Did you ever or do you race now?

[RCveteran]

Curious how many here are racers? If you're here, safe to assume an RC enthusiast and interested in vintage. Racers in general are a small minority.

Without a detailed timeline or car roster broadly summarized in short...

1988-1992 raced a lot (every weekend basically, also worked at local Hobby Shop).
1992 - 2008, mostly out of hobby to "grow up".
2008, back to hobby just building and bashing
2014-2020, once a month racer, give or take.
2020- now, close'ish track closed , maybe once or twice a year resulting in frustration and being worse at it than ever.

What about you?

[jwscab]

Never formally raced in the golden years. I had a tiny oval-ish track in my backyard but I wouldn't consider it an oval nor am I an oval racer. Basically two drag strips connected with turns.

Fast forward after first car, college, work, wife, kids I dusted off my stuff for my boys to play with and find all my stuff is vintage collectible and I find rc10talk. I find out Scr8p lives somewhat local and we discuss carpooling up to vonats.

From there, I've run in vintage races whenever I can fit them in my schedule and practice very seldomly. I have nothing modern, and track selection for off-road is not that great, however it is very much better than it was when I first joined rc10talk.

I'm a middle to bottom 1/3rd of the pack typically. More practice would definitely help.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

I started racing around 1987 with my Tamiya Hornet. Hobby World in Evansville had an indoor on-road oval track that was basically 2 long straightaways held together by 2 tight turns. It was really fun. I raced, and lost, with that for a few months and then upgraded to a Thunder Shot that Christmas. I raced ,and lost, with that for about a year I believe. Right around the time the TQ10 came out, I made the jump to 2WD stock gearcase. It was very popular at the track, so it was fun losing to a larger number of entries.
I also worked at the shop during this time and pretty much spent every dime on R/C stuff. Made side cash building kits for people that didn’t want to mess with building them. That was fun because I got to build a lot of the kits I couldn’t afford.

I raced the TQ10 for a couple of years at the home track and away on a few off-road tracks. Then I got my first 10L. I barely had the budget to race the stock class, so I never raced modified on a regular basis. I also ran only one class 95% of the time due to budget restraints, so I raced the 10L mostly. The pan car stock class was very popular and could have 35-40 racers some nights, which is a lot for around here in a single class. It was super fun, and I lost a lot. I mean I literally never even placed in my early R/C career. My attention span is not designed for doing one thing for 4 straight minutes, plus I always thought ‘If I was just a little faster I could win’ and paid more attention to tuning motors than I did practicing my driving. I always thought that was more fun anyway. During this period, I was pretty much hanging around the shop and track 24/7. Missed a lot of homework assignments in high school because I was always tuning cars.

The shop had just suffered its second fire, and the owner decided to go to a dirt oval. It was hardpacked and banked. The banks were a nice change because the flat track was always incredibly tricky. You had to be fast enough on those long straightaways and then basically go into a hairpin corner over and over. I decided to buy a Losi for a change and got a JRX Pro or Proformance, whatever it was called (had the pink rims and single arm rear suspension). I didn’t race it very many times. I got a girlfriend about that time, so I began to fade away from the track. It closed around 1993 I believe.

A guy bought the name and all the owner’s stock and opened up in a warehouse in town. I tried it a few times over the years, but it was not as fun. It wasn’t open long.
About 10 years ago I was going over to Rockport, IN and racing stock spec Slash on a dirt oval. It was a lot of fun. I did that for about 6 months and then lost interest. I was more competitive there than I was as a teenager, but still never won an A Main.

[kandkhobby13]

I have raced as long as I have been in the hobby.

Racing is actually what got me hooked into RC cars.

I did a bit of cart racing when I was young and I have always loved racing and motorsports since I was a kid, and I'm sure like most of us that wanted to be professional race car drivers the cost of full scale racing and everything that goes along with it was just not in the cards for me. Once I was informed that there was an RC track about 20 minutes away from the new town I moved to it peaked my interest so I went to check it out, and that's all it took. (Competitive racing with a good group of people that wouldn't break the bank...I was in for sure) From there I started to race every week at that track.

