer, joining the Canam race, they can also enter the IMCA Worlds with a Niemas Ferrari F40 at the sprint races and one of the GT2 or GT3 cars at the Endurance World Championship. Here too subscriptions will be definitively closed by December 31. [JPVR]

50 MOST BEAUTIFUL 1/24TH 1964-1971 "BIG BANGERS"

Appendix to 22nd IMCA Worlds: 7th Franco Gianotti Trophy (4 rounds) with 1969 CANAM cars

November 20, 2009 - There can be no doubt about it: German modellers are the best in the world. At Concourse, at the recent IMCA Worlds, it was frustrating to see how immense the gap was between the best German model, made by Michael Niemas and all other competitors. If we take the best German modellers such as Fola Osu, Karl-Heinz Homberger, Dieter Jens, Pit Schwaar, Patrick Ther, Matthias Parke, the late Stefan Wiesel, etc., I see only four non-German "slot car modellers" in the world able to beat them: Paul "Split" Heath from New Zealand, Jérémie Janin from France and George Kimber and Max Winter from England. A sub-top formed by Gabriel Inäbnit (CH), Tamar Nelwan (NL), Mark Huys (B), Louise Valkenborgh (B), Al Paterson (RSA) and others hangs still far behind the best German modellers. However, contrarily to the German sub-top with modellers as Jürgen Stüdemann, Rüdiger Krieger,  Kai Schraffanek, Jörg Stephan, Stephan Eder, Dieter Hartmann, etc., makes nice models, but they are far from innovative: they make always the same models. The paradise for top modelling in slot-racing is certainly the German DSC series, organised since 2003. There one makes excellent pics of all cars having entered the series. If we study those pics there is the endless list op Cheetahs, Corvettes, Fords GT40, Lotus R26, etc., but nobody builds e.g. a good copy of the Chaparral 2H (released by Mini Exotics), of the Ford P69 (released by VMC), of the Ford G7A (released by Jens Scale Racing), of the Lola T70 Mk3B Coupe (released by Scale and Model Car), etc. Of some typical CANAM cars, as the McLaren M12, there are even no models released.

At the 22nd IMCA Worlds of April 2010 we'll do a serious effort to promote good modelling, also to create an incentive to make more different models. Innovation is an absolute necessity. Here we opted, as appendix to the 22nd IMCA Worlds of the Easter week-end, for four races with CANAM cars, contested after the Worlds, on Tuesday. Initially we wished to race 1967 CANAM cars, but as more and more racers wish to drive GFK bodies, our definitive choice went to 1969 CANAM cars (where several GFK versions exist). We took the 42 best performing cars of the series (among them 21 McLarens and 11 Lolas) and wish to make a real model car version of the series. More... Subscriptions are possible until end of December and will be opened on December 1 at noon (GMT). There is place for 16 racers with the PRO status (racers having won 120 IOC points or more) and for 26 SEMI-PROS (incl. AMATEURS). As CANAM racing was always very popular in Germany, we hope that the best German modellers will be present with their cars (maximum 2 per modeller). If we can have cars of five of the best top modellers at the start, we'll offer no less than € 3000 for the Concourse winner. No other models than those in the list of 42 cars may be presented. Cars must be built respecting what is said in art. 8 of the IMCA Rule Book. In the same rule book one finds which firm released which models. For the "#2 Open Sport Ford", not existing already one can choose as alternative the strange windowed Ford P69 by VMC, but then in the blue and gold colours. Niemas will release a GFK version of the McLaren M12, Parke a GFK version of the McLaren M8B. Both models may be expected by the end of January. [JPVR]

ATTACKS ON IOC-LIST BY TWO MENTAL DISEASED FLOPS

Completely isolated they try to win any popularity by telling the boldest nonsense on IMCA

November 20, 2009 - Who are they, those two, attacking always IMCA. The first is a Canadian entrepreneur, driving slot-cars with the skill of a Neanderthal, and having been fired as IMCA president for complete incompetency. The second is the most famous cheater in history of slot-racing. No longer capable to win races he created in co-operation with the first an own rule book and an own race series. There is even a third, a man with Too Big Boots. He's a decent racer and a bit too wise to tell the same nonsense the two others do. One of the latest trends in dragging IMCA thru the mud are the latest attacks on the "infamous" IOC-list. The Dutch lap-dog of the fired flop goes even so far to maintain that the list should be manipulated. If he should have the necessary minimum intellect to understand how the list works, he should never have written such flagrant lies.
HOW THE LIST WORKS? Each year we select an equal number of top-races in wing car racing, scale racing and model car racing with a status going up from 3 to 1. If the Swedish computer discovers on the web site results of those races they are immediately added to the list. For all races NOT in the list the computer knows the names of all world champions and the number of times they won. As soon as the computer finds in a result 5 world champions having won 12 titles the computer knows that it is a race going after IOC-points. He then investigates if it is a race of status 3 (less than 8 world champions having won at least 12 tiles), of status 2 (less than 12 world champions having won at least 20 titles), or of status 1 (more than 12 world champions having won at least 30 titles). The points won at those races are added by the Swedish computer automatically to the list. So the computer analyses all received results. If it concerns results of races in the past (at least older than from 1999), the computer can do an updating of the list if it concerns races being now at least at their 8th edition. Moreover the computer makes separate standings for wing car races, scale races and model car races. The computer accepts no results prior to 1970. That explains why such racers as Mike Steube, John Cukras, etc. - all involved in pre 1970 racing - are not in the list. If it concerns races with less than 16 entrants the computer refuses the results. That the BMW races contested in Amsterdam, one week after the IMCA Worlds, are not in the list is simply due to the fact that there were only 15 entrants. Moreover there were no world champions at all, thus no IOC points for that race.

Our Canadian Olympic champion mud slinging states that several of the best racers are not in the list. Let him tell names. Nonsense. He argues that Japanese races are not in the list. (1) The list works only with international races, not with national races. (2) Due to the extremely high rents for a race location, there are nearly no more races in Japan. The last Blue King closed its doors five years ago. If our Canadian flop believes that he can do better, well that he makes a list. But he has no results from the past, so how should he do? And instead of knowing personally more than 10,000 slot-racers overall in the world, his knowledge reaches no further than 100 or so. What he writes is not based upon facts, but continuously upon his own believes. When we decided that Howie Ursaner will receive a second chance at next year's "Battle of the Gods", our Canadian troublemaker wrote: But since you chose to make the issue public, did you pay Howie's hotel bill or did you glue his wings back on for next year in exchange for it not being paid?
That's typical for the prejudices of the fired ex-IMCA president. He takes his own believes for the truth. Of course we paid Howie's plane ticket and Howie's hotel bill, but Campbell continuously sow discord. The result of all this is that he isolated himself with a handful of racers from the rest of the international slot-racing community. Well knowing that he has no role to play on the international slot-racing scene - also well knowing that as an organiser he's completely done after his disastrous Toronto Masters - he tries to find an own position by creating an open class for model cars, exactly at the moment that the majority of the racers have more than enough of races with unequal cars. The basic teneur for the years to come is racing with fair chances. That's the case with the Plafit races, becoming year after year more popular. Instead of following the trend our Canadian mud pitcher goes after races with hyper sophisticated cars, hyper expensive, in a competition where driving skill has no longer any place. It's a first class funeral for model car racing. Such series can survive perhaps one or two years, but is without the smallest sportive value. Campbell's charm offensive on Slotblog is based upon finding all what IMCA does wrong. It's an "anti" campaign. One must indeed be mentally diseased to believe that this is the correct way to promote model car racing overseas. On their web site the Campbell guys put very clear that they have nothing to do with IMCA. They just forget that without IMCA they never should have known eachother. The Campbell clan is nothing more than a curiosum in model car racing created in the hope that NDW can win at least more than one poor race per year. And even that will be too high fixed. [JPVR]

