Hey everyone!:wave:

I was thinking, and I decided to make a thread for everyone to discuss how they started RC racing, and why they chose to race oval over the rest?

I started RC racing, because it looked amazingly fun and being a huge race-fan, it is a good experience to meet new people and learn more about the mini-version on nascar racing. The reason why I chose to race oval was because I am a huge Nascar fan, and our local RC track is famous for it's unique tri-oval and I wanted to be a part of it. There are more reasons why, but those are the main reasons.

So, how did you get into RC racing, and why did you pick to race oval???

Thanks!
Justin #29
JDM RC Racing
Jaco RC Tires
Silva Concepts
Bandit RC Bodies
Pole Position Batteries
www.geocities.com/cornwallrc (http://www.geocities.com/cornwallrc)

Great way to get over a divorce !!!

I too was a huge race fan & used to race big cars. I have been toying with R/C cars for around18 years but about 8 years ago one of my buddies that races big cars too asked if a few of us wanted to go check out the R/C racing in a nearby town. We took our Rustler's with us to mess around with at the track & ended up racing them that night. I was completely hooked!! I started ordering stuff to start oval racing that following Monday.

__________________
Brent Pearcy
Bulit Motorsports (http://www.bulitmotorsports.com/)

Used to race motorcycles, retired at 30. Saw a television ad on TV of buggys going over jumps for local hobbyshop. I went and bought an R/C 10 and the rest is history!. I Paid extra to have the RC-10 assembled, it took them 10 days and $100.00 bucks.

Well, i hate full scale racing, and i have been exposed to wooden models for quite a while.. then i was in a hobby shop buying some balsa wood and saw a little Micro RS4, and setup a little track in my basement, then moved on to a small concrete track and raced with about 20 others twice a week

and some of the older guys i was racing with told me about 1/10 oval and i checked it out, and got hooked on it... and here i am today!

Mike Voccola

So, basically the main reason why everybody started RC racing was because they had a friend, couldn't affford full scale race cars, or just liked racing period. Some more feed-back would be great keep it coming guys!

Thanks!
Justin #29
JDM RC Racing
www.geocities.com/cornwallrc (http://www.geocities.com/cornwallrc)

I've been an oval racing nut for quite some time now. I bought some stuff to go 6cell pan car at the Drummondville club then BAM it closed. I settled for Granby and St-Roch during 5 years.

I've also tried dirt oval and liked that too. Eventually I want to make my own small rc and hobby store so I can organize some oval racing and help other ''local'' clubs. Since Drummond is a racing town, rc racing would be a natural.

Stephane Courchesne

I started out racing 2 stroke sprint karts on road courses in FL. When I went into the Air Force I lacked the time, money and recources to continue racing karts. I was in town one day and saw a race going on and I knew that was it. I already had a timaya fox that I used to bash in the yard with, even took it to Saudi twice, so R/C wasn't a mystery I just didn't know they actually raced the cars. Anyway, long story short, I bought a wide fiberglass 10L a B&R Bullet stock motor and some other stuff and went parking lot racing. I won my first race and the rest is history, been racing since 1989!

I have met a ton of great people in this hobby and have really enjoyed it a lot, So much in fact that A friend and I opened Echeconnee Superspeedway in April 1992. www.echeconneesuperspeedway.tk and we still hold races today, I wonder how long the madness will last, it's been 12 years so far and we still can't get enough!

For me it all started on X-mas when my mom got my dad a train set. My dad didn't like having to drive 1.5 hours to buy train items and since he had an open store front on the other end of his gas station he decided to open up a hobby shop.

I had seen r/c racing before in town on the dirt oval and I always wanted to do it but didn't have the money. So this train purchase allowed me to take on the radio control side of the store and from there my hobby began. I ran oval because that is what the local club offered. Once I moved away I ran oval with a local club in Madison. About 4-5 years ago that particular program went away. So to feed my addiction of racing I went on-road racing.

Due to my work schedule I have not had the availability to run oval in a long time. So I have come to the conclusion that for me, racing is racing as long as I am hanging out with friends and having fun.

