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American Model Raceways and Racing Congress

"The American Model Car Racing Congress, or AMRRC, was created in 1962 by ex-employees of AMF (American Machine and Foundry) for the purpose of furthering the sport of Model Car Road Racing through international, national, regional, state and local racing events", according to Sam Hanks, the director of racing in the booklet Official Rules and Regulations for Model Car Racing (printed in the winter of 1966).

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Promoting Competitive Events

The handicap system of the organization gave everybody an equal change to win because the rules in the booklet had been formulated to serve as a guide for conducting competitive racing events. The congress did not concern itself with rules for home racers, but was focused on events on commercial raceways, particularly those supporting 1:24 scale racing efforts.

The effort was such that born from it was the creation of the 1:24 scale American Blue King as a sort of standardized track which, if adopted, could provide a footprint in which national events could be held where the participants could simply race at a local track. Results could then be "rolled-up" to determine finalists and ultimately, winners.

The congress is long gone, however the Blue King remains as the quintessential 1:24 scale "commercial" track. As of 2009, many are still in operation in the U.S, U.K. and Austrailia.

Like many great ideas which a governing body must preside, rumors enventually flew suggesting that the former AMF employees were actually trying to disrupt the popularity of slot car racing because it posed a serious threat to another popular 1960s pastime... Bowling!

However with an estimated 5 million active slot car racers (at the time) the more likely story is that the former AMF employees were earnest about their slot racing goals and just doing what americans have always done best - chasing the dollars! ;-)

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Great drivers

Great 1:1 racing drivers, like Phil Hill and Parnelli Jones were members of the Board of Racing Governors of the Congress.