SLOT-RACING'S WALL OF FAME (JANUARY 1, 2011)

December 12, 2010 - Several racers - especially new ones attracted by the hobby sport of slot-racing - are curious who are the racers having their place at the slot-racing wall of fame. Endless discussions were made on several forums to detect slot-racing's wall of fame. Those discussions are highly emotional, far from objective, and in some cases rather ridiculous. Mid-2007  somebody proposed on the OWH that 'Erkle' Tylinski (USA) and Greg Mills (CDN) should be considered as belonging to slot-racing's wall of fame. None of those racers won in their career important races, so they certainly don't belong to the wall of fame.
Let's make things clear. Before 1964 there was no serious racing. During the golden sixties racers as Howie Ursaner, Mike Steube, John Cukras, Terry Schmid, Sandy Gross and Jerry Bradly - all living in the States - had an international reputation. Of the races they entered between 1964 and 1970 a total of 42 has been considered later as IOC-races.  So if we want to make slot-racing's wall of fame we should take all IOC results since 1964 as objective criterion. We made already a Wall of Fame on September 1, 2007, but now it's time for a revisited version. A first important thing to consider is that there are three different classes of slot-racing.
IMCA developed an international criterion to rank races, based upon racer's results at the most important races for res. wing cars, (lexan) scale cars and (hard bodied) model cars. Those very international races are called IOC-races. In the early 1970s number of such races was restricted to eight per year. Later their number increased to reach 30 in 2000, even 32 in 2006, 36 in 2009. At those races entrants finishing among the top-8 can (since 2009: top-10) win points: 30 for the winner of an IOC-race of class 1 (e.g. Worlds, USRA Nats), 20 for the winner of an IOC-race of class 2, 10 for the winner of an IOC-race of class 3. It resulted in the famous IOC-Ranking, published since 1985. From 1964 until December 31, 2010 we noted no less than 399 winners of an IOC-race. Of them 255 were won by Americans, 215 by Germans, 121  by Czechs, 107 by Britons, 66 by Belgians, 63 by Swedes, 62 by  Brazilians, 59 by Spaniards, 51 by Italians and by Finns, and 49 by Dutchmen. It are the 11 winningest nations in the world. Then follow Australia with 27 wins, Slovakia with 17, New Zealand and Switzerland with 14, Austria and Russia with 12, Latvia and France with 10, Norway with 8,  Japan with 7,  Sint-Maarten with 4, Canada and Denmark with 3,  South-Africa, Nigeria, Lithuania, and Portugal with one victory.  Nations as Estonia, Ukraine, Malta, Argentine, Chile, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Dubai, etc. never won an IOC-race. The 1244 wins have been realised by 399 different racers (399 of the 1,825 IOC-ranked racers). Together the winners collected by the end of December 2010 61,833 IOC points. That is 77.33 percent of the 79,600 IOC points having been won since 1964. Of the 399 winners only 177 won more than once. Those 181 winners collected 50,021 IOC points, good for 63.25 percent of the points won by 1,825 IOC-ranked racers since 1964.
The best decision who are the racers meriting to figure on the wall of fame is to take those racers having won at least four IOC-races (in 2007 that was only more than three IOC-wins). On December 31,  2010 there are 99 racers on the Wall of Fame, having written among them the nicest pages in the history of slot-racing. The USA have 23 racers on the Wall. Germany has 16 racers on the Wall, Czechia and the U.K. 8; Brazil, 6; Sweden, Italy and Finland 5; Belgium 4;  Spain have 3 racers on the Wall. The Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland have 2 racers on the Wall. France, Russia, Austria, Slovakia, and Latvia  have all 1 racer on the Wall.
The absolute number one is Czechia's Vladimir Horky, having won 31 world championships, more than anyone else. Horky won until December 31, 2010 no less than 51 IOC races (and finished 133 times in the top-10 of an IOC-race!) Then follows "Piki" van Rossem, 10 times world champion, from Belgium with 29 victories in IOC-races, Brian Saunders (GB) with 26 wins and the other Czech ace, Josef Korec, 13 times world champion, with 24 victories (after the recognition of the G27 Light as a world championship, Korec increased his number of won world championships from 10 to 13).
In fifth position we find Nick de Wachter (NL) with 22 wins, followed by "Beuf" Pedersen (USA) and Ralph Seif (D) with 20 wins, by Paul Gawronski (USA) with 18 wins and by Paul Ciccarello (USA), Vlado Okali,  and "MSP" Schöne (D) with 17 wins. The top-12 is completed by  Michael Niemas (D) with 15 wins.
Of the 99 racers on the Wall, 42 are essentially scale racers, 33 essentially wing car racers and 24 essentially model car racers. Of those 99 racers 30 are no longer active and 4 passed already away: Jon Laster (USA), Martin Gramann (A), H-P Sutter (CH) and Kurt von Ahrens (USA).
It's not so that racers in the hall of fame will necessary stay there ad infinitum. Number of residents of the hall of fame can never exceed 100. Once their number risks to be higher than 100  the criterion will be sharpened, e.g. requiring that at least 5 IOC-races were won, and that, if only 4 races were won, only those 4-winners having won at least a world championship can stay on the list. [Should we apply this criterion already now, 15 racers should have to quit the hall of fame...]

