Ron was a legend at East Devon Slot Racing Club and within the wider slot racing community. He was an enormously kind if private individual. Not only was his knowledge boundless but he willingly shared it with everyone, from interested youngsters at any of the shows we attended to fellow competitors. If a car wasn’t behaving properly, he could tell you in an instant what the issue was and on countless occasions at the end of the night he would simply say “Give it me and I’ll have a look at it” – returning it transformed to the grateful owner the following week. It there were issues with the track or computer he was the one who fixed it – however complex the fault. If you had a problem with a road car he could invariably advise on if not diagnose that too – even from the most rudimentary description.
This was nothing however compared to his ability on track – he was quite simply ‘the benchmark’, not only in setting up his controllers and cars all of which ran like Swiss watches, but his racecraft and driving ability was second to none – he rarely if ever de-slotted. In consequence he invariably won setting records in almost every category. He remains our current and most frequent Club Champion.
When I first visited East Devon Slot Racing Club in 2005 it was Ron who loaned me cars, found me a controller and cars on ebay and generously advised what I needed. He sent me an excel data sheet to log my performance that I adapted and continue to use to this day. I have witnessed this same consideration repeated many many times with newcomers over the years. He has sorted cars, glued and trued tyres and always done the settings on my various controllers. Trying to reward his kindness with a bottle of wine, an offer to take him for lunch or anything else was always declined.
I know all at EDSRC miss his presence, wisdom, enthusiasm and example. I’ve no doubt he’s racing on a bigger track now, no doubt singing Karaoke with Linda and still smiling. RIP Champ
Paul Carter:
02/05/2024
