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Hot Wheels race stays on track to benefit charity

CLINTON — Down the front of the couch, around the coffee table legs, through the charger and a loop de loop, around the corner, and then, just as things get exciting, you run out of orange track.

Or maybe your Hot Wheels car leapt off the path at some point or was derailed by a loose piece of track.

Being out of orange Hot Wheels track won’t be a problem for Bryan Potts, 48, of Clinton.

Last weekend, Potts and some of his friends got together for their annual Hot Wheels race.

“It’s the same stuff we had as kids,” Potts said. “I have a pretty substantial collection.”

Potts started the racing event back in 2000 and has had it off and on for the past couple of years.

In the last two years, they’ve raised more than $250 for charity—and that’s just in Potts’ small circle of racers. Next year, he hopes to spread the news to increase participation.

This year, more than 64 cars entered the race at $1 per car. Food was potluck and the setting was a borrowed garage.

No acceleration station was needed.

“We just set it up on gravity,” Potts said. “We had about 70 feet of track and some cars went right off the end of the track.”

Potts has been collecting track equipment for years: orange track, the reddish-pink tongues that hold the pieces together, the corners—that sometimes have to be held down—and all of the other lesser know bits of track paraphernalia.

“They’re hard to find,” Potts said. “A lot of them have been chewed on. They have teeth marks on them.”

Sure, they had teeth marks on them. The best way to pull out those connectors was to put it between your back molars and pull.

Potts already is thinking about his event for next year.

Meanwhile, he’ll have to tidy the track, pulling the sections apart and stacking them up.

Let’s hope he doesn’t use his back molars.