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!

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Pro Driver, basher, occasional writer for Big Squid RC, and awesome guy, Tim Mohr has officially signed on with Hot Bodies racing! Tim will be racing the new Hot Bodies Ve8 Electric buggy! Congrats and good luck Tim!

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Pro Driver, good friend of Big Squid RC, and all around good guy, Tim Mohr just won the Great Lakes Division title for 1/8th scale electric buggy this weekend at the State Line RC Raceways in Fremont Indiana! This is Tim’s 3rd division title in the RC Pro Series!
His setup, for those interested, Castle Monster ESC, Castle 2650kv Motor, MaxAmps LiFe batteries and a Caster Fusion EX-1R! Congrats Tim!!

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Slash Stock was the largest class at the nationals, going all the way down to an “E” main. It’s also arguably the most popular electric class in the country right now. The Slash Stock class requires that the trucks race with nearly no modifications, making the class very much a “driver and battery class” because all the trucks are nearly identical in performance. The MaxAmps 2S 4200HC helped Tim TQ and finish first in the A-main to take the national title! To quote Tim “Luckily, my MaxAmps 2S 4200HC was the fastest battery on the track. Thank you guys a TON. I couldn’t have done it with a lesser battery. I was pulling guys on the straights, and making all the jumps with ease, while other guys running lesser packs were having a rough time. Winning over a huge field of awesome drivers, in nearly identical trucks, in perhaps the most popular class in the country right now…. OMG I’m still so stoked today after the win…!!!!”

In 2wd Open, racing a Thunder Tech Outlaw chassis’d Traxxas Slash and being the only Traxxas Slash to make the A-main (the class had about 20 entries, enough for a full A and B). Tim qualified 5th, and ended up finishing the A-main in 5th place running MaxAmps 2S 4500 LiFePO4’s on a Mamba Max and Mamba 7700 motor. In Tim’s words “I gave it 110%, and it felt pretty awesome to mix it up with some of the best factory drivers in the country while wheeling a Traxxas”

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Congratulations to our Pro Drive Tim Mohr who TQ’d this weekend and took first place in the stock class at the Short Course Nationals this weekend!! Sounds like there was some serious bumping and grinding going on over there. Tim also took 5th in the MOD class! Awesome job buddy!!

Hope to post up some pictures soon.

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Caster Racing USA and our own driver Tim Mohr won big at the St. Louis RC Pro Series!

RC Pro Series Midwest Division Race #1 electric 1/8 scale division. First place and TQ goes to Team Caster Racing driver Tim Mohr running a Caster Fusion Pro, proving once again that Caster Racing products are very capable on the track. Caster Racing is the first manufacturer to make an electric 1/8 scale buggy and truggy and the radically different design from conversions is proving effective once again.

Way to go Tim! Also, Huge props to one of our other drivers and occasional guest writer (see The Slash Report) Jason Annis (on the right) Taking third! Great job guys, you ROCK!
Taking second place there on the left is Mike Marshal. Wanted to make sure we got everyone!

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BigSquidRC Race Report- RC Pro Series, Great Lakes Division Round #1.
By Tim Mohr

Race Type- Nitro Off-Road
Venue- Hidden Springs Ranch, Springfield Ohio
Date Held- May 22nd-24th, 2009

The opening round of the RC Pro Series Great Lakes Division was held last weekend in Ohio. As I pulled up to the venue, I found out it was being held on a horse ranch, complete with lots of horses, cows, and working dogs. The Hidden Springs Ranch is just outside of Enon Ohio, near Springfield, and was a beautiful place to put an rc track. The track was nearly as beautiful as the surroundings. It was well designed with lots of jumps, bumps, and even a wagon wheel corner.

Friday was an all day practice session, then Saturday brought on 4 rounds of qualifiers. Carlton Eppes, owner of the RC Pro Series, flew in for the race, and along with the local track personnel, made sure everything ran smoothly for the roughly 100 racers.