Those are, ranked by nation, the racers on the Wall of Fame on April 20, 2010:
USA (255 wins): 23 racers on the wall - "Beuf" Pedersen (20), Paul Gawronski (18), Paul Ciccarello (17), Jan Limpach (13),  "P-A" Watson (9), Howie Ursaner (9), Paul Pfeiffer (7), Jon Laster † (7), Greg Gilbert (7), Mike Steube (7), Csaba Szekelyhidi (7), Dave Fiedler (7), Ron Hershman (6), Jay Kisling (6), Mike Swiss (5), Joe "Chubbie" Salzman (5), Terry Schmidt (4), Sandy Gross (4), plus  John Cukras (HC, 3), Jerry Bradly (HC, 3) Joel Montague (HC, 3), Pete von Ahrens (HC, 1) and Bob Emott (HC).
GERMANY (215 wins): 16 racers on the wall - Ralph Seif (20), Mario Schöne (17), Michael Niemas (15), Philipp Kremer (13), Christian Schnitzler and Sebastian Nockemann (11), Alex Ortmann (8), Matthias Parke (7); Dieter Jens (6), Christoph Kremer (6), Jan Schaffland, Peter Oberbillig and Frank Hermes (6); Thomas Spicker (5), Achim Burgmann (5), and Bernd Möbus (HC, 3). 
CZECHIA (121 wins):  8 racers on the wall - Vladimir Horky (47), Josef Korec (24), Jaroslav Recek (8), Petr Krcil (6),  Antónin Vojtik (5); Mikail Radkovic, Frantisek Poledna and Jiri Micek jr (4).
UNITED KINGDOM (107 wins): 8 racers on the wall - Brian Saunders (26), James Cleave (13), Charlie Gooding (11), Steve Walker (7), Ian Jensen (6), Pete Hore (4), Dave Harvey (4) and Mark Harrison (4).
BELGIUM (66 wins): 4 racers on the wall - "Piki" van Rossem (29), Jean Pierre van Rossem (5), Geert Mertens (5) and Björn van Campenhout (4).
SWEDEN (65 wins): 5 racers on the wall - Lasse Åberg (11), Mikael Silén (10), John 'Tore' Anderson (9), Michael Landrud (10), and Anders Gustafson (9).
BRAZIL (62 wins): 6 racers on the wall - "Gugu" Bernardino (12), João Carlos Geraldo (6), Jose-Mario Serra (5), Felipe Tavares da Silva (4), Marcelo "Bambi" Serra (4) & Bruno di Dotto (4).
SPAIN (59 wins): 3 racers on the wall - Tomas del Castillo (5), Paco Rodriguez (5), Albert Ortega (4).
ITALY (51 wins): 5 racers on the wall -   Paolo Trigilio (12), Sergio Maresca (11), Salvatore Noviello (9), Giovanni Montiglio (6), and Alberto Capra (5).
FINLAND (51 wins): 5 racers on the wall - Matti Fyhr (12),  Juha Yli-Sipola (10), Leo Hongisto (8), Einari Fyhr (5) and Kai Kivekäs (4).
NETHERLANDS (49 wins): 2 racers on the wall - Nick de Wachter (22) and Tamar Nelwan (4).
AUSTRALIA (27 wins): 2 racers on the wall - Dennis Traeger (6), Wayne Bramble (5).
SLOVAKIA (17 wins): 1 racer on the wall - Vlado Okali (17).
NEW ZEALAND (14 wins): 3 racers on the wall - Dave Gick (5), Chris Radisich (4)  and Tim Tyler (4).
SWITZERLAND (14 wins): 2 racers on the wall - Gabe Inäbnit (10), Hans-Peter Sutter (HC, 2).
RUSSIA (12 wins): 1 racer on the wall - Nikolaj Dolzhanskij (5).
AUSTRIA (12 wins): 1 racer on the wall -Martin Gramann (10).
LATVIA (10 wins):  1 racer on the wall -Janis Rage-Ragis (4).
FRANCE (10 wins): 1 racer on the wall - Philippe De Lespinay (HC, 2).
NORWAY (8 wins): nobody on the wall of fame.
JAPAN (7 wins): nobody on the wall of fame. 
SINT-MAARTEN (4 wins): 1 racer on the wall - Reggie Coram (4).
CANADA (3 wins): nobody on the wall of fame.
DENMARK (3 wins): nobody on the wall of fame.
SOUTH-AFRICA (1 win): nobody on the wall of fame.
NIGERIA (1 win): nobody on the wall of fame.
LITHUANIA (1 win): nobody on the wall of fame.
PORTUGAL (1 win): nobody on the wall of fame.
The following racers, still active, are one IOC-victory short to join the Wall of Fame: Jiri Karlik (CZ), Desmond Dekker (NL), George Kimber (GB), Jan Uhlig (D), Pavel Flaisig (CZ), Bill W.H. Skinner (USA), Caroline Schnitzler (D), Kevin Krollmann (D), Børge Haug (N), Georges Baikry (B), Caroline Schnitzler (D), Doug Matthes (USA), Paul Harwood (GB), Isaias Jordão (BR),  George Russell (USA), John van Hoornaar (NL), Vladimir Vasilevskij (RU), Janne Ekman (S), Laurent & Patrick Havet (F), Henri Eskman (SF), Norba Arrivabene (BR), and Sherri Pedersen (USA), having already won 3 IOC Races. 
Compared with the situation on June 30, 2010, eight new comers joined the hall of fame during the six last months: it are Jan Schaffland (D), Felipe Tavares da Silva (BR), Reggie Coram (StM), the Brazilians Marcelo "Bambi" Serra and Bruno di Dotto and the Spaniards Paco Rodriguez, Albert Ortega and Tomas del Castillo. The Brazilians Marcelo Serra and Bruno di Dotto could enter the hall after upgrading G27 and OMO G7 at the Campeonato Brasileiro to IOC-events, and this reciprocal to the years those races were added to the program of the Brazilian Nats.
The list will be revisited on June 30, 2011. [JPVR & Yannick Lefèbvre.]

