January 5, 2011 - I wonder which of the two leading countries in model car racing - Germany and Spain - counts most active racers. Contrarily to Germany I have no complete archive of all Spanish racers seen in competition since 1985. So the comparison is rather difficult. But number of clubs in Catalonia alone - 180 - is certainly higher than number of clubs in Germany. That Germany and Spain count so many racers holds to the distribution of the Japanese Plafit chassis having been since the late 1980s a quasi monopoly for Kurt Petri (H + T Modelcar Racing) in Germany and for the Basas clan (Cric-Crac) in Spain. Until 2001 - the venue on the market of the MoMo chassis by Karl Janda - Plafit was the lonely professional chassis for hard body cars on the market. Yes, in Germany Dieter Jens tried to launch the Sakatsu chassis, but it was rarely seen in competition, just as the not really competitive chassis of White Point.
In international racing the Plafit chassis was the lonely one being used until 2001. But when America's Matt Zenovitch entered - off-competition - the new MoMo chassis at the 2001 Mello Yello Worlds for juniors, and won the race, a full lap ahead over Dennis Vogel and "Piki" van Rossem, Plafit lost quickly its dominating position on the European market. The example of Karl Janda was followed by several chassis builders, resulting in the actual situation more than 30 different chassis types on the market. Having dominated international racing from 1994 thru 2001 the Plafit chassis was beaten for the first time in 2002 when Josef Korec (CZ) won the Model Car Worlds with a MoMo chassis. In 2005 Plafit was beaten for the second time by MoMo, now a copy built by Francesc Reyes for Salvatore Noviello (I). In 2006 Plafit was beaten for the third time, now by a Schöler set-up by (again) Francesc Reyes for Dani "Giesse" Gonzalez (E). The same year Plafit replaced its old Excel chassis by the new SLP-1, resulting in four new titles from 2007 thru 2010. However, in 2009, at the Model Car Worlds for Semi-Pros, the Plafit SLP-1 was beaten by the Metris works chassis - built by Gabe Inäbnit (CH) for Björn van Campenhout (B). Eventually the same new Metris Mk4 chassis - the most expensive on the market - dominated in hands of Nick de Wachter (NL)/Gabe Inäbnit (CH) fully the 5th EEC, winning four of the five races, with only one win for the Plafit SLP-1 chassis, having still won the 2010 Endurance Worlds in hands of "Piki" van Rossem (B) and Michael Niemas (D).
Whilst racing classic cars was the core business of German model car racing, a part of Spanish model car racing was more focused on rally and/or raid racing becoming very popular in Catalonia and becoming an apart speciality. Spain was much later than Germany to introduce carbon parts for chassis. GFK bodies, having been popular in Germany since 2008, are still not used in Spanish model car racing.

In international context Spain plaid an important role in scale racing between 1978 and 1985 after Francesco German Domingo founded (with the French and the Italians) the UES (Union European du Slot), the predecessor of the later ISRA. It was the period when Josep Armengol, Miquel Pascual Laborda, José San Marino, José Luiz Peña and others were regularly seen in international competition at scale 1/32nd. In the period 1985-1989 they entered 1/24th model car racing, as launched by IMCA. When ISRA took scale racing over from IMCA - in 1991 - Spanish racers followed no longer.
Cric-Crac launched Spanish model car racing with Igualada as centre. If we consider the national races the Tim Comarca series and the Spanish Scalextric Nats - already the 15th edition - became the top events on the national scene. For 2010 I made a ranking of Spanish racers in (1) Sprint racing and (2) Endurance racing (as well in GT as LMS). For the sprint races I considered only those races with at least 15 entrants. In endurance racing I considered all GT and all LMS races, irrespective the number of entrants.
Then we find that Manel Campo, Paco Rodriguez and Albert Ortega collected in 2010 most points. Campo won only one race but was most consistent. Rodriguez (5 victories), Albert Ortega (4 victories) and Tomas del Castillo (4 victories) were the winningest racers in 2010. Rally racing and raid racing - a typical Spanish speciality - were not considered on making the ranking.
If we consider the list with the 100 racers having won most IOC points in 2010 it's not Manel Campo who was the best Spanish racer of 2010 but "Javi" Checa Lozano who won most points: 93.5, nl. 27 in national racing and 66.5 in international ranking. On world level he was the 34th best racer of 2010! Other Spanish racers in the top-100 of 2010 are Manel Campo (having won 10 IOC points in international racing and 78 in national racing) in 37th position, Paco Rodriguez as 50th, Albert Ortega as 59th, Ricard Latorre as 61st, Juan Carlos Estebanez as 73rd, Alex Segura as 78th, Miquel Colomer as 81st, Tomas del Castillo as 84th, Daniel Bisbal as 85th, Victor Garcia as 86th, and Jordi Giralt as 95th. That implies that Spain counts 12 racers in the 2010 top-100. Its direct rival - Germany - has 29 racers in the top-100, mainly because German racers are going much more internationally than Spanish racers.
The organisation of the 6th EEC in Barcelona, as end point of the Giganten Party, has the intention to bring much more non-Spanish racers to Spain and to increase the competition ability of the Spanish model car racers, too much on their way to loose contact with the fast technological progress of model car racing. By the 6th EEC and 1st Giganten Party Spanish racers will discover the advantages of GFK bodies. [JPVR]