Mains were on Sunday, and first up was the Pro Mod Truck (Monster Truck) class. Mike Hempy took the win, with Jake Baker and Rick Sayers rounding out the podium. Yours truly was racing the 8th Scale Electric Buggy class, but because I was the only entry, I also raced with the Pro Mod Truck guys. I was very dissappointed that no other 8th Scale electrics showed up, but I had a blast racing my Castle Creations/MaxAmps/BigSquidRC/Caster Racing Fusion EX-1R with the Pro Mod Truck guys.
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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!

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.

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.

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We just received a few pictures from our Pro Driver Tim Mohr who is out at the 1/18th Scale Nationals this week! Always cool to see Tim represent the Squid in his Basher Approved attire.
Looks like they have some interesting turns and jumps out there!

Good Luck out there Tim! We look forward to hearing how it all goes down this weekend! Tell everyone we said hello, and to stay out of your way!

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The RC Pro Series and Caster Racing USA have temporarily joined forces to help kick off the new 1/8 electric 2009 season with a bang!

Since Caster is currently the only true electric buggy and truggy manufacturer on the market, yet are unrecognized, they offered to do a great promo that will help RC Pro and YOU!”

Caster Racing has announced that they created a promo sku for their cart that will take the Fusion race roller all the way down to $250. This is a $100 savings!! What a great way to enter the 1/8 scale electric races. This is an assembled buggy just add radio gear, speed control, motor, servo and batteries! This gives you the freedom to choose the electronics YOU want!
OR for those who want to step up to the Pro Fusion instead of the Race Roller the code will give you a $50 discount off the Pro.

Now you are probably asking yourself how this benefits RC Pro. RC Pro has decided that with proof of purchase, a person can receive a free RC Pro membership. That is right. On top of getting the fusion discounted, with proof of entry, Caster Racing will pay your RC Pro membership or membership renewal at your 1st event of 2009 ( a $20 value) as long as the buggy was purchased through Caster Racing USA.

This is awesome to see these two working together to bring everyone some savings in these tougher times! Were also excited to see Caster starting to make some waves in the industry. First by signing our pro driver Tim Mohr, and now teaming up with RC Pro Series to bring us some awesome 1/8 scale electric buggy action!

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Caster Racing USA announced today the signing of multiple time 18th scale champion, Tim Mohr, to their Caster Racing factory team for 2009. Mohr will be racing the new Caster Fusion EX-1R Factory Team buggy at the 2009 RC Pro Series, along with selected other events.Caster Racing USA was the first company to release a rolling electric eight scale chassis. “We’ve been working real hard making the Fusion EX-1 the best buggy on the market. With Tim on board, our product will elevate to even higher levels.”, said Mike Mazza of Caster Racing USA. “Racing is core to product development, and by now having Tim on the team, it helps reinforce our position at the top of the product category.” Tim Mohr, of St. Louis Missouri, jumped into the public eye by winning many titles in 18th scale classes, including the 2008 18th Dirt 4wd and 2wd Pro titles and the 2007 RC Pro Series 18th Scale title, among others. Tim was also an early proponent of brushless motors and lithium batteries for use in rc car racing. “Electric eighth scale is at the cutting edge of technology in our sport, right where I like to be. I’m really stoked to be given the chance to race the Caster Fusion EX-1, as it sets the standard for the class.” said Tim. For more information regarding Caster Racing products, and to view their entire race team, please log on to Caster Racing USA.

Tim has been a good friend of Big Squid RC for many years now, and we are happy to see him sign on with Caster. Congratulations Tim!! Can’t wait to see you on the podium at the Pro Series!

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In late October, a bunch of RC Speed fanatics got together in Quincy Illinois to put down some street burning times. Everyone seems to be after the Worlds Fastest RC Car title these days, and these guys wanted to get in some practice. The host was Pro Driver Tim Mohr, and good friend Mike Ogle of Grand Motorsports fame was kind enough to send me some pictures. I don’t believe any major records were broken, but I was told it was a good time, and everyone enjoyed dialing in their ultra fast vehicles.
Enjoy the pictures!

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Here are the pictures of our final winners of the weekend! Anyone can go buy a Traxxas Slash or a Schumacher Rascal, but I don’t even have a Tim Mohr autographed body!

This has to be the biggest smile ever recorded! Wow was he happy!

Congratulations to all the winners that weekend! Thanks for coming out and supporting Big Squid RC!

