Race Gallery Winternats 2007

Thomas and Patrick entertained the crowd with some practice runs.

Thomas is already training his son to follow in his footsteps (while mom is watching in the background) - Patrick is a tough opponent to start ones racing career against.

Osku and Alex getting ready for another run.

Alex has created the monster on the left which is about to eat Zaby´s Plymouth alive.

Silvano was a big help on Saturday typing all the results on the PC besides racing a few cars and getting a ru-finish in PR.

Kescha´s Volvo and Jürg´s Competition Coupe.

Silvano, Roger and Rolf watched Alex and Zany race their creations.

Kescha´s Beetle and Alex´ Dodge SS cars.

Alex had a good time - here he´s showing us his resin bodied projects for the next races.

The racers were busy all weekend long - Osku and Peter had a few cars to prepare and maintain.

Again a big crowd of spectators followed the races.

Alex has discovered his faible for resin bodies long ago.

Fred at work - what else?.

Alex at work as well, but usually to help other racers with repairs.

Keith and Patrick.

If it´s pinstriped, it´s probably Kescha´s.

Marcel´s Rocket car.

Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster.

Jürg and Kescha sharing a laugh.

Thomas was using his road race controller minus the brake.

Keith Grech was a contender in every class he entered on his first trip to the Winternationals.

Kescha was jumping back and forth between his cars...

...the racetrack ("are two motors legal in bracket racing?" - "the race director said they are.")...

...and the PC.

Kescha and Jürg looking at the computer screen are abviously puzzled by the ETs laid down by some of their competitors - "Are you sure that´s a Gp12 motor this guy´s running?" - "Actually, it´s a S16D, but it wouldn´t have been fair to let him run against the other SS cars, so I secretly put him in the Gp12 field" - "You should have put him in the Gp20 field with the ETs he´s running... or maybe the Opens, so I have a chance."

Some wheelie bars needed adjustment - no sweat for the knowledgeable racer from Malta.

Alex was helping aspiring racers like Marcel to prepare their chassis and if we should ever have a trophy for the best (and quickest) mechanic it should go to him.

This years raffle had even more prize as the last one, thanks to TR Motorplex, Ian Hill, Pro Slot, slotcars.ch and JDS.

This great looking GP20 Pontiac was sponsored by TR Motorplex - thanks again for your support!

After taking a few € from each racer (don´t forget he´s Russian), Kescha drew the raffle winners himself this year - if you didn´t win anything, you need to pay more next time.

Jürg Broder won a pair of sterling silver dragster headers donated by JDS.

Road track racer turned Straightliner Rolf Meier won a S16D drag arm sponsored by Pro Slot.

And the third winner in a row from Switzerland, Hans Rzany also won a S16D Pro Slot drag arm.

Austrian racer Peter Kouba is a former Ford mechanic and thus was the perfect recepient of a Jo-Han Ford Pinto FC kit, donated by Hans Rzany.

Marcel Quint from Germany attended his first slot car drag race and walked away with a Pro Slot Gp12 drag motor.

After winning a S16D last year, Patrick Boenisch followed in his uncle Joerg´s footsteps and won a Gp20 from Pro Slot this time - the perfect jumpstart for a new Top Fuel project.

After some Swiss, Austrians and Germans, it was time for the Maltese to win something and Keith Grech was the first to get a custom-built Gp20 with all the newest bells and whistles from Candian wizzard Ian Hill.

Real-life drag racer Dominik Faessler got the second Ian Hill Gp20 and immediately put it to work in his Top Fuel dragster.

Charles Pace had a reason to smile when presented with the grand prize - a complete Gp20 car sponsored by TR Motorplex.

Fred Barthelemy was working on his cars all weekend long and the work paid off in Gp12.

Roger´s Ford ran well and Roger even had the better RTs, but Kescha´s Mercedes was too quick - that could change next year, though.

The Scoreboard was a great addition this year, thanks to Joe Bohannon!.


Roger´s beautiful AFX Ford and Kescha´s Mercedes ran in Parma Stock.

Alex and Dominik in the later rounds of Parma Stock.

Peter´s Gp7 Beetle and Silvano´s Chevy Pickup ran in the Brackets.

Thomas´and Peter´s VWs...

...and their owners/drivers.

Alex and Kescha/PR.

Marcel´s Gp12 and Jürg´s Santa ready for an exhibition run.

Bont, Fabian Bont - likes his beer neither shaken nor stirred.

Alex is getting ready to put his race face on.

Silvano´s and Kescha´s bracket cars after their crash in the shutdown - looks OK from here.

Kescha was seen doping his Gp20 (and other) cars.

Alex and Kescha both used Modelmartin resin bodies for their Gp20 creations.

Charles and Kescha with their Camaros had a very close semifinal race in Gp20.

Zany waits for Osku and Patrick (and the Photographers).

