The Cruel March of Time: 2 More Drag City Legends Hang Up The Driving Gloves

You are looking at two of my oldest and most beloved T-Jets. And by “oldest,” what I mean is: those that I have owned-and raced-the longest.

These are two of the first of the AW “Barn Finds” series, and probably the two best they ever made. I bought these in February or March of 2020 when I was really starting to get going on my new hobby, but at that time I was still racing on my original childhood Tyco “Turbo Boost 300” track that I put together in my basement on that fateful early January day, and it was with these 2 cars that I realized: “Wow, this is more fun than I ever thought possible, this is definitely my new “thing” and I’m totally gonna run with this as far as I can go!” That was a few weeks-perhaps only a few days-before the “scamdemic” began to take hold, and changed our world forever.

These cars occupy a very special place in my collection and in my heart. I love them both, and have raced them extensively on every track I’ve built over the last 4.5 years, and yet they remain 100% box-stock, exactly as they came out of the packages. That the Willys is still, to this day, one of the best performing cars in my collection, even after countless hours of racing, is a testament to the durability and longevity of the Thunderjet design.

As time marched on and my collection of cars began to grow and I started customizing them, first with parts from Road Race Replicas and then from other makers as well, these cars didn’t change, because they didn’t have too: they were perfect just the way they were made. The “patina” created by the elaborate inkjetting that modern manufacturing makes possible was used to greater affect on these two cars than any other of the many “Barn Finds” or “Graveyard Carz” series AW made; each of them look so genuine that you can almost smell the rotting burlap!

Eventually these cars got names and so did their drivers:

The ’41 Willys-the first of now more than half-a-dozen copies of this famous design I ever bought, is named “Never Been Caught.” In DCR Lore, she is powered by a full-race Chevy 350 small-block and is piloted by Arkansas native Delmont “Digger” Darrow.

The ’58 Plymouth-also the first copy of this body I obtained-is named “Indestructible,” and is owned and raced by Jesse “Hammer” Harrison, a native of “Looziana” who was was driving on dirt tracks at the age of 12 and never stopped going fast, even after hitchhiking his way to CA at the age of 18 to seek his fortune as a mechanic and driver.

Legend has it that each of these cars is entirely home-built, and disguise their fierce performance under their “barn find” patina, the very definition of a “sleeper.” So why on earth am I retiring these cars if I love them so much? The answer, of course, is that their greatest strength puts them at odds with the rest of the Muscle Car Ultra G Racing Fleet: they are completely stock!

Every car in my Ultra G fleets is customized, and runs with custom axles, custom wheels, custom tires, and custom guide pins. Many have customized magnets as well, and a few are even more modified with special brushes and special traction magnets. This means that racing completely stock cars against an ever growing fleet of customized cars made for a bigger and bigger-and more and more notable-mismatch in performance characteristics.

In some ways, the stock cars are better; they are more consistent and predictable, for sure. However, they do not have the grip and the “sticking power” of my custom jobs, which made their performance often unusable on the big Drag City Mk IV track with its long straightaways. Even so, “Never Been Caught” was frequently a winner, and took home many trophies throughout its long career.

But if there’s anything I’m about, its consistency! I believe in rules and boundaries, and if I don’t enforce those rules fairly, well, there’s a word for that: corruption! Considering how much of that we’re surrounded by at this very moment, my sense of fair play, both in my interactions with the world at large, and at home with my toys, has only been heightened. Therefore, I have finally decided to make the call I’ve long known I would someday have to make: its not “fair” to have stock Auto World Ultra G T-Jets racing against my customs.

But here’s the thing: there’s a whole class for the stockers, and a whole collection of cars to run with them! That would be The Super Stock class, which I only just blogged about in my last post and which I described in detail here! At last count, my 24-car case that I use to carry these cars between my house and my racing friend Shanon’s house contained 23 cars, with one slot left open for that inevitable late add! So, I removed a car from that fleet, and that’s where these 2 are going, for a full case of 24!

Now, you probably know that, unlike the customized Muscle and Sports car fleets, the Super Stocks do NOT have an elaborate table of car names, driver names, and backstories. But these two will! “Digger” Darrow, now at the age of 60, is retiring from racing; he’s headed back home to Rogers, AR in the Ozarks with his wife of nearly 40 years, while their now adult children remain in SoCal where they were raised. He has sold his famous car to a new driver who will compete in the Super Stock class.

“Hammer” Harrison, on the other hand, races on! And though he, too, has sold his car to a new driver who will carry on its tradition, he is going to step into a new car which matches his original in spirit, but not in style! This, of course, means that two slots in the completely full Muscle Car custom fleet were opened! What replaced them? Well, that will be the subject of our next post, dear readers! So stay tuned!

Dog-End of a Day Gone By

It’s remarkable how wistful this entirely willful decision about a couple of small toys has made me. I have oft been accused-especially by various member of my family-of being too romantic, too sentimental, too reflective. I stand so accused! And retiring these cars has caused me to look back on everything that’s happened since January of 2020 with a degree of both accomplishment, and of sadness.

I don’t mind telling you, dear readers, that the summer of 2024 has been a little rough. Although some of the people I love are doing well, I know others who are struggling mightily, and I myself have had my share of challenges in the “Biden-Harris economy.” One of the people closest to me is currently in a world of hurt, and I’m very concerned about him, having already lost one of my best friends to an untimely death in April of last year. As for myself: in the pages of this blog I have discussed my own situation, with my house, my collection of toys, and my own precarious positions. I fear that the future is only going to get worse for people like me and my friends: people who have to earn their keep, people who work for a living. I’m taking steps to try to position myself for that which means making some more investments, which means that in the near future there’s going to be less disposable income available…and that inevitably means less fun. All of this is weighing on my mind, and as I am already tilted toward a reflective state, the change I’m making here with these two little toy cars seems like as good an excuse as any other for a look back.

“It is some strange addiction, when you need to put yourself back on the rack.”

This is a video I worked on for hours, assembling little pieces of life as a “Slottist” since I began this journey in early 2020. A few of these images and videos have appeared on this blog before, but most have not, so this is your peek “behind the scenes.” It shows all 4 iterations of the HO scale tracks I’ve built over that time: the Tyco Turbo Boost 300 which was Drag City Mk 1, the beloved and long-lived Mk II, the extremely short lived Mk III, and of course the expansive and ever-more detailed Mk IV track I race on today. It prominently features these two “Barn Find” cars, as they were the stars of the very first “slot car video” I ever made. Also included are a few snapshots of my own life in that span of time away from the track: of some of my friends and loved ones, some of the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen. It’s all set to an edited cut of another classic New Wave track, a beautiful, melancholy song from the first album by Love & Rockets. This song has been playing in my head a lot lately.

The summer heat seems to be slowly winding down, and the days are getting shorter. As winter approaches, I hope that I have it in me to be the rock my friends need right now, and I hope they have it in them to maintain the relationships we’ve built. Never fear, race fans: I’m not licked yet, and the action at Drag City is far from over!

“Stub out the dog-end of a day gone by, boy…Don’t let the smoke get in your eyes!”