I’d like to thank everyone who came out to the private bash night at the Leisure Hours Raceway last night! It was a great time! We got to meet a lot of new faces, break lots of parts, and help out lots of newbies! It was cool to see all the kids out there having a good time, without having to worry about getting yelled at by some ‘racer’ on the stands that his car was in the way or something. I even witnessed someone give a ton of frequency chips to a kid who was still running on AM! The guy had changed everything over to 2.4ghz, and didn’t need them anymore! Very cool man!

To top off the night, someone actually brought these HUGE sub sandwiches for everyone to enjoy! I can’t thank you all enough for making it another great night! Looking forward to bashing with you all again very soon!

A big congratulations goes out to our driver Tim Mohr who took third in the A-Main for Mod Short Course truck this weekend at the Chitown Shootout event at the Leisure Hours Raceway! There were about 290 entries this weekend, and a ton of classes with some great final races! Tim was racing the HPI Blitz and it handled great! He said he didn’t break a part on the Blitz all weekend!

The pits were packed, and it was elbow to elbow everywhere! Always good to see tons of familiar faces, and meet a bunch of new ones!

I’d like to mention that the folks at Leisure Hours did a great job on race day! All the races moved very quickly! None of this waiting around for 30 to 60 minutes between each race like a ROAR event. When one race ended, the next group was on the driver stand and ready to go!

For the most part, the drivers were pretty calm. No big blow ups. It was also great to see some kids running in the novice classes! I know both Cubby and myself have complained many times about the lack of kids coming into the sport, but there were a couple dozen at the track this weekend! Keep it up guys!

Congrats again Tim!

Magazine revenues from advertising are down, wayyyyy down. Sucks to be in the print biz right now. Click here for more info. The end game is going to be clicks for pay, and at this point, Rc Tech and Rc Universe are leading the field. Of course we here at BigSquidRC are working our way up, going a different path than leading the hit counters via message boards.

Well, it’s pretty rare when the boss here ticks people off. But it seems Brian’s cell phone was ablaze this morning after posting his ROAR 8th scale nationals report. Nice to see Brian getting his share of hate emails/calls.

We get a lot of hate mail here. I used to read it, but they all essentially say one of two things. Either “I hate you and I am going to shove something large up your rear end”, or “Take down what you wrote about company XYZ right now or we are suing you back into the stone ages”. While spending the last week out at Leisure Hours consuming large doses of nitro fumes, I decided to read through some recent hate mail. Once again, very average fodder, but I’ll post an example just for your reading pleasure.

“The fact you have Duratrax’s latest version of the WarHead on your basher approved section is a JOKE,how much did they pay you for your opinion? The Warhead in any carnation is fit for the trash can right off. I have owned one and know first hand about this truck. I often wonder how many people this truck is resposible for turning their backs on the r/c hobby forever,what a shame! Sure they will replace parts, only problem is if you replace a “turd” with another “turd”, well I guess at the end of the day you have a “TURD”. This info is wide spread knowledge in the small r/c community, they got me with the first version, bought it as soon as it hit the shelves like a dummy. Why would you put your reputation on the line for this product? I found your website to be a good one untill I came across this,you either know of this piece of sh*t and are being paid to sacrifice your opinion or are just ignorant of the truck. Either way I can’t recomend this website to my vast # of r/c friends. Think about that and let me know how you came to your conclusion on that truck if your bored someday soon, if not PEACE.”

This was written by yet another loving BigSquidRC fan, someone going by the name of Matt Wi**i@ms. As a whole, I’d rate it high on being written in nearly proper English (as most hate mails looking like they were typed by a monkey mashing his fists on the keyboard), but I have to knock points off for lack of swear words or death threats.

On a different subject, I just have to mention a little story about Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet Illinois. I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and have seen pretty much every “uber” track that has come along the last 15 years. I’ve been impressed many times by just how cool some of the tracks have been. But, I’ll never forget my first visit to Leisure Hours. Myself and 3 other industry types had piled into our rental car (we were in town for I-Hobby) and headed for what we were told was “the Ultimate track”. I’ve heard that line a million times before, every track wants to think theirs is the “best”, but because the person that did the recommendation was just so fervent about it, we had to make the 45 minute drive from the convention center down to Joliet and see for ourselves.