THE RIDICULOUS SELF-DEFENSE BY A BORN CHEATER

How NDW tries to defend his dirty cheating operation of 2008

November 20, 2009 - At the 2008 IMCA Worlds NDW showed with a complete illegal chassis. On his chassis he masked the carbon parts - then still not accepted by the rules - by several coatings of paint. As the race director didn't show there was no time to control the cars thoroughly and NDW raced his illegal car, telling nobody what he did. Only one year later he confessed, not without triumphalism, trying to show others how smart he is. He wrote:

After dozens of layers of silver and black paint, the used chassis looked enough like a Plafit to pass TC at the third round of the EEC 2008 and the Worlds 2008 with flying colours. The body weighed 102 grams, with the idea to have as much weight placed as wide as possible. The car was indeed superstable, so stable in fact that I was struggling the whole race for grip, even with the 22 grams of ballast glued directly behind the rear axle. Gotta have fun some days.

After this "confession", done with no other aim than ridiculing IMCA's technical control, we decided to retire all IOC points NDW won in 2008. Recently, at Slotblog, NDW formulated it in other words as follows:

I admitted having done in 2008 things that weren't strictly legal. I did those things cause I simply saw others doing it too. instead of complaining and whining about others, I thought 'if they can do it and get away with it, so can I'. And so happened.

I am the kind of person that simply says so afterwards. Now, I got disqualified for that race, all my IOC points gone (not that I could care less)... while I only ended up fourth in the race anyway.

Now here we have a very similar case with Björn van Campenhout: illegal car after a race. What makes it even more suspicious is the big gap between him and the runner-up. Will the winner now get disqualified as well, just as I was in 2008??? Or will we see a rather creative 'excuse' cause it concerns a Belgian this time? or cause there's money involved (for the winner). or some other obscure reason..

NDW tries to make a completely impossible comparison. 
(1) How could he forecast that others should do the same he did, because he masked the carbon parts of his chassis not when others were already there, but before travelling to the race. Moreover nobody else did what he did.
(2) The car which won this year the three races for Semi-Pros, ahead over Mike Stahl, was not built by the winner. He received it from the hands of Gabriel Inäbnit, and Gabe had not the smallest intention to cheat anybody. So there is no comparison with NDW in 2008.
(3) As explained later by the two race directors, who at the 2009 edition of the IMCA Worlds did a great job, the car of Gabe was absolutely NOT irregular. When it passed technical control none of the race directors knew that the car should have been driven by Björn van Campenhout, as the car was supposed to be driven by Gilles Dohogne, not by Björn. There was thus absolutely no favouritism as NDW suggests.
(4) There was no money question at all as NDW suggests. The winner will receive € 1000 as soon as we are paid by our sponsors and it makes not the smallest difference to who we have to pay what.
(5) There is not the smallest reason why Björn van Campenhout should be disqualified as NDW proposes.
NDW is just a born cheater. Now that he can win no longer he created his own rule book, his own world championship, especially after more than a dozen pros refuse to start if NDW is still coming at the start. When he won in 2004 two world championships at the Uden King, he could only do so by changing the track conditions during the night before the race. The day before all racers made a set-up of their cars for a good grip track. During the night NDW and his friends cleaned the track so that grip conditions changed completely. After the race he proudly told my girl friend what he did. He should have been disqualified already then. In one of his threads on Slotblog NDW suggests that, as I am always behind the computer, I should falsify results. (1) I am no longer doing the computer. (2) Nobody can cheat with the computer as all computer handlings are on a big screen against the wall so that anyone can see what happens. (3) The lonely time that someone tried to falsify results was at the 2005 Worlds, when NDW's dad did the computer. At two occasions NDW was the so-called winner when he received from his dad three laps more than he really achieved, at complete madness of the true winners: Salvatore Noviello and Dani Gonzalez.  In serious slot-racing there can absolutely be no place for the kind of professional cheater NDW is. We all know he's just poison. [JPVR]

ON THE TOTAL NONSENSE CONCERNING IMCA'S "FIXED RACES"

Once more Campbell & NDW, green of jealousy, attack IMCA without any argument

November 19, 2009 - On Slotblog a whole bunch of racers - of them only 3 were present - have critics on IMCA's "Battle of the Gods" of three weeks ago. After Chris Radisich explained that it concerned a great event, the traditional duo Campbell and NDW started their blind hate campaign against IMCA. Both are organisers having given full evidence that they are unable to bring together such strong entry fields as IMCA realises since already 25 years. After having stated that the "Battle of the Gods" is the "biggest puppy show in history", NDW tells on Slotblog that he didn't enter as he knows very well that IMCA races are fixed, and that he has no fair chances in such races. The truth is quite more simple: NDW was not invited as the majority of the invited racers refused to start if a cheater as NDW was among the starters. For the same reason NDW will never more be invited at an IMCA event. 
The man behind the idea that IMCA organises "fixed races" where the JPVR friends receive better cars than others is Canada's Mark Campbell, exactly the man who was fired as IMCA president after he fully proved he's completely incompetent in internatio-nal slot-racing affairs. Campbell begins his attack by another lie, nl. that between the fastest and the slowest BMW M1, as raced in the "Battle of the Gods", there is a difference of four tenths of a second. Here he proves that he even cannot count after he quoted himself that it concerns a difference between 7.94 and 7.98 seconds per lap. That's a difference of four hundreds of a second, not four tenths. If one consults the results where after 32 minutes of racing there were less than two laps between the first and the fifth, it's obvious that we raced equally performing cars, despite the fact that the used motors, made in China, were unreliable. Every racer present at the "Battle of the Gods" recognised that Michael Niemas, who assembled the BMWs, did a great job. Being himself a complete zero in setting up cars, NDW suggests that the BMWs he assembled are much more equal. One week later those cars were raced in Amsterdam, where Ursaner, Radisich and Inäbnit were present. Here the difference between the first and the fifth was certainly not as low as two laps, as at the "Battle of the Gods", but more than six laps. The suggestion that the NDW BMWs are better than the Niemas versions is thus absolutely untrue and only based upon Nick's inferiority complex.

On what Campbell bases his vision that the "Battle of the Gods" was a fixed race? Not accepting that all cars were pretty equal, Campbell found behind the pre-assignment of the cars a trick to give the best cars to the closest JPVR friends. Such is ridiculous for cars differing no more than 0.04 seconds per lap. The reason was that we had several sponsors for the race and that we let them choice who should race "their" car. At any rate at the 2010 edition, where RVC works with a global sponsor, the BMWs will be assigned by lottery to the 30 entrants.