A lot of playing on the streets and dirt roads. Then a friend made me go to the races with him and his dad. I was hooked. I would have never went on my own.

Makes you think at your local track - how many new racers come from already established racers. Not many come alone not knowing anyone at the track. Very intimidating for sure.

Also.... my first car was a grasshoper that was built and included everything... the modern day RTR back in the mid 80's. Seems RTR's help get more started today than anything else. We need RTR oval rides for 300 or less :)

I have always been facinated with little electric cars. I started way back in the Philippines with slot cars. Then came here in the states and got my first taste of RC in NJ(megatrack). Moved down to Florida and found FASTRACK in Largo,FL where I also met one of the best & nicest guy in RC....Mike Boylan & Scarecrow Kenny Holmes, who got me to go to Whipporwill in Narcoosee Rd in O'town(orlando)....out of the blue...moved to the Mountains of TN and got myself around one of the best oval track~~BMS.....been hooked to oval...be it dirt or carpet or concrete all my life.
My first oval car was The Predator from Composite Craft/Total Racing Concept(TRC). I also had at one time a Dominator & Intimidator from CW as well as an ADX. Now have a Hydrive SSE Pro2.
GO FAST......TURN LEFT....:wave: :wave:


Henry E.

Those were the days!! Lots of awsome memories right Henry!! :thumbsup:

Those were the days!! Lots of awsome memories right Henry!! You bettcha Mike. Those were the days of THUNDER (& dust).......lol
Lottsa memories.....(make me cry) hahahaha......:cry:

BTW.....how's the guys at GT Racing down in G.T Brey in Bradenton fare with hurricane Charley? I hope they are all fine. I was watching your webcam all day hoping to see some r/c parts strewn all over your yard....j/k...Iam glad it missed Tampa Bay. Ok.....latah....alligatah.....:wave:

Henry E.

For me, same as Mayhen above. Raced motocross for 22 years. I lived about 3 miles from a local track and one day the wife and I just decided to stop and that is pretty much it. R/C has the same rush as MX, especially 1/8 buggy, and it is not any harder on my DESTROYED knees. I found out pretty quick that casing a big triple with a RC10GT hurts ALOT less than on a CR250. LOL!

Mke Edwards

Well i started racing RC cars my 7th year of racing go-karts, then after 9 yrs of karts i quit and went big car racing and been racing RC cars for about 6 yrs and big cars for about 3. And i got into RC by goin and watchin then helpin a freind then racing myself.

My brother and I raced slot cars for a couple years, then in 1978 he got a 1/12 scale R/C car so I had to have one too. My first car was a 1/12 Jerobee gas car converted to electric - one piece molded plastic chassis, no suspension in the rear, no diff, solid rubber front tires, GE battery pack, Cox stick transmitter. We saw a flyer in the local hobby shop for an R/C car club starting up and figured we'd check it out. The first meeting of the R/CAR club (1979), was also my first organized R/C race - track was a tight road course layed out in a truck garage with roofing tar paper for the track surface. Things have changed just a bit...

Ok, this one is kinda weird but I started becasue one night at a Boy Scout Metting about 3 years ago, we had a talent night and my friend brought his racing fleet and equiptment, I became addicted to R/C since that night, i was amazed with the support equiptment used and myself already being the type that loved building random things or taking things apart, it was a perfect match.

I raced full size cars for 13 years, then in 1991 my dad passed away so i decided to retire from racing at the age of 29, i started to remodel my house and do all the stuff an adult is surpose to do,when my brother got in to r/c racing and ask me to go watch, at first i had no interest in it at all, then i broke down and bought a bolink lto wide car, at first a hated it,but i'm not the type of person that gives up,so i stuck with it,now i'm the one that got the current plattsburgh ny track started,raced at 33 different tracks all over the northeast,i still miss full size cars but i would rather race r/c cars the people and the atmisphere is so much better,the only down to r/c racing is i gained 40 pounds since i started.


Dan Dubuque

40 lbs? You only weigh 90 pounds now!

