Remembering Oscar Koveleski

Oscar Koveleski, the famed Polish motorsports legend, sadly passed away last December. Our very own Doug Stokes had a few personal thoughts to share.

He always claimed “pole position” at every race and just about any gathering… he has it now.

This was a guy who simply knew how to have fun and (better still) how to share that joy with everyone who ever came into contact with him.

The very textbook example of an old school huckster, Oscar put his heart where his ego was and never looked back or lingered over any of his wild, wonderful, incredible, promotions for very long. There was always the next one and the one after that.

The cool part was that the products (from mail-order kielbasa sausage to Kid Racers cars) were always as good as the hype. His enthusiasm was as contagious as it was unrelenting.

As “full of it” as he was, Oscar wouldn’t even admit it, but he was a pretty fair racing driver, slugging it out with the best of them in a 200 mile-an-hour Can-Am McLaren with racing stripes that were depictions of the slot car tracks that he championed early-on.

Koveleski’s contribution to the hobby/sport of slot car racing simply can’t be underestimated; it ignited a wonderful era of scale model racing in the United States that endures to this day.

He was everybody’s fun uncle and best friend.

Everyone was forever laughing WITH Oscar rather than what he had intended to be AT him. Car 54 is parked and quiet now, but the great joy that always swirled around this guy still echoes.

Thanks Oscar… thank you a whole lot. - DS