Well it was time to check out of the hotel and “make it happen” as they say.
I made a quick stop off to OCRC and cleaned up my pit spot a little bit and said hello to the guys. Club racing on Wednesday night. I will be back, much like the terminator.
Time for a quick few trips to the hobby shops in the surrounding area. My first run was to Ultimate Hobbies located in Orange. Huge hobby shop with many different products. I still don’t see how a new customer decides what to buy. I’m pretty sure the hobby shop directs you at this point or you are coming in based on a recommendation or a magazine or Internet sighting. Seems like this is where Traxxas really has it made. Ironically they are all ready listed in our “figured out” catagory right?
Side Bar – drag and drop Phil Jackson. Jordan, Pippen, Rodman then on to Shaq and Kobe and then back to Kobe. There is a reason Phil will never be coaching the Bobcats or the Timberwolves. Can you say no players or chance?
I was very impressed with how many customers they already had at ulimate for just a random day at about 12pm. They say the weekends really buzzzz. 🙂
Did you know you can’t talk on your cell phone and drive in California? You need a blue tooth set which I don’t have. I guess I can pick one up at best buy? How do I decide which one to get? I don’t want to walk in and get the Stampede or Rustler of blue tooth. Someone text or email me a suggestion please. Isn’t blue tooth a trade or brand name? I need a refresh from TD on the list of names we refer to as a product type but is a brandname. What are these things? Wireless headset devices?
Moving to the freeway once again I find my Yaris has plenty of power and we already know it gets the ladies so I’m pretty impressed. I’m thinking about snapping one up for home. Although I think the rental car company set me up with the Bandit of rentals. Does the B4 with JC tires of rentals exist?
Driving in California is a mess and everything is called The blah, blah, blah. The 405, the 91 the 71 the 60 the 55 the 57, you get the idea. So to recap my ride out to the inland empire to Revelation and Pegasus here we go. 405 to the 55 to the 57 to the 10. You could also take 405 to the 55 to the 91 to the 71 to the 10 or side street Romona. I’m leaving something out and hopefully someone will correct us but that is off memory.
Pulling into Monte Vista Rd in Pomona / Montclair felt familar not only because my parents live on a road called monte vista but because I spent about 2 or 3 months at this track in 1996 with Mark Pavidis. Paul came out later and joined in on the battery war fun. In 96 it was an on-road track and they were hosting the worlds. 3 guys were dialed at this race in 96, Masami, Barry Baker and Mike Swauger.
So I pull up to Rev as the cool guys call it and started looking things over. Reminds me of the Ranch pit shop dirt. This place is probably awesome with traction just like the ranch. I took a few photos and looked things over. I can imagine how a nitro car looks after running out there. I would be needing some simple green, wd40 (water displacement 40th revision) and some Pledge. I would also need to bring my heavy trigger finger because Rev has a straight and a big double. The big double looks good though.
Just as I was about to leave the track owner Dana pulled up and we began to chat. I told him I hadn’t been on this track since 96 with Pavidis. He quickly began 96 worlds stories about how only 3 battery packs in tech were the exact maximum weight allowed. He said those packs went to Mike Swauger. Did I mention that Mike won with those batteries? Oh yeah he TQ’ed and won 1/10th scale. Mike drove brilliantly at that event for sure but the best batteries at the event as well probably helped. I told Dana my plug and play battery story from that race and how PW made the 1/12th A with Pavidis practice packs. Good stuff.
Let’s move along with this story to Pegasus hobbies. Just down the road is Pegasus which is probably the best hobby store in the area. I went in and
saw Andy the shop manager and talked about the old days and the new days. Andy is a great guy, stop by and pick something from him. They have half a 1:1 scale vehicle sticking out of the wall facing the 10 freeway. It says RC10GT and team associated on it. Pretty cool. I wonder if they are going re-badge it as a Slash soon? Everyone else seems to be on the Slash program why not a landmark?
I have decided that Slash or shortcourse racing is the racing you do when you don’t want to be judged.