We (my brother and I) had toy r/c cars as far back as I can remember(what a waste of money that was) . When I was 7 or so we had a babysitter who flew planes and had a few gas cars...he liked the fumes I think! We were psyched to say the least the first time we saw his Gas cars go! He hooked my parents up with an 1/8th scale gas car for us to share the next Christmas. I was 8 my brother 6 and we had a gas 1/8th scale on road car. Talk about in over your head. We had a great itme just figuring the thing out. We broke enough parts in the school parking lot that we shelved it and went electric....my parents hated the mess we always came home with....The rest is history 21 years, dozens of cars and trucks, 4 tracks and a hobby shop later I'm back again after a little break concentrating on racing Asphalt Late Models. I love this stuff!

Raced late models for some years and got to old!!!! Started old with oval r/c now my son carry's on lol his eyes work mine dont. Raced in illinois and Wisconsin for a few years now there are limited oval tracks here but we still try.Bolink made just about all the bodies and cars when i started and lynxx and associated came along. Wow have the parts and batteries changed!!!


OvalD :wave: ad

R/C racing stuck a gun to my head, took my wallet, held it for ransom and has never givin it back.:rolleyes:

Seriously, I used to race big cars on dirt then start fly R/C. I watched one race at a local track and have been in it ever since....about 5 years now.

Where else can you go on any and every weekend to meet and be around some of the most intelligent and spirited people in the world?...At an r/c hobbyshop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or racetrack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only in America!

And with the help of my father.....He was a perfectionist to the extreme when it came to anything r/c related.....

Thats what got me started in the great world of radio controlled gizmo's..:thumbsup:

Got a Tyco car for my birthday, broke that got another one, then stepped it up to an FX-10 with silicone tires, figured out fast that you could go slow and still win, just don't wreck.

The local hobby shop where I grew up opened a track, the owner was/is also a barber and we would pit in the barber shop. The drivers stand was unique in that it was at the end of turns 3/4 so the car would be coming at you and going away on the straights. One turn was flat and the other was banked for wheelchairs. That was 10 years ago and alot of people raced there that are still racing now.

TG

I had been getting radio shack cars every x-mas since i was 4 so i always liked R/C. I raced karts for three years and won three championships and finished third in the state so ive always loved racing. My friends raced gas trucks in a parking lot and i bought a RC10Gt. Raced that for around a summer and come fall there was a old HPI RS4 for sale at the shop. Bought it and ran touring and 1/12 for 2 years then last year i was building a race car for my friend and he payed me by giving me his R/C stuff which had a l3 in it so i ran that to start out with in oval ended up selling my touring cars and now ive been racing oval ever since. Now ive got KSG and a Maverick.

Definatley has to be all the money and women....

YEAH! All the money and women. Braaaaa

After trashing out a "toy" R/C car, I got a job at 14 to pay for my first car. I started racing at 16, raced until I was 20, winning 2 ROAR dirt oval regionals, then stopped to race go-karts, then sprint cars. 5 years go I stopped racing sprint cars and moved to Texas. There is NO oval racing and not much R/C around here, but I did find an oval racing track about 2 months ago and started in again. AND.... last night, our local club held its FIRST on-road race here in Beaumont! We only had 2 oval cars (a 3rd wasn;t ready) and 6 micros, but 4 other guys there last night saw the action and said they're getting oval cars. I guess if the club doesn't exist, you need to form one and get started! I'm SO glad to be back in oval R/C!

Been a fan of big cars since I can Remember. My dad raced Grand American in 76-77 at Catamount in Vt then in Semi Pro at Rebel Speedway in Granby Qc, and since I could walk he took me to a bunch of tracks across the Eastern Seaboard. Of course, i followed the Big Block Mods action in Granby and then met a friend who showed me an RC club in town where they ran on a carpet oval with DIRT style bodies. It stuck to me.

So I begged my dad to buy me a kit for christmas but all I wanted to do with it was play in the streets, never wanted to race with it and i absolutely wanted a DIRT style RC car. So I was disappointed when the one he bought me was a Bolink LTO NASCAR. To furtner the disappointment, he said "see where the battery pack is mounted? thats because it only turns left, if you turn right you'll flip it over". Bummer.

