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I was finally able to make a QuickTime video from the DVD recordings I had of the TV show.

The video is 6 minutes long and is in French. It features clips from two shows where Georges talked about the race (September 29th and Octobre 6th). The show, called «En piste», is aired each week on a regional TV station in Québec City. It is seen by tens of thousands of viewers each week. The parts where the host and Georges are only talking won't be very interesting to you if you don't speak French. But the report with images from the race begins at the 2-minute mark of the video. You will see nice images of my track during an interview I do with Georges about the race and the evolution of slot racing since the '70s. The SCX logo is also shown throughout the report.

Here's the video, in QuickTime format (around 60 Mb).

Enjoy!

Bob asked if I could translate what was said in the TV show video. Here's what I came up with.

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First two minutes of the video were broadcast on September 29th. Georges gives some info on the type of race we did: 18 hours, 2 tracks, American visitors, the fun we had, etc. And he invites people to tune in next week to see the race report and interview.

At the 2:00 mark, the race report begins with Georges introducing it in my exercice and rally track room.

2:00 - Georges: On our TV show «En piste» in the last four years, we've shown you a lot of things about racing: open-wheel racing, stock car racing, etc. I don't know if you remember when you were young, even more if you're in your forties, the electric slot car race sets that you got from your parents. Well, come and see what it has now become.

The images then show some racing on my track, until Georges starts the interview with me.

2:40 - Georges: I'm with Christian Gingras. You've seen him once on the show, as the winner of our F1 Challenge. At this moment, it's 3:10AM, during the night between Friday and Saturday. Hi Christian, how are you doing?

2:49 - Christian: Hi Georges. I'm doing fine. A little tired but we manage.

2:54 - Georges: Tell me, I was talking about electric slot car race track just now, you have one hell of a track. 70 feet long, wooden, timing computer and everything else and... it's 3AM and there are people driving, what's happening?

3:06 - Christian: Well, there's an event going on with some American friends that we got to know from other slot car events in the past. We go there 3, 4 or 5 times a year, they sometimes come here, and we are running an 18-hour race. We began at 9 last night and we'll finish at 3 tomorrow afternoon.

3:18 - Georges: 18 hours and you're telling me there are American drivers that came here just for that. Explain to me exactly what is this group of people and how many in total?

3:25 - Christian: There are 15 drivers. 5 teams of 3 drivers each. And the team with the most laps at the end of the race, at 3PM tomorrow afternoon will be the winner.

3:34 - Georges: It's a hell of an event. I'm looking at it, how it all works and it has nothing in common with the small race sets we had as gifts when we were young 30 years ago?

3:43 - Christian: The base principles are exactly the same. Small electric motors, braids, slots, guides, but we're now a bit farther down the road with wooden tracks, copper tape, etc. We now have more sophisticated, electronic controllers... but it's all the same as it was, really.

3:56 - Georges: Wow. One thing's for sure, you sure look like you're having a lot of fun. We just discovered a new way to enjoy car racing that maybe we didn't know that much yet.

And then, some more images of the racing on my track.

Back in the studio at 4:25, Georges talks about his lack of sleep and then they compare the two tracks (mine is more technical, Georges' is faster). They tallk about the timing software and how it makes racing interesting, when drivers always try to do a better time on each lap. And then, they talk about the specifics of wooden tracks, when the magnets are out and we're really driving the car instead of it just being dragged on the track with the magnet.

After that, they talk about the vast amount of different cars available, and each car has its specific handling. And Georges finishes by saying that we probably had with us the fastest driver in the northeast for this race, Dickie Pearson (it'll be 20$ the next time we see each other Dickie!).