August 8, 2009 - If one looks at the IOC-ranking it stirs that most top-places go to wing car racers. In the top-20 one finds no less than twelve experienced wing car racers against only four model car racers. Since 1985 I maintain that wing car racing stays the F1 class of all modern slot-racing; also that except for four or five racers ("Piki" van Rossem, Nick de Wachter, Michael Niemas, Philipp Kremer and Ralph Seif) model car racers have not enough talent to compete with the best racers of the world. Several actual model car racers are former wing car or scale car racers for who speed was too high (e.g. Dieter Jens, Ralph Klose, Georges Baikry, etc) and finding among the much slower model car racers a possibility to continue the hobby without loosing face.
Contrarily to what happens in wing car racing, where USRA/NPRA/ESROC made uniform rules for the open class, and to what happens in scale racing, where ISRA made uniform rules for the four major classes, it has been impossible to make uniform rules for wing car racers. IMCA tries it since 1985, but in the splintered very childish world of model car racing, losers create their own series, their own restricted micro-cosmos with own rules allowing them to win at least. Apart from IMCA the Plafit company made its own commercial series, resulting in a major success in Germany (DPM) and Spain (PWS). In Denmark (DKPM) the success is not so big. Plafit races in Canada, with only ten cars, have no sportive value. In Australia a Plafit series has been put on the rails.
In slot-racing model car racing - counting more racers than all wing car and scale car racers together - remains the underdog. There is hardly a tradition of international racing and the centre remains of course Germany where the majority of the racers hardly speak any other language than German. The five last years there was a revival of model car racing in Norway (nearly exclusively Trondheim and Oslo), in Denmark (nearly exclusively Copenhagen) and at a lower level in Austria and Switzerland. In those countries, just as in Germany, endurance racing with two or three racers per car is more popular than pure sprint-racing.
Despite their obvious lack of pure driver's talent, most model car racers continue to believe that they are the best racers on earth. That however was only possible after nearly all wing car racers and scale car racers withdrew from the model car scene. Compared with the cars of six-seven years ago, actual model cars are very sophisticated as manufacturers are continuously looking after "easy chassis" able to compensate the lack of pure racing abilities. Prices of bodies and chassis are raising up, making that an actual model car, unable to go faster than 35 kph, costs more than an actual Open G7 wing car going at least five times as fast. Most model car racing is motorless racing, except if someone wishes to call a Fox or a Bison a motor. One had to wait 2004 until Dan Debella of ProSlot developed a well-studied small can motor for model car racing. In Germany, controlling more than 95 per cent of the world market, however, the multitude of sub-federations and clubs, continue racing their lady shave "motors".
With such impressing majority of childish drivers, hanging around, there is absolutely no room for auto criticism in the very closed model car world. Criticising a model car race is the work of the devil. As a reporter you are condemned to call the most stupid local model car race "fantastic", "splendid", "sublime", "magnificent", "exciting", "great".   Despite all efforts to promote the underdog - model car racing thus - model car racing still remains the children's department of slot-racing. Can you imagine that one of the best model car racers on earth, Nick de Wachter, even don't know the difference between USRA and ISRA? That's the same situation as in the early 1980s when the 1/32nd scale racers had not the smallest idea that 1/24th wing car racing existed.