So I decided to give it a try (I wasn't about to let all that RC gear sit in the closet), managed to cook 8 servos and a speed control and almost poked a spectator's eye out with the graphite antenna, all in my first season. Don't ask me how I managed to stay in this silly hobby, but I guess the competition bug bit me bad and I've been racing ever since.

By the way, I've been racing since 1993, I was 13 then.

Lol Burbs that must be it can't be all the fame and glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ohh what made me star racing LOL.. i though the question was ... WHAT DOES IT COST ME TO RACE ( JUST KIDDING HE HE) ... LOL lots of money and lots of lost women.. he he... but im married now so all is good he he

I started competition 2 years ago, at st- polycarpe
Inside, offroad track. It was fun, frendly on saterday nights with beers.
They changed last year for sundays and i changed for oval racing. A lot cleaner than my offroad cars and we were racing on fridays. This summer, i got a new house and i race at Cornwall on saterdays. :wave:
I like competition, all my youth my father used to do tractor pulling.

I started in '85 when a buddy of mine, (famous race car driver/pyrotech Bobby Hackel) showed me his R/C cars that you could actually build, hop up, etc; instead of the cheap toy store kind. He had a carpet track in his basement, and charged one up and showed me what they were all about...
When he told me he competes in organized races at a weekly club nearby, (same club Mike Murphy started racing at in '79) I went with him to check it out. The following week he built me a car out of spare parts to try, and I was hooked. That week I purchased my first car. It was an Associated 12i with mono shock front end, 4 cell, with a closed endbell water dipped Mabuchi motor. That, with my Magnum Jr. radio was top shelf stuff...WOOHOO! I've been at it ever since...
The ironic part is he was just in my shop today, 19 years later, buying a new Custom Works Hot Rod for his kid for Christmas...We thought back to how I got started, and he was astonished when he saw all the spools of wire, the winder, balancer, etc, just to wind arms... Funny how things turn out...

I got started in rc by accident. It was in the early eighties when I was an young airman in the US Airforce. I was station in Tucson, there was not alot to do their except dink alot or chance after some of the collage women, had no luck with the women and drinking got boring. So i started to by and build models that i got at the base bx(base extange) it was like a walmart. One day i saw a buggie on the self and thought I would get it. It turned to be a Tamiya Grasshopper and then got the rest of the stuff to get it running , had a blast running it aroud and jumping. When i got out and come back home, whent and checked out a few tracks in town. All were great to watch but could not aford to get a new car. When I the money to get I decided to go oval racin because I enjoyed watching NASCAR. That was some 18 or 19 year ago.

It's the most fun you can have with your pants on!!!! :p

Hmmm, racing with pants on...I'll have to try that once. :)

In 1986 my uncle bought a Timaya Fox with all the goodies from a local hobby shop in Kissimmee FL. Back in those days we were racing karts pretty heavy. Anyway he played with it a while and broke it and forgot it, so one day I asked if I could have it. He said sure and I was off to the hobby shop to get the parts to fix it. It had a sweeper speedo with the red hot resistors and a Magnum jr radio. I wanted to get an electronic speedo until I found out even a cheap one was 80 bucks. So I kept it and continued to play around with it for a couple of years meanwhile I had joined the Air Force, went in in Feb 87 and still had my R/C toy but never thought about racing it. What's ironic about that is my uncle lived within a mile of Whipporwill speedway and I never knew it was there. Anyway In 1991 I was ordered to go to United Arab Emerits in the middle east, well I knew that was going to suck so I took my stuff along and I was sure glad I did. I roasted at least 4 motors over there (the sand was awfull) and then we finally got to go home. When I got back I happened to see a race going on in a parking lot of a slot car track, well you guessed it, I was like "Aw MAN I Gotta Do This!!" So I bought a wide assosiated car and some stuff to go with it and went out and won my first race. Needless to say I have been hooked ever since. I now own a track here in Macon GA and we go racing other places every chance we get. I have met the most wonderfull people doing this and I bet I will meet and race with a lot more. One of these days I might even get master card payed for all this stuff!