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What a great show iHobby has been so far. We have met a ton of people this year. We have also had a chance to meet a lot of fans of the site which is really great! Now and then we tend to forget that more then just friends and family actually read the reviews and articles up here, and hearing from people all over the US stopping in to tell us they liked a certain video or review is really cool! It’s also clear that word is spreading about the site and the photo’s. I think today has had the most visitors in our sites history! Thanks for all your support!

Shortly after this post will be another breaking news Traxxas update, so make sure to check back shortly once we get the story up.

At our demo’s today we had a real blast putting on the show. We had Pro Drivers Tim Mohr and Jason Annis catching some big air and showing off their bashing roots. They, along with Chris “thenewguy821″ in our forums were giving Elizabeth some tips as she raced our Traxxas Slash around our obstacle course. Shawn Palmer from Schumacher Racing also came out to play on the course.

Xtreme Racing had an amazing looking chassis and shock towers for the Slash. I think these will be some must have products for you hop-up fans.

Over in the Schumacher Racing booth was Nic Case’s Mi3 Speed Run vehicle! Who would of thought our Big Squid RC sticker could do 161mph! My claim is that those stickers actually add about 2mph to RC vehicles.

Jason did a real number on one of his vehicles he brought for the show. We tell everyone we bash hard, and Jason fits right in with the group!

Tim Mohr also gave us a little ‘Race Face’ behind the famous King Squid Grand Motor Sports RC Dragster.

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Congrats to Pro Driver Tim Mohr! I got a brief text message that his wife had their baby today, and everyone is good and healthy! Awesome stuff! Every time Tim and I hang out, he’s got a smile on his face, I can’t imagine that grin today, but I could almost see it through the text message!

Congrats Buddy!

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I just got an email from a fan that snapped a picture of our racer, Tim Mohr’s X-Ray M18T Pro running the new Castle Creations Mamba Micro Pro! This is one of the first I have seen in the wild. Looks pretty good! I hope the rumors I keep hearing about this new ESC, with them getting rid of the stutter hold true. I guess time will tell.

Have a cool picture from an event or bash? Drop me an email!

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Venue- RC Madness, Enfield Connecticut, carpet, indoor, off road. Track this year featured a HUGE wall corner (dubbed the wall-ride), and a SIC full on supercross style step-on-step-off.

Date- March 28-30 - Turnout- 268 entries

Big Winners-

Billy Fischer, factory Losi driver, pwned the most people this year. His Losi Mini LST looked to be one of the fastest in any class, simply amazing how he was charging it around the track. The Fish is a class act, and took home well deserved victories in Slider, Monster Truck, and 2wd Open.

Zach Barry, factory X-ray, MaxAmps, Tekin driver once again pwned the best in the nation in many classes, including a dominant performance in both 4wd Stock and Buggy Open.

Alex Galenski, RC Madness local, took home perhaps the premier class at the event, 4wd Open with his Associated, after a tough fight with Fischer.

Mike Haynes, factory Losi pilot, took home another win this year in stock 2wd.

Bob Stellflue, best known as the Associated engineer responsible for the TC5, took home his first win at this race in the Buggy Spec class. I’d honestly say I have not seen a smile that big in a long time.

Tony Priolo drove HARD and got the win in the stock rally class.

Carissa Figelski, support driver for Tamiya, raced her Wild Boar to the front of the Tamiya Tam Tech class. Carissa is blinding fast, easily one of the fastest 18th racers around, man or woman.

Hayden Jennings put his truck into the TQ, and brought home the win in the uber popular Novice class. Everyone was standing an cheering the youngster during their races. Always awesome to see youngsters driving hard but clean.

Aaron Wilson, Castle Creations support driver, brought home one of his biggest wins to date in the Rally Open class.

Notable Missing Names-
Tony Phalen, one of the very elite 18th scale drivers in the world was not at the event. Tony has left Associated, and reportedly is doing web work for Verizon cellular. Tony was one of the few with the raw talent and drive to keep Zach Barry, Billy Fischer, and Josh Anderson in check.

