Owner of Fast Eddie's Slot Cars and Raceway uses hobby to connect generations

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Sometimes a hobby is just a hobby, but sometimes it's a way of life that becomes a way of connecting generation to generation.

"I started with the HO cars up in New Jersey about 1965 running on my brother's slot car track," shared Ed Hoffman, the owner of Fast Eddie's Slot Cars and Raceway in Pinellas Park.

The racing bug bit hard, and he was hooked for life.

An HO car is a type of model race car. The H stands for half and the O refers to the O-scale. 

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Hoffman explained, "A slot car is a car that works on a slotted track. It's a DC-powered car. It's powered by the power supplies which work through the controller at the driver's panel. It allows the racer to have full control over the car."

Some of the cars that can be found at Fast Eddie's Slot Cars and Raceway 

Imagine you are God looking down on Daytona Motor Speedway, and you can control Richard Petty's Plymouth Superbird. That's what slot car racing is.

Fast Eddie's offers several tracks for drivers with different experiences to choose from.

There's a 154-foot hill climb track known as the green track. There's a 126-foot tri-oval known as the orange track. There's a scale 1000-foot drag strip. And there is a 66-foot-long HO track.

If you don't have a race car, that's ok.

ast Eddie's Slot Cars and Raceway provides racers with a variety of options 

"Everything's available here. We have a wide variety," said Hoffman. So you can rent a car or several cars to race on whichever track you'd like to try.

"Our customers range from three years old to 93 years old," he admitted, "A lot of parents bring their kids out getting their kids introduced to something they used to do as a kid."

Fast Eddie's is located in Pinellas Park at 5609 70th Avenue North, 33781.

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