by Tim Davis
-JC Talent Scout
In recent years it seems that the entire RC industry has been standing around waiting for the next big idea in RC, the “next T-Maxx” is what they all say. I believe that we have discovered the next big thing in RC racing just this past weekend at the First Annual JConcepts RC Bash.
What is the new big thing? Fun with RC Cars.
Some of my best friends in life are those I met racing RC cars over the last 15 years. When we sit around at the track talking about our early days in RC, it always comes back to simply playing with the cars, at the track, at home, wherever. I can remember taking my freshly built JrxPro-SE and concocting huge take-off and landing ramps, then jumping over full-size pickup trucks. J-Ro will tell tons of stories about jumping his Clodbuster in the street in front of his house, and how the first test for his new JrxT in 1989 was to see if it jumped better than his Clodbuster in the street in front of his house.
Last Saturday and Sunday, I witnessed people having fun with RC cars, and doing it at an organized event. A special thanks has to go out to Fred Reep of R/C Monster Motorsports for directing and his help bringing this event to reality. The JConcepts RC Bash went off without a hitch at Extreme Hobby & Raceway in Winter Haven FL. Far from a traditional RC event; the class list for this race was quite different than your regular ROAR National. Classes like Pro Rock Crawling, Rock Cross, Short Course Truck, Pro Mod Short Course, Short Course Buggy, Sand Drags, etc. When I arrived at the track Saturday the first thing I heard when I stepped out of my car was Welcome to the Jungle blasting over the sound system; during someone’s rock crawling run. That’s pretty dialed if you ask me.
Saturday’s events were rock crawling, rock racing, and sand drags. The rock crawling course was pretty large, featuring a huge real rock mountain in the center, a wooden trestle bridge/overpass, and complex decent and incline obstacles. The rock crawler faithful loved it. The Rock Cross layout used several of the components of the Crawling course, but mixed in some higher speed sections, jumps, and several option lanes when it came to navigating the course.
The class with the most attendance at this event was no surprise, as it was the Short Course truck class. Every driver in this class chose the Traxxas Slash chassis for the competition. The Traxxas Slash tires were required, as were the stock Titan motors. I literally took the shrink wrap off of a new Slash kit on Sunday morning, swapped out my Spektrum receiver so that I could use my regular transmitter and was instantly ready to race. I spent the most time mounting my freshy new JConcepts Truth body.
For the short course events, we threw the standard race format out the window – no IFMAR qualifying, no timed racing. Racing was decided by lap count. Ten lap qualifiers, 15 lap mains, with 2 bump up positions for each main – and only 8 cars in the A-final. Every qualifier was standing start, with the cars bunched tightly in two rows of three. The A-Finals started 4-wide, two deep. Eight Short Course trucks starting door to door was so much fun I wish we ran Triple A’s of only 5 laps each. I just wanted to do the starts over and over – HA!
The Short Course Truck class saw the top drivers from the Florida area in attendance and racing door to door, Paul Wynn, Leon McIntosh, Bobby Philips, myself, Jim Myers, etc. The only notable absentees from the class were Mr. Ruona and JR Mitch. JR was crossing his fingers on Saturday during the raffle of the new Slash kit – hoping he could un-wrap that rig and race the track with us on Sunday. The Short Course truck class was dominated by Leon, he TQ’ed all of qualifying, and won the main event wire to wire.
The JConcepts J82 conversion kit also made its debut at this event in the Short Course Buggy class. I would estimate 80% of the cars in the field chose the J82 for their race platform in this class. The entire A-Final was full of J82’s. It was a blast running these cars in short course conditions. Its funny, when arrived at the track, it did seem rather small, a true short course. However, on Sunday morning, Jason and I were doing some track maintenance, and it dawned on me – this isn’t really that small, in fact, it is really the same size as the tracks we raced on 15-20 years ago during the birth of electric off-road racing. I remember when a track joined ROAR in the early days; they sent a packet out, which included some sample layouts and track dimensions. The “standard then was 50’x100’ with 8’ lanes for 1/10 scale. Running my J82 with a 7.5 brushless and LiPo power and Green JConcepts rubber on that size track was incredibly fun. We never anticipated anything being that powerful and that hooked up back in the day. A RC10 Team Car with a 15 double and 1400’s, rolling on Losi HT rubber seemed like a rocket ship.
I often say I miss the days of simple racing, when you didn’t have to mount new tires all day, tune and tweak constantly, etc. Well, I think the JConcepts crew has rediscovered those days with the Bash event. I can’t wait for the next JC Bash – where will it be? Check JconceptsEvents.com for upcoming info.
Oh, and Jason’s JrxT totally out-jumped his Clodbuster.