Thomas´ SS Beetle was shining on the outside but couldn´t stop Keith´s Ranchero.

Fred´s roadster ran into technical troubles and was sent home by Kescha´s Competition Coupe in SS-S16D.

Charles´ Mustang ran well and lost a close race to Kescha´s scarred VW.

Patrick upset Keith in the SS Quarterfinals.

Patrick ran an out of the box (blueprinted) ProSlot road S16D in his ´55 Chevy.

The SS Finals: Kescha and Patrick.

The VW wasn´t the prettiest car nor the fastest.

The SS Finals: Kescha and Patrick.

The (almost obligatory) handshake before the final round.

So this is how Alex gets the money for his new toys...

Kescha interviewed Dominik.

Kescha and Alex made some last-minute repairs on Patrick´s 34 Ford.

Alex had his own cheerleading section.

Charles´great looking ´57 Chevy ran in Gp12 and was a contender for the best lexan bodied car concourse.

Marcel´s FC sporting its new wheelie bars next to his rocket car chassis.

Alex didn´t red light this time - but his opponent did; Kescha?.

Zany doing a burnout (glueout?) with his Gp20 FC.

Peter and Hans brought their cars to the line with Kescha acting as chief starter and race announcer and Silvano looking on from his pit.

Charles is as serious a racer as you can get when on the starting line - Kescha and Peter were just two of his victims this year.

Jürg and Alex discussed their race tactics before the eliminations began.

Kescha and Patrick had a few duels this year and Patrick held his own against the "Iceberg".

It was the first (slot) drag race for the German Koch brothers and Marcel Quint and their Rocket dragsters.

Alex won this nice RC VW with the matching race plaque in place, sponsored by his finals opponent Dominik for his win in the all VW bracket race on Friday..

Fred in a (rare for him) quiet moment.

The Maltese often seemed to be a bit faster then the other racers - even in front of the camera - Jürg, Charles, Zany, Keith and Osku.

Charles´ Mustang beat Jürg´s Dragster in rd1 of S16D.

Alex had brought a TV and video player and Kescha some drag racing videos to entertain the expo visitors.

Jürg´s Anglia from the perspective of his opponent - that might change next year, though.

Jürg was one of our photographers whose pics you can see on this page.

Kescha´s Beetle sported a huge wing after qualifying that kept it in the slot long enough run after run to finally end up as the winner of a tough Ss field. Jürg´s Anglia was it´s first victim.

Osku´s beautiful ´69 Camaro lost a tight 2nd round race against Patrick´s ´55 Chevy.

Kescha´s Fiat again went to the Semis in S16D but couldn´t repeat last year´s 3rd place finish losing to Charles´ Mustang.

Charles´´57 Chevy ran OK in Gp12 but lost to Fred´s even better running Cougar in rd.2.

Thomas and Keith were next and the VW couldn´t shake off the gremlins that plagued it all weekend against the consistently quick Ranchero from Malta.

The racers had to change lanes and I just hope everyone got home with his own controller in the box and not somebody elses - it looked like an electrician´s nightmare with all the wires sometimes.

Thomas won the first race on a .497 foul by Keith but the racer from Malta then took the safe way to the next round with a pair of .7xx lights.

Kescha ran into Alex and Alex´ Lowrider into Kescha´s deslotting Beetle in the shutdown area at the end of this run.

Here´s the proof that a Lexan body is indeed NOT bulletproof.

Kescha´s VW won the fight despite losing a headlight and part of the fender and then won the war, beating Patrick´s Chevy in the final round.

Patrick and Kescha congratulated each other after the S16D finals.

Fred´s Cougar and Charle´s ´57 Chevy are just two of many Gp12 cars capable of mid-0.8 ETs.

Thomas and his son took a few minutes off to watch the show from the spectator side.

Keith is looking at his TF dragster desperately trying to find a recipe against Dominik´s (look at that smile...) .400 lights.

The cook from Malta finally found the recipe to barely hold off Dominik in rd.2.

Patrick on the other hand couldn´t hold off Charles depite some goot RTs.

Fred and Jürg made some practice laps in their Funnies - Lexan vs. Nostalgia Hardbody.

All the practice was for naught when Fred met Kescha´s new Camaro FC in the quarterfinals - Fred´s Pontiac slowed to low 0.9s while the Camaro ran back to back 0.820s and marched on to the semis.

Two of the most popular exhibition cars - Jürg´s Santa/Rudolph pair and Alex´ Wienermobil.

Kescha´s well-running TF-Dragster - spy Photo?.

Peter´s Ranchero and Kescha´s Deuces Wild FC - two Gp20 contenders.

Alex´ popular Bug Zapper also ran in the Gp20 class.

Charles and Zany concentrating on the tree.

Silvano´s cars.

Alex Koch was very interested in Alex Mahl´s and Patrick´s preparations for another run in TF - these two guys seem to race each other in this class every year.

