Reporter: Allison
( to the tune of the Fresh prince of Bel-air theme song)
We pulled up to the track about 7 or 8, … the North Trail off- road Rc track was surprisingly easy to find, seriously, just look for the pink digital clock.
A couple cars and trailers greeted us at the small track right off the main road. They knew right away who we were, not that there is a way for Jason to show up and people think he’s a noob anyways.
I forget what track it was, but a few years ago Jason went out to the track and just for practice was going to run a one- color body, naturally this older gentleman starts talking to him, telling him he should get the body painted. The best parts to buy, what he needed to do to get fast etc, mean while I think Jason was practicing for the On-road Worlds. The man had no idea who he was talking to. But now there is no hiding with the trailer.
The part that makes us feel good though, is that people are already running our tires and products here, they’ve got the J82, the bodies, wheels, so that’s awesome.
There are kids everywhere here, are they the next generation ? One has a little radio shack style RC vehicle but it’s pretty cute out there, and at least they are practicing, getting some time on the track… More than I can say, I don’t want to embarrass myself in public… And yet I do want to drive the Slash… We’ll see how the day goes…
We actually came in to town last night for the Monster Truck show that was held in town. We are friends with the Overkill monster truck and Jason and Fred were involved in the show last night and Jason jumped 4 of the cars the monster trucks were crushing. Great jump! As a Public Service Announcement – never sit in the first few rows at a monster truck show- when cars get crushed pieces go flying- that’s just the law of motion.
Slash is the biggest class here, as we hear is the case at a lot of tracks.
Nitro makes up most of the rest of the classes, 1/8 buggy and truggy and 1/10th gas truck.
The guy that gave me directions to the track last night at the monster truck show said he’s never been beat on his home track, but he also said that’s because none of the top guys have been here before… He named off Jason, JR, and Ryan as the top names in FL. He was pretty excited that Jason was going to be running at his track. Most of the guys that run the State series, or Supercup, or have been around forever, all know Jason.
We had pit passes at the Monster Truck show, bracelets that let us on the floor, I think we could have been on the floor while the MT’s were running but we chose to go stand higher in the crowd to get the best view. We stood where the MT’s parked in between rounds and when they start up they are LOUD!
After the intermission, Jason and Fred ran their RC cars on the floor of the arena. First they ran warm-up laps and jumped small ramps, Jason ran his J82. Then they lined up larger ramps and Jason warmed up his RC8 nitro buggy. That really got the crowd interested!
Jason jumped 4 cars off the ramps! First he jumped a row of the “smush” cars on one side of the arena, then another row for the other side of the crowd to see. I got it on video but it was really hard to see, Jason asked me to stand high in the crowd away from the MTs. As much as he likes MTs he doesn’t want me too close to them.
After Jason and Fred ran the RC cars on the floor they went out the big doors to where the trailers were parked, and I couldn’t get out there without actually walking on the arena floor, which I considered because I had the bracelet, but I stayed in to get more video and didn’t think it was too smart to go out on the arena floor.
I stood where Jason would not have wanted me to stand. But I wanted to film OverKill. Kirk Dabney, our friend and driver of Maximum Overkill, he blew a radiator hose or something in the first round and had to be repaired. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and Jason texted me to say that Kirk had the truck fixed and was headed back in to the arena. I had the camera ready to roll. I knew I should back up from the floor but it was too tempting.
Sadly a boy was killed at a MT show in Tacoma the day before we attended the show in Ft Myers, FL. The drivers were all well aware of this fact and intended to take it easy at the show; the show we attended started off slow but gained momentum. I believe a driveshaft popped off a MT in action which resulted in the fate of a little boy. So this was all in my mind as I walked closer to the floor to get better video. I got as close as I could, only a few pieces of chopped plywood were between me and the MTs, seriously. I filmed as much as I could, its hard to film them up close, they are so large. I cringed when the MTs came close to me.
At the end of Kirk’s free-style round on the floor I actually had a gut reaction and backed away from the floor slightly and put the camera down. I wish I had been recording but I am glad I backed up. Kirk in Maximum Overkill, was doing donuts on the floor and came up on the pile of smush cars and somehow donut’ed on top of the cars. Everyone around me ran! One lady actually slipped and fell she was trying to move so fast! Debris went flying, parts of the car were everywhere! The whole bumper ended up by my foot!
Jason was texting me saying – did you see that? He wasn’t too thrilled when he found out that’ s where I was standing, but oh well, it all worked out ok, and I learned my lesson and probably won’t stand there again. This is my public service announcement – my first hand advice, to sit higher in the stands than you might really want to. One day you’ll thank me.
So back to the RC track. When it came time for lunch, we were unable to get the truck out, and it was still attached to the trailer anyways. We decided to try and walk to a Wendy’s. A nice fellow, Mick, saw us at that moment and offered to give us a ride. It was just a ride to Wendy’s across the street, but sometimes its the little things in life that make the biggest impact.
He filmed this directly across from me – if you look closely you can see the bumper fly off where it landed near my foot and you can see the people on the floor whom I was standing with.
You can also view Fred’s version of the weekend on our main site : http://www.jconcepts.net/index.php?/jconcepts/events_details/99/recent
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