$50,000 Aurora Model Motoring Invitational Championship - November, 15, 1970

$50,000 Aurora Model Motoring Invitational Championship which took place on November 15, 1970 and featured Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, and Jackie Stewart.
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research.

[@geneshaw1618]

I grew up as a 60's T-Jet garage race kid, saving up my $40 lawn mower money until I could buy the Aurora Stirling Moss 4 lane Thunderjet 500 Championship Race Set and I continue to this day racing HO cars only now in clubs with faster magnet cars and on professionally made tracks. The days of Aurora, Tyco and Auto World's Catalogue have long past, but the hobby has grown to become even larger, more expensive and more technically advanced but the memory from the sweet scent of Aurora's red motor oil lingers on.

[@jimmyb1559]

Aurora and AFX HO slot car racing sets were as popular with kids in the 60’s as video games are today. I remember going to my friends house and bringing my slot cars to race. We’d have a piece of plywood on top of the old pool or ping pong table in the basement on which we’d build our layout and race all day. What fun. 50 years later I’m still racing! Thank you for the video. Loved it.

[@GreatBirdOfHope]

I was born in 85 and grew up with slot cars in the early 90s. I also grew up on old Popeye cartoons and heckle and Jeckyle. Donald duck Mickey mouse. Parents exposed me to old stuff.

[@westies1962]

I was HEAVY into racing HO slot cars as a kid back in the day!! Great memories!!

[@davidsymalla4785]

Have you seen how fast they got those cars going today? Do you still do any slot car racing?

[@Its_YourImagination]

@@davidsymalla4785 yes its like they reach light speed on 1/32 scale....crazy you cant even see them at times....just a blur.

[@michaelannen4168]

Me too. Made me a gear head for life

[@emmma5774]

What a classic!😊

[@62shalaka]

What a great bunch of guys racing HO cars on TV!! Thanks for posting!

[@michaellittlejohn8723]

Holy Cow what a Lineup ... 4 of the Most Popular Drivers of ALL time. Thanks for sharing !

[@roadsscholar4012]

Ah! The wonderful, bygone 'Days of Old'!

[@keithfilkins2043]

That is awesome, four Legends!

[@rabokarabekian409]

I saw this live. i still used Riggen and Tycopro as they were faster and smoother. Imagine slot cars being the most exciting toy a boy could play with.

[@jamisonescott2300]

As Jackie Stewart said, "the closest thing to real racing."

[@sheldonbrunn6445]

That's good, I still race them today

[@Petequinn741]

Great track set up

[@auroramodelmotoring-roadra1380]

Custom built for the show by Aurora, who mistakenly never had their name displayed!

[@lakesuperiorvideos]

Thanks for sharing Aurora history

[@TechnologyofFreedom]

Wonderful! Thanks.

[@MrPrincepop]

Damn, all legends!

[@tomtbi]

I had an AFX,TCR and US 1 Electric Trucking sets in my childhood. Wish I still had them ..

[@michaelstokley6796]

You still can all over ebay ,plus new slot sets to relive those days of past for not slot of investment.

[@handymatt1970]

Watching Sir Jackie run around a wet skidpad with a 1987 Mustang Gt drifting if with ease told me he's from a different planet in terms of driving skillset.

[@mikeyerke3920]

This is great footage.

[@davematthews2317]

Thanks for the video.

[@joeking6200]