At my local hobby shop I went from a customer, to a weekend employee to help offset the price of parts, then to a full time employee and now the owner of that same Hobby Shop.
Along the way the track that got me started (off-road dirt) went away and isn't really active anymore. Once that happened, before I owned the Hobby Shop me and a group of people helped convince the then owners of the shop to put in a track (off-road carpet). The track has grown in size over the years, and now takes up our entire side lot next to the shop.

We hold races bi-weekly where I run the scoring system and run in a few different classes.

If I wasn't busy working the store all the time, I would be out there everyday running laps, but unfortunately that isn't the case currently.

I race vintage and modern classes (2wd, 4wd, and Truck)

[Frankentruck]

Back in the beginning for me, racing was an infrequent opportunity. The LHS had a 1/12th indoor carpet road course, butI didn't have enough electronics for my off roaders and my 12i so it sat most of the time. But sometimes there were 1/10th on road racing events, so some on road rubber tires got put on my off roaders so I could join in. But then my 4wd Turbo Optima wasn't always welcome with the 2wd runners, at least until they figured out I wasn't fast. Then they would make an exception to 'the rules'. One time though, there was this cool guy on a farm with a YZ10 that made a genuine off road track and put on an open invitation race. Oh, that was awesome!!! All the local fast on road pan car guys had their buggies there too. So much better that on road oval....

...so now, there's a LHS with monthly parking lot oval races. It looks like I have to get a Tamiya TT-02R in order to join in. I really want to use my TC3, but it's not a TT-02R so it's not allowed to play. But if they knew I'm not fast......

[TravelinTravis]

1984- All the kids in the neighborhood got Tamiya Frogs and Hornets for Christmas and were bashing away. Awww man....I was desperate for a Hornet!
1984-1985 - Dad was an engineer and as they do, he found a hobby shop out in the country near us (B&H Hobbies, Mechanicsville, VA.) and bought that new R/C car that seemed...well.. "engineered" would be the word....an RC10. I was left to my own devices to build it and as a kid will do...I built it all wrong and had no idea how to set it up...lol! I soon wound up back at B&H, hat in hand, on a Friday race night...small indoor oval on flat tar paper back then, must have been 40 people crammed in there....all adults, true racers/tinkers, mechanical/electrical engineers, mechanics...etc. I knew right then, for me at least , R/C cars were meant for racing and neighborhood bashing wasn't meant for my RC10. The owners and racers took me in, helped me out and I was hooked! They had a slightly banked outdoor dirt oval track too. The racing was on!
1986-1989 - Ran races on dirt oval but really got going with on-road oval and my favorite...can-am...pan cars. Got sponsored a little bit and ran all up and down the east coast. Graduated HS in '89, parents wanted me in college, sold all my gear. Worst move ever....lol! All I got out of college was debt...but it turned out being able to read blueprints/drawings, calipers, micrometers, voltmeters, amperage, draw, loads, gear/trans/tire size ratios..etc...etc. actually didn't pay too bad on bigger things.
2021 - Got the vintage R/C itch...found this site...and thanks to it and all the members here, I've been scratching that itch ever since and learning and re-learning a lot.
Now - Retired and somehow this country kid is now older and living in France...(where there is no biscuits and gravy by the way). I've got two vintage pan cars....running OG brushed electrics and Nicad's and there's four outdoor asphalt can-am courses near me anywhere from 45 minutes to 4hr.s away.

Life is short....build a shelfer, runner, basher, resto mod, re-re...whatever and have fun! Rubbing is racing

[Lowgear]

In the mid '90s I briefly raced an RC10L at a place called The Sugar Shack. It was on the 2nd floor of a by then run-down building. As a matter of fact, the last thing it was used for was R/C carpet racing. It sat abandoned for 15 years afterwards before being completely demolished.

[Charlie don't surf]

Started racing in Jan 1992 (Walts indoor Clay Classic) 70th out of 71! Second to last overall with a brand new 7001 10T and only beat a Kyosho Big Brute lol. Raced indoor clay oval and carpet oval in the winter, outdoor offroad in the summer. In my 20's I was a full ride dirt oval guy, designed and sold a few oval kits for a while, then signed with a "big" sponsor and did that until 08' when I burned out (also when I joined 10talk)

Started racing indoor offroad with vintage stuff around 13' then modern stuff with my son.