WHY HOWIE URSANER IS NO LONGER INVITED
I paid Howie $ 1,250 for a plane ticket costing not that much. At the end of the meeting Howie came with his hotel note, € 350 ($ 500), asking that I should pay for it. It concerned six nights, whilst the race went only over one day! So Howie really believes that IMCA is a free travelling agency. I paid him the money, but despite the fact he's a friendly guy, I don't know if I can invite him once more. I have to discuss the topic with him.

ON NDW'S SELF-DEFENSE BASED UPON GABE'S METRIS MKIV
In 2008 NDW showed at the IMCA Worlds with a car where he masked carefully his own fraud. His defense is that others did the same. Then he takes the example of Gabe's Metris Mk IV, stating that it was an illegal car. On another place of this web site full evidence was given that this is absolutely untrue. Intention was that Gilles Dohogne should had driven this car at the F430 races as he had no car and showed as a last minute substitute for one of the Checas (unable to show due to the Mexican flu). On Sunday, however, Dohogne could not race. As Gabe wished to see how competitive his car was compared to the SLPs we gave it to Björn van Campenhout, the best youngster at the start. With this fully legal car he deslotted only twice over three races. If he could beat Mike Stahl three times (Mike drove superbly) it was only due to the fact that Björn deslotted only twice, Mike several times. I have enough of the stupidities told by NDW and Campbell. I let them do with their races. So please that they look at themselves rather than writing articles inspired by nothing than hate and jealousy.

2010 WORLDS RTR FERRARI F40 BY NIEMAS AT € 875.00

In Tamiya version with SLP chassis, also in Fujimi version with Metris MkIV chassis

November 18, 2009 - In view of the IMCA Worlds for Semi-Pros & Amateurs, IMCA releases RTR versions of the car of your choice in the best possible set-up. For the GTE and LM version we use the Fujimi body, for the GT version the Tamiya body. There are two set-ups:
l A version with the Plafit SLP chassis, using carbon parts, sold at € 875.00.
l A version with the Metris MkIV chassis at € 995.00.
The cars are assembled by the reigning world champion Michael Niemas and come with a broken in motor. They can be ordered by e-mail to jppro@pandora.be. Payment has to be done on IMCA's bank account with € 450 as prepayment and the rest (including port) upon delivery.
The initiative to sell Ferraris F40 to racers is certainly not inspired by commercial aims. IMCA remains the non-profit organisation it always was. The initiative was inspired by the wish to have a more equal competition with excellent cars, where all racers have fair chances to win. The set-up of the cars will be done in function of the MTT track as used at the 2010 Worlds. Mail us if you are interested. Delivery time is restricted to four weeks. [JPVR]

FANTASTIC OCTOBER MONTH WITH ISRA & IMCA WORLDS

Matti Fyhr, Horky & Krcil ISRA favourites - Maresca, Gawronski,  Radisich, Seif & Piki IMCA favourites

October 3, 2009 - If we look at the past part of the season there was not so much excitement. In scale racing there was only a good Swedish Masters, but at the other international competitions such as the ISRA Warm-up Races, the Hjarup Group 12 12 hours and the USRA Division II there was no great competition as the entrance level was not so high as in the past. The reigning world champion, Matti Fyhr, was only seen once in competition: at the Finnish Nats where he won without problems ES32 and 132F1. Season revelations in scale racing were restricted to Atte Lyyski and Olli Kantamaa.
In model car racing the 2009 EEC, over five rounds, was the highlight with a breath taking final at the Spa track at Alsdorf. The Toronto Masters were for several reasons a deception. Another season's highlight were the three Plafit races: a very nice organised DKPM at Roedovre, the traditional DPM, and the PWS on four tracks at Igualada. Two racers won the three Plafit events: Christian Schnitzler and Sebastian Nockemann.
This month will be the highlight for both scale racers and model car racers. Today the ISRA Worlds start with the qualifications for the 124 Production Team Race. The competition will continue during a full week and will be ended next Saturday with the ES24 race. For the first time this year the best scale racers will be seen all together around the track in Helsinki. Races in Finland are always organised at the highest standards and there will be undoubtedly a great show. Of course we are curious what youngsters as Lyyti, Pohjasniemi, Sinisaari and Arttu Salomaa (only present at the production race, due to school duties) will achieve. But main favourites are Matti Fyhr (SF), Vladimir Horky (CZ) and Petr Krcil (CZ). With Josef Korec (CZ), Paul Gawronski (USA), Lasse Aberg (S) and James Cleave (GB) being absent, it will be up to Brian Saunders (GB), Anders Gustafson (S), Ladislav Szalai (SVK), Paolo Trigilio (I) and Piero Castricone (I) to let see what they can do against the big majority of Finnish racers. However, I think that without major technical woes it will be extremely difficult to beat Matti Fyhr who demonstrated last year, at Milton Keynes, the tremendous progress he made. He's certainly the top favourite of the 2009 ISRA Worlds.
At our ISRA Scale Races 2009 page I'll try to give a daily survey of what's going on, despite the fact that I have nearly no time to breath: this week my autobiography was released and during the two coming weeks I have day after day to visit several book shops to sign the new book. Moreover I need also time to prepare the IMCA Worlds of the end of the month. The track must be cleaned, handout motors and tyres must be ordered, the purple t-shirts must be made, the trophies must be bought, etc.

The other October highlight will be the 21st IMCA Model Car Worlds Sprint where 28 top racers, having won all together no less than 76 officially recognised world championships, will fight for victory, together with some 30 non-PROS fighting for victory at the 1st Citation Cup Worlds. Among the PROS nearly everybody believes that Sergio Maresca (I), coming back after 17 years of inactivity, cannot be beaten. Ralph Seif (D), "Piki" (B), Alexander Ortmann (D), Christian Schnitzler (D), Philipp Kremer (D) and Michael Niemas (D) are named as Maresca's most dangerous opponents. However I believe that most dangerous of all will be Chris Radisich (NZ). I agree that he's not a "multiple winner", but since he's living and racing in the States he made a terrible progress and his results are extremely reliable.
Of Christian Schnitzler it's not already known if he'll come to defend his title. It seems as if we have the wrong e-mail address, but we'll contact Mike Wagner (LUX), our target man being close to Ralph Seif. I remember that in Oslo, after round #4 of the 2009 EEC, at the end of the meeting, most entrants raced the same car on the same lane to see who was fastest. Christian Schnitzler gave a demonstration, being 2/10ths of a second faster than any one else, including Nick de Wachter and track owner Borge Haug. Second fastest was his EEC 2009 team mate Alexander Ortmann. So, if Christian Schnitzler can show on October 31, Sergio Maresca will perhaps not win as easily as everybody expects.
Very interesting too is who'll be able to beat the German Slot-Ringers at the IMCA Worlds for non-pros. They show with four racers: Andre Linberg, Ramon Trimborn, Marc Kurella and Sven Manti. Linberg and Trimborn are the 2009 IOC rookies having won most IOC points in the rookie history. It's not sure if Ladislav Szalai (SVK) - actually racing in Helsinki - will show, but if he does, he'll be one of the very rare youngsters able to beat the Slot-Ringers. Belgium counts on Kristof Huys & Björn van Campenhout, Finland on the two young Salomaas (Arttu & Atte), Holland on Desmond Dekker, Spain on Carlos Checa Lozano (last year still finalist at the 2008 IMCA Worlds), France on Laurent & Patrick Havet, but will Hubert Jacob not be the most dangerous one to beat the Slot-Ringer?  And what about Gert Klinge if he can show with a good car? This year the Citation Cup Worlds are contested with the same Ferraris F430 Challenge, already seen in competition last year and at this year's Toronto Masters. Another potential winner seems Mike Stahl (USA) having contested already this year the Toronto Masters. Will he be the man who can hold off one of the Slot-Ringer to win? And let's not forget Marcel Kuhn who convinced 100 % at this year's EEC. [JPVR]      

PLAFIT EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP PROJECT: THE WORK SHEET

What can be the surplus value of the PENC? An improvement of Plafit Racing at 2 points!