Early May 2010 I'll start up my own publishing company. In 2011 I'll try to conquer again a seat in the Belgian Parliament. That means that all my slot-racing activities will come to an definitive end within a couple of months. Making the balance of more than 25 years of organising international slot-racing events, lets me conclude that I invested too much time in the promotion of model car racing and not enough time in the promotion of wing car racing. In the last class I nearly never had problems with the racers (except once with Paul Pfeiffer), in model car racing - that children's department of slot-racing - I had always problems. I repeat that since 25 years I advocate that wing car racing is the F1 of slot-racing. In wing car racing I met the real monuments of slot-racing. I think on P-A Watson who won four times the Nats, twice the G7 Worlds and who since 1982 qualified 23 times for the main final at the USRA G7 PRO Nats. I remember him from Toulouse 1987 where he won the G7 Worlds and was happy as a child when Gérard Caupène paid him $ 10,000 as first prize. I remember him from the 2004 Ultimate G7 Race. He and Vlado Okali seemed on their way to win, when both had a crash, so that both dropped in the standings. That day, with all the best wing car racers of the world around the same track the admiration of all of us for P-A was indescribable. With Paul Pfeiffer, Jon Laster, Mario "MSP" Schöne, the late Martin Gramann, Paul Ciccarello and "Beuf" Pedersen he belongs to the real icons of international slot-racing. Should you ask my youngest son, Youri, what was the best performance of his slot-racing career, he certainly should answer: the day that in G12 Wing he realised the second time, faster than the great "Beuf" (Uden 2004). Should you ask the same question to "Piki" he probably should not mention his seven won world championships in model car racing, but the same G12 Wing race where two segments before the end he was a solid third, attacking "Beuf" Pedersen in front of him, and preceding Paul Ciccarello. That he eventually finished only eighth was due to the drunk Douwe Banning who - after having stolen all armatures of Paul Ciccarello and the briefcase of Youri - put Piki's car on the wrong lane, provoking a crash and a bent chassis of Piki's car.
Racing against such monuments as P-A Watson or "Beuf" is a honour for ANY racer. Both are - just as Vladimir Horky, Josef Korec, Vlado Okali or "Gugu" Bernardino - perfect all-rounders. Beating them is for the serious racer just a dream. How pretentious some model car racers are was proven in 2007 at the IMCA Worlds in Mechelen. That day Geert Mertens had prepared two absolute impossible model cars for Horky and Korec. With such trash - for which Mertens received € 1,500! - they had not the smallest chance to defend themselves. But some mediocre model car racers, having finished higher than them, declared after the race that beating Horky and Korec was so easy ... "as they were no good racers." That kind of pretension makes me sick. Before the Philip De Vries revolution of 2004 in model car racing, Korec, Horky and "Piki" dominated during more than ten years international model car racing. Let those who found that Horky and Korec are no good racers come to Brühl: racing with exactly identical cars they'll beat those pretentious mediocre model car racers of the Kindergarten by dozens of laps. 
It's certainly true that wing car racing is threatened. Number of Blue Kings in Europe is decreasing and wing car racing disappeared in France, in Italy, in Spain, in Switzerland, in Holland and in Austria. It's now focused in Scandinavia (mainly Finland and Sweden), and a bit in Germany and Czechia. Fortunately wing car racing found an excellent ambassador, William H. Skinner. He promotes wing car racing where he comes and he learned American wing car racers to move regularly to the races in Europe and in Brazil. In Brazil "Gugu" is an excellent promoter of wing car racing. So, after we lost in Europe two major promoters - H-P Sutter and Martin Gramann - others (among them Peter Fröbel) continued their work. The F& of slot-racing is thus still alive. [JPVR]

With Greg Mills definitively out it was up to Brad Friesner to prove that Canada still existed in slot-racing. At the 2005 USRA Nats he won Cobalt C-12 for amateurs. In 2006 Friesner moved from the amateurs to the experts and at the USRA Nats he won Expert G12 Wing from 22 competitors. In 2007 he finished fifth in the same class at the Nats. Last year, at the Pasadena USRA Nats, Friesner won his second Expert G12 Wing, now with a world record of 544 laps. Contrarily to Greg Mills, who entered the wing car scene as a canon ball, but quit it as after an explosion, Brad Friesner was building up his career during five full years. So he decided only in 2009 to set the big step to Open G7 Pro. So, this year at the USRA Nats he entered no longer Expert G12 Wing - which he won twice - but entered directly by the big door: just as top professionals as "Beuf", P-A or "Chubby" he came only the very last day to compete in Open G7 PRO.

In the early 1990s, however, boom in Canadian slot-racing was at once over. There were no longer national championships and with Ingram and Tarling the two best Canadian scale racers disappeared from the scene. Ray Nunes was more interested by bike racing than by wing car racing. So, he too stopped. Sardella and Murphy continued in local racing, but didn't return to international racing. By 1993 Canadian slot-racing was nearly dead. During twelve years nearly nothing - except from some good results in international scale racing by Ernie Mosetti - was heart from the Canadians. And then, in 2005, Ray Nunes passed away in a fatal bike accident. Nobody had still a picture of him, even not his mom. All that years Tim Murphy was our IMCA correspondent in Canada. On November 21, 2006 we were informed that he died in the Ontario Hospital. It was Tim who informed me one year earlier that a revival of Canadian slot-racing could be expected and he named "David Campbell" - should have been Mark Campbell of course - as the man behind the upcoming revival. Campbell, however, was no wing car racer, even no scale racer, only a model car racer. At his first show in Europe, at the 2005 X-Mas Races, he came with a real concourse Nascar car, but the used chassis was completely outmoded.
More important for me what happened in the States, in wing car racing. There a young Canadian racer, Brad Friesner, won in 2001 Box Stock G12 over Pat Ularte and Richard Curnutte at the Western States Nats. The specialised press saw for the first time a pic from the new guy, totally unknown before.  At the USRA Nats he sets a new record in Box Stock G12. One year later another young Canadian caused a stir in wing car racing.  His name? Greg Mills. At the USRA Nats he just failed to qualify for the main in Expert Cobalt 12. But he caused a stir by finishing as runner-up to Mario "MSP" Schöne in the Group 7 warm-up race. Never a 14 year old racer achieved such top result from his first venue. Another Canadian youngster, Brad Friesner, having just won his graduate title, came the same year in the picture by finishing third in Amateur G15.
At the 2003 USRA G7 PRO Nats wonder boy Greg Mills reached the Main, finishing sixth. The complete wing car world was astonished. Brad Friesner was fourth in Amateur Cobalt-12. In 2004 Mills won G27 at the Barnburner with a new world record. At the 2004 USRA Nats he finished eighth at the G7 warm-up race and fourth on 25 entries at the Open G7 PRO. At the 2004 Wing Car Worlds at Port Jefferson he finished in Open G7 ninth on 29. A real talent. Some compared him already with the great Paul Pfeiffer or the even greater P-A Watson. At the USRA Box Stock G12 Wing Mills was third, but that another Canadian new comer, Brad Friesner from Bradford, was ninth. Two young Canadian wing car racers were discovered in less than no time, and by the end of 2004 it seemed that not Campbell - as Tim Murphy strongly believed - but two youngsters were putting Canada again on the slot-racing world map.
After only two years, however, the Greg Mills story was over. Tim Murphy explained it as follows: at the 2003 USRA Nats Greg Mills fell in love with the 15 year old Tess Miller of North-Carolina. At the Spec 15, helped by Greg, she finished third. (The race was won by her dad Jeff Miller). Two years later - following Tim Murphy - Tess Miller had at once serious problems as drug addict and that influenced the retirement from active racing by the young phenomenon Greg Mills. I could not check the story, but one thing is true, with Greg Mills Canada lost its most promising wing car racer since Ray Nunes.