NOTE ON INTERTEMPORAL COMPARISON

In the here presented wall of fame older racers - most of them no longer active as racers - are certainly discriminated. For that there are two concrete reasons. Primo should one consider that in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s most racers had not the financial resources of the younger racers now. That implies that they could only go to a limited number of races. For racers as Jon Laster, Joel Montague, Bernd Möbus, Achim Burgmann, etc. that means that their number of IOC-wins should have been much higher if they were racing with appropriated financial means. Secundo one has to keep in mind that the number of international races was much more restricted during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s than now. That means that the generation of Ernie Provetti, Jan Limpach, Jon Laster, Csaba Szekelyhidi, Joel Montague, Bernd Möbus, Steve Walker, etc. had only a few opportunities per year to win IOC-Races - certainly as long that the G7 Worlds were only organised once every two years.

Some great racers of an older time era are not found on the wall of fame. That's the case for Ian Jensen (GB), Dave Harvey (GB) and Steve Walker (GB) as excellent British scale racers. It's the case for François Callat (F) and the late Philippe Thibault (F). It's also the case for Bert van der Heijden (NL), Theo Wegman (NL) and Peter Plug (NL); for Dan Debella (USA) and John Strachan (USA) as excellent all-rounders; for Vladimir Barros (PT), etc.
Well-known car assemblers and motorists of the 1960s such as Bob Kean (USA), the late Billy Steube sr (USA), Gene Hustings (USA), Tony Prbylowicz (USA), etc are not on the wall of fame since they were much more interested in building cars than in racing them. Otherwise their names should certainly have been added to the wall. Nevertheless I hope that this approach can convince nearly everybody knowing the history of racing since 1964, so that the here published Wall of Fame of Slot-Racing  is highly representative for the history of racing. [JPVR]

WALL OF FAME BASED ON NUMBER OF WON IOC-RACES SINCE 1964

Vladimir Horky (CZ)

'Piki' van Rossem (B)

Brian Saunders (GB)

Jozef Korec (CZ)

Nick de Wachter (NL)

Beuf Pedersen (USA)

Ralph Seif (D)

Paul Gawronski (USA)

47 victories -31 Worlds

29 victories - 10 Worlds

26 victories -3 worlds

24 victories - 13 Worlds

22 victories - 5 Worlds

20 victories - 5 Worlds

20 victories - 1 Worlds

18 victories - 4 Worlds

Vlado Okali (SVK)

Paul Ciccarello (USA)

Mario 'MSP' Schöne (D)

Michael Niemas (D)

Jan Limpach (USA)

Philipp Kremer (D)

James Cleave (GB)

Matti Fyhr (SF)