September 27, 2009 - Strong rumours that the rules for the three Plafit races of 2010 (DKPM, DPM, PWS) should go under new rules - no longer with the traditional Excel chassis, but with the SLP - are completely false. Plafit people opted for stability and maintain in 2010 their rule book unchanged. That rule book is at my knowledge the best in the world if one wishes to realise the most fair racing with cars not so easy to control. 2010 Plafit racing goes thus again with a limited number of GT cars (Porsche 911 GT Evo, Toyota Supra, Lamborghini Murciélago, Corvette C6R, etc.) fit on the well-known Plafit Excel chassis. The formula, working perfectly since 1999, can hardly be criticized. It's nearly perfect. Nevertheless I see two major shortcomings.
(1) Despite great efforts the entry remains in broad lines restricted to Germany, Spain and Denmark, good for 90 per cent of all subscribers. If one looks to countries as Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Holland or Italy the entry is - certainly after the withdrawal of Racing for Holland - nearly nil. If one looks to the top-100 after 11 editions of the DPM one finds nobody from all those countries, except for the former RfH racers. The spread of the entry can certainly be improved.
(2) One of the ultimate goals of model car racing remains that the raced model cars are at the highest modelling standards at least a copy of real race cars. Perfection is only reached if all entered cars are a copy of race cars having been seen together the same day in the same race. At Plafit racing that's certainly NOT the case as most cars are pure fantasy cars.
I am convinced that a fourth yearly Plafit event can overcome the two above mentioned shortcomings. Unfortunately I have to stop my active involvement in slot-racing by November 2 of this year (immediately after the 21st IMCA Worlds). As I explained earlier I start early May 2010 my own publishing company, and I need all my valuable time to contact authors and to read their received manuscripts. Concretely that implies that the IMCA race centre at Herentals will be closed and that the MTT track will go to SRC Merlijn at Wezembeek-Oppem. After this troublesome 2009 year it's without pain that I quit my slot-racing activities. I don't know if IMCA will survive. Probably not now that other federations start other plans and other competitions. It can be feared that the 22nd IMCA Worlds of April 2010 will be the very last in history. They will be no longer my work, but that of my successors. After 25 years of promoting slot-racing, without any commercial interest - a period with ups and downs - I met more than 10,000 slot-racers from all over the world and it was worth to meet them, even those who judged it necessary to put a knife in my back.
I think that I realised in slot-racing nearly all what could be realised, except for one thing, nl. that apart from Profondville 1987 I never succeeded to organise a decent Nations Cup. And now at the very end of my career four students came up with a workable project for such Nations Cup. Alone are their motives far from pure and miss they the necessary experience to materialise their own project.

During the last week I tried to deep the idea of a workable Nations Cup. I thus took the Plafit Rule Book, maintained it nearly complete, changing only two things, nl. that at the Plafit European Nations Cup one could drive group C cars, seen at the 1989 Le Mans 24 hours, fit on a Plafit chassis which was developed for them: the SLP2 chassis. An outlay of the slightly modified Plafit Rulebook - only valid for the PENC - can be found here. It's intended to be the start of a series of negotiations within a workshop being completely independent. Around this rule book they can create an organisation committee and study the possibility to organise in 2010, in my absence, the first edition of the PENC. The work sheets for such work shop can be found here.
Basic idea is to organise a European competition for maximum 13 national teams (with 3 national teams for Germany and 1 for each other country). Each national team can be composed by 3 racing teams of 3 drivers each, what implies that there are 9 racers per national team (27 for Germany spread over Germany I, Germany II and Germany 3). I made a list of 39 Group C cars (nearly all seen at the 1989 Le Mans 24 hours), grouping them by 3. Each racing team is headed by a captain. There are thus 3 captains per national team. Those captains have to figure out who of them will be the coach of the national team. Once the coaches of the 13 national teams are known they are free to selected the grouped 3 cars they want to race. Bodies are all strictly legal, having been manufactured, or being still manufactured, mainly by by such manufacturers as Hasegawa, Tamiya, Revell.

The proposed race has to go over three sections of 8 x 7'30", one of them being a night section, so that functioning front and rear lights are obliged. At each section cars win points for their nation: exactly the same points as Plafit applies for the EPC ranking.
Now it's up to potential (very experienced) organisers as Yves Welter sr or Tamar Nelwan to have a serious look at the work sheet before they decide if yes or no they can concretise the project. If they could organise the PENC we win two things: (1) the entry field should be much more representative than it was in the past at Plafit races (better equilibrium) and (2) there is room for the pure modellers assembling the cars. At the same time the race should be a good model car version of the 1989 Le Mans 24 hours.
Total organising cost for the race with 117 entrants can be estimated on € 5,500. It can be no problem to cover those costs by a special sponsoring system as explained in the work sheet. If potential organisers can agree upon the basic principles there is perhaps a way to bridge the gap between the leading persons at OEPS and the leading persons at IMCA. AS I'll be no longer among them that could smooth the way to much better relations among them. That, however, can only be reached if all members of the organisation committee are fully independent from OEPS as well as IMCA. For Tamar Nelwan and Yves Welter sr, that's certainly the case. [JPVR] 

PLAFIT EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP PROJECT: AN EVALUATION

Without help of experienced independent organisers (e.g. Nelwan, Welter sr, H. Jacob) impossible