Friesner qualified in 1"578 the tenth best time on 31 entrants.  So he was in Quarter B where he finished as third behind the reigning world champion Petr Krcil and the double USRA Nats winner "Chubby" Salzman. In Semi A he gave full evidence that he's ready to compete with the best wing car racers on earth. Here he finished second to "Beuf", but ahead over Petr Krcil, "Chubby" Salzman and "Gugu". So he reached the Main Final at his very first entry in the USRA Open G7 PRO Nats - just as did his country mate Greg Mills in 2003. In that final he was leading after the first segment, but dropped into eighth position after a tumultuous second segment where he could achieve only 109 laps. Up from here he was working on a come back to the podium. At mid-race he was already fifth, after five segments fourth. After six segments Friesner was second to "Beuf". Never a Canadian racer performed as well as the Nats. With one segment to go he was still third after he had Forrest Watchers let to go. In the very last segment he could only realise 142 laps and was passed by Mike "Erkle" Tylinski for the third podium place. With 1,153 laps he realised a Canadian record. Earlier this year Friesner - a Koford racer - finished second to "Beuf" at the 19th Barnburner. One year earlier he was third at the same race. At the 2008 Mid-West Nats he finished second in OMO G, after having won the Pro Box G12 Wing.
Friesner obtained in 2002 a graduate degree at the District High School of Bradford (CDN). A year later he won a scholarship at the Golf Association of Ontario. Friesner is now manager at The Highlands Golf Course of Bradford (CND). He is engaged to his fiancée Melissa Kanyo, who he wishes to marry next year.
Brad Friesner is the most promising Canadian wing car racer, able to win both the USRA Nats and the Wing Car Worlds in the coming years. Much more stable and consistent than Greg Mills, Brad Friesner formed in Canada a wing car school with Ben Bell, Trevor Rosenberg, Shawn Freisner and Nick Lasiuk as best known drivers. Although Mark Campbell did this year serious efforts to put Canadian slot-racing on the map, he failed to achieve what Friesner did. It's hard to understand why Campbell did no greater efforts to have the Canadian wing car racers at the start of his Toronto Masters. For any Canadian slot-racer Brad Friesner functions as an icon. When Campbell was informed by Doug Bauer of Port Jefferson, NY, that "Bent Rim" refused to delay this year's USRA Nats, Campbell should have postponed his own Toronto Masters to have Friesner at the start. Of course Friesner, having made a terrible progress in wing car racing, was not interested to give up the USRA Nats for a minor race as the Toronto Masters. Should Campbell have had a better insight in Canadian racing he never should have accepted to organise his event in absence of Friesner. As all wing car racers Friesner is an all-rounder. He certainly should have been an excellent counter force for such racers as Chris Radisich (NZ), "Javi" Checa Lozano (E), Gabriel Inäbnit (CH) and Tim Tyler (AU), who now met not the smallest opposition from the local Canadian racers.
If the deal with Peter Fröbel of the Brühl Blue King can be finalised upon his return from holidays, Brad Friesner will be one of the invited racers at the German Open. At the 2nd Ultimate G7 Race - the first dates from Uden 2004 - an excellent wing car racer as Brad Friesner should be among the entrants. If he wishes so, he can also contest on Saturday the race with the handout Procar BMW M1 cars, where eight official world champions in wing car racing will compete with eight official world champions in model car racing. More... [JPVR]

