One step into Miracle Mile Raceways in Ocoee, and time will warp. You will feel like a kid again.
“That’s why I opened the store. I did it decades ago with my father,” says Michael Haire, who owns the place.
Haire is bringing back slot racing one turn at a time; re-inventing drag racing one blur at a time.
“They’ll do a 132mph — that’s the record — at 4/10ths of a second,” says Ed Newman, a hobbyist who says over the years he’s dumped $20,000 into the sport.
“I’m one of the rare dumb ones. I’m just one of the dumb ones that put too much in it, but I enjoy it. I go all over,” says Newman.
And he’ll sometimes win. $1810. One night, Newman recalls.
But don’t let Ed intimidate you. Miracle Mile is for all ages, all levels. “If they have the attention span to stand there and pull a trigger, they can do it,” says Haire.
You don’t even have to bring you own car. But if you want to build one, kits start at $60.
Spend a half-hour on the track? Spend $7.50. And it’s $.25 cents per race on the drag strip.
“That’s our fastest growing program actually. We’ve had as many as 125 cars come out on a Saturday night,” says Haire.
Bragging rights go to the most creative and the fastest. Glue on the tracks stops the cars after the power-cut-off line. Over on the slots, keeping the cars on the tracks is tough at those speeds.
Hardest part, says hobbyist Tom Hobbs? “How fast you can take a car around a given corner.”
That and getting his wife to come out and play. “My wife doesn’t understand it, but she makes greeting cards, and I don’t understand that either.”
Sometimes you don’t have to understand something. There’s such a simple joy in letting your head spin round and around and around and around and around and around and around.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 3 years. This time. I did it when I was in high school in the mid 60’s. But the track closed,” recalls Hobbs.
Well the track’s now open. For making some new miracles. “When people like myself are dead and gone, our kids are going to say remember when,” says Haire.
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Everyone will not be able to relate to what I see, but in Florida and along the gulf states they have this things called lovebugs. In late springs and early fall the fly around connected and are a mess on the front of your car. That’s what I see in the ugly style of racing.
Building my own cars was a huge satisfaction for me. I can recall making space frames to replace the stamped brace ones in the kits.
Even more enjoyable was making a 1/32 scale car that was faster then the 1/24 scale ones. At the track I frequented, I was among the first to add aerodynamic aids such as front and rear airfoils. The smaller size and weight of the 1/32 cars gave them a cornering advantage, too.
I have no real proof the airfoils actually helped but it seemed to me they did. Besides, they looked really cool. 🙂
I remember when I was a kid racing cars they had a tracking Lansing called auto Arama it was on Pennsylvania Avenue and you could switch motors tires bodies everything it was a blast! We can race like six cars six different lanes all of the curves were banked and I mean you could fly. This is nice to see a site like this brings back great memories
Hi wanted to know if there is a hint of slot cars in miami and if you can buy engines proslot