What attracts you to RC?

[Blake]

This is a question that Mick and I discussed a while back.  Hopefully he'll come back on here and give his story.

It seems we all got into this hobby for different reasons, and we all stick around for different reasons.  Some of us start out first as full scale race fans, and then move into R/C as a cheap way to get in on the action.  Some of us are born mechanics that find the building and tuning aspect appealing.  Some of us are scale snobs and like R/C because it gives us a chance to create/paint a car that looks similar to a full scale model.  Some of us love the competitive aspect.  Some of us just like to hang out with a great group of friends....

So, what got you hooked on this great hobby, and what keeps you doing it today?


Blake

[Blake]

For me, growing up with a shop teacher as a father, I had a lot of exposure to building stuff.  My dad had a shop in our backyard and I spent a lot of time out there.  My parents bought me a lot of Lego back then, and in particular the Technic Lego brand.  That stuff rocked.  I'd still use it today if I could get my mom to dig it out of her storage!

My parents figured an R/C car was a logical progression and I got my first Radio Shack R/C car when I was around 7-8, and then I got a better model (Tyco I think) when I was around 10.  A friend in Grade 7 had a copy of RC Car Action, and when I saw it, I went to Tanners in Sidney and bought a copy for myself.  I didn't miss an issue for many years.  I *think* the BC Shaver Shop introduced me to IROCC and, in particular, the Hartland Road location at the time.  I met Thomas, Daryl, and Gord there and eventually upgraded my Shaver Shop purchased "Futaba FX10" entry level buggy to a Losi buggy purchased over the phone from Hobby Warehouse in California I think.

Anyway, the combination of building and maintaining the cars, and racing them on the track appealed to my technical nature and my competitive nature.  That's what got me in, and that's what keeps me in.  I'm not a full scale race fan at all which I think is different from many of you (Mick for sure - that's how this topic got started).  Also, over the years I've realized that my R/C family is a pretty great bunch of people too, and it's fun to go hang at the track even if it's pouring down rain....


So, what's your story, and why are you still here?


Blake

[rcshadow]

 The year was 1993 and I had been touring with the big hair bands of the past decade. I had been living out of a suitcase and hotel rooms for way to long and my health and family had been taking a toll. After another long night of models and bottles, and waking up in a strange place, or maybe it was the tour bus,  I said this has to stop. Being banned from six provinces and ten states I knew it was time to call it a career. But the lifestyle and travel was intoxicating. The police had been hot on my trail for some time along with the Canada revenue agency for unpaid taxes, that goes along with being rich and not caring. 
  They finally found me in an ally outside a seedy night club in Cullman Alabama passed out outside with nothing in my possession but the hoola dress I was wearing on a dare and some air Jordan's. Once extradited back to Canada I was given a choice either head into the military to learn some respect or join the local RC Club in Edmonton, odd I know.
  The choice was obvious I joined the military cause I would get to see the world and I knew I could be all I wanted to be as the ads state. It wasn't for me, I was picked up again for trashing a hotel room in North Korea with some local exotic dancers from a men's club. Once again I was transferred back to Canada for de-briefing.
   I figured the only thing left to do was to join this damn RC club that they had kept threatening me with. Knowing there had to be a catch I went along with it and gave it a try. It kept me close to home unless they had what was called a trophy race and we would travel. For the first few away races I was accompanied by an ankle bracelet so I would not fall back into the old lifestyle I had tried to get out of. I had turned over states evidence so I was now on the witness protection program and changed my name to Glenn. The racing got fun, but I didn't realize over the long term it was going to cost more that the hookers and blow I was using on the road for so many years.
  The years went on and I went to a bachelor party and quickly fell into the same crowd I was trying to steer clear of. My cover was blown and I needed to get out fast. I moved to Victoria with my family and all my RC gear to start again. So far so good. I hope to be able to stay here for a long time and race with those that I have met. Should  I have to leave quickly please remember you are all in my thoughts and please delete my browser history.

p.s. Mike in Edmonton got me hooked on to this frustrating hobby, I thank him often and my wife thanks him for saving my life, and draining my life savings.

[valk]

hmmmm dont think i have anything quite that intersting to follow up with lol.

it was pretty simple for me. friend at JB said i should check out carpet racing. we just had our daughter and i didn't really have a lot to do outside of work and family. your friends leave you... dead when you have kids and i didn't want to regress back into video games, which ate my 20s. No bars, no dating, no school.. video games.

so i checked it out thinking it might be a fun thing to try out, and.. here I am now. RC has replaced all my other hobbies with a less expensive, though still expensive version heh.