My stepdad from Augusta was a racing guy. A mechanic. He used to take me to drag races, 3/8 oval races and anything else he could. So, I got hooked. WHen I finally reunited with my dad, I found out he was into RC racing in New England. I tried to get into it after I joined the service. Dad built me a car (I couldn't give you the specs), but it ran well. I just knew nothing about it and no one was racing in Plattsburgh NY. Eventually, I sold that car determined to get into Kart racing or low-end local stock. The start-up being a tad too much. So, I kept eyeing RC, but until recently, I haven't had the opportunity to do it. Turns out my dad used to have Petty and STP bankroll his operation, so he'd get a lot of promo material and some of his gear comped as long as he sported the red, white and blue 43. I also raced in an online NASCAR and F1 league for a while. But it's not the same. Nothing to get your hands into except pixels, pencils and paper.

Grew up around the local dirt tracks in Indiana, and Ohio, So when I got older I raced the"big cars" well after getting married and 3 kids later money was very tight so I gave up the big cars. Drove my wife nuts for awhile because it was ingrained in me that you were supposed to be at a race track on the weekend. So I happened to stumble upon a indoor offroad track (Planet R/C in Indianapolis) started racing offroad a couple yrs ago. Then low and behold
I found out about dirt oval racing. So me and a friend built our own dirt oval track www.geocities.com/advancespeedway and so I'm really hooked now
I just started racing carpet oval and love it too. My son races Dirt oval and it is something that we can do as a family. My wife helps run the scoring and my daughters help with concessions at our dirt track. :thumbsup:

I used to race BMX with this kid who's dad ran the track. He told me they were building an r/c track next to the BMX track. I didn't even know he was into r/c and I had never seen r/c racing just bashed my Hornet in my parents yard. A month later I was talking my parents into buying a Tamiya Falcon from my birthday (six months early) so I could race. Nearly 17 years later high school, college, and tons of cars later here I am working for that "kid" at RC Driver. Where did I go wrong...lol! Oval just rules! When the track that Greg and I raced at closed I went to dirt oval because it was the only other local track and I got hooked for life.

My addiction started with a Tyco TurboHopper in 1987. I knew I would be an oval guy when all I could do with this is race in circles around a parking lot and then slow charge my Radio Shack NiCd AA's and do it all again. I burned it up in the snow and a few months later I bought a Tamiya Boomerang from a friend. I raced it on a carpet oval with custom made foams and a mechanical speedo. I still remember winning my first "b" main...lol. I ran it in 2wd, I took out the shaft and front dog bones. I then went to a Tamiya Falcon with a Futaba ESC and adapters for pancar rears. I finally tasted some "a" main success. Then it went to a Bolink '91 sport and George Jamison(Jammin Racing) helped me set that up and I won a point series. After that season I tried some off-road at Wagonhill Hobbies at the farm in Grove City, PA. First off trying with a Kyosho Optima(sucked!) and then I actually finished some races with a AYK Pro Radient(Race Prep), but I finally settled with a Team Losi JRX-Pro, God I loved those cushion carcass X-patterns. It turned out to be too far to drive so I just played around with it outside for awhile. Then one day I found myself at the new Wagonhill hobby shop and I bought a Team Losi XX and I loved it. It was followed by a Team Losi LXT and i raced a little with them offroad. then sold everything to buy a guitar. That was 1993. I went 8 years without so much as touching or even thinking of touching an R/C car. One day in October of 2001 while surfing Ebay something made me type in RC10 and I ended up with a RC10T3 an started racing on carpet and it was an addiction all over again. Since that day its been a Hpi RS4 Rally, Xpress MS Road Runner, Savage Head Hunter, RC10 EDM conversion, RC10 L3, RC12L3 X 2, RC10L4, RC10B3, Leading Edge Viper, Team Losi MF XXXT, RC10T2, Hyperdrive AD10 X 2, Custom Works Int10 and 2 Hyperdrive SSE Pro 2 "teams" in 3 years. Last year at the end of the season I sold everything again. This year got back in with the Hyperdrive SSE Pro 2 and race three carpet ovals.

