Race Store St Albans Optima Custom Stuff

[bigalbi]

Hi All,

Does anyone remember a shop in the basement of the Music Dept (London Road) in St Albans called Race Store. Would have been mid to late 80's. I think the bloke who ran it was called Chris.

He did some cool belt drive, big spur custom mods for Kyosho Optima's. Would be nice to get hold of some of those parts.

Long shot but if anyone can Ooplers can!

[Luke Burley]

Chris Davidson ran than shop. I knew him well back in the day. He started racing again recently at the Hereford club I think. I met him again at a 12th national there.

[bigalbi]

He used to have a bit of a needle match with Paul Rosenthal at Verulam Model Car Club for the local meetings (all testosterone of course). I think Chris's testoserone level was greatly enhanced by the 70's Stingray he drove at the time

[bigalbi]

Forgot to ask Luke. Were you a local for the Herts scene? May have met you back in the day (probably in Trev's back garden on the A5).

[gainsy]

Remember Chris well, spent many a hour in that tiny shop
Would love a couple of the old silver Racestore stickers if anyone has any kicking around

Few pics here of the old verulam club

[Luke Burley]

Hi Bigalbi,

Yes you may well have met me back then. I remember trevs garden on a particularly wet day when Ben Sturnham and many others were racing there in a relatively big meeting. I raced at Chesham and Toddington a good deal as well. Did you race a lot at the time?

Luke

[MattV6]

Hi i remember that shop. I lived in Watford at the time. I probably raced with some of you guys back in the day?

There was also a Tamiya shop in Hemel Hempsted (the old part of town), does anyone that store. I used to go there in the early 90's and pick up bits with my dad. It was an odd shop if i remember. There always seemed to be a lady at the desk. I wish i could remember what the place was called and who ran it

[bretts]

My Nana lived in Flamsted just off M1 J9/A5

I went to St Albans once and called in. I found them listed in the back of Model Cars Monthly. I remember going downstairs and bought wheels for my Optima, they were green and first time I'd seen wheels in lots of different colours.

From a MSX or something.

[Darren Boyle]

Matt, the shop in Hemel was simply called The Model Shop doing Tamiya only via RiKo the importer who was based behind them in the warehouses and office's. Then across the road was The Model Shop Too which catered for other makes and types of models.

Chris at Racestore was a legend. Spent most of my pocket money there as a young teenager on Kyosho and Schumacher parts and even copies of his racing newspaper FTD too... It was his closing and that of the old Watford Model Centre that prompted me to start up DMS in the late 80's and very early 90's

[Ross]

Originally Posted by bretts

My Nana lived in Flamsted just off M1 J9/A5

I went to St Albans once and called in. I found them listed in the back of Model Cars Monthly. I remember going downstairs and bought wheels for my Optima, they were green and first time I'd seen wheels in lots of different colours.

From a MSX or something.

Ha, i used to live in Flamsted from 76 to 96

[bigalbi]

Originally Posted by Luke Burley

Hi Bigalbi,

Yes you may well have met me back then. I remember trevs garden on a particularly wet day when Ben Sturnham and many others were racing there in a relatively big meeting. I raced at Chesham and Toddington a good deal as well. Did you race a lot at the time?

Luke

I used to race at VMCC back in the 80's up until about '89. I got out most weekends. Pam and Dave Driscoll ran the club at the time. As I was in my early to mid teens my racing venues were limited to where I could convince my dad to drive me. I did race in some of the Tamiya Challenge events at Amersham, Chesham etc..

[bigalbi]

Originally Posted by gainsy

Remember Chris well, spent many a hour in that tiny shop
Would love a couple of the old silver Racestore stickers if anyone has any kicking around

Few pics here of the old verulam club

Great pictures. Picture 1 I think the guy in the cap is Dave Oxford. I think he and his Dad Vic started a model shop in Letchworth in the 80's (can't remember the name of the shop). Some of the other faces are familiar also. I think Ross Meigh (Harpenden boy then) is in there. Can't remember any more names but the faces are all recognisable.

[bigalbi]

Originally Posted by bigalbi

Great pictures. Picture 1 I think the guy in the cap is Dave Oxford. I think he and his Dad Vic started a model shop in Letchworth in the 80's (can't remember the name of the shop). Some of the other faces are familiar also. I think Ross Meigh (Harpenden boy then) is in there. Can't remember any more names but the faces are all recognisable.

Just remembered the name of the shop. It was Model Images.

[Darren Boyle]

Dave Foster is his name, he works at Schumacher now...

[dazzlerr6]

I to raced at cotton mill club had a black n gold optima mid. Back in the day good times and good racing .

[bigalbi]

Originally Posted by Darren Boyle

Dave Foster is his name, he works at Schumacher now...

Thanks for the correction. It was a long time ago. Many brain cells have been deleted by alcohol intake. There wasn't that many to lose!

If the alcohol wasn't too rampant... Weren't the Jarrett family part of the Cottonmill setup also. Think my mum worked with one of that family at Herts Tool Co.

Are there any Jarretts on here?

[gainsy]

Jeremy Jarrett is the one in the pic with the campri jacket on, remember his dad being there a lot, i have a pic of him somewhere with the st albans mayor when he visited the track one day, will dig it out

[gainsy]

Mick Jarrett is in one of the pics & Jeremy's dad is in a few but his name escapes me, maybe Tony?