Charles´Corvette and Patrick´s GTO ran in Gp20.

Everybody was paying attention whenever Charles brought his cars to the line expecting another record run (or maybe another upset from the German youngster).

Charles ran a 0.802 on his way to a 2nd round win over Osku.

Two of the older kids in attendance were Peter and Fred.

Kescha didn´t have much time to eat and got very hungry.

Peter Kouba´s Ranchero ran well in Gp20...

...but Kescha´s new ´32 Ford FC had motor problems.

Patrick´s GTO couldn´t keep pace with Jürg´s Monza in Gp20 rd.1.

And neither could Osku´s Grand Am against Charles´Vette.

Zany was our new chief starter and did a great job.

Kescha and Zany at work with Fred checking out the flowcharts.

Alex barely squeezed by Roger Lüber in a Lexan vs. Hardbody Corvette duel.

Alex´car ran slightly better then Roger´s - Peter taking over Zany´s job as chief starter for a few minutes.

Fred´s great Gp20 run ended against Keith´s seemingly unstoppable Summit Olds in the quarterfinals.

Keith´s ETs made everyone shake their heads in disbelief.

Jürg and Dominik were obviously enjoying themselves.

Kescha´s Camaro ran better but Alex had the RTs to win the race for 3rd place.

Gp20 final round - Charles´ Vette vs. Keith´s Olds.

Ready...

...Set...Go!.

The guy with the smile obviusly won - Keith looks a bit unhappy about his ru finish.

On to the Opens - Alex and Kescha.

Kescha and Charles.

Charles laying down some glue.

Kescha with another long burnout.

Holli decided to make his slot drag racing debut in Gp7...

...while Jürg´s Altered was a surprise semifinalist.

Charles and Keith in Gp7 qualifying.

The Maltese duo was concentrating hard.

While Kescha was working on the flowcharts for Gp7 Dominik and Marcel tested the new motors (Ian Hill Gp20 and ProSlot Gp12) they won in the raffle.

Both racers improved their peronal bests drastically.

Fred was finally back in the hunt in most categories and proved that with a holeshot first round win against Alex.

Alex had the better ETs but Fred was brilliant on the tree.

Alex Koch watched Peter finally run well in Gp7 and still lose on two fouls against Jürg´s slow but steady Altered.

Alex and Kescha had several close races this weekend but the Gp7 quarterfinal was not one of them.

Kescha´s Streamliner had braid troubles and slowed but it would have been difficult to beat Alex´ 85+ mph bracket racer even without the problems.

Alex and Charles were the two finalists.

First run: Alex redlights by .020 and wastes a better ET.

Keith is a very interested observer.

Second run: Alex has the better RT but Charles is on time as well and wins with a great 0.462.

3rd Gp7 ru finish in a row for Alex but a new track speed racord, Charles finally gets his first win in Gp7.

The trophies.

Zany had the first perfect light on race day.

Peter was voted the recepient of the tough luck award, and also got the trophy for the best appearing hard body car for his El Camino on a tie-break decision.

Osku got the trophy for making the longest trip to the Winternats - all the way from Finland - and also won the Best Lexan bodied concourse with Sami Hamidulla´s Grand Am.

Kescha got the best engeneered trophy and a set of CNC wheels sponsored by Pro Track for his 2-Gp20 4WD Hook.

Dominik´s Streetbeetles VW Parts and Tuning sponsored this RC Beetle to the winner in our special VW-themed bracket race on Friday - Alex was the winner with his Gp20 Bug Zapper FC.

The winners: Kescha 3rd in PR.

Jürg is our (very deserving) PR winner.

Dominik finished 3rd and 2nd in PS.

Alex (finally) won PS in dominating fashion.

Charles was 3rd in SS.

For the 3rd year in a row, Patrick took a trophy home, this time for his ru finish in SS.

Kescha´s Beetle somehow survived to win SS.

Fred was a very deserving trophy winner in Gp12 - he finished 3rd (and 4th as well).

Alex was ru in Gp12 again.

Keith Grech didn´t have the best car but was the best driver to win Gp12.

Alex beat Kescha for 3rd place in Gp20.

Charles won Gp20 over Keith.

Charles also finished 3rd in TF.

Kescha got the ru trophy in TF.

Keith Grech was the TF winner.

Kescha again made it to at least the semis in Gp7 and beat Jürg for 3rd place.

Alex got another ru trophy for his Gp7 efforts.

Charles made the Maltese proud with another win, this time in Gp7.

Thanks again to everybody who participated in this great event - Roger, Patrick, Zany, Dominik, Alex, Peter, Charles, Kescha, Fred, Osku, Keith, Jürg, and (not pictured) Thomas, Markus, Silvano, Rolf, Fab, Holli, Alex, Marcel.

The European Championships in Malta are next.