If I run Shortcourse tonight at OCRC and get last everyone will say those guys had a blast and Jason must have been playing around. If I run 2wd and get last everyone will say man, Jason blew out tonight.
I’m ok with this and it is fun and thats what it is all about but it seems like a double standard. It’s like pretending to dance all goofy so your friends don’t think you are really dancing and that is all you got.
Why can’t we pretend to dance with a B4 or B44? Dancing with the Stars?
Dropping back into focus, Pegasus Hobbies is awesome. Check it out.
I’m working against the clock now because the traffic window is closing. Time to punch it with the Yaris! Back to “beach cities” I go. Cav calls and asks where I’m at; I say “on the way to OCRC dog!”
Club race time and this time we have more celebrities at the track. Jay Halsey, Jeremy Kortz, Dave the owner of OFNA, Tim Bump (Hyper 9 designer), Josh Alton (Hot Bodies D8 designer), Derek Buono, Mike Mcmoney and a host of others ready to do battle. Jay and his friend were running the mini Jammin trucks turned into electric. Jeremy Kortz and Tim Bump were running a Hyper 9 turned electric and Josh was running the D8 turned electric.
Something strange is going on? I sense the electric band wagon cranking up once again. Step 1, take any nitro car you have and convert it to electric. Step 2, there is no step 2 you are already done. This has new fad written all over it because it is easy right now. The Hyper and Hot Bodies guys have things figured out right now. Oh no I said figured out? They can’t make the list yet right? Take it easy, they are not on Phil Jackson level yet. They are not drop-ins yet. However, they are being heavily considered by our staff and I will let you know the results just as soon as they become visible.
The D8 is a good Nitro car but it might be an even better electric. I like the direction of the buggy. Hyper 9 was turning some hot laps courtesy of Jeremy Kortz. Overall I’m glad to see those guys out at the track and I see a more successful Hyper 9 as electric than nitro.
Not sure about the mini jammin truck though. I think it’s a development vehicle. They needed some gold Bar Codes pretty bad!
2wd round-
Steven Hartson, Cavalieri and myself were top 3 until they both broke and I found myself in the lead. I beat a 2-time world champion and JC Wave winner in one race. Woo-hoo! Round 2 was a reality check when Cav put it on and beat me by almost a lap. Steven went home early because of school the next day but it would have been a shootout if he had stayed. Oh well, I will stick to my day job.
Magic vs. Cavs was on while we were racing. Magic were getting blown out early and everyone was letting me have it. I pretended to be a casual Magic fan so the abuse would not be so severe. As the game got closer I got more interested and so did everyone else. I’m surprised at the B-ball knowledge in this area. These guys are into it! Toward the end of the 3rd quarter Jeremy Kortz says don’t forget Cleveland only lost 1 game all year at home. Wow pretty serious memory. I think they lost 2 but I felt it would be a bad time to mention that.
2wd main-
I just pulled into the TQ position as a joke (pretend dancing) and Cav says just go ahead and take it. I started on pole woo-hoo! Jarosz started behind me and we were off. Jarosz and I touched wheels a few times but I remained in the lead. Cav went from last to 2nd in about a lap. He’s good at his day job!
I maintained the lead probably running high 18’s and some mid 18’s. With Cav just right behind me we were having a pretty good race. Albeit he was much faster and was posturing it was fun. Cav had enough fun and decided to Waffle Stomp me over the big center double. Waffle Stomp is where you basically send it hard off a big jump knowing you are going to land on the guy in front of you. After the stomp he was gone and I was back doing the twist and shout with the others. However I would like to point out Jarosz went down again. He did have a slightly quicker hero lap but I was able to maintain the distance. 🙂
2 more months and the Hartsons and Cav would be in trouble. Yeah right.
Back to the Magic game –
Magic are now winning and I’m a fan again. Sweet!
LeBron made some big shots but our 119 million dollar man got a 3 to go in and it was all over. 1-0 magic lead the series.
Oh yeah, I’m not staying at the hotel anymore I’m staying at the AE apartment with the King Saxton. It’s cozy but I miss home.
Baker street Dog! More updates coming soon.