17 victories - 5 Worlds

17 victories - 3 Worlds

17 victories - 2 Worlds

15 victories - 4 Worlds

13 victories - 6 Worldsu

13 victories - 3 worldsu

13 victories - 3 worlds

12 victories - 7 Worldsu

Palo Trigilio (I)

Gugu Bernardino (BR)

Sergio Maresca (I)

Lasse Åberg (S)

Christ Schnitzler (D)

Charlie Gooding (GB)

Seb Nockemann(D)

Michael Landrud (S)

12 victories - 5 Worlds

12 victories - 3 Worlds

11 victories - 7 Worldsu

11 victories - 2 Worlds

11 victories - 2 Worlds

11 victories

11 victories

10 victories - 3 Worlds

Martin Gramann (A)

Mikail Silén (S)

Juha Yli-Sipola (SF)

Gabe Inäbnit (CH)

P-A Watson (USA)

Anders Gustafson(S)

Howie Ursaner(USA)

J-Tore Anderson (S)

10 victories - 2 Worldsu

10 victories - 2 worlds

10 victories - 1 Worlds

10 victories

9 victories - 3 worlds

9 victories - 1 Worlds

9 victories

9 victories

Salvatore Noviello (I)

Alex Ortmann (D)

Jaroslav Recek (CZ)

Leo Hongisto (SF)

Paul Pfeiffer (USA)

Jon Laster (USA)

Greg Gilbert (USA)

Csaba Szekelyhidi

8 victories - 3 worldsu

7 victories - 1 worlds

8 victories - 1 Worlds

8 victories

7 victories - 3 Worldsu

7 victories - 2 Worldsu

7 victories - 2 worlds

7 victories - 1 Worldsu

Mike Steube (USA)

Matthias Parke (D)

Dave Fiedler (USA)

Steve Walker (GB)

Giovani Montiglio (I)

Petr Krcil (CZ)

J-Carlos Geraldo(BR)

Dieter Jens (D)

7 victoriesu

7 victories

7 victories

7 victoriesu

6 victories - 6 Worlds

6 victories - 4 Worlds

6 victories - 1 worlds

6 victories

Christoph Kremer (D)

Ron Hershman(USA)

Nikolaj Dolzhanskij (RU)

Ian Jensen (GB)

Jay Kisling (USA)

Peter Oberbillig (D)

Dennis Traeger (AU)

Frank Hermes (D)

6 victories

6 victories

6 victories

6 victoriesu

6 victories

6 victories

6 victoriesu

6 victories

Einari Fyhr (SF)

Dave Gick (NZ)

J-P van Rossem (B)

Mike Swiss (USA)

Antónin Vojtik (CZ)

Geert Mertens (B)

Chris Radisich (NZ)

Alberto Capra (I)

5 victories  - 5 worldsu

5 victories - 5 worldsu

5 victories - 3 worldsu

5 victories - 2 worldsu

5 victories - 2 worlds

5 victories - 2 worlds

5 victories - 1 worlds

5 victories - 1 worldsu

Wayne Bramble (AU)

Jose-Mario Serra(BR)

Thomas Spicker (D)

Jan Schaffland (D)

Achim Burgmann (D)

'Chubbie' Salzman

Paco Rodriguez (E)

Frantisek Poledna (CZ)

5 victories - 1 worlds

5 victories

5 victories

5 victories

5 victoriesu

5 victories

5 victories

4 victories - 1 worlds

Felipe Tavares (BR)

Björn vCampenhout (B)

Mikail Radkovic (CZ)

Kai Kivekäs (SF)

Tamar Nelwan (NL)

Tim Tyler (AU)

Terry Schmid (USA)

Sandy Gross (USA)

4 victories - 1 worlds

4 victories - 1 worlds

4 victories - 1 worlds

4 victories

4 victories

4 victories

4 victoriesu

4 victoriesu

Les Wright (US)

Dave Harvey (GB)

Pete Hore (GB)

Marcelo Serra (BR)

Mark Harrison (GB)

Janis Rage-Ragis(LV)

Reggie Coram (SM)

Jiri Micek jr (CZ)

4 victories

4 victories

4 victoriesu

4 victories

4 victoriesu

4 victories

4 victories

4 victoriesu

Bruno di Dotto (BR)

Albert Ortega (E)

Tomas del Castillo

4 victories

4 victories

4 victories

John Cukras (USA)

Jerry Brady (USA)

Joel Montague(USA)

Bernd Möbus (D)

Philippe de Lespinay (F)

H-P Sutter (CH)

Pete von Ahrens (USA)

Bob Emott (USA)

1960s Legend, 3 winsu

1960s Legend, 3 winsu

1st world champ, 3 winsu

3x European championu

1970s Legend, 2 wins

Swiss Legend, 2 winsu

1960s Legend, 1 winu

1960s Legend