Friday5 With Team Driver Aaron Brooks

In this edition of the JConcepts Friday5 we talk to Washington team driver, Aaron Brooks!

1. When did you get your start with RC cars? Did you bash your RC cars at first or jumped right into the RC racing scene once you found out about it?

I originally raced in the mid 90’s as a kid. I’d bashed around with a Tamiya King Cab but Cliff Lett’s Team Moo RC10T on the cover of Radio Control Car Action Magazine in 1991 changed everything. I left in 1997 after I got my license to focus on full scale cars. In the summer of 2021 our son wanted to check out DieHard RC‘s outdoor RC park to run his crawler and when we saw the track and met the owners we were hooked.

2. If you had to guess where the 1/10 off-road electric scene is ten years from now, would you expect to see more dirt, carpet, or turf tracks and why?

I think the approachability of 1/10 carpet and the evergreen nature of indoor racing will keep pushing it up, at least in the Northwest. There’s always a seasonal cycle with people moving outdoor in summer, but our winter series races are over 200 entries. It’s the entry point for a lot of racers in our region and everyone, regardless of if they consider themselves a ‘1/8 scale’ or ‘on-road’ racer, has a carpet off-road car.

3. In your area you compete in a lot of off-road carpet racing. Some racers can struggle to glue carpet tires due to their harder compounds, so what are some tips you can share to make this task easier?

Pre-mounts! Just kidding. Always use a glue tip needle like the JConcepts RM2 Glue Tip Needles. Carpet tires can be difficult to pull back and the needle allows you to get glue in the bead rather than just on the edge.

4. When it comes to new products released from JConcepts, what are you most excited to see released and why? Is it a new body, new tire, new accessory, etc?

Tires. It’s the only part of the car that touches the ground so it’s absolutely critical that we’re on the fastest, most consistent tire we can get. JConcepts continues to lead in this area and I’m always looking forward to the next innovation.

5. Besides piloting a RC car what other hidden talent or skill set do you possess that might surprise someone?

My most surprising skill set is probably the one I use in my day job as the Physics Lead for the Forza Motorsport gaming franchise. I’m part chassis engineer, part tire simulation engineer and part aerodynamicist. I owe it all to the spark created racing RC as a kid.