First off, we got lost, veryyyy lost. Leisure Hours isn’t in sh*tkicker nowhere, but for being in the Chicago metro area, it’s pretty far off the path. It’s not hard to find, it’s just not that easy after having drank a half dozen huge beers on Air Age Media’s (the publishers of RCCA mag) tab. Finally, we arrive at the track. As we pull in, I simply utter “this looks like rc nirvana”. Staring straight at us was a brand new, Huge building. I’ve been in bigger ones used for rc, but never one this large purpose built from the ground up just for rc racing. Then, as we tour the racetrack grounds, everywhere we turned we were even more impressed. A huge outdoor off-road track, a huge asphault on-road track, a huge indoor off-road track, two huge indoor pit areas that were perfectly laid out, and even a medium sized indoor carpet track. And it wasn’t just how big everything was, but just how well thought out and and “perfect” everything was. It was obvious the entire complex was built with one thing in mind- to be the ultimate rc racing playground.

Many discussions are held between industry types every year concerning just where is the “best” rc track in the country. My vote always goes in for Leisure Hours. It’s a shame the locals don’t support it more, I don’t think they realize what an awesome place they have to race.

Li-po shootout news- July 31st the entire shootout will be posted!!

That’s it for this week, support your local hobby shops and tracks!

Your Cub Reporter

As another year comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to thank all the people that helped make 2008 an amazing year for Big Squid RC. We grew leaps and bounds this year, and really have started to make some waves in the world of internet RC. From our viral videos, to our very much copied style, terms, and stories. We are happy to be the leaders watching the others scramble to be just like us. We woke up a lot of companies at iHobby Expo, and we promise to keep bringing you eye opening and original work in 2009!

Thanks to all of our readers who faithfully keep coming back for more news, reviews and incite. Keep telling your friends about us!

Thanks to all of our writers: Cubby, Jason Anis, Rey (Stangrey), Wesley Dennis (Microman), and our forum moderators Bill (firespring281) and Chris (thenewguy821).

Thanks and good luck in 2009 to our Pro Driver Tim Mohr! We can’t wait to watch you take over the electric 1/8th scale world!

Thanks to everyone who helped make iHobby Expo such a success for us! We could not of done it without you all! Tim, Jason, Jim, Bill, Chris, Geno, Anna, Ewa, Alfonso, Elizabeth and Cubby!

Finally a huge thanks to all of our sponsors this year! Without you all, we wouldn’t be able to pay the electric bill to keep this place running! Make sure to go visit these sites, show your support, and buy their products! Also tell them we said hi. In no particular order:
Duratrax, Max Amps, O’Donnell Racing, Traxxas, Futaba RC, Team Checkpoint, Best RC, HPI Racing, EDS Racing Products, Team Novak, Grand MotorSports, Leisure Hours Hobbies, RC Car Kings, RC Hobbies Naperville, Buku Power, Dragrace Concepts, Acer Racing, Roy Anderson Engineering, Pro-Line Racing, Parma PSE, Schumacher USA and RC Hardware!
Thank you all so very much! Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone, if I did, send your mail to Cubby, he gets lonely.

Don’t worry, Cubby should be back from his vacation next week (fingers crossed) and you will be able to enjoy your weekly soap box once again.

Last weekend I stopped out at the Leisure Hours Raceway track to check out a little impromptu rock crawling action and take some pictures. A bunch of guys showed up to brave the weather and just have some fun on the LH RC Rock Crawling Course. It was a good time, and there were all sorts of vehicles. Everything from the big scalers to the new Mini Losi Crawler.

Bernie has been working on getting some bigger rocks as well, so it was time for a little king of the mountain. It was great meeting a few new people that were fans of the site, and always cool to see people with Big Squid RC stickers on their vehicles before I even hand any out. Make sure to keep your eye on the Rock Crawling Forum for any future crawler bashes. Also, make sure to check out the forum for a new RC Rock Crawling Poll! Leisure Hours is wondering if there would be an interest in setting up an indoor course for the winter. So make sure you head over to the Rock Crawling Forum and voice your opinion!

Just a reminder, that Saturday, July 19th, there will be some RC Drag Racying Action at the Lynwood Drag Way.

The Event is going to be a Leisure Hours Hobbies special! It’s great to see Leisure Hours starting to get into the RC Drag Scene!

Now if I could only convince them to pave that area behind their track to put in a drag strip!

Hope to see ya there!

Well this was a rough couple of days! I was stuck in bed for a few with a 102 degree fever. I finally shake it off, to find have a lot of the behind the scenes server stuff of Big Squid RC was getting a big update! Hopefully things are running bigger, better, and faster! As a consequence, we were without email and posting ability for a few.. but things seem to be up and running great and we can start to bring the news again!

I’d like to take a moment and welcome Leisure Hours Hobbies as a new Sponsor. Besides a great shop, they have the ultimate RC track in the Midwest! It’s like an amusement park for RC cars and trucks! You name it, you can do it there! Check out their page for all the info here:

Please take the time to visit our sponsors. The help us pay the bills! Click their banners, check out their stuff for sale, and feel free to support them while you are there.