Big Squid RC

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Mark those calendars! This years Bash-A-Palooza event has a date!
I just got off the phone with our good friend Scott from Leisure Hours and right now we are looking at August 16th, 2009! If you are in the area, you may want to start planning the road trip. It’s a little later in the year this time, hopefully we won’t interfere with too much else.

Last Years event was a great time, and we had a TON of prizes to give away, and met with a ton of cool people! I think we gave away like 5 vehicles!

More details coming soon!

rc madness We just got word RC Madness in Enfield CT will be hosting the Short Course RC Nationals July 24-26! Looks like they will have plenty of classes to keep most people happy. I’m sure our Pro Driver, Tim Mohr will be making his way out there to participate and cover the action!

Our Pro Driver and good friend Tim Mohr checks in from the 1/18th scale nats! Thanks for the report Tim, looks like you got a few awards yourself! Congrats!

18th dirt nationals 18th dirt nationals

2009 18th Scale Carpet Off-Road Nationals Report by Tim Mohr

The 6th annual 18th scale Carpet Off-Road Nationals went down over the weekend at RC Madness in Enfield Connecticut. While attendance dropped off a bit due to the economy, the race still had a very respectable 223 entries, and 27 races per round.

Here’s a quick race recap-

2wd Stock- TQ Ron Spinelli ran into problems in the main, while Castle Creations/MaxAmps driver Wesley Dennis picked it up and finished with his first win at the off-road nats. Second place is listed at Dean Berry, but perhaps it was RC Drivers Greg Vogel behind the wheel? Third place went to Matt Maziarz.

Stock/Spec Buggy- RC Driver’s Greg Vogel hot a race long battle with carpet guru Mark Smyka, with Vogel ending up on top. Both the top two guys were running the Duratrax Vendetta. Third place went to Associated’s Bob Stellflue.

Stock Rally- TQ Ashely Villar took down the win, with Ron Spinelli finishing second on the podium, and Nick Zaccaro nailing down third.

4wd Stock Truck- TQ and factory MaxAmps/X-Ray driver Zack Barry destroyed the field in both qualifying and in the main. Nick Zaccaro and Aaron Wilson rounded out the podium.

Tamiya Spec Class- TQ Carrisa Smyka ran clean out front for the win, while RC Drivers Greg Vogel and Mark Smyka went back and forth for second place, with Vogel gaining the spot at the end.

Novice- Talk about a good group of racers having a great time out on the track! Andrew “Lil’ Fish” Bishop took the win with his Assocaited RC18, while Cameron Dopp came in second, and Trevor Stevens finished third.

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Mini-Monster- Once again, MaxAmps/X-Ray factory driver Zack Barry had the field covered, pwning qualifying and the main. Castle Creations/MaxAmps driver Tom Loranger put his X-Ray M-18MT second on the podium, while John Cravotta started his day on the podium with a third.

2wd Open- John Cravotta really upped his game for this years nats, and was way out front for the win driving his Team Scream Thunder Tiger mid-engined 2wd truck. Second on the podium was yours truly, with Team Scream driver Mike Wilder coming in third.

Buggy Open- Another race, another big win for MaxAmps/X-Ray driver Zack Barry. Mark Smyka piloted his Duratrax Vendetta to second, and John Cravotta continued his podium streak with a thrid.

Rally Open- Get used to his name, because he proved his incredible speed this year. Team Scream’s John Cravotta totally pwned this class, putting in times nobody else was even close to for the win. Dillon Spinelli finished second, with Castle Creations/MaxAmps factory shoe Tom Loranger finishing off the podium.

4wd Truck Open- This was the premier class at the event, and also had the most entries. Alex Galinski was in a class of his own though, as he dominated qualifying, and took the win in the A main with his Associated. Team Scream’s John Cravotta proved to be his closest competition, finishing second a mere 3 seconds back, Another Team Scream driver Mike Wilder finished off the podium in third.

Hey All,

For those that need to start filling out their calender, here is a short list of big events coming up that I thought I would mention. I’ll get the right side event page updated later today.

May 22-24th, 2009 – NO LIMIT R/C! This has really grown into an amazing event! I can only hope our Bash-A-Palooza turns out this good.

April 25th, 2009 – Insane Speed Run at the Encino Velodrome. There’s fast, and then there is Insane! :)

April 16-19th, 2009 – HPI Racing in conjunction with Tamiya America, Inc. and Kyosho America announce today their participation in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 16-19, 2009. This sounds like the place to be, with a lot of major companies pulling out of RCX this year to be there! Probably find more details on the HPI Page

July 10-12th, 2009, Great Lakes Bash Fest, these guys are really starting to get a good turn out! Check out their page for pics and videos.

Bash-A-Palooza! – Our own big bash event! We are working hard to nail down a date this year, and will have some more details soon! Search our page for more details.