Always been a hands on person though. I did the plastic models as a kid. my dad had an offroad buggy of some sort. the kind with the servo actuated throttle pot. was kind of a slot car trigger with a servo attached ha. he never let me play with it though =(
I probably fell for rc so hard because it is something I never had the chance to get into as a kid. my dad never would have bought me a competitive rc.

but... maybe ill turn that around on him. bring him into the sport and reconnect with him that way.

I love the sport. its competitive, which im not really in other things, its hands on and allows me to tinker.. cause these cars take a lot of time outside of the race track to get right and it has been an outlet to connect with other people who share a similar interest.  So thanks very much Irocc and all the great people who put up with me week after week =)

[Falcon]

Nice job Blake , rekindle the flame. Brilliant. We need this.

[Blake]

Nice job Blake , rekindle the flame. Brilliant. We need this.

Didn't hear your reasoning, although I bet it has to do with smoking cigars with the "guys"!

PS.  Best line of the thread so far:
"i didn't want to regress back into video games, which ate my 20s. No bars, no dating, no school.. video games" -NK


Blake

[Falcon]

I still remember the day when I drove up to the parking lot asking the guys there , so I really want to get a nitro car. Everyone said you better start with a touring car. I'm in I said. I love to be there and just hang out,smoke a cigar with friends.

[haddow]

I got the motorsports and racing bug first with a trip to “64 Funny Cars” at SIR in Seattle back in 1978 or 1979!

I wish I was home in Canada right now, I could document this entire story with some great pics.

RC started for me living in Sooke BC back in the early 1980’s. I received a Maui Samurai as  a gift from my parents, it was a chain driven 4-wd off-road car and I loved it. I built a great little off-road track in the dirt floor of my basement/crawl-space. Unfortunately it was stolen and at the time I was very much into motorcycles so the RC car was never replaced. I dreamed of a gold-tub RC10 buggy that a stereo shop in downtown Langley used to sell. It was a great shop because they built one copy of each RC car they sold so it made for an awesome display. I used to go to my Grandparents neighbors house, a guy named Mike Tapp, in Aldergrove/Langley who had a great track in his yard that hosted club racing. That was still back in the 80’s. I have old photographs somewhere of Tapp’s track.  I still didn’t get to replace my Samurai so I was still a spectator.

Fast forward to 1997 and I bought a copy of Papayrus’ Nascar Racing for my computer. Yes I know we are talking about RC and not Sim racing but that copy of NRacing really started it all for me and changed my life since it catalyzed my return to RC. I got pretty serious into some league sim racing and ran with a bunch of east coast guys, one of which was a nice fella named Frank Calandra. We used to text chat after our races and it came up that he owned an RC company. He sent me to his website which must have been some of the original HTML ever coded. It was pretty bad, a bit ugly and majorly unorganized. However the content of the website got my juices flowing, lots of carbon fibre cars, nitro and pics from big races around north America. I had taught myself a bit of first generation Photoshop so I mocked-up a front page for Frank and sent it to him. He loved it and suggested I make a website based on that theme. I had no clue about web design or html but liked a good challenge and so I was off to the races (pun intended, as always). I taught myself some basic html and used an html editor to layout a better website for frank. We agreed that I would work for RC stuff in return for some services since I wasn’t really interested in getting paid.

I ended up at the shaver shop one day in 1999 and asked about RC racing (on-road) and they mentioned IROCC. There was a phone number pasted on the parts case window. The number was Darryl’s so I called him up. I found out when the next race was and headed out to a very Cold Saanich Fairgrounds one night. I met the boys and told them I was the webmaster for some company named CRC and a guy named Frank Calandra. I instantly had 10 new best friends as everyone in the barn proceeded to show me their CRC cars! I called Frank back in NY right away and told him how strong a following he had.  A week or two later I had a carpet knife and airtronics radio sent from Frank and the rest is history. Lots of history actually…. Craig has been my best friend since 99 and is now married to my sister. I have since made at least 4 versions of websites for Frank and CRC and have developed a strong relationship with him as well. I am, to this day, still designing websites for Frank and I have visited him 3 or 4 times in NY. Blake, Craig and I (and once Kurk) have travelled across the continent to race together.

I have lived out of the country for more than 4 years now but I visit the IROCC site every day. RC is definitely not just a phase for me, although I had a long break after my first taste of RC back in the 80’s I  know for sure it is a hobby I truly love and will do it until I am physically unable. The nice thing about RC is that you can still do it even when you are an old geezer, just look at Darryl LOL. Seriously though lots of old guys are still doing all forms of RC which is great as its not one of those things you have to give up with a bit of age.

