ROAR Electric 1/8 Championships 2009
The time of noise, fumes, and fuming neighbors is quickly having an equal peer on the block.
When it comes to speed and fun.
Quiet. Durable. Fast. And now, official. Did I mention quiet?
Born in Michigan. Coming to a track near you...
For the first time, a ROAR sanctioned Electric 8th scale championship.
Held in the heart of Pro RC racing country, Revelaton Raceway in Ontario California.
What can I say? We from Michigan, who race at the Washtenaw RC Raceway have waited a long long time for this day to come...
Official recognition by ROAR, the "Remotely Operated Auto Racers" sanctioning body.
Electric 1/8 buggy and truggy racing was practically born at the Washtenaw RC Raceway under the guidance of Dan Burnham, owner of RC Product Designs. Hand made buggies dating back to before you could just buy an off-the-shelf motor, speed control, and battery. For this exciting "new" class, Dan and a few others were taking helicopter motors, bolting them to hand made motor mounts, searching far and wide for electronics and batteries that could stand up to the task... AND racing. Organized racing with scoring and balls-to-the-wall full tilt action. And failing too, not finishing a race now and then. As happens to many still when not done right. These high powered heavy duty racing rigs are not for the faint of heart. 14 Volts to start and often more, high amp draw, 2 horsepower plus. Often plus quite a bit...
Check this out, from 2003 Ann Arbor News:
(Two of the four Michigan racers at ROAR's Revelation event are on the driver's stand in this picture)
For years now, the faithful innovators at Washtenaw have been building their own and putting them through their paces on the track, under normal race conditions.
Well. Normal? I think not.
Check out these home made buggies:
Going faster. Flying farther. Braking harder. And weighing more than any normal electric RC offroad race car or truck.
They brought those high powered racing skills developed in Michigan, to California and put them to the test:
After years of product development, countless hours of track proven design improvement and innovation, racing quality mail order conversion kits were first offered by Dan and RCPD. Finally Castle Creations, Tekin, Novak, RC-Monster, Losi, Associated Electric and a few others began to take notice and only recently began to offer some off-the-shelf motor, ESC, battery, mounting hardware, and slowly and gradually a new racing class was born.
But, it started in Michigan, where the regular program racing history is firmly rooted at Washtenaw RC Raceway in Ann Arbor.
With Dan Burnham's faith and perseverance in coaxing this electric 8th scale game to where it is today, finally with the first set of "rules" published just last year, the "main stream" sanction has come to pass.
It was time to tear up the track on the Pro's home turf ...
For the first ever ROAR sanctioned Electric 8th Scale Championship, over 120 entries were in the field and obviously some of the best of the best were present and ready to run.
This past Thanksgiving weekend, four friends from Michigan gathered in California to race. And race they did. The rumble strips looked brutal:
They also waited to practice while the mud ruled the hour, not un-like a typical summer outdoor race day back home in Michigan.... it does rain in Southern California now and then.
(it rained four out of five race weekends for the Michigan 2009 summer outdoor season)
Tom Frei and Nick Vasquez shipped their gear and flew out, Dan Burnham now from Oregon drove down the coast, and Nick Sava now from Southern California made plans, they all met at the track, and showed the west coast folks how its done....
Day 1 practice and qualifying pictures:
Day 2 practice and qualifying pictures:
Day 3 race day pictures:
Take your time and enjoy the pics above. Between the rumble strips of the infield, the 9-pack, the mountains in the background, as well as the war paint by electric pioneer racers...
There's a lot to see.
Before we get to the race action footage, I should also mention there was some Pro level marshaling too:
However, it was also down to business on Sunday. And time to race:
Our friends from Michigan also captured some of the action in HD video. Enjoy:
ROAR (hard case battery) Expert Buggy:
Open Expert Buggy (non-hard case battery) :
And, take a good close look at the finish on this one...
ROAR (hard case battery) Pro Truggy:
Qualifying, Mains, and Final Championship results are posted at Revelation's website, here.
Thanks guys, its a privilege to be able to post this material for you.
(Disclosure. The Editor in Chief @ HandyRacing.com was not able to make the trip to California to cover the race first hand. It is however an honor to be able to share the pictures and videos recorded by four of our local Michigan racing friends)
All pictures and video Copyright, Dan Burnham, Tom Frei, Nick Vasquez, and Nick Sava. All rights reserved.
Thank you also goes out to Chris Peterson for the wonderful job of video editing.