You Event Here: Have a big Bash event you want to tell us about? Want the world to know? Drop us an email!

RC Drag Racing Pictures of the Winners
Just wanted to post up a few pictures of the winners from the Breakneck Bash at the Lynwood RC Dragway. Anyone who came out to support the RC Drag Racing scene is a winner in my book!

Congrats to all the winners! Check out their cars and sweet winners plaques. (Provided by Big Squid RC)
RC Drag Racing Pictures of the Winners RC Drag Racing Pictures of the Winners

RC Drag Racing Pictures of the Winners RC Drag Racing Pictures of the Winners

RC Drag Racing Event It’s that time again! Another part of the Midwest RC Drag Racing Series! This time we will be at the Badgerland RC Drag Racing track in Wisconsin! The dates are July 12th and 13th! Click on the picture for the full event flyer!

RC Monster Truck Event

Wow, what a great event! First off, I would like to thank all the awesome companies that helped provide prizes for the event!
HPI Racing, Duratrax, Parma, O’Donnell Racing, XXX Main, and ofcourse Leisure Hours Hobbies!
I would also like to thank John (from Leisure Hours Raceway) for doing an awesome job on the microphone, also Bill (Firesprink281), Chris (thenewguy812), Jodie, Josh (xirtic), and everyone else who helped make the event happen.

RC Monster Truck Event

One of the coolest things about this event was all the different types of RC’ers that made the trip out to the event. We had the die hard bashers, a bunch of newbies and even pro-driver Tim Mohr! Most of these people have never even set foot at a race rc race track, and I think a lot of them will be back. We saw both nitro and electric trucks, with all sorts of makes and models, and towards the end of the event we had over 50 spectators enjoying the long jump action! This was cool for 2 reasons. 1) It’s a ton of fun as a driver to hear a big crowd of people ‘Ohh-ing’ and ‘Ahh-ing’, and B) A lot of these people got to see how fun RC can be, and will hopefully go out, buy some vehicles, and get into the hobby. I know I had several people ask me about specific trucks, and advice one what their first should be.

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

The first event was the monster truck obstacle course. (See the video after the read-more) The course consisted of some wooden whoop-di-doo’s, a big jump, some smaller ramps, a slalom, and the final table top challenge. I honestly didn’t think the table top was going to be as difficult as it turned out to be, but it sure did keep things exciting! The final part consisted of a split ramp and split table with two orange cones on the end. The first truck to run the obstacle course and touch one of the cones was the winner for that round. We ran a bracket style race with each section running for the best 2 out of 3.

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

After the obstacle course, it was time for RC Monster Truck Soccer! We had a nicely decorated ball (thanks Mini Squid!) and with a little work, we were able to work out the frequencies so that everyone who wanted to participate in the soccer event was able to do it at once! This proved a little insane! We every r/c monster trucks all on the field at once, all supposedly trying to get the ball into their goal. I say supposedly because most of the pile ups we no where near the ball! :) The red team won with a sudden death goal!

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We then went inside to draw the raffle prizes and allow people to make repairs before the death long jump competition. I can’t thank the event sponsors enough! We had some of the greatest prizes an event like this has ever seen! We had a HPI Savage XL, a Duratrax RT-X 27, and 3 (yes three!) HPI 4×4 Wheely Kings, t-shirts, banners, tools, temp gauges, bodies, dvd’s, and more!
RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event
Pro-Driver Tim Mohr and John did the ticket drawing for the event, and we made sure that everyone that attended walked away with a prize!

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

We also had plaques for the winners of the long jump,obstacle course, and winning goal!
RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event
RC Monster Truck Event

Last up was the LONG JUMP! The ramp was huge, and this truly was a ‘Go Big, or Go Home!’ event!
We are talking SERIOUS air here! Easily 40 feet high, and over 65 feet distances! Many trucks survived to make two passes, and the crowed showed their appreciation with cheering the brave drivers on!

RC Monster Truck Event RC Monster Truck Event

The weather was perfect, everyone told me they had a great time, and are looking forward to the next one, and a lot of people got introduced to the world of RC. You really can’t ask for better than that!
If you didn’t make it out to this event, I hope to see you out at the next one! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make the day special!

Keep an eye on the Big Squid RC news page for details! If you have any suggestions for events you would like to see, drop me an email!

Tons more pictures AND videos of the event after the jump: READ MORE

Here is another video I put together from the Big Squid RC Bash-A-Palooza event this weekend! This time up we have some awesome rc monster truck long jumps and soccer action!

Again, Thanks to everyone who came out to the event! We couldn’t do it without you all!


There is also a HI-DEF version of the video Located HERE! Right Click/Save As. You’ll need Quicktime or a mp4 codec to play. WARNING: It’s about 35 meg!

Here is a quick video I put together from the Big Squid RC Bash-A-Palooza event this weekend! I will post up a full recap tonight along with another video. The folks over at HobbyZip also have a ton of videos posted, so make sure to head over there and check them out!