September 12, 2009 - Four slot-racing enthusiasts, living in the Euregio, but without any organising experience, wish to organise by the end of June 2010, the EPNC or Euro Plafit Nations Cup. It seems as if they wish to bridge the gap which divides IMCA and OEPS since May 2009. I could make it myself very easy: in June 2010 I'll no longer be involved in any form of slot-racing, as by the end of April 2010 I'll start my own publishing company. I thus could easily say: Après nous, le déluge. However, the Nations Cup was something I tried to realise since 25 years, but without great success. The project of the four Euregio students seems good with 13 national teams (among them 3 from Germany). Following the project each national team should count 3 cars and 3 racers per car forming a well-known Plafit team (such as Plastikquäler, Bad Boys, A.C.R., Marina Alta, Racefub.dk, etc.) Using the well-known Plafit Rules (also applied in SLP) is certainly a guarantee for fair racing as the Plafit rulebook is undoubtedly the best having ever been made in model car racing. 
Nevertheless I see tremendous shortcomings in the project. I explain.
(1) It's nice to schedule a specific EPNC web site in three languages (German, English and French), but we all know that it's very hard chores, and as soon as our students will be in their examination periods (December-January, and May-June) very probably nobody will be still available to run the web site. And why French instead of Spanish? Noblesse oblige as Spain was together with Germany the founder of all Plafit racing.
(2) Having no own track, even not an own club, and probably no money at all, how four students can run an event with 13 x 9 = 117 entrants? I have the impression that they dream about a gross income of 117 x 50 euro, but they forget the investment which must be done prior to the race (rent of the race location, buying some 150 motors and easily 250 pair of rear tyres). So, the nice project seems condemned to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
(3) Our students made already a rulebook, derived from SLP racing, but they forgot to read article i.b. of the original Plafit rule book, nl. "All races, race events and championships named DPM or named in combination with DPM or raced by DPM class, can only be raced by using the original and valid technical DPM rules & homologation lists without any change or modification. All kinds of official use only by approval on written permission." When I asked them if they contacted already Kurt Petri or the Basas Bros, they even didn't have their phone number. So how they can know how the new Plafit rule book, introducing the SLP chassis in 2010 will be? They have fully to respect the Plafit rule book. Their proposal to drive exclusively Tamiya Ferrari F40 bodies has been copied from IMCA's 2010 Worlds. I don't know if Petri and/or Basas can agree with it. And even, should they agree, it should be a major stupidity to make a difference between the F40 GT, F40 GTE and F40 LM. Only original GT bodies can be used without modified rear spoilers and without modifying the air intake on the nose (for the F40 GTE and the F40 LM). Moreover, on working with F40s our students seem no longer independent as they copy IMCA - thing which will certainly be not appreciated by the OEPS leaders, wishing not the smallest contact with IMCA (where they found each other!)

The project of a European Nations Cup under strict Plafit rules can never be left in hands of four inexperienced students. Here one need at least three very experienced organisers, having no direct links with IMCA as well as OEPS. Very well placed is certainly Tamar Nelwan (NL): from 2001 thru 2004 he organised for Plafit the annual European Championship. He knows everything about Plafit and he was always a great organiser, having maintained during a full decade his total independency. Another great organiser, having always been fully independent, is certainly Yves Welter sr (B). During three years he organised a superb European Endurance Championship for 1/32nd cars. He has excellent contacts with Austria, Italy, France, etc. To avoid that - as it was so often in the past - there must be at least one or two members more in the organisation committee. Why not Hubert Jacob (F) who is the very motor after all model car racing in France and Belgium. He too knows very well how to organise races with more than 100 entrants. And why not speaking with Jens Gerlach (D) and Bernd "Flavio" Huvendiek (D)? Both are great enthusiasts of model car racing, knowing German situations better than anyone else.
If those persons could be convinced to put their shoulders under the project I strongly believe that a slot-racing version of the Eurocup can be an excellent promotion for European model car racing. It's absolutely necessary that such countries as France, Holland, Belgium, Finland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, etc. find their way to Plafit racing. With their high centre of gravity the typical Plafit cars with the heavy Bison motor, ask from the racers much higher driving abilities than in other forms of model car racing.
AS far as I know nobody of Tamar Nelwan, Yves Welter sr, Hubert Jacob, "Flavio" and Jens Gerlach have no commercial ambitions, what stands for a (potential) inyrger organisation committee. Main point, however, is: how to bring such committee together? That should at any rate be done before the end of the year, because close contacts with Kurt Petri (D), the Basas Bros (E) and Keld Høfler (DK) - the organisers of the three Plafit events in 2010.
Concerning the Plafit Rule Book I see only one inconvenient: those dozens and dozens of Porsches 911 GT are models from what? Should it not be better to restrict the bodies to those having been released by BRM, I mean: the Porsches 956, Porsches 962, Toyotas 88C, Nissan GTP ZX-T? Or is this a bridge too far on switching to IMSA Group C cars?
Concerning myself the 2009 IMCA Worlds of October 31, 2009 will be the last race which I can still organise. Now that my autobiography comes to the book shop (already on Tuesday) I'll have lots of speeches to do, and once the 2009 Worlds are over I have to start my negotiations with potential authors for my new publishing company. I'll try to keep the IMCA web site alive until the end of this year, but then it will be up to others to follow international slot-racing. At any rate there are so many initiatives in 2010 model car racing that the IMCA web site will not be missed. Concerning the 2010 IMCA Worlds at SRC Merlijn (Sloefspeed) I consider my own task as ended now that I found a small sponsoring budget for Raymond and now that the list with invited racers has been finished. And don't forget, next year start Campbell and OEPS with F1 model car racing. That can be an interesting evolution, no? [JPVR]

Slot-racing World Championships no longer protected

Mark Campbell sees right and enjoys his triumph with the September 2010 Trier Worlds

September 8, 2009 - During nearly 25 years it was my strong believe that on December 14, 1985, before notary Ernst van Tricht we patented the use of the term "world championship" in slot-racing affairs. Now, after a discussion on the Slotblog forum  at once there is full evidence that the "protection", having cost a fortune, was pure fake. Lawyer Dominique Defrance told us that we had a world wide patent, but Mark Campbell gave full evidence that the name "slot-racing world championship" cannot be patented. All we realised was that the term was registered instead of patented. Moreover the registration passed the term of limitation (20 years). Meanwhile the same lawyer who let us believe his tales has been lifelong suspended after it appeared that he had stolen amounts from his clients (among them € 50,000 from myself).
The "protection" found its origins in a long discussion with such wing car racers as Paul Pfeiffer, Henri Pena, Csaba Szekelyhidi and Jon Laster early December 1985 at an endurance race at Uden (NL). Pfeiffer had just won his third consecutive wing car worlds and was affraid that there could come a kind of devaluation if anybody was allowed to call his race officially a "world championship". One has to see that against the historical background. In the mid-1980s there was a strong competition among such manufacturers as Alpha (Paul Pfeiffer), Camen (Joel Montague), ProSlot (Dan Debella) and Koford (Stuart Koford). Winning a world championship had a high commercial impact, as well for the chassis builders, motor builders as tyre manufacturers. At the same time the 1/32nd scale racers, under the lead of Gérard Caupène (F), insisted to have their own world championship. Here too there was a heavy competition, e.g. between 1-0-1, OPP and RL. In those days there was a very wall between the 1/24th racers (nearly all wing car racers) and the 1/32nd racers (nearly all scale racers). To bridge the gap I organised in May 1985 at the Antwerp Crest Hotel a major race where all important wing car racers from the States and Europe were invited to compete with the most important European scale racers. As cars we used real vintage cars with a hard plastic body of such manufacturers as Cox, Monogram, Revell, K&B, Tamiya, Midori, etc. "Back to the roots" was the slogan. Racing hard plastic bodies was the beginning of model car racing. So, together with the Americans, Caupène and Hans van Es (NL), ESRAC president at that time, we decided that up from 1986 there should be three world championships per year: wing car racing, scale racing and model car racing. It was agreed that from 1986 thru 1989 IMCA should invest money in it by organising each year the three world championships. In 1990 the USRA, ESROC and the NPRA agreed to organise each year the wing car worlds. In 1991, after long negotiations with the late Perry Dekker (NL), we could reach that the new ISRA, replacing the old UES, should organise year after year the scale racing worlds. The model car worlds were the exclusive domain of IMCA.