Got back into racing after Scr8p invited me to the 2023 Tamiya World Classic at my "local" track, Jason lent me a car and Daniel Diaz lent my son a 10T I sold him years ago and we've been back racing since

[mikea96]

I raced 2wd buggy from 89 until 95 mostly at tacoma rc raceway but also at an outdoor track near me in the summer time. I dabbled a little in carpet 1/12 at original tacoma rc raceway before they moved. Now I just go play around at the track with my older and younger son but might get into some racing again at some point.

[scr8p]

I started racing in 1991 with my Team Losi Junior-T. Dirt oval truck class. Added a graphite team car in 1992 to also race EDM. Also raced 1/10 oval pan and a little 1/12 on-road. Later in the 90's I got a Losi S.W. and a TC3 and did a small amount of touring car racing. I stopped racing in 2002. I went to 2-3 oval races with friends between then and 2007.

The first Vonats in 2008 was pretty much my first off-road race. I was already dealing with health issues at that one, and didn't attend another until 2015. Missed 2016 because of my wife's back surgery, but I've been to all of them since. I'd say 2017 I got more into searching out tracks in the "area" just to get some wheel time. I'd say 2020 I tried to put an emphasis on doing more actual racing, and I do it as often as I can.

I just happened to make this collage the other day. 1991-2024.

[Brendan2904]

Never raced. Only bashed or schoolyard/street/yard ran. I have been on a real track twice in my life. This year and last year my son and I went to Beach RC when we were on vacation and ran our cars on the track there. It was so cool. Both times we had the place to ourselves and just had a blast. The guys there are awesome.

[1911Colt]

I started racing back in the early 90s, 92? 93? I had a blast but was more into building the cars and geeking over the designs than the driving. For some reason, I never did anything more than just toss the car on the track and hope for the best. Never worked on my driving. I was just happy to participate. I finished building a full scale drag car in 96, and that was the end of RC racing.

I did some carpet oval racing in 2022. I had to stay in novice because none of my cars fit into any of the classes. I got my re-re Cougar down to within a couple of tenths of the fastest guys at the track. That was good fun. The only classes that allowed you to tune the cars were Novice and Super Stock Slash. Not a Traxxas guy, so I was out.

I recently (last week) tried to run on an actual off road race track. It was depressing, really. I simply cannot jump the car. I don't know what the problem is. Obviously my old car wasn't designed for modern tracks, but there is more to it. I jump perfectly a few times then it all goes wrong and I don't know why. I want to run the big Vintage race in March, but it looks pretty hopeless at the moment. I have no issues finishing last, but I don't want to get in the way or cause a collision. Off-road racing has evolved into Formula 1 with big steep jumps, and I don't think I can adapt.

These days, I mostly just set up cones to make a track and slide around on loose dirt.

[RCveteran]

It was depressing, really. I simply cannot jump the car. I don't know what the problem is. O

You're not alone, though I find offroad more "fun" it is not lost on me my most successful races have been onroad series (specfically outdoor asphalt). Also could have been fact it was TT02 spec class which removed a lot of speed and set up advantage seasoned racers have, but either way. Modern jumps are very different than way back in day. I do them but also feel I don't know the real secret to doubles and triples that some seem to make look effortless.

I think Joel Johnson himself said he did well at 87 IFMAR due to lack of jumps as an on road guy. So consider yourself as good as him

[KidAgain]

Mid to late 80’s JRX JRXT
Early to mid 90’s AE TEAM WORLDS 10T
Mid 2000’s AE SC10
Gearing up for late 2024 and 2025 Vintage AE Buggy 10T DS

Southern California

[coxbros1]

Started racing in 87'....been racing ever since, couple sebaticals...ran everything from 10th electric dirt, 8th offroad nitro, 8th nitro onroad, carpet offroad, and now only run carpet onroad since about 2017