Beat the champ

Marketing concept developed by Bill Silverstein of Aurora

The Grand National, an in-store racing competition, was a marketing concept developed by Bill Silverstein of Aurora. Aurora installed tracks in the stores nation-wide.
The first race (Grand National) was organized in 1962.
The final was shown at The Today Show, hosted by Jack Lescouli on the NBC channel at 21 August.

The final of the race

The final of the race of 1963 was held on Johnny Carson's Tonite Show on NBC at 20 August.
A "behind the scenes" article of this event was written by Bill Silverstein in number 95 (winter 1964) issue of the quarterly Models and Modelers World.

In-store racing competition

Beat the Champ was an in-store racing competition in 1964. The tracks were based on Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, test track. A celebrity should record a fast lap and the public was invited to beat that time. The Ford Mustang was chosen as the official competition model. It was allowed to tune the model but not to modify the car. Unfortunately something went wrong. The chosen champ was the Nascar driver Glenn "Fireball" Roberts. Just after the start of the Beat the champ competition the driver crashed at a 600-mile race in North Carolina. The car got fire and the Roberts burned over seventy percent of his body. He was not wearing a fireproof suit. The Aurora champ died five weeks after the crash.
The concept of the competition was changed and the race of four finalists (local winners) was organized at the Steve Allen Show (I've got a secret, Sunday, November 14, CBS) on national television. The host Steve Allen, the famous driver Stirling Moss and four referees had a close look at the race of the four talents. The winner won a Ford Mustang and a $2,000 college scholarship.

Ford-Aurora Grand National

The nation-wide competition Grand National was repeated in 1965. The final of the Ford-Aurora Grand National was shown on The Mike Douglas Show. The winner returned home with a real Mustang.

Ed Sullivan Show

Aurora showed more interest for national television. Silverstein managed to get seven minutes on the famous Ed Sullivan Show on the CBS channel in November 1970. The four famous drivers Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss competed for a big price. Jackie Stewart was the winner of the race and went home with $ 35,000.

More information

Around the slot car tracks
Ninco Audi TT-R Abt
Commercial Raceways
Race Management System of Scalextric
Aurora slot cars