Thanks to everyone who came out..I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!


There is also a HI-DEF version of the video Located HERE! Right Click/Save As. You’ll need Quicktime or a mp4 codec to play. WARNING: It’s about 55 meg!

RC Monster Truck Bash Event

Our own Big Squid RC BASH-A-PALOOZA event is coming up! Hosted By: Leisure Hours Hobbies at the amazing Leisure Hours Raceway June 14th!

The official event page is Right HERE! Or click the new link over on the left! This event is going to be awesome!

Here is a Prize List Update:
- New HPI Savage
- New Duratrax RT-X 27
- A Bunch of Bodies from Parma Racing
- DVD’s and Skins from XXXMain
- Tools from Duratrax and O’Donnell Racing
- T-Shirts, Stickers, and More!

That’s TWO NEW RC Monster Trucks! Most Pro Events don’t give away this much stuff!
If you are in the area, you do not want to miss this event!
Event Page for all the details you need!

First of all I’d like to thank Jerry (Lynnwood Dragway) for hosting the Midwest series race 2. Also a big thanks to John(NitroRage) setting up the ladder and keeping an open mind when suggestions were made. The Onstat Crew did a great job of prepping the track as well. A huge thank you to Blair K.and Richard P. from TN, Dane and Dustin from Richmond IN , Gary from WI, Robb (Shredder X) from NJ, Hollywood Tim Mohr from St. Louis and Brian( Big Squid) that travaled from out of state to race with us. Of course it goes without saying thank you to all the local racers as well.

For those of you that were not able to attend this past event…….the weather was in the mid to high 60s on Sat. with strong winds..Sunday was freakin COLD but at least it wasn’t as windy.The racers did their best to get down the track and most were very successful. I won’t get into who ran what or who won what because I don’t have that information and I know that John(NitroRage) will post that soon. What I do want to tell you guys is that the racing was HOT!! The Pro-Mod class was the biggest and it had some great action and some spectacular crashes….yours truly being one of them. The Street Car class(bracket)made a nice showing as did the Unlimited Dragster. Funny Car was not a big class this time around. Pro-Stock Bike made its first Lynnwood showing and was in my opinion some of the closest and exciting racing , I was fortunate to be one of the guys running a bike and enjoyed it tremendously. There was a lot of laughs on Sat. as Big Will ran the lights and offered commentary as the racers qualified.

The event attracted quite a few spectators….a few hung around my pit and asked questions and really enjoyed watching the action, so much that a couple of them were going to order electric Pro-Mods this week and another wanted to get in on the electric dragster action. A couple of the guys were not new to rc racing have a background in off-road competition but expressed something I already knew……they said they couldn’t get over how friendly everyone they spoke to was. I too am a off-road convert and had felt the same welcome late last year when I started drag racing with this great group of guys. The racing has been great and even greater are the new friendships that have developed as a direct result of this little hobby of ours.

As with any big event there are sometimes some snags…. some people complained about the tardiness and or lack of keep things on schedule. I cannot answer for the Lynnwood management but want to express that this track is very new and I’m sure they take what they learned from this event to make the next one even better. Sundays delay was caused by a dead generator……once they got a replacement things I thought went pretty smooth. Some racers were even caught off guard when they were called to the line and were not ready, again this is a little new to some of the guy’s and will take some getting used to. Thats all I have for you folks at this time, I will try to make the next report a little more informative.

Thanks,

Rey

While doing our server and software updates, it looks like we broke are event manager! While we work on getting it fixed and up and running, I wanted to remind everyone about some upcoming events!


If RC Drag Racing is your thing, then the Lynwood RC Drag Way is where you want to be this weekend! It’s the second event of the Midwest RC Drag Racing Series May 17th and 18th! For all the details and information, check out the official Midwest RC Drag Racing forums Right Here!


If RC Monster trucks are your thing, then check out the NO LIMIT R/C 2008 Monster Truck World Finals coming up May 23-25! This event is really becoming “THE” event to attend! Over in our forum is a big thread with all the details. You can read it Right Here!

Finally we have our own BASH-A-PALOOZA event! Hosted By: Leisure Hours Hobbies at the amazing Leisure Hours Raceway June 14th!

The official event page is Right HERE! Or click the new link over on the left! This event is going to be awesome! We are giving away a HPI Racing Savage Monster Truck!!! Plus a TON of other great prizes! Check out the Event Page for all the details you need!
RC Monster Truck Bash Event

Hosted By: Leisure Hours Hobbies at the amazing Leisure Hours Raceway.

The official event page is Right HERE! Or click the new link over on the left! This event is going to be awesome! We are giving away a HPI Racing Savage Monster Truck!!! Plus a TON of other great prizes! Check out the Event Page for all the details you need! Are you planning on attending? Have some suggestions? Questions? Ideas? Post it up in the Forum!