Frank Root, also one of the very top elite 18th scale racers in the world, was also notably missing from the fray. In previous years, Frank was at the race under the Quark and Losi banners, and recently he was gone to work for Pacific Coast Hobby.

Frankie and George Berman, some of the friendliest 18th scale racers anywhere, couldn’t make the event last weekend. George has helped literally thousands of people on internet message boards under the name BermBuster, so if you see him on-line, remind him that both him and his son were sorely missed this year.

Most surprising attendee?? Has to go to Trinity’s Gary Owens (formerly of Associated). Everyone really missed Gary at last years event (and his singing of the national anthem), so it was awesome to see him make it this year.

Second most surprising attendee?? Has to go to MRC Academy’s Dave Grabowski. He dusted off a Mini-T and an RC18, and came in and put them on the podium, nearly an impossible task with the talent laden field.

Personally, I had my worst year at this event. Excuses are just like A-holes, so I’ll just say I had an awesome time, and came home with a pair of 10th place finishes, and a 3rd place in a B main. The best part about not doing well is looking forward to doing better next year. I do have to give huge personal props to Castle Creations, MaxAmps Batteries, BigSquidRC, Driven Pro, TheToyz.com, Trent Dill, and Jason Annis, all of which made it possible for me to attend my 5th 18th Nats at Madness. Also props to Chris Marcy (RC Madness owner), and Dean Berry (race promoter), for once again topping themselves and putting on an awesome event.

Castle Creations showed their Micro Pro system for the first time at this event. It comes in a snazzy plastic case, can do brushless and brushed, and the throttle feel is exceptionally smooth, especially from a dead stop. It also hosts some pretty insane power handling for a micro speedo. While I didn’t bring home any wins, I certainly had the pleasure of driving the best speedo around the track with the Micro Pro.

Some people argue that 18th scale is a fringe part of the sport, but numbers are hard to argue with. The 260+ entries makes this one of the biggest events in the country, bar none. If you were to visit this event, you’d think 18th scale is the biggest part of the industry, not one of the smallest. Next year, if you have an open weekend in mid-March, try to make the trip to RC Madness to see first hand how much fun racing 18th scale is.

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KCRC’s 2.2 Midwest Indoor Challenge- by Tim Mohr

While in Kansas City March 1st for some business, I had to check out my first rock crawler event. Actually, in the rock crawling world, they are called “comps”, and what a first comp to hit. This event featured some of the elite top crawlers, and had tons of factory support. Castle Creations had three in-house reps at the event, and MaxAmps Batteries had their head of marketing on hand as well. RcCrawler.com even had live streaming event coverage!

About the course- this event was held at Fastlane, easily Kansas City’s best indoor venue. It’s usually known for it’s outstanding ozite carpet racing, but for this event, they built an incredible rock crawling course. The top pro’s were truly challenged by it, and lesser skilled drivers had a downright tough time getting
through the stages.
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Once again, our Pro Driver, Tim “Hollywood” Mohr has made Big Squid RC proud! He won 2wd Pro AND 4wd Pro last weekend at the 18th Scale Dirt Nationals! Way to go Tim!! You Rock! Also, Congrats to good friend of Big Squid RC, Wesley Dennis for placing well also.
The following is Tim’s full race report.

18th Scale Dirt Nationals Race Report by Tim Mohr

Where- Square in the middle of the deep south, a suburb of Birmingham Alabama called Trussville. The host track was called MadMaxx RC. The MadMaxx track is dirt, indoor, off-road.

When- Friday, February 22kd for practice, and Saturday February 23rd for all the qualifiers and mains.

Race Format- Four qualifiers were held, with the top 3 quals being added together to determine TQ. Qualifiers were held with IFMAR staggered starts. All qualifiers, lower mains, and monster truck mains were 5 minutes long. All other A mains were 10 minutes in length.

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Cub Reporter here with a bunch of pics from the Snowbird NationalsI do not know who some of the people or who all the cars belong to, but I do know that the first picture is Pro Driver Tim Mohr’s car, and that the second car is Pro Driver Wesley Dennis’s car! Notice the Big Squid Stickers! Awesome! Enjoy the pics. Make sure to hit the more button or the title link to see them all!

(Click here for all the pics)
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