How dedicated I am? Well I brought touring cars to the desert here in the middle east and my son Carter and I race once in a while, by ourselves, at a broken down old on-road track that is literally in the middle of the desert on the border of the UAE and Oman. There is a new track in Dubai that I will check out when the weather cools down. I also need to mention my wife Amanda’s dedication, she doesn’t love RC but she is very highly accommodating! Since I started sim racing she always had no problem with me scheduling races on a weekly basis. With RC it is the same, she changes plans and moves birthday and anniversary events around so they don’t have to be done on an RC race day. That is huge! I literally have never missed an event because of a birthday etc and I appreciate Amanda’s sacrifice in that. Actually if you can believe it, my son Carter was born just a day or two before SpeedWeekend in 2005 and I only missed a single heat to go and help Amanda get packed-up to leave the hospital! It gets more crazy though because Amanda brought our brand new baby to the Park and Ride Race track at SpeedWeekend to meet everyone before she even made it home. So my son Carter spent time at an RC racetrack before he even made it to his house for the first time! It is obvious too since Carter is a petrol head and an RC addict already.

Aside from the friends and the competition of organized racing  I like the endless tinkering possible and collecting and painting (well masking, since craig paints). I actually miss the brushed motors and NiMH since I loved truing comms, playing with brushes and all the battery voodoo.

Sorry for the long story but I love RC and the family (literally) and friends I have made. I can’t wait to move back so I can get back to it more than I get to now.

thanks for listening

Jody

[dajracer]

Thanks, Jody. This old geezer still loves RC even though I seem to be away more and more during the summer season.

I got my start with my son Kevin, when he was only 13(now 39). Kevin got into it pretty well the exact same way as Blake did, starting with Radio Shack, Tyco, Panda Cyclone(from BC Shaver) and then finally into a real RC- the Gold Tub RC10 buggy. I never ran any Radio Shack or Tyco, I started with a Marui Hunter, graduated to a front wheel drive Kyosho and then finally my first real RC- Losi Buggy. I had to have a Losi because Kevin had the Associated, I ran Novak ESC's and Kevin ran Tekin. It would have been logical to run the same equipment but at that time logics didn't come in to it. We both continued racing until the early 90's when Kevin discovered girls. I just continued on from there and am still going today. The friends I have made within the club and around the Pacific Northwest from racing at different venues are great. I truly believe it is the people that have made me continue in this hobby. I have always joked that I was going to become a RC Nomad but that hasn't happened yet but who knows it may happen someday.

[Shawn68z]

Alright my turn!

I got started with IROCC on the advice of my wife, when I moved here to BC. At the time I had acouple of planes, but was put off of the local flying club, and everytime I went flying somewhere I would get the cops called on me.  So, she told me to check out the racing, and it looked interesting enough. Bought my TC4 off Ebay, and havnt looked back.

I have continued to race RC cars because the racing budget goes alot further when running 1/10 scale!  I enjoy the engineering side of the cars, and the pursuit of dialing  the car in, tweaking, tuning, and playing with all the options to get the car to work better.    I have always had a passion for racing, and it doesnt matter the class, as long as you have 2 cars you can race them!

Since I have started, I met rc racers all over the world (Hawaii, Peru, Chile, and the entire west coast of the USA).  I really enjoy travelling with my gear, and road trips to other venues to race.  I am hoping to make it to Europe in the spring, and you can bet I will bring my Pro10 car with me! 

When not working on RC Car gear, I also have other hobbies to keep me busy, such as 1/12 model building (like the dragster in my avatar), Golf  (I am the VP of CFB Golf Assoc, which has 600 members), and I tinker in my wood shop making funiture.

Cameron:

 He races because i drag his butt out from behind the computer screen, or off the couch.  Darn kid needs to get out of the house more. He says he likes to drive the cars, but not corner marshall or do maintenance on the car. He doesnt like F1, but always wants to know how Jensen Button finished. (Mclaren F1 driver) Figured he would like RC because its kinda like a video game, only not....He still prefers video games, and I keep finding him playing my RealFlight simulator.  He is currently looking forward to 1/12 indoor racing because he knows about going to BP after the racing..  He has stated he likes Hawaian style pizza. 

[jarrodH]

What got me started was my perents baught me a kyosho optima mid as my first rc when I was about 7.. After years of beating on that, now artifact, I always wanted it faster so I could keep up with my dads.. Then my dad, uncle, Dave, and Barry, opened speed zone, so then I was racin slotcars I flat wore that car out with constant runtime when I was down at the store.

And in there somewhere we found r/c racing at the barracks..Then preceded to lose track of the club for years, until I spotted a few guys runnin pan cars at Hampton park. I missed slot of fly balls due to watching the rc races behind me rather then watching the play..

Again after that they dissenters

Someone mentioned rc races at Juan de fuca, I couldn't yet drive so I would hop on my bike and bike the goose trail from my place on Glanford almost every Sunday just to watch..

Then Dave  gave me the chance to run his older yokomo spare car.. Proceeds to beat him the first day, from there on I was hooked. Since I couldn't drive on the street, or afford a real racecar, it was the closest I could get..