Question of the week: How did you get into racing?

[MK999]

I'm actually something of a success story for the kids into engineering schemes i guess, I found out about remote control racing from the formula schools scheme (should come up on google for those interested i think) and soon after got a tamiya nitro car, tried racing it on road and soon found out that it was a hell of a lot slower than everything else

Then my dad found out his workmate raced rallycross, I found a cheap hyper 7 and got into that, found out that racing was much more than buying a kit and turning up, so that got too expensive quite quickly (soon as the cast hubs wore out and needed a £50 replacement actually )

Then recently just before uni I looked at some cheaper options for racing, wanted to get back into rallycross but the thought of an engine blowing or a major crash halfway through a student budget didn't appeal so I moved to electric, and 10th off road Although after spending out everything I did on chargers etc I could have bought a spare engine and half a car i think

[josh_smaxx]

I got a nitro truck in 2003, played with it a bit, got a leccy TC 6 months later which got no use, got a nitro TC in june 2006 which got a bit more use. in Feb 2007 i got an old second hand 2wd buggy, tried it at a practice night at teesside on a wednesday, got a B4 on the following monday, it just went from there.

[DCM]

christ, I had a few cheap Tandy cars when I was a kid.... never really went anywhere with it though....

Started college in 1988 and we had a project of building an RC Car, now one guy on the course was really BIG into RC Cars, done big meets and all sorts, the lab technician was into it too, we built the cars, we raced em up on the roof of the college, and then got offered a Kyosho Rocky as a RTR from me mate... and went from there...

Took a break from racing at the end of the 1997 outdoor season (the last race was on the day Princess Diana died), got back into it in 2004, found off-road was dead round her, TC was king, bought a B4 after driving Millzy's and some TC's, not looked back since.

[Jez]

got a tamiya holiday buggy in 1983 from a model shop in dewsbury,then started racing in 1984 with a modified[beefed up]version.look at me now-23 stone,looks to die for and still cant drive for toffee.jez.

[mole2k]

The local club of the time held an open night and advertised it to spectators. I went a long having had an interest in RC for ages playing about with cheap nikko cars etc. Fell in love straight away and bought myself a mardave for messing about outside, had great fun with that so I eventually decided I wanted to try racing. Bought a tamiya touring car and raced it at the local club went through a few different cars till i got a Losi XX then fell in love with buggys.

The club closed due to lack of members untill 2004 when I got contacted by a guy who was thinking of starting up a club and wanted some help running it. I got together with a few of the other guys who used to race and since we all prefered buggys we decided to make it a buggy club from the outset.

[frogger]

I used to walk past a model shop in Pretoria where the owner had video's of buggies on a beach racing around. I drove my old man mad until one random day he showed up with a Tamiya Hornet. I was only 7 but I built it all myself and got it running in 2 days after school. A few friends in my street got Tamiya's too (Frog, Wild Willy and a couple of others) and so we built a track in a field at the end of our road and started the 'Tamiya racers club'. This was all while I was about 8yrs old. We had no way of counting laps and each only had one battery so 'racing' was a very loose description of what we did We basically just tried to see who could do the most laps with the batteries we had and then had to go to the guy that lived closest to recharge from his mom's car. She would feed us and we'd be off again. Not sure when or where the Hornet ended up.

When I was 17 I had a brief stint again and swapped a BMX for 2 reasonable buggies but only messed around and it didn't last long as a young man of that age has different priorities

Then when I moved to the UK a mate got me started on touring cars at Tolworth which lasted about 2 years but rain and outdoor electric racing wasn't exactly fun so I quit that.

2 years ago got a ZX-5 and found a few clubs (EPR is closest) but I soon got sucked into the Micro scene so my 10th racing has been sporadic at best. I've attended a few 10th meetings here and there and will do a lot more this year but I race 18th scale buggies twice a week indoors and love it. I did the 2007-2008 BRCA Micro nationals and will dothem again this year. Loving it!

[bender]

In Australia, local Tamiya distributer used to advertise in full-size motoring magazines. I stumbled across an add for a Wild Willy, and promptly wrote to Tamiya for info about the car (1983...pre-email ).

They sent me a whole catalogue and a list of local tracks - went down to one and I was hooked!

Never got a Wild Willy though - ended up with a Marui Hunter and started racing in 84.