In the Beginning...
My initial introduction to RC happened back in early 1983 when my dad purchased a brand new Tamiya Super Champ. The Super Champ was big, bulky and about as fast as a kid on a tricycle. One day while out front of our house, my dad was playing with the Super Champ and accidently ran it full speed, backwards, into a small brick wall that was surrounding our garden. Aluminum parts went flying and, well, that was pretty much the end of our Super Champ experience. We did visit a few local tracks (one being the Ranch Pit Stop in Riverside) but it really didn’t go anywhere from there. A couple years later, ‘Santa’ brought me a Tamiya Subaru Brat with all the fixin’s. I built it, drove it and had a great time with it until that fateful day when something broke and away to the box-in-the-closet it went.
Some time later my buddy Mike and I were renting a 2 bedroom apartment very close to where we worked. A surprise Christmas present landed a cool little Radio Shack RC car under the tree for me (also from 'Santa'). I told Mike about the Subaru I had as a kid and, since he knew NOTHING about RC, we decided to head down to Hobby Shack (now Hobby People) and check ‘em out. This was in 1991, right when Team Associated was about to release their RC10T Stadium Truck. Seeing the ads for that AE ride and knowing we had to have one, we put our deposits down on the spot. Of course, to kill some time (and work on our driving skills), both of us walked out of there with a Tamiya Blackfoot, Futaba radio system, a cheeseball charger and some killer 1400SCR batteries!
A couple months went by and our RC10T’s finally showed up. In a matter of hours we had them home, built and tearing up the street! After doing a little research, I found a local track in La Habra called The Race Place. After much trash-talking between the two of us, we decided the only way to see who was better was to head down to The Race Place and settle it on an actual track. At the end of the night, Mike had finished 1st and I finished 2nd in the Novice class. Sure he beat me that night, but that was the start of a long racing career for me!
I've worked for, with and around RC for over 25 years. It's my passion and I strive everyday to share the knowledge I've attained over those years. I still love to race, however not as much as I'd like to anymore ... you know, life gets in the way. I did decide to list my accomplishments below from as far back as 1994 when it all started. It's fun, I love it and am happy I'm still somewhat competitive!