Posted by HandyRacing at 12/9/2009 7:18 PM 
Categories: General Racing Action
Tags: scale washtenaw rc racing 8th handyracing conversion electric video roar rcproductdesigns
Categories: General Racing Action
Tags: scale washtenaw rc racing 8th handyracing conversion electric video roar rcproductdesigns
Thank you for the kind words. MANY people have been working hard on the electric 1/8th scales for some time.
It started out with a Ofna Hyper 7 just after Novak released the HV Maxx for the Emaxx.. We figured if it could make a 10 lb truck go 40 MPH what could it do for a 8 lb buggy?
Batteries and gearing were huge issues then... We would totally use up 2 3300 mah NiMh packs in a 5 min run. We constantly struggled with the over heating until we got the gearing right. To get the gearing right took a custom made spur gear adaptor and customized RC 10 GT plastic gears to fit it. We had others at the track too with their own conversions. We all worked together to refine them.
Then came the Mamba Max, Lipos and the Kyosho 46T plastic spur, and everything changed. I was still running the NOVAK at first... and still overheating at 12 min of a 15 min race. I don't know how many times I called to the marshall to "TURN IT OFF AND BACK ON" to reset the ESC. LOL!! All this time, we were feeding ESC manufactures, Tekin and Castle info about our sucesses and failures, Run times, temps, ect. Many had been using other Brushless systems for a long time. Hacker, Plentenburg and others. None could really hold up to the abuse of the 1/8th scales. The class has come a LONG way in a VERY short time.
I am very proud to have been on the ground floor of it.
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Thanks Dan. What struck me right away with the Washtenaw program, and the way you ran it was there was a great deal of skilled folks who raced there right along side with the novice / beginners and everyone went way out of their way to offer assitance when there were technical challenges. Not just in the traditional classes, but also in the 8th scale racing game. There were so may folks there who had made their own rigs, and when someone needed help with ESC tuning or other set up questions, everyone was there for everyone to move the program forward as a whole. It was amazing, often times with two full heats of racing 1/8 buggies for a class that barely existed in other places... There is truly something special about racing at "the Barn" and you along with the other folks in the Washtenaw program have brought so many new folks and products into the sport. I'm so glad my son and I have been able to be part of it. Thanks again.
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Washtenaw is a special place. In the dead of winter in Michigan, it has averaged over 160 entries a race for the last 9 years with many times reaching 200 and over, it looks like that will continue for a long time.
RC Racers all over the country feel a bond... We are in it for the fun and comraderie, and the thrill of the racing. I see it here in Oregon too. We witnessed it at the 1/8th scale championship race with all the racers including the Pros. It was great turning around, talking and reminising with Adam Drake about his eary days in Michigan. Everyone worked together to make that a great event. That is what is great about the hobby.
The Key is to Pass it Forward. At one time we were all novices. Someone helped us with a set up or a spare part that was needed or just some encouragement after a tough race day. The sharing and teaching is one of the great parts of the hobby. While I operated Washtenaw, I saw many people come and go... kids come in and leave young men going to college. Young men come in, mature, get married and start a family of their own that in time will become part of the RC Family in your area.
Look at your family as an example.. and your extended family that goes two or three tables down now.... It has been great to see you and Forest come in an grow into the hobby and the local community.
Pass it forward... I know you will.
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Young men come in, mature, get married and start a family of their own that in time will become part of the RC Family in your area.
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Wow, that was a heck of a race. The orange-wheeled Raptors were TERRIBLE in the main, probably because they are very old. The Holeshots I ran in qualifying were a second a lap faster. One thing I noticed after my main event was the first double in the double-double section had degraded to the point that it shot your car straight up and was very hard to time right. I noticed in the Pro Roar class that drivers were working the throttle hard in the air to try and downside it correctly. The race was a lot of fun though, even though I really did win.
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You were obviously the top driver in the field Nick. A few small mistakes before that last lap are what cost you the race. I was driving in that race and still enjoyed listening to the announcer call it!! Fortunately and unfortunately I thermalled and was actually able to watch that last lap almost completely.
Those Orange wheels got you a lot of additional air time in addition to leading most of the race!!
Best of all... You had fun.
Glad I could be there to see it.
Dan
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Wow, that was a heck of a race. The orange-wheeled Raptors were TERRIBLE in the main, probably because they are very old.
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Look at your family as an example.. and your extended family that goes two or three tables down now.... It has been great to see you and Forest come in an grow into the hobby and the local spa nyc
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