Jessica Friesner

Samantha Friesner

 NEXT WEEK:  Portraits of Paul Beuf Pedersen, Mario "MSP" Schöne and Joe "Chubby" Salzman

Paul "Beuf" Pedersen of Meridian, Idaho (USA) is perhaps the winningest of all wing car racers on earth, despite the fact that he races nearly exclusively in the USA. Only once he was seen in Brazil for the Wing Car Worlds and only once in Europe for the 2004 Ultimate Group 7 Race at Uden (NL). His reign began where that of his predecessor Paul Pfeiffer (USA) stopped. Indeed, from 1980 until 1985 Paul Pfeiffer fully dominated wing car racing, having won three consecutive times the Wing Car World Championships and three consecutive times the USRA Open G7 PRO Nats. In those days Pfeiffer was almost unbeatable, just as "Beuf" up from 2000. Beuf worked for Stuart Koford where he became famous for balancing armatures. Married with Sherri "Flash" Pedersen - also a wing car racer - he ran at Meridian Flashtrax Slot Car Raceway, having been the host of (among others) the 1999 USRA Nats. Sherri won G27 Pro at the 1993 and 1995 USRA Nats.
We had to wait 1985 before we saw his name for the first time in the international result tables. Indeed, that year he finished second at the USRA G27 Nats. He did it over in 1986 and 1987, finishing again as runner-up. In 1985 he was beaten by Travis Leach, in 1986 by Paul Stafford and in 1987 by Scott Wright. We have to wait 1988 before he reached the main final of the G7 PRO Nats, where, after technical woes, he finished eighth. In that days everyone named him "Beuford", which only later became "Beuf". It must be that in 1988 Stu Koford considered that "Beuf" was not strong enough, because at the Chicago Wing Car Worlds - that year organised by IMCA and John Ford at Broadview, having been bought by IMCA from Jerry Kulich - he was not one of the official Koford drivers and even not at the start. It was the time that there was a gruelling combat among such manufac-turers as Camen, ProSlot, Koford, Alpha and PK, all having their own works drivers.  Koford's top-driver in those years was Mike Swiss, an engineer working full time at the Koford factory. Swiss won the USRA Nats in 1988 and 1990, and the Wing Car Worlds at the same years. He was the first to go under the 2 seconds barrier, realising on October 1990 a fastest qualification lap in 1"970. It was already his sixth world record in G7 racing. The same year "Beuf" reaches the Main of the Wing Car Worlds, where he finishes seventh.
For "Beuf" it was no easy task to do better than Swiss who made twelve times the Main Final at the USRA Nats. Other direct competitors of "Beuf" at that moment were Jon Laster of Camen, P-A Watson, Henry Pena of ProSlot and still Paul Pfeiffer of Alpha. In 1991 "Beuf" reaches again the Main at the USRA G7 Nats where he finishes fifth as second Koford driver. In 1992 he's again fifth and again second Koford driver as Mike Swiss finishes as runner-up to Camen's Jon Laster. In 1994 and in 1996 he is again fifth at the G7 Nats, always behind Mike Swiss. In 1997 he reaches for the first time the podium at the USRA Nats. Now he's third behind Paul Ciccarello and ... Mike Swiss. In 1998 he finishes as fourth at the Wing Car Worlds, letting for the first time in a major race, Mike Swiss behind. Up from now "Beuf" will become the first Koford driver. [Meantime Stu Koford sold his factory but bought it back a couple of years later.] In 1999 "Beuf" reaches for the second time the podium of the USRA G7 PRO Nats, now as third behind Paul Ciccarello and John "Tore" Andersson.
In 2000 he sets a new G7 world record at the Buena Park USRA Nats: 1"662. That year he wins the Nats and a very long list of victories has been started. It took "Beuf" no less than fifteen full years of hard working to become the nearly unbeatable winner he now is. In 2001 he wins his first world championship, ahead over Mike Swiss and Mario "MSP" Schöne. That year, however, Swiss improves Pedersen's WR: 1"632. At the 2001 USRA Nats he's beaten by Mario "MSP" Schöne and he comes no further than fourth, but one year later, in 2002, he wins his second USRA G7 Nats.

Up from now it looks that except for Paul Ciccarello nobody is any longer able to stop "Beuf" winning race after race. In 2004 he wins his second world cham-pionship and his third USRA Nats (ahead over Mike Swiss and "Gugu" Bernardi-no). In 2005 and 2006 he continues

TO BE CONTINUED