NASCAR wannabes take wheel in RC auto racing
Somewhere around the fifth lap, Grant Lewis strayed too far from the line and watched the red Audi pull in front of him for the lead. Maybe he was worried about wiping out. Or maybe it was that at 9 years old, it was just his fourth day at the wheel.
Along with several other drivers, Lewis operated his white Ford Focus from alongside a small-scale track outside West Seattle's newly opened Bobby's Hobbies. While the other radio-controlled cars bumped and tumbled around them in crackling heaps of plastic, he struggled to keep pace with the more able Audi, piloted by thirtysomething techie Chris Tuller.
"One minute to go, and the difference between first and second is four seconds," the announcer called, and as the horn signaled the end of the four-minute race, Tuller had won by a lap.
After a few years in the pits, radio-controlled (RC) racing is picking up speed in the Puget Sound area. Bobby's Hobbies opened its 7-Eleven-size track in June; another is set to open soon in Marysville. And early next month, Kent's Seattle Indoor Raceway will mark the debut of its flashy 8,500-square-foot facility with regional competition sponsored by Tamiya, a top RC racing maker whose world champs are crowned in Japan.
They join ongoing RC tracks in Lynnwood and Tacoma, with Seattle Indoor Raceway poised to scoop up the dozens of regulars orphaned by Burien Toyota, whose parts department offered RC racing for 12 years before the scene got too big for it to handle.
Power, speed, rivalry
Except for the babes in the Winner's Circle, RC racing packs just about everything these wannabe racers want — power, speed, rivalry, mechanics. Drivers imagine themselves at the helm of zippy Porsches and Ferraris one-tenth the size of their real-life counterparts, the more wonkish among them tinkering with gear ratios, shock combinations and tire inserts to adjust air pressure.
"It's kind of a classic guy thing," Tuller says. "These are twenty- and thirtysomething men, probably living out their NASCAR dreams. You get a little bit of the thrill and techie-ness of it — you know, you're playing with the suspension, and the motor. But you don't have to spend 30 grand to do it."
Seattle's RC racing roots go back at least 20 years, on tracks that no longer exist. While radio-controlled vehicles these days range from helicopters and snowmobiles to monster trucks and hydroplanes, it's auto racers who enjoy the most organized competition.
From atop wooden platforms, they operate handheld controls that feed radio signals to their Mazdas and Mini Coopers via tall antennas. Triggers control forward and reverse motion; more pressure means more speed, and a yo-yo-size wheel, usually resembling a tire, controls direction. The touchy response takes some getting used to, and steering can be counterintuitive when the car is coming at you.
Staying upright
The secret? Practice, and lots of it. Learning to handle the car. Perfecting your hand-eye coordination. Half the battle is just staying upright, handling the chariot-style bumping that goes on around the track, some of it accidental, some not.
"That's the case with a lot of races," Tuller says. "It's who can last until the end." Or, as a posting on one RC racing chat room put it: "The slowest car on the track always beats the fastest car on its roof."
Not everyone is game enough to hit the track. Instead, "they're out backyard-bashing," says Don Garber, 33, a former national champ in Tamiya's "mini" class who's been busy helping Seattle Indoor Raceway prepare for its grand opening. "They'll go out to a parking lot, throw down a couple of Styrofoam cups and race around those."
But those who frequent the track, and the accompanying "pits" — wooden work tables strewn with wires, batteries and parts — enjoy a sense of camaraderie that almost makes them forget the dollars they're dishing to keep their vehicles on the road. They're dads spending time with their kids, executives blowing off steam, guys getting some fresh air away from home.
"For a lot of them, this is their one night out," says Debbie Cartwright of Lynnwood's Rain City RC Raceway. "Wives tell me: 'At least he's not in the tavern.' "
Not-so-cheap thrills
Starter kits run from $250 to $500 for a car, radio, charger, batteries and a bag to put it all in. Electronics are the biggest variable, and drivers might use different tires depending on what kind of surface they're running. If they're set on world-level competition — organized by the International Federation of Model Auto Racing — or at least winning the local regional, they could easily top $1,000 over time.
"I have guys that spend $50 a week," Cartwright says. "We did an 'enduro' a week ago — it's a four-hour race — and one team went through two speed-controls. They cooked 'em."
Then there's something called a "body tuck," which is what happens when a car's plastic body — think of an old Halloween mask, but more durable — comes unhinged. "We've had some horrendous body tucks out there," she says. "They get all scrunched up."
But that's part of the fun that, for many, makes it better than the real thing: It's cheaper, and you don't get hurt.
At Bobby's Hobbies, the kids come in, all acne and burly adolescence, aflutter with questions for owner Ray Greive as the Speed Channel blares from TV monitors around the shop. Hey Ray, why don't we have hourlong races? When do I have to replace the brushes, Ray? Ray, how fast do you think my car would go with this engine?
To be honest, owner Greive tells them, he's still learning himself. He opened in the former law office of his late dad, R.R. "Bob" Greive, a Democratic Party leader in the 1960s, from whom the shop gets its name. Then he invested $6,000 for a lap-counting system under the track, which tabulates each car's revolutions.
Harder than stock cars
They had a dead heat last week, he says excitedly: Two cars finished within a hundredth of a second of each other. "It can get pretty exciting," he says.
That's what attracts not only the younger set but veterans like Dave "Stretch" Johnson, a folksy, 62-year-old retired Boeing machinist in jeans and Western-style hat who's among the handful of racers gathered at the track one evening. "I am the elderliest one out there," he says. It's his trade-off for letting his wife play bingo.
Years ago he raced stock cars, but RC racing is even harder, he says. "There, you're in your car," he says. "You can see where you're at. Here you've got these little things, and you've got four or five of them out there racing, and when somebody hits you, you roll over. In real racing, you just bump the wall and keep going."
He tries not to hit anyone, to stay off the wall, but "these kids got one thing on the mind," he says. "Winning. And they don't care how they do it. I get clobbered pretty good out there sometimes."
Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com
Want to race?
RADIO-CONTROLLED (RC) RACING: Generally, you have to get your own one-tenth-scale car, which out of the box places you in novice competition. Add new motors and parts, or buy a different scale of car, to move into higher or different levels.
SEATTLE INDOOR RACEWAY: Opens Aug. 1, 7633 S. 180th St., Kent, 425-251-6119
Hours: 3-9 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekends.
Fees: $15 for first model class, $5 for each additional class. Transponders (which allow lap counting) included. Practice sessions: $5.
Track info: Indoor asphalt. Luxurious industrial-park facility targeting former regulars of Burien Toyota's now-defunct RC racing scene, including several current or former Tamiya model national champs. On Aug. 7, will host Tamiya regional competition.
BOBBY'S HOBBIES: 4444 California Ave. S.W., West Seattle, 206-937-4111
Hours: Noon-9 p.m. daily, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday.
Track info: Outdoor asphalt. Just-opened, smaller neighborhood track aimed at budget racing, full of beginners.
Fees: $6 for first model class, $3 for each additional class, $8 for transponder rental.
Practice sessions: free, $4 for car rentals. Free until end of month; transponders not included.
RAIN CITY RC RACEWAY: 2006 196th St. S.W., Lynnwood, 425-776-8241
Hours: Noon-8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday/Monday for the summer.
Track info: Carpet. Took the wheel of the North End scene in 1999 after track in Edmonds closed. Moved to current industrial-park location in 2002. Community-friendly, with a loyal, veteran following.
Fees: For first model class, $15 for adults, $10 for kids under 18; each additional class $10. Transponders included in fee.
Practice sessions: $5.