About Pendle Slot Racing

Pendle Slot Racing is an independent business, established in 1994, specialising in the sale of slot cars, spares and accessories - from Scalextric to all brands worldwide.

The Early Years

Hobby, Passion and Obsession of slot cars.

Pendle Slot Racing began in 1994 with Sean Fothersgill, but the passion started much earlier. From a young age, Sean discovered Scalextric at a friend’s house, sparking a lifelong interest in slot racing. He didn’t own his first set until age 24, setting it up in his loft, where he spent most evenings after work as a panel beater at Ford.

Like many enthusiasts, Sean soon began improving his track and collecting more cars, spending weekends at car boot sales searching for track pieces, parts and cars. As his Scalextric collection grew, he began selling excess items through local newspaper adverts (before the internet era), and demand quickly exceeded expectations.

This led to buying and selling at trade shows across the UK, along with phone and email sales. Eventually, Sean left Ford to focus full-time on building track layouts for clubs and selling slot car products from his home in Nelson, Lancashire.

The Club Scene

A great gathering for enthusiasts to race.

During the 1990s, Sean was a regular racer at Bolton Scalextric Club, also selling cars and tuning parts. As the business grew, he took the next step by opening a local club - Pendle Scalextric Club.

Sean and friends built a custom 115ft, 5-lane MDF track. The club hosted regular race meetings and became a popular gathering point for local enthusiasts and the wider community.

Online Mail Order

The launch of our first website in 1999 helped establish and grow the business. Sean’s home soon became the workplace - the front room served as the office, the kitchen as the packing area, and the spare bedroom as stock storage.

Nick and Neil helped after school with various tasks, then carried all the parcels to the local Post Office as near to closing time as possible. The 10-minute uphill walk often required two trips with heavy bags and trays of parcels.

It soon became clear a better solution was needed, so Royal Mail collections were arranged directly from the premises.

Office & Warehouse

The range of cars and spares continued to grow, and Sean’s home soon became too small to operate from. A permanent base was needed, leading to a move in 2000 to a unit at a local mill in Trawden, Lancashire.

In 2008, the business relocated again to our current premises on Lomeshaye Industrial Estate in Nelson, Lancashire.

Hobby Supporters & Sponsors

Proud supporters of slot car events and publications.

Over the years, we have actively supported a wide range of slot car events and media, and we remain committed to doing so. Our contributions include well-known publications such as Slot Car Magazine, Slot Magazine, and the NSCC Journal, as well as popular online content like the @thatslotcarguy YouTube channel. We have also backed events including the Early Birds GP at Wolverhampton Scalextric Club and organisations such as DiSCA (Digital Slot Car Association), among many others.

From 2000 to 2012, Pendle Slot Racing organised the Porsche Challenge and Slot.it Challenge - two highly regarded UK racing series that regularly attracted over 50 of the country’s top drivers from clubs nationwide.

Brooklands & UK Slot Car Festival

For many years, we felt the slot car hobby needed a major annual event, one that would bring together and celebrate every aspect of the hobby all in one place.

Our inspiration came in 2006, when we exhibited at the NSCC’s 25th anniversary event at the Toyota Headquarters in Epsom. It was an outstanding showcase: a fantastic venue with excellent facilities, numerous tracks for public racing, trade stands, and even full-size cars on display. Building on that experience, we launched the first Pendle Slot Racing Festival in 2009 at Brooklands Motor Museum in Surrey. Like the NSCC event, it combined trade stands, multiple slot car tracks, and access to the museum itself, all set within a historic motorsport environment.

As the event at Brooklands drew nearer, a degree of uncertainty was inevitable. Would people actually turn up? A few months before it took place, we received an unexpected boost when a TV production team working on a BBC series called Toy Stories got in touch with us. Their plan was to recreate the original Brooklands circuit on the same day as the festival, setting a record for the longest Scalextric track ever built. The project would be presented by Top Gear’s James May, who would also appear at the event for filming.

This collaboration helped turn the event into a major success, helping to attract a substantial crowd. Alongside the TV spectacle, visitors enjoyed a wide range of attractions, including drag slot racing beneath Concorde, a recreated Brooklands race in the historic chequered flag room, trade stands in the original pit buildings, and numerous other tracks and displays.

We returned to Brooklands in 2010 for another slot racing festival and, even without the draw of James May, it attracted more than 2,000 visitors and was another success. That same year, a slot car event organised by Mark Scales, Julie Scales and Roger Barker was held at Donington Motor Museum. Following a similar format, it too proved highly successful in drawing a large crowd.

After these two events in 2010, both organisers agreed it made sense to combine our experience and efforts to create a single, larger event. A central UK venue, the Heritage Motor Centre, was chosen from 2011 onwards, offering the benefits of an indoor setting with excellent facilities and a superb motor museum. The UK Slot Car Festival has been held annually ever since, except for 2020 due to COVID-19.

Awards

SCALEXTRIC recognises Pendle Slot Racing's many years serving the slot car industry and their very obvious passion for the SCALEXTRIC brand.

Pendle Slot Racing is proud to have been awarded the Scalextric Retailer of the year.

Our Core Values

Reliable and Secure Shipping
Personal and Friendly Service
Customer Support
Promote the hobby
Honest advice on products