In this edition of the JConcepts Friday5 we talk to Missouri team driver, Mike Bufka!
1. Ok let’s start with how you got first involved in RC. Did you pick it up from someone, stumbled across a local track, etc.?
I grew up around monster trucks as a kid and I remembered them running Clodbusters during intermission at races which got me wanting an RC monster truck of my own. I wanted to be one of the drivers in the big trucks when I grew up. One summer I mowed enough lawns to buy a Traxxas Nitro Stampede and I ran it at my local off-road track every chance I could get. I had been out of the hobby for decades, but I stumbled across an SMT10 online about six years ago and I was blown away. I had to have one. I had always wanted a solid axle monster truck since the Stampede days of my youth. After about a year of fixing and modifying it I grew frustrated with it and its limitations. I’m a welder by trade and I figured I could do better so I just started building my own chassis out of tubing and I haven’t stopped since.
2. As a driver for JConcepts in 2025, what skills do you feel you bring to the team and what are some of your goals this year?
This is the third year that I have been racing for the JConcepts Racing Team and I am truly honored to be a part of this elite group. As a chassis and component manufacturer myself, I am excited to be on the forefront of researching and developing extremely scale replica style racing trucks that also perform on just as high of a competition level as carbon fiber swing arm suspension style trucks. The Solid Axle Monster Truck side of the RC hobby is currently experiencing a boom period and I want to thank JConcepts for helping to play an important role in that.
My major goals for this 2025 season are to travel to new and different racing series that I have never been to before, while still continuing to produce the most scale and highest performing chassis and components available. In 2024 we really stepped up our racing program and saw us turning more consistent quick times, taking multiple trucks deeper into racing brackets, and really establishing the BRF name as a force to be reckoned with. These tube trucks do more than just look like their bigger brothers. They can actually go.
3. Which type of racing format do you prefer and why. A trophy race that runs over a weekend or a single day event with multiple rounds in a points series?
Growing up in the hayday of the Penda points series as a kid I always held chasing a points series to be the highest level of prestige in motorsports. Now that I have had a chance to travel around to more weekend events like the Monster Jam World Finals, NorCal RC Summer Showdown, Horizon RC Fest, and SoCal RCMT Winter Finals I find myself preferring those types of events. I’ve gotten the chance to meet so many cool people in person that I ordinarily wouldn’t have. Also it feels a lot more like traveling around the country doing full size monster truck events than attending a monthly club race does.
4. In your opinion, when heading to the track what is the JConcepts product that is a must have on race day and why?
For me it’s absolutely got to be Blue compound Renegades on 2.6” Tribute wheels with Slam-Tech foams. That there is our secret weapon for getting that Holmes Hobbies power to the ground and moving!
5. Besides RC cars, what other hobbies are you into?
I enjoy being involved with full sized monster trucks any chance I get, and I also enjoy riding dirt bikes and mountain bikes. I spend a lot of my time welding.
