Went to my first race today.

[twinrider1]

There's a local track I've been wanting to check out, Sparks Park. I think it's the only one on my side of town. We watched a little practice yesterday and made a point of stopping today to see some racing. This was the first race for both me and my son. I was surprised at how many people were there. There were 25 heat races. I don't know if that really is a lot, but it seemed like a lot to me. I'm guessing they had well over 100 competitors. All electric.
It was wild, especially the 1/8 buggies and truggies. Holy crap, they seemed so much bigger than the 1/10 buggies.

I was amazed at the punishment all the cars could take. We were there a good 90 minutes, watched at least 10 heat races. Only two DNFs. And two others lost a body. Did gold pans really race like this? Seeing a car land short, plowing into the front of a hill...I can't imagine an old gold pan surviving that. Or do they?

It was fun.

[slotcarrod]

Today's tracks are a bit more supercross like, back in the day the tracks were more like Baja with small high speed jumps. The RC10 gold pan can still survive a bad landing on today's tracks. Many of us still compete with them against modern cars!

[Seabass]

Yes they survive....RC10 Classic Re Re battling a field of new cars. Takes a little more finess and you have to be a little forgiving on the car depending on your track design.

[twinrider1]

Supercross vs Baja, I like that analogy. Here's a Facebook video of a race from that day. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201773388851014&set=vb.632578020139332&type=2&theater The one big jump (and the divots on the front side of the third hill following), had visions of folded up RC10 front ends flashing in my mind.

[Coelacanth]

When I see the major air offroad RC cars get at tracks these days, I ask myself: "If you wanna be in the air that much, why not get into airplanes???

[Charlie don't surf]

When I see the major air offroad RC cars get at tracks these days, I ask myself: "If you wanna be in the air that much, why not get into airplanes???

The past couple of weeks I was on Vacation in CNY, while I was there my son and I did some racing...and Bscotti brought out an old Yokomo (MX4 or Bmax?) For me to race dined he had it with him. I schooled the field by 2 laps in qualifying by (not) getting big air, and keeping the power down. Current tracks IMHO are about rhythm and contact, scrubbinv on jump faces, and in air means more time putting traction down. In other words going big isn't always faster, even on big jumps-

[ca-rj]

In my experience, 25 heats is about average. I just moved from southern CA to the Kansas city area and noted that the tracks in CA seem to be more super cross like than here in KS. Before I got my RC10 Classic, I raced modern 2wd buggies along side Joey King who regularly beat many of us with his WOIN RC10. I have since raced my own WOIN RC10 and have been pretty competitive with it. Since I am not the best driver, I take a lot of satisfaction in beating modern cars with my old buggy. It's always a conversation starter when you pull out a gold/black pan and set it on your bench. As for durability, mine has take many a hard hit and bad landing with very little breakage. These cars are pretty robust.