When I was about 9 or 10 I got a Strombecker slot car track, loved it, but it was many years and many hours of hanging on a fence watching sprint cars before I really got into racing. It started with racing dune buggies in the midwest, and at one race I saw these things, I assume they were a Tamiya, and laughed my head off. Quit racing Dune buggies and went to oval go-karts and raced those for several years and then a friend had a Tamiya Hornet that he let me drive and I was hooked, went and bought a Tamiya Fox and have been doing it ever since. I even spent several years with the NRCTPA, an RC pulling organization and then I bought a legend and have been a die hard oval guy for over 10 years.

I have met the nicest people doing what I truely love to do.

More than 25 years ago, just before Christmas, I was looking for something to get my young son for a Christmas gift. I came across a little radio controlled car from Tower Hobbies called a GRASSHOPPER and purchased it. Well Christmas came and he openned his present and for the next two or three days we began building his new GRASSHOPPER. We got the car built, turned on the radio and that little boy has not put away an R/C car radio since. We travelled around to different tracks in the midwest and raced the grasshopper, then a Hornet , then a fox, RC 10, JRX 2 and so on and on and on. I started racing with him and now my 14 year old daughter races R/C Cars and has been for about 7 years and now the whole family travels the country racing R/C Cars. That little boy now is grown up, still races R/C cars, is the owner of an online R/C Car Hobbyshop, and owns and manufactures his own line of R/C car racing tires with his sister helping with purchase orders and tires. And whenever I see a father at the track with his young son or daughter it brings me back more than 25 years when it all started with me. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Bill Murdock

There was a hot girl at the local track wanted to see her every week bought a wreck raced it got hooked end of story

Wheel'her

oh yea, the hot girl will get you every time! lol

I started racing 11 years ago when I was 12 or so. I saw an RC Car Action in the grocery and thought it looked pretty cool. In the tracks section they had my local track listed, so I called and found out when racing was and made my dad take me. I talked to the people at the track and they told me off-road was the way to start so I waited for the club swap meet and bought a buggy. I moved to oval racing after getting some experience because at my track oval was basically a step up in driver skill level or "prestige", if you want to call it that. Also back when I started oval was huge. We'd always have 40-50 guys racing just the one oval class, 6 cell stock. I miss those days.

Thanks Pop for everything. I wouldnt trade the 25+ years of racing for anything. RC racing has been a passion since that first car and it has never diminished one little bit. It is truely great to have such a supportive family around me and just having a good time doing what we love to do. You have always been there for me in life, business, as a tack owner and as my buddy.

The business end of things is a bonus really. I enjoy having the knowledge and the opportunity to give back to racers and the sport that I enjoy so much.

THANKS DAD. YOU THE MAN ;)

Your Son, Rob Murdock @ Murdock R/C & Performance
and just down the road:)

Lets see if I can remember back when. I started out with a Grasshopper 2 in the late 80's just for fun. Tried to race with it but it just wasnt competitve. Moved to a TQ-10, some of you may remember that one and then to the RC-10T. I was out of the hobby for quite a while picked up a T3, and a TC3 sold them both. Now I run Losi. Have had a BK2, MF XXXT, MF2, 2 XXX-S, XXX-4G+, 10L4O, and last but not least a brand new HD Pro 2 ST. Ouy of everything I have I must say that the oval guys are the best to run with. I still like dirt, but oval is my new way to go.

WEll I sTARDED Racing because it looked fun and It got me out of the house.
Then I became Pro

I got in the hobby cause I had roommate that had some rc magazines he was going to buy one back in 1988 I thought they where cool and i was into real racercars and i found out that another friend had a fx10 he took me to where he bought it and the rest is history once we saw the track. (went thu two wives and several girlfriends but i still have that old fx10 i even have my friends to) lol.


racerx1