Here is a brief Bio on Sam Heller’s Slot Car racing through the years as I know it. Sitting at the lunch table at Methacton High School sometime in the mid 70’s and I mentioned racing H.O Slot cars at our track in Trooper. Sam heard me and said WHAT!. That was kind of the start of Sam’s journey in the hobby. He raced at our track Woodland Speedway and was Rookie of the year in 1975. Sam won many features at Woodland and a some championships. At the time our circuit consisted of many tracks running AFX, Magna-Tractions and T-jets. Among the tracks Sam raced at were Audubon, Perkiomen, Tri-County, Landsdale, Norristown, Farview and of course his own track in Arcola which was appropriately name Bull Ring Speedway. Sam is a front runner everywhere he hooks up and I still to this day enjoy when we are on the track together. Many torrid battles have been staged. Our early days included taking many trips to race at Tom Hiester’s and Big T’s as well as trips to Ace Lane and Clementine Speedways in NJ. Sam went on to race for Bob Lincoln at Wizzard Racing after that in the early 80’s. He had much success and is well respected on the National scene. Sam dropped out of the hobby for a bit in the 90’s until I ran into him one time at the Supermarket. (Genuardi’s in Royersford) I told him about a track in Kutztown that I was racing Tyco’s again and he gave it a try. Hooked again, but I don’t think his wife Corrine was too happy with me.
In round two of the hobby Sam got to reunite with old friends and make many new ones including many that are attending this weekends event at Little T’s Speedway in Myerstown. Sam and I got to race last season together again at Hiester’s H.O. Raceway in Shillington, but this time we are the old guys. At Randy’s Sam won 11 features over the years, including 5 in Modified, and 6 in IROC which Sam is always a force in. The 11 wins place him in a tie for 10th all time at the Kutztown tracks. Sam has also raced with many other organizations of which I am not always familiar with but there have been many. Sam is currently an Officer with MAHOPRA and a regular racer as they travel that circuit in the PA and NJ area.
Sam also drove a Sportsman-Modified in the late 70’s at Grandview, Reading, East Windsor and Bridgeport. The final race at the Reading Fairgrounds I was helping on our car for Charley Gilmore and we lost the engine during warm-ups. I ran down and asked Sam if Charley could run his Coupe and Sam said sure. Charley really liked the Motor that car had under the hood.
By Mark Williams