During two decades that division of labour functioned well, especially because we all believed that world championships were patented. In April 2009, at once, things didn't work any longer in model car racing. Mark Campbell (CDN), supposed to organise for IMCA the Toronto Worlds, did a great job, but, unfortunately only 10 non-Canadian racers showed at his meeting. Earlier, at the fourth round of the EEC 2009 organiser Børge Haug went his very own way, not respecting what was put in the rules. It was the start of a controversy between racers wishing to continue to race illegal model car bodies and racers who refused to race illegal bodies. So the "illegalists" decided to go their own way by organising an own version of the EEC  followed by a World Endurance Championship and a World Sprint Championship. The "legalists" stayed with IMCA organising as it always was the EEC, the IMCA Sprint Worlds and the IMCA Endurance Worlds. The scission is now a fact, and nothing can prevent the group around Campbell, Haug, NDW and Fola can organise an own world championship in September at Trier. The choice of the date (4 days of racing) proves that the Campbell group has no eye for youngsters as their Worlds goes just after schools will open their doors. The "illegalists" around NDW go after ultraliberal rules where except for weight and measurements nearly everything is allowed. The "legalists" work with strict rules where no other pars than homologated ones can be organised.
The "illegalists" - they have still to create an own sanctioning body - believe that quantity of entrants should decide which of the two model car worlds is the "good" one. If that criterion is the case the FIA F1 World Championship should never be a true worlds, as entrance is restricted to only 20 racers. Using the IOC-list as criterion is rejected as Campbell calls it a misconception and as his good friend NDW even falsely believes that races are added to the list with no other intention than favourish my own son "Piki". That's pure nonsense. If one refuses the IOC-list as criterion, I propose to work with the Hall of Fame. That is based upon the number of important races having been won by the racers since 1970. A minimum criterion for a model car event to be considered as a true world championship is (1) that at least 10 persons on the Hall of Fame List come at the start, (2) that at least 10 countries have at least one racer at the grid, (3) that there are racers present living in no less than 3 continents.  
That's the criterion which will be used by IMCA. Whatever, if those conditions are met or no, an equal number of IOC points will be distributed over the IMCA worlds and the Campbell-NDW-Haug-Fola worlds. Thus no discrimination. Meanwhile on Sloblog there were more than 100 replies in two days and more than 2000 views, what proves that racers are at least interested in the question "What should be done to prevent that anyone can organise his/her own worlds, now that the "patent" is void." [JPVR]

"Slotracer werden immer unorganisierbare Chaoten bleiben"

August 21, 2009 - The 21st IMCA Model Car Sprint Worlds of October 31, 2009 are definitively the very last I'll organise myself. Indeed the 22nd edition of April 2010 will be organised by Slot-racing Merlijn, no longer by me. In my long career as organiser of (very) international racer and as promoter of slot-racing (without the smallest commer-cial links) I had the honour to meet at least 14 racers who function for youngsters as a real reference group in the fully sociological sense of that word. Let me explain. I just finished a book on the actual structural economic crisis. As an econometrician with a large experience in building forecasting econometric models, I predict in that book that the actual structural economic crisis will last at least until 2020 and that at the end of that crisis there will be more than 10,000,000 unemployed in the US, more than 600,000 in Belgium, more than 500,000 in the Netherlands, more than 2,500,000 in Germany. Direct victims of that persisting recession will be our actual youngsters. They go to a postmodern society where their chances on success will be much more limited than the chances of earlier generations of youngsters. In giving a sense at their life in a chance-less new world order, the need on reference groups is great for young people. Their reference groups are no longer Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, but actual groups or single persons they admire. In slot-racing affairs 14 racers are admired by actual young racers. Of those magnificent 14 two are no longer among us. I mean: Martin Gramann (the first European having won both the Wing Car Worlds and the USRA G7 Pro Nats) and Franco Gianotti (having won at Chicago 1988 the Endurance Worlds and having been one of the best Italian scale racers). Both passed away and are terribly missed by most of us. A third person functioning as a racer as reference group is Italy's Salvatore Noviello. A second heart attack prevents him, a quadruple world champion, to race any longer. So, him too we can no longer invite at the upcoming 21st IMCA Model Car Sprint Worlds. Of the 11 remaining we invited up to now only four famous racers:
l Vladimir Horky (CZ) having won 6 times the ISRA ES24 Worlds, once the Wing Car Worlds and once the Model Car Endurance Worlds. Apart from those 8 official world championships he won 5 times the ES32 Cup, 4 times the 132F1 Cup and 3 times the Production Cup at the ISRA Worlds. In wing car racing he won 3 times the ESROC EuroNats and 3 times the G27 at the Wing Car Worlds and 4 times the G27 at the ESROC Nats. He's the IOC #1 and considered in Europe as the God of slot-racing.
l Josef Korec (CZ) is his direct disciple. He's the lonely racer in the world having won the 3 world championships in the 3 classes: once with wing cars, once with ISRA ES24 scale cars and once with model cars. He won two other official Worlds in IMCA model car racing. He won twice the ES32 Nats at the ISRA Worlds, twice the IMCA EuroNats,  once the G7 ESROC EuroNats, 3 times the Production Cup at the ISRA Worlds and once G27 at the USRA Nats. He's the IOC #2 and the Son of God in modern slot-racing.

l Paul "Beuf" Pedersen (USA) is the highest IOC-ranked racer being still active. Except for the Ultimate G7 Race at Uden (where he finished third) he races exclusively in America. He won 3 times the Wing Car Worlds (when organised in the States), 6 times the USRA G7 Pro Nats (an unicum!) and 4 times G27 Pro at the USRA Nats. Now that opposition is no longer as wide as in the days of Paul Pfeiffer, P-A Watson and Jon Laster, he's nearly unbeatable in wing car racer and for American youngsters the absolute slot-racing God.
l Paul Gawronski (USA) is his undoubtedly the best American scale racer ever. He won twice the (ES24) ISRA Scale Racing Worlds (where he finished once as runner up), won once the 132F1 Cup and once the Production Cup at the ISRA Scale Racing Worlds. He won 7 times the USRA Div II ES24 Nats (an absolute record), where, after the retirement of Paul Ciccarello, Greg Gilbert and Herman James are his most direct opponents. American scale racers consider Gawronski as their God.