Tyco or no Tyco-when it came to slot cars promotions. no one could compare to Aurora. Bill Silverstein pulled out all the stops for Tuff Ones. Aurora’s new cars starred in the most extravagant slot car production ever staged for television on November 15. 1970. Silverstein had tried for years to get Aurora on Ed Sullivan’s popular Sunday night TV variety show. He finally sold Sullivan on the idea of a $50,000 match race between the world’s top Grand Prix drivers. CBS thought Silverstein was crazy to spend $50,000 on a toy ear race. but Silverstein saw it another way-he received seven minutes of prime time exposure for his money when one minute of advertising cost $80,000. On the eve of the Sullivan show, Aurora’s Dick Schwarzchild presided over a dinner at Sardi’s Restaurant in Manhattan. Four champion drivers were on hand: America’s clean-cut Dan Gurney and Great Britain’s heavily sideburned trio of Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, and Jackie Stewart. In the days leading up to the event, each driver had honed his slot car driving skills by racing with Auroras R&D staff.(How many people can say they’ve raced against Jackie Stewart?” gushed one Aurora employee.) At the dinner there was a track set up in the corner where the stars and newsmen covering the event could race each other, Jackie Stewart admitted. “I think children can do it better than we can!” At Saturday morning’s rehearsal in Ed Sullivan Theatre. Stewart’s quip proved true (at least for a few seconds) as all four drivers wiped out on the First curve. During the evening’s live broadcast it was Sullivan’s turn to goof up, mispronouncing just about everyone’s name. The race, thankfully, was very exciting. The 32-foot track featured prototypes of Auroras new banked curves. Each driver led at some point during the 20-lap race, but in the end Stewart prevailed over Gurney and won the $35,000 top prize. The others took home $5,000 each. In per-minute terms, it was the richest purse ever offered in a Grand Prix-style race on any scale. The only falling In the whole enterprise was that none of the Aurora people involved managed to get the “Aurora” name mentioned on air.

[@michaellerner1369]

And, how could they not have an Aurora logo visible!!

[@thomasconnolly7452]

His face ended up a ton of AFX sets!

[@tableseven8133]

OK, this is the second one of these I saw with the first one being a older black and white TV/movie. I see a huge problem with them both; the track in very unfair. The cars that are on the center lanes have an advantage, since it is shorter for them on the curves. The only way to make it fair is a cross-over, or a figure 8 with a bridge, makes it opposite on the curves on either end of the "8". So lane 1 is on the inside of one loop and on the outside of the other loop.

[@toyman81]

The outer lanes didn't have their guard rails either.

[@reynaldovelazquez460]

I wonder who has the track ?

[@handymatt1970]

Indeed, beautify done sadly it probably got scrapped after the promo.

[@user-fy5fm5so1g]

How to see this race take place on the Ed Sullivan show.I wonder if having these popular drivers which came from all walks of auto racing helped the hobby and how did sales of slot car track race sets.😊

[@Its_YourImagination]

Sad thing is...without a staggered start or a double cross over the inside lane has an advantage....however Gurney couldnt keep the tires on the road...as Jackie would say 🤣🤣

[@maxmulsanne7054]

Jim Clark would have suggested otherwise...

[@christopherbusch1933]

I'm surprised that Aurora had a routed track rather than a Model Motoring sectional track. They should have had the track plastered with big promotional letters

[@michaelannen4168]

Interesting how Stewart had been doing tv ads for Aurora before this ... hmmm. I think l could have beaten them all in Junior high in 1970. They don't punch it down the straight. 😅

[@CHixon]

Entertainment for the boys. Ed Sullivan liked to feature entertainment for all ages. I wonder what he offered the girls. Maybe a puppet show with a princess.

[@skipperrussell2025]

Who built that track?

[@michaellerner1369]

Aurora. There are photos online.

[@skipperrussell2025]

@@michaellerner1369 Send a link.

[@maxmulsanne7054]

Definitely not a Tilke signature design. Otherwise there would be no long straights and plenty of chicanes.

[@CycolacFan]

Did Ed Sullivan always shuffle about nervously like he needed the toilet? Did Jackie keep the $5000 or donate it to charity? All that talent in one room and no interviews…?

[@auroramodelmotoring-roadra1380]

They did all the publicity the day before.

[@christopherbusch1933]

Any streaming that prior video?

[@johnd8892]

In an interview on Australian television at the Australian F1 Grand prix in the nineties I remember him saying how significant the prize money was and how he still had it. I think meaning it formed a significant part of his financial reserves.

[@scotthentges1118]

$5k not $50k

[@michaellerner1369]

It was advertised as 50K

[@torqueytorque8861]

I looked up half a dozen newspaper articles from November 1970 that mentioned this event and they all reported $50K, not $5K. Ed Sullivan and his staff screwed up during the broadcast.

[@RileyBanksWho]

Ddg