FOUND: 1997 IEDA World Championship Winning Drag Car

[Basher67]

An older gentleman wandered into my local racetrack the other day asking about anyone interested in buying an old rc drag car collection. I jumped at the chance, of course, and met him at his house after the race day ended. The man's name was Ben Laureano. He told me tales of winning drag races bitd and had some great stories. Then he mentioned that this car of his won the world championship back in the 90's....then he showed me the trophy......then he showed me the article in the April 1998 edition of RCCA that covered the race and showed his car in the pics and mentioned in the article that he had won and also TQ'd. I was blown away! We talked for quite a while and he was quite proud of the fact that this car was painted by Mike Ogle. We settled on a price and I bought the whole collection. Before I left, he asked me if I was into slot cars. I told him it wasn't really my thing. Then he asked me if I had heard of a man by the name of Gene Husting. I laughed and said "yeah, I've heard of him". He then went on to tell me stories of, around 1961, he and Gene were drag racing slot cars. What an experience! I felt like I had found a real piece of rc history.
The car is a custom one-off chassis using AE rear axle and components. The body, which he included the extra body and a new uncut and unpainted one too is a Protoform Future Shock. I found it interesting that M.R. OGLE is molded into this body. There were other really cool pieces in the collection that I will post in the appropriate places in the forum, such as Team Checkpoint motors, Saiko Motors and other cool stuff. Enjoy the pics guys!

[Basher67]

April 1998 RCCA article

[Dadio]

That's so cool and well saved for history !

[coxbros1]

Yeah! so cool

[matt1ptkn]

Sounds like a really cool experience! You should go back and have him tell the stories again, and record them. I'm definitely looking forward to more photos and information!

[romulus22]

Pretty cool, did you look at any drag slot cars? I’d have been curious and probably walked away with at least one if he was selling any.

[Basher67]

He doesn't have any slot cars anymore. Just some old motors.