Slot Car Proxy Racing

I've been reading lately about slot car proxy racing. The idea is simple: people with home or commercial tracks host race events, and entrants mail their cars in to be raced on the track. Race is finished, car is mailed back to you, or in some cases, sent on a continuing circuit to other scheduled proxy races. Clubs are formed around this and it can be quite interesting to those people who want to see how fast their cars are in other conditions.

Various events hold races for specific classes of cars, and many of the same classes pop up frequently. Below is an example of an open race being held in Vancouver which features any representative cars that would have raced in the Targa Florio race in Italy, which was held annually from 1906 until 1973:

The Greater Vancouver Slot Car Club is presenting the Targa Florio Proxy. 

This is an open invitation to 1/32 scale slot racers around the world to enter a car in the Greater Vancouver Targa Florio Proxy. This is a club proxy, not limited to the participants from any particular club or forum. Everyone is welcome.
Format
The proxy will consist of two races on Luf's famous Targa track, one in each direction, as well
as at least four more races held on the tracks owned by other club members. The tracks are all non-magnetic routed wood with a 1⁄4 inch minimum slot depth. All cars will be shipped here, run in all the races and then shipped home again.
Cars
All cars will be reasonable 1/32 scale models of any car that actually ran in the original Targa
Florio, held in Sicily from 1906 to 1973. Car authentification will be according to the Targa Florio files shown on www.racingsportscars.com.
To qualify, the make and model must be listed in the results file as having run for any year of the race. Livery does not have to be the same, and fantasy liveries are allowed, but they should be period correct for the year of the race. Cars will be divided into two classes.
Class A
These cars must have a motor of less than 15000 rpm at 12v, as tested and listed in Robert
Livingston's motor list found here - http://slotcarnews.blogspot.ca/2007/02/slot-car-news-motor-list.html
Class B
These cars will have an open motor formula with unlimited rpm. Motors above 22000 rpm at
12v are not recommended. The class is determined only by the motor rpm, not the make or model of car chosen.
Rules
Cars may have any chassis type, made of any material. Chassis may have any motor
alignment, inline, sidewinder or anglewinder. Wheels may be of any type, but should look scale for the car being modelled. For example, no O-ring front tires, and front wheels must turn. For cars up to 1960 the maximum tire tread width should be about 1⁄4 inch. For cars 1961 to 1973 most should be 3/8 inch. Several cars from the late 60s and early 70s had wider rear tires, up to 1⁄2 inch width. Limits can be exceeded only with documentation for the real car.
Rear tires should be urethane, but rubber is also allowed. No sponge or silicone tires  will be allowed. No tire solutions are allowed. Tires will be cleaned with a damp sponge, only if necessary. Any gear ratio is allowed. Be advised that most of our tracks are quite technical, with short straights and lots of turns. None have extra long straights.
While not a rule, you should know that cars wider that 2.5 inches or longer than 5 inches will have difficulty on the Burnaby Grind Hill Climb event which has very tight corners and narrow areas where a larger car may hit the scenery.
Car clearance should be at least 1/16 inch to protect track surfaces. Spur gears may be closer but a car will be disallowed if the gear touches the track.
Entry
Participant are invited to enter one car in this event, either in class A or class B.
There will be a maximum number of entries of 30 per class or total of 60. This will be by time of entry, and a waiting list will be kept if the number exceeds 60.
Registration
Entry fees will be $10 for local participants, $25 for other Canadian and US participants, and
$35 for those from other countries, payable in Canadian dollars. All registration fees must be received by Sept 15, 2015. After that time invitations will go to entrants on the waiting list. Fees are mainly used for trackable insured return postage.
Cars must arrive by October 15, 2015, with the first event taking place about November 1, 2015. The plan would be to send cars home by Jan. 1, 2016.
Events
Races will be held on several of our club tracks, with two rounds on Luf's Targa and one on the
Burnaby Grind hill-climb. Other tracks are Perry's Rocket, Don's Attic track, Laguna Douga, and Roger's Coquitlam track. There may be others by the time of the races. We will aim for a minimum of six races.
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded to the winning car in each class, and a concours winner. It is hoped that
these prizes will be donated by slot car dealers. Participation items will be given to each contestant. A small award will be given to the participant whose car had to travel the furthest to compete.
Drivers
All events will be driven by local club members who are experienced drivers. In any event,
drivers will be assigned to one specific lane, and will drive all cars in turn on that lane. Drivers may be changed between classes.
Contact Us
Participants may enquire or register by contacting the race director.

It's pretty specific about racing requirements, yet does allow for experimentation [motors, chassis, gear ratios], while still maintaining scale appearance. So something like the Alfa Romeo 33/3 from Slot.it likely would fit right in almost right out of the box:

While entry fee exceeds what it would cost to actually buy the car new, it would be fun to occasionally compete in a proxy race. Larger proxy races offer prizes, as this one does. Sometimes the prizes come in the form of slot cars themselves. Either way, it would be interesting to see one of my cars racing on the other side of the world. I'd never expect it to get anything but dead last, but it would still be fun.

I've been looking at various proxy races and researching them to try to understand more about it. I've found that the best proxy races are the ones where the host takes the time to completely cover every aspect of the process, and not just run the cars and box 'em up. Over at /r/slotcars we started posting results of some of the more prominent proxy races happening now, and the results are varied. Some, like the event detailed above are outstanding in their coverage. They give us [the outsider] a look into the grass-roots organization of the hobby, along with a chance to see how others do things.
The best proxy race hosts also have a good handle on the rules, a good race offering, and the passion to pull it off, all the while not alienating people who might want to join in. I'm sure had I a car today I could send it off for entry in any of a half dozen proxy races around the world right now.

Proxy race hosts: please go into as much detail as you can in your reporting of races. Photos, descriptions, video, standings lists, spreadsheets, technical information on the entrants....all great thing that are in your arsenal. The more complete your coverage, the more interesting the event.

photo: Alfa Romeo 33/3 by Slot.it
For more info about the race, here is the original link.