But what to say about 7 reference group racers, still missing on the entry list of the 21st IMCA Model Car Worlds Sprint? As the 2009 Sprint Worlds are exclusively contested with nearly perfect performing handout cars, there is a unique opportunity to try to convince them to show, especially as all racing for PROS is restricted to 13 hours on Saturday October 31, 2009. So I wish to do what I can, to have the seven missing slot-racing icons also at the start. Who are they? 
l Petr Krcil (CZ) is the reigning Wing Car world champion and the moral winner of this year's USRA G7 Pro Nats. He's an all-rounder as he won earlier the (ES24) ISRA Scale Racing Worlds. In ES32 he finished 3 times on the podium of the ISRA Worlds, however without winning. At the Wing Car Worlds he won once the G27 race. At the ESROC Nats he finished once as runner-up in G27. Together with Horky and Korec he belongs to the Holy Trinity of Czech slot-racing. He's actually IOC #16.
l Paul Ciccarello (USA) stopped slot-racing in 2005 to go into RC racing. Together with "Beuf" he was the best American wing car racer of his generation. He won twice the G7 Wing Car Worlds and once G27 at those Worlds. He won 3 times the USRA G7 Pro Nats and once the USRA G27 Pro Nats. In model car racing he won in 2001 the real first race he entered and made the main at that year's IMCA Model Car Worlds Sprint. As an all-rounder he won 3 times the (ES24) USRA Div II Nats. As long as he was active he was in the States the most dangerous opponent of "Beuf". It looks like a dream if we could convince him to race a last time at the 21st IMCA Model Car Worlds Sprint.
l P-A Watson (USA) is a living slot-racing legend. He races since the late 1970s and won 3 times the Wing Car G7 Worlds if we consider the Teresa Anderson edition of 1989 as a legal one. He reached no less than 22 times the main at the USRA G7 Pro Nats, having won the race 4 times and having finished 10 times in the top-3. Together with the young "Chubbie" Salzman, who could be P-A's grandson, he remains until today the most dangerous opponent of "Beuf" in wing car racing. Together with Paul Pfeiffer and Jon Laster he forms the American wing car Holy Trinity of his generation. In model car racing he finished second at the famous Crest Hotel Pinky Point Race in Antwerp. He's admired over the whole world for his fabulous performances.
l Jon Laster (USA) stopped active racing more than 10 years ago, but is up to now always the Camen legend in American racing. Although he was no winner he won once the Wing Car G7 Worlds and once the USRA G7 Pro Nats (where he finished 8 times on the podium. In 1989 he launched scale racing in the USA with his own Camen ES32 chassis, being the direct opponent of the ProSlot Mk II, III and IV. In 1985 at a 24 hour race at Uden Laster and I lost a 24 hour race, we were leading during more than 14 hours, after I ruined his car in a crash. Laster is a monument in int'l slot-racing.

ABOVE: Paul Pfeiffer, best slot-racer ever, completely unbeatable in the early 1980s when he woàn three consecutive Wing Car Worlds and three consecutive USRA G7 Nats. He stopped active racing around the turn of the century. No slot-racer on earth has as many admirers as Paul Pfeiffer.

l Sergio Maresca (I) stopped active racing in 1990 when his dad died and when he and his brother had to continue dad's hotel business. There has never been a faster scale racer on earth than Maresca who had fabulous reflexes. Even on a straight from less than 50 cm he could go flat out. He won once the Scale Racing Worlds and lost two other editions after having been disqualified. He won once the IMCA Sprint Worlds, once the Mello Yello Junior Worlds and once the IMCA Endurance Worlds.  He won 3 times the ES32 EuroNats, and twice the IMCA Model Car EuroNats. Despite his very short racing career he's still ranked as IOC #27. He's undoubtedly the fastest and most talented slot-racer on earth, up to now adlmired by all European racers.
l Matti Fyhr (SF) is a scale racing phenomenon. After his older brother, Einari, stopped active racing, Matti continued, winning last year multo con brio the ISRA (ES24) Scale Racing Worlds. At the same Worlds he won the ES32 race and finished second in Production. He was the absolute hero of the 2008 ISRA Worlds. Together with his brother he won 3 times the Production Race at the ISRA Worlds and a 4th rime with Brian Saunders. In that class he finished 8 times on the podium. In 132F1 he finished once as runner-up. Matti Fyhr is also famous for his track calls, being the loudest on earth. Outside Czechia he's the #1 hero after he gave the Horky-Korec-Krcil Holy Trinity a clear beat at the 2008 ISRA Worlds.
l Paul Pfeiffer (USA) is an absolute icon in the complete slot-racing world. Never a racer dominated during five consecutive years his opponents so strongly as Pfeiffer did. Already in 1985 he was considered by all his opponents either as a sanctuary than as a racer. Beating the divine Pfeiffer was at those day the equivalent of mortal sin. Pfeiffer won three consecutive Wing Car Worlds (contested at those days each any two years) and three consecutive USRA G7 Nats. In the 1980s travelling around the world was an exception and number of IOC races was not half as high as nowadays. That explains why Pfeiffer's ranking on the IOC list doesn't correspond with this exceptional driving talent. Of all slot-racing icons in the world Pfeiffer is undoubtedly the most admired.

Concerning my real last IMCA Worlds, with nothing than handout cars, I'll do all what I can to bring the seven missing icons - all functioning as a clear reference group - at the start, even those having retired from active racing since a decade or longer. At the 1/32nd race with the handout Mosler cars all entrants can - ONLY ONCE IN THEIR LIFE - race with the most legendary racers on earth. For our youngsters that's just a dream coming true! So let's make thatr dream a reality!

Recently Achim Zanders (D) wrote: "Slotracer werden immer unorganisierbare Chaoten bleiben." That's certainly true for most model car racers of North-Europe accepting without any criticism the German colonisation of model car racing. But despite an unbelievable concentration of racers in Germany I see no more than 3 German racers being able to compete with the above slot-racing icons: Philipp Kremer, Christian Schnitzler & Michael Niemas. None of the above mentioned icons belongs to the world of the unorganisierbare Chaoten. They are all 100 per cent professionals, not those eternal Besserwisser believing that there was any need to start all things over. The provoked model car schism is unimportant: only IMCA succeeds to bring the best racers of the world together around the same track. Maybe we can convince Peter Fröbel to organise on Sunday November 1 with those icons an ultimate G7 race on the Brühl King. It's certainly worth the idea. [JPVR]

Seven official wing car world champions at the 2004 Ultimate G7 Race at Uden. On the first row Vlado Okali (SVK), Juha Yli-Sipola (SF) and Paul Ciccarello (USA). On the second row f.l.t.r. P-A Watson (USA), Mario "MSP" Schöne (D), Lasse Åberg (S) and Paul "Beuf" Pedersen (USA). Together they won 14 Wing Car World Championships. Of them only Paul Ciccarello stopped active slot-racing. At the Ultimate G7 Uden Race all his armatures were stolen by the local Douwe Banning. Banning used them at the following ESROC EuroNats, being at once able to reach the main. Later Banning was fired from the MRTU after money was missing in the cash register. Also at the Uden Ultimate G7 Banning put in the G12 wing race Piki's car - still third with two segments to go - intentionally on the wrong lane so that the chassis was bent. And always at the same meeting Youri's brief case was stolen. Banning was the absolute shame in international slot-racing. Now that he's no longer there fun could return in European wing car racing.

WHICH CARS DO YOU WANT AT THE 9TH ENDURANCE WORLDS?

THE BODY QUESTION: WHEN A MODEL CAR BODY IS LEGAL?

