Wow, what a day this turned out to be. Organised by Shelby and BadBoyJay, this themed day had been teasingly hyped on the forums for weeks. Questions were asked about what the events included, what vehicles were allowed and what the heck could be won? All was eventually revealed and the day turned out to be a resounding success with valuable funds raised for the club and great entertainment provided to all.
The day started with members arriving from 9am onwards to prepare and fine tune their vehicles. The rules for the day was explained and basically each member could enter only one vehicle to compete over all six different events. This led to a serious bout of tactical planning. Would a fast buggy hold the best chance in winning the high and long jumps? How would it fare against the heavier monster truck in the tug-o-war and would it pull through (pardon the pun) in the tractor-pull event? What was everybody else running? Decisions, decisions! When everyone had made their choices (a healthy mix of truggies, buggies and a truck) and the place drawings for the six event knockouts were completed, the fun kicked off!
Slalom
This was the first event of the day and a series of car tyres were lined up over the SRC track straight. The early birds took the opportunity to practise and things started to look interesting. The morning was warm and dry so the grip was moderate, but despite this drivers still found it impossible to navigate the entire course without bumping at least once into the rubber obstacles.
Highlights of the event included Taz taking an unorthodox route back to the finish via the pit channel, Gav turning the event into his own by attempting to push all the tyres back over the finish line, Dustkicker and Taz in a HPI Hellfire shove fight. In the end BadBoyJay showed everyone how it was done with some silky smooth driving, breezing through with his Hyper ST.
Sprint
This event tested straight line speed and control which favoured the buggies. This proved to be the case as the buggies trailblazed their way through the knockout rounds. DJP dominated the event with his Hyper 7, taking first place comfortably.
Highlights include
Dustkicker copping a broken front A-arm after an unfortunate prang into the back of DPJ's buggy.
Tug-o-War
Wimps need not apply here...this event was not for the faint hearted and definitely not for anyone with a new engine! Competitors were tied to each other like pit fighters by a length of rope and when the ref shouted "Go!" it was full throttle action all the way. We have never seen so many holes dug into the track so quickly since when the local population of rabbits exploded over spring. Red hot engines screamed, tyres ballooned into pizza cutters, and billowing exhaust smoke choked the area as each driver desperately tried to find grip in the dusty track to dislodge his opponent from their anchored spot. Rather surprisingly the buggies fought well, despite their light weight and thin tyres. Impressive battles were witnessed but in the end Roob saw victory with his Lightning Stadium Pro, leaving his victims whimpering and nursing their overheated blocks.
Highlights of the event included a merciless display by Roob of dragging BadBoyJay's stalled truck over the banked turn, across the field and unceremoniously dumping him into a tyre on its return. What a showoff!
Tractor Pull
Although the field next to the track was already planted, we felt it was necessary to plough a few more troughs into it. A suitably fashioned drag-weight (an engineering brick with "1 ton" crudely written on it!) was zip-tied to each vehicle before each race. Then, each ladened car had to make it across to the finish line as quickly as possible. Although it was a straight line race, the event tested the vehicles clutches, tyre grip and starting techniques. The event was won by Dustkicker with his Hellfire, despite nearly losing his shell after an unfortunate bounce landed the weight onto the roof of his vehicle.
Long Jump
This was a lot of fun, testing each driver's ability to match top speed with good take-off control. The SRC banked turn was first tried but was too steep to yield any real jumping distance. Some improvisation with a few spare MDFs boards soon created a working ramp and it wasn't long before vehicles were launching themselves into the field next door.
There was no contest, DJP's buggy cut through the air like a bullet and probably could have won with his first jump alone!
Poor McFly nearly got knocked out at one point when Taz's truck decided to take a flight diversion. Good job you were alert McFly!
High Jump
The last event of the day was upon us and those car that were still in working order took the chance to enjoy some serious air time. Of course, the event was organised to be a fund-raiser so it made no sense to have cars crippled on the very last event. Therefore a valiant bunch of volunteers grabbed the edges of a large piece of tarp to create a large safety net for the falling cars. A camcorder was rolling from the same spot throughout the event to ensure fair judgment of heights reached. Drivers took long run-ups and jumped as high as they could to score points. A few took advantage of the still positioned long jump ramp to gain a few extra mphs from the start. Once again, DJP dominated the event with his Hyper 7 almost leaving the view of the camcorder on every occasion.
The highlight of this event was with Taz showing us all that he needed no safety net with his belly-buster landing behind the pit channel. Good job there were no more events to compete after that so nothing was lost. On the contrary, that little stunt earned Taz the Kudos award for the day. DJP and Roob also gave us a great display of synchronised jumping.
In the End
The day finished with most of the competitors still running. There were a few casualties over the day, with various problems ranging from unmeshed spur gear to temperamental engines. At the awards giving stage, Shelby doled out the unique hand-crafted trophies (courtesy of BadBoyJay Industries) to the various event winners as well as prizes donated by RC Car Action.
A great day was had by all and it was agreed that this would have to happen again next year. Who knows...there may be even more events then!
