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Hobby Town 1986 in Nebraska. It was one hell of a hobby shop then. All the top brands, parts and hop-ups. Owner was awesome and people new their stuff. Flash forward to now, owner not so cool, employees that don't know squat. Their favorite saying is "it oughta work". It is now Trax-ass or nothing.
Started with a Falcon and quickly followed by an RC10 then a Optima Mid. Raced the 10 and Mid. They had an indoor warehouse and weather permitting that had various outdoor events. I have boxes full of tropies and ribbons but the best part of it was there were also gift certificates. If I remember right it was like $10 1st, $7 2nd, and $5 3rd. I bought almost all my racing parts and supplies with those. Good Times!

Freedom Hill - Detroit (Sterling Heights)

My first track was also the home of the '91 Worlds. It was in the late 80's with my first gold tub. The track is long gone now.

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1440

Ran a local 1/8th gas class at the Long Island Lighting Company parking lot. First serious competition was at Race Prep in Chatsworth, CA. They had a very tight indoor off road but I raced their on-road program in the early 90's, a DS against the early crop of touring cars. Can't remember which "Dunn" ran the program, the younger guy.

Skateland Roller Rink in Charleston, WV (now offices) approx 1987-88

Carpet oval - stock RC10 gold pan - on-roadified by putting tubing on the shafts inside the shock bodies.

Hobby World, Tolland,CT. Burned, since closed down. 1987 Tamiya Blackfoot. Raced a Javelin in 1988, a JRXT in 1989. Ah, the good old days...

My first racing experience came at Riders Hobby Shop in Ypsilanti Mi in the late eighties. They would make an oval track in the parking lot of the store and race there. Found this video from back in the day. Looks more like a demolition derby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6WqDx23fGY&feature=fvst

Date- early 1987.
The place- B.O.R.M.A.C (Bankstown Off Road Model Auto Club) Australia.
The car- Kyosho Optima.
Mod's- 2.0" chrome rims with Option House tyres and that was about it.
Can't remember where I placed (probably last-LOL!)

The bormac club was a bit of a big deal back then (from what I remember) and it wasn't uncommon to get around 80 entries at the more popular meetings. I raced in the 'Production' class moving on to 'Junior Stock' at some stage. Plenty of sponsored drivers were a part of the club and the driving standards were high. It was a real pivotal time in Australia as this time was where the new age of race cars (mid motor-belt drive) started to make their presence felt. I still remember the Optima Mid, JRX2 and 870c coming onto the scene and turning everything on its head.
Battery tech was on the improve as was the ESC market with the big names releasing higher and higher spec gear all the time. It wasn't uncommon to see new stuff each fortnight.
Sadly the club died off with speculation to it's demise I still don't know the exact reason for it all coming to an end.

The good old days for me.

1989: I started this addictive problem with a Kyosho Turbo Ultima at the track located behind Jack Murphy stadium in San Diego.

Shortly after the JRX2 was introduced, I raced one of them at the same track as well as El Cajon RC speedway and the Del Mar track. Back then most tracks had offroad racing at least twice a week. It was possible to go racing ANY night of the week. Rain was never a problem either! Typical Wednesday night turnout at El Cajon was 75+ entries! On a week night!

We moved to Albuquerque, NM 1/4 of my way through my junior year of H.S. Raced at the only track they had, can't remember the name, but they specialized in 1/4 scale oval. Needless to say, their heart wasn't in it for keeping the offroad people happy. Rain in the summer afternoons cancelled 75% of the races anyway.

1991 or 92 Hobbytown in Vista, Ca. It was an indoor offroad track 100' x 60', when it first opened we would have 75+ entries! I was lucky to make the B if not the C main in stock buggy. A lot of the local Associated and Traxxas team guys raced there (yes, Traxxas used to have race cars and sponsored A LOT of people).

Interest dwindled and within 2 years it wasn't making money and it was shut down, now it's a brake and tire shop.

A few years later I helped Hobbytown San Marcos start a parking lot racing program. We ran offroad cars with plywood jumps, F1 cars with silver can motors (biggest class, usually 30+ entries), Bolink diggers (FUN!!), Touring Car (new class, not many chassis' available. Yok YR4 was the spark that started that class), 10th pan car, and Nitro Touring Car later on (HPI nitro RS4). Those were the best times I ever had racing. Get to the track at 6AM to blow all the dust off the parking lot. Set up the fire hose and metal corner dots. 10AM start taking signups (usually 80-100 entries), enter all the names in the computer and HAND COUNT cars all day. Yup, no transponders, when you see a car go by you press the number on the keyboard! We had to get done with racing by sunset (no lights), then tear it all down and pack everything into the store's storage space. Normally I would get home at 8 or 9pm, but hey I usually made $30 or $40 .

1986 I raced indoors at a local flea market (Derry, NH) with my Hotshot & RC10. We'd set up the track (green outdoor carpet with vinyl soffit on 2x4 frames for the edging) and take it down every week. I think it was the Martels that ran that... and Jim's Hobby Shop was in downtown Derry.
We also raced at Good Times Roller Rink during the winter. There were a couple local dirt tracks but I can't recall them right now. I just remember cranking The Clash or Alice Cooper on the Kenwood auto-reverse deck in my Caprice on the way there.

Motion Magic dirt oval on Airport Blvd in Mobile, AL. They would bunch all the buggies together 2 and 4wd and let us rip. That's when my RC10 was new and I could kill any of the other competitors(once I got the front bumper installed) hhahaha. Before the bumper I popped the left turnbuckle off every race because I could not drive.

Mazdaj wrote:Hobby World, Tolland,CT. Burned, since closed down. 1987 Tamiya Blackfoot. Raced a Javelin in 1988, a JRXT in 1989. Ah, the good old days...

No way! Didn't know about this one. Missed it by about a year. Wish they were open when I started. Grew up in Mansfield. Tolland would have been much closer than Hebron. You still in the CT area? Still racing? I got re-hooked almost 2 years ago. Racing in Waterbuy now. (RCHR) We can still love the 'good ole days'. And now actually afford the toys!!!! =)

In 1985 at the "Teen Center" in Van Nuys, CA. A city owned park / dirt lot with an off-road track that was run by Race Prep (before they had their indoor track in Northridge, CA).
Car.......what else, an RC10

Can't remember which "Dunn" ran the program, the younger guy.

That was probably Steve

[email protected] wrote:

Mazdaj wrote:Hobby World, Tolland,CT. Burned, since closed down. 1987 Tamiya Blackfoot. Raced a Javelin in 1988, a JRXT in 1989. Ah, the good old days...

No way! Didn't know about this one. Missed it by about a year. Wish they were open when I started. Grew up in Mansfield. Tolland would have been much closer than Hebron. You still in the CT area? Still racing? I got re-hooked almost 2 years ago. Racing in Waterbuy now. (RCHR) We can still love the 'good ole days'. And now actually afford the toys!!!! =)

Yeah, Hobby World used to be on RT30, across from Xtra-Mart (Three hot dogs and a soda for 99 cents back in the day!) Still in CT. Also raced off road in Manchester and Enfield, on road in Manchester and Stafford. Unfortunately, only RC Madness in Enfield is still open. No, pretty much got out of racing. Still run them in the yard ocassionally when time allows.