August 14, 2009 - We received from our lawyers an extensive report on the question when a body is legal and when not. We try to formulate it as clearly as possible in simple words. We restrict our answer to actual LMS, ALMS and FIA GT bodies.
(1) First point to investigate is if a 1/1 automobile manufacturer claims royalties for scale models or not. If the manufacturer claims no rights everyone is allowed to make a copy: this is NOT the case for any model of a Ferrari, a Porsche, a BMW, Jaguar or a Ginetta being less than 30 years old (Europe and Japan) or less than 20 years (USA). That implies that the problem is restricted to models of Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Jaguar and Ginetta. Example 1: such manufacturers as Revell (F430, Porsche 962), Tamiya (Ferrari F40, Jaguar 220, Porsche 962, etc), Carrera (Ferrari F550, BMW M1, etc), Fujimi (Ferrari F430), Scaleauto (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) released all models of cars for which royalties were due. As they paid the royalties, the models are fully legal. Example 2: For such models as the Ferrari 512S, Ferrari P3 or P4, Porsche 908, Jaguar E type - all more than 30 years old - nobody has to pay royalties [except In Japan, cf. point (3)]
(2) Everyone is allowed to make for personal use one or more copies of an existing model of a Ferrari, a Porsche, a BMW, a Jaguar or a Ginetta. However, nobody is allowed to commercialise the copy except if the manufacturer of the original model, who paid royalties for them, agrees with this. Example 1: Studio 27 released a 1/24th scale resin model of the Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP (having been originally registered as a "non art object"). The Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP as released by Fola Osu is a legal model as Fola, having good contacts with Studio 27, was allowed by Studio 27 to make copies of their model. Fola's Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP is thus a legal model. NDW made also a copy of the Studio 27 Peugeot 908. However he was not allowed to do so by Studio 27, as he didn't ask them the authorisation. The NDW version is thus an illegal copy. (This has nothing to do with my personal attitude versus NDW, it's just an objective conclusion). Example 2: Profil 24 released a copy of the Porsche 997 GT3-RS(R). Anyone is allowed to make personally a copy of the model bought at Profil 24 in whatever material as long as the copy serves for personal use and is not commercialised. Fola Osu, however, has good contacts with Profil 24. They allowed him to make GFK copies. So the Fola Porsche 997 GT3-RSR is legal.

(3) If someone buys a piece of art (e.g. a painting by Vincent van Gogh) he or she is not allowed to let make a copy of it, even not for personal use and even without commercialising it. In Japan a commission decides if a copy of something (e.g. a piece of music, a theatre play, a movie, etc.) is considered to be all or not a piece of art. If this is the case nobody is allowed to make a copy of it without authorisation by the original manufacturer. Example 1: the Porsche RS Spyder released by Studio 27 has been registered as a piece of art. That implies that nobody, having bought the original version, can make for personal use a copy of it, except if Studio 27 allows so. But even then the copy serves only for personal use and can never be commercialised. That implies that nobody is allowed to make a GFK or resin copy of the original Studio 27 model of the Porsche RS Spyder. That model can be copied by nobody. Example 2: the GFK versions of the Arta Garaya of Fujimi by several small Japanese firms are all illegal since the original Fujimi model was registered as a piece of art.
(4) What to do if you bought an illegal copy and if you want to race it without risks? Here you have to figure out from what original model the car is a copy. If you know the original manufacturer, and if that manufacturer paid the royalties, it's enough that you buy one copy of the original version and that you have it in your slotbox, or that you have the bill for it with you, to occur no risks. Then, if questioned about, you can always declare that you made yourself a copy of the model you bought. That e.g. can be done for the GFK NDW Porsche 997, for the resin DiTech Ferrari F430 G, for the DiTech Porsche 997 Cup, for the GFK NDW Ferrari F430 GT2, etc. However that cannot be done for the several copies of the resin Arta Garaya of Fujimi by small Japanese companies of for copies of the resin Porsche RS Syder of Studio 27. Those models were registered in Japan as "art" and nobody is allowed to copy art, even not for personal use. Those model stay under all circumstances as illegal.
NOTE: at our exhaustive homologation list one finds all models which can be used without risks in model car racing. When the models are registered as "conditionally homologated" it concerns models where the trick sub (4) needs to be applied. On using such models you need an original model in your slotbox or at least the original bill confirming that you bought the original model. [JPVR]

 The Porsche 997 GT3 Cup of Scaleauto os legal as they paid royalties for it

 The GFK version Fola built from this Profil 24 model is legal, as Fola was allowed to do so by Profil 24.

OPEN G7 REMAINS F1 IN SLOTRACING

Let's make  the December 6 German Open 2009 a new Ultimate G7 Race

August 7, 2009 - G7 wing car races are not only the fastest on earth, it are also the most spectacular. Positions change nearly every ten seconds and we must do what we can to promote G7 racing, despite the fact that it seems to disappear in such countries as Switzerland, Holland, Argentine, Italy, Spain, France, etc.  It's not true that there are no longer youngsters involved in Open G7 racing. At the recent USRA G7 PRO Nats we found no less than two youngsters in the final: Brad Friesner (CDN) and "Chubby" Salzman (USA). The actual problem with G7 racing is that European racers are nearly no longer racing in the States and that American racers are nearly no longer racing in Europe. P-A Watson, e.g. came only twice to Europe: in 1987 to Toulouse (where he won the Wing Car Worlds) and in 2004 to Uden (NL) where he finished eighth. "Beuf" Pedersen came only once to Europe, to the Ultimate G7 Race of 2004, where he finished as third behind Mario "MSP" Schöne and Paul Ciccarello. If we wish to see the best American wing car racers in action on European soil we must be able to pay them their travelling costs. A good occasion to do so is at the 3rd German Open at Brühl (D) on Sunday December 6, 2009.
I am waiting that Peter Fröbel (D), the owner of the Steve Ogilvie Blue King track is back from vacation, by the end of next week, Then I wish to make a deal in such sense that IMCA pays from the rest of the BMW sponsoring budget the plane tickets of "Beuf" Pedersen, P-A Watson and the two youngsters Friesner and Salzman, and that, if necessary IMCA will do a financial effort to bring Vladimir Horky, Josef Korec and Petr Krcil also at the start.

With the best wing car racers all in place we can create not only an Ultimate G7 Race, anno 2009, five years after the first edition at Uden (NL), but we can also create an Ultimate Model Car Worlds Sprint, if as compensation for our efforts to bring the best winf car racers from overseas to Brühl, the 8 invited official word champions wing car racing accept a model car competition with 8 official model car racing world champions. Here we can do a competition with the 24 handout 1/24th Procars BMW M1 assembled by Michael Niemas and with the 24 handout 1/32nd NSR Moslers assembled by Giovanni Montiglio. The whole competition can be finished in one single day. And just as we did in 2004 at Uden the IMCA Sprint Worlds can be contested on the Steve Ogilvie Blue King of Brühl, a fully standardised track all racers know extremely well. For the moment it's nothing more than a project, but I have good hope that, once he's back from holidays, Peter Fröbel can live with the project, as it brings the best wing car racers from overseas to Brühl.  A big advantage of the formula is that at the model car races having FUN will be for all entrants much more important than winning. Here no stress at all, just enjoying a confrontation among two different worlds: the wing car sprinters and the model car sprinters.
With 16 official world champions being selected for Brühl, the 8 remaining places can go to the best racers of a preselection race, contested one day earlier, on Friday, at the IMCA MTT track in Herentals. I worked out a provisional format which is fully interesting for all of us. More can be found here. And remember: actually it's nothing more than a project; Let's dream abiout. [JPVR]