As the circle gets smaller, and some folks either barred from or pissed off at the few remaining tracks, I ask you, fellow enthusiasts, is "club" style racing the last option for this end of the hobby? Is it viable, given the history of the hobby in this country?

Durl,
Probably not. There was a really beautiful HO club track in SF that just closed. It all boils down to how much rent you have to pay vs. what you can sell to pay that rent. I don't think you can keep club members involved long enough to keep the rent on a building going.
There does seem to be a ray of hope though. From reading at other slot blogs it is pretty obvious that slot cars are actually growing again on the East Coast and middle states. It makes sense. Cheaper rents and friendly business environments.
Slot cars are a really good individual or family sport. You learn to physically engineer your cars to compete. No software or computers. You actually need skill and preparation to be competitive. It's almost as much fun as slogging my old Lotus through the cork screw at Laguna Seca.
It would be a real shame if this sport dies out. We all need to make sure that that does not happen by supporting our local tracks and being an advocate for slot racing. Get the word out there! Yell it loud, SLOT RACING ROCKS!
Randy

Well, Randy, it turns out Fast Track is NOT closing after all. That is truly great news, and sort of shoots my whole premise down. Especially with the track in Modesto opening, it appears that slot racing is at least holding its own if not exactly growing by leaps and bounds.

Greg Kondrek was a member of the SFHO club and he said as much as you did, that "members" simply didn't care enough to want to keep it going, even in another location. So now, that gorgeous KSR track has been taken apart and moved and the remaining HO tracks have been taken down and are being stored until something can be figured out.

I think it is amazing that commercial 1/24 is still going on, and I know it isn't easy, but I appreciate every track that is still open, even if I don't get to them all as much as I'd like.