Vintage 80's Race Footage - Thunderdome 4wd Mod A-Main

[call-911]

This is footage my dad shot when my brother and I were kids racing in 2wd Stock. We were up next in the A-main for 2wd stock so he snapped some footage of the 4wd A-main. This was the first event that we ever saw a Schumacher Cat.

Thunderdome 4wd A-Main from mid 80's

[JK Racing]

the wing is bigger than the car....


those were the days...tight track, no traction, speed bumps...

[adam lancia]

And riding the wall!!! SCHWEET!

[Eau Rouge]

THAT right there was the first time we ever saw the Schumacher CAT in the US, and those were Team Trinity/Team TRC guys who had them. That was probably winter of 1986. Those were some of the very first cars in this country. That Mod A main was Jim Dieter, Don Jones and Dan Louis (all who still race one type of car or another). I'm really shocked at the speeds for mod back then. Even though the track was small, you could out motor those cars today with a ROAR stocker. LOL!!!


Man, those were good times. Nice post, Keith.

[a01butal]

I live in Shorewood and that was where my son(he was 10) won his first night out with our brand new RC10. Jan or Feb 1987 and I still have the trophy. The massive wing looks similar to a NIP Dahm's Power Wing I have and it is a really cool period piece. One of the guys(Bernie) who ran the Thunderdome still works at Leisure Hours Raceway(about 20 miles south) and I see him occasionally. Really great memories and a big surprise seeing this movie clip on here. Great job!

[call-911]

Glad you guys are liking the video! I've got more to post too. I've got some more races from JOROCC, our race in 2wd stock at the Thunderdome, and some other stuff. I just need to transfer it to a digital format. If you want to download video from Google or Youtube, you will download it to an MP4 format. There's a program called VLC (VideoLanClient) that plays all sorts of stuff, but I'll also post a link to this file on MediaFire. It's 70meg or so.... If my brother is correct in the year ('86) that would've made me 12 and my brother was around 16.

[call-911]

For those who would like a copy of this, here's the MediaFire link to the actual video. It's around 77 meg.

Thunderdowm 4wd Mod A-main

[a01butal]

Keith,
I showed the link for the Thunderdome to Scott at Leisure Hours Hobby in Joliet and he liked it so much he put it on the race track site at http://www.leisurehoursraceway.com/ so now you can compare indoor racing from 1986 to 2008 back to back. While your on the site check out the outdoor facility its pretty neat and they race almost every weekend till fall. Thanks again for posting it.

[Eau Rouge]

While your on the site check out the outdoor facility its pretty neat and they race almost every weekend till fall. Thanks again for posting it.

Yeah, nice track if you like brown carpeting, but indoor racing is for WINTER time. Who wants to be stuck inside all summer with a bunch of big, sweaty fat guys? It's unfortunate in my opinion that off road racing has changed SO drastically to the point that there really isn't even dirt at most off road tracks now, and the jumps are so completely out of proportion for 1/10th scale cars that the learning curve for new racers includes a LOT of broken parts. I prefer to not have to run slick tires on my "off road" cars. IMO, tracks like that suck.

Bring back real dirt tracks.

[a01butal]

Just looked and its not on the screen as of today.

[Eau Rouge]

I seem to have jumped off on a tangent soap box this morning. I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression about Leisure Hours Raceway—it's a fantastic facility. I just happen to not like the surface, size, design and pandering to the 1/8th nitro buggy crowd. When it's the only game in town, it's frustrating to have no other options for off road in this area.

[call-911]

Keith,
I showed the link for the Thunderdome to Scott at Leisure Hours Hobby in Joliet and he liked it so much he put it on the race track site at http://www.leisurehoursraceway.com/ so now you can compare indoor racing from 1986 to 2008 back to back. While your on the site check out the outdoor facility its pretty neat and they race almost every weekend till fall. Thanks again for posting it.

That's cool! I just looked at it and it's up on their site. If/when I get time I'll put up a clip of when we were having the most fun in the sun at JOROCC in 2WD stock. I kind of agree with Doug (although I won't rant as much ) that I wished that there was a place to run outdoors in the summer for electric. It's a catch 22 at LH from what I hear. They cater to the nitro crowd since that's where the numbers are and where they are making money, but the numbers aren't strong in electric because they seem to get the shaft a lot so people don't show. If they were to do one outdoor electric race a month, I'd be all over it. Every week is too much. If you set a schedule where people don't have the option to race every weekend, you'll see car counts go up. It's just logic... Man I miss JOROCC...

[Eau Rouge]

If they were to do one outdoor electric race a month, I'd be all over it. Every week is too much. If you set a schedule where people don't have the option to race every weekend, you'll see car counts go up. It's just logic... Man I miss JOROCC...

Here, here. Couldn't have said it better, myself.

[Eau Rouge]

Wow, they put the video on their site A) without asking permission and B) without giving any credit to the author/owner.


Classy.

[call-911]

No big whoop Doug... It's not like anything you put on Youtube or Google video isn't public domain anyway...