EddieO

iTrader: (6)

I have an original brand new in the package Checkpoint mod I can donate to the muesum if needed.

I have some other stuff that would probably make nifty museum pieces....

Later EddieO

Grenade10

iTrader: (40)

Bob, Great reading ..... Hard to think I've been to the Whip, Nitro Nationals 20 years ago (Put on one of the shirts at last years Nationals and was surprised at how few people even got it) This group would.

Thanks for doing this. I've got some stuff we have talked about over the years that should go into your collection, so I'll e-mail you this next week.

235 Pan cars are still fun to drive, just not easy to get them up and running, We had 10+ running last year with 2cell and 10.5's ...... most fun I've had in years.

But one of the most fun events I've been involved with was the "Tekin Short Track Nationals" back a few years ago. Still pull out the jacket for oval racing nights.

So thanks on many levels.


Mark Wernimont
"Grenade" and you know I've earned the name!!

RodneyRacer

iTrader: (18)

Bob this is way cool.. I raced with you in Minot and a few other places back in the day. I raced with Mitch and Jason and the 2 other guys there in the pic whos names escape me (sorry). I was always 3rd at the end of the day except when you showed up then I just went further back in the field...lol. Those were the best times. Thanks for the memories!!!

I am sure you remember these cars I ran them in Minot, Associated 12e and 12i, Delta Phaser and Super Phaser, Bolink Renegade, Agitator. when we started we did not have speed controls or pistol grip radios remember the old brown box Futaba with a slot car controller on the back...batteries were 1200sc not scr's.

Rodney M.
Northern Mini Racers, Minot ND
1983-90

Johnny Wishbone

iTrader: (6)

Rodney Mull ? Airforce guy Mull?

Crashbox

iTrader: (12)

thanks for all this infor guys after looking at some sites i agree this is so important to doccument, i mean just looking at pictures of what these cars were even just 20 years ago really shows i have taken my current rc's for granted. i mean from som of those old cars to my sc trucks its like corvette vs. horse and buggy. if i can help in any way please let me know but ive only been racing since sept 2001 lol.

Bob-Stormer

iTrader: (8)

I know, it's kinda crazy. the mis-information is the thing that's starting to bother me the most. Lot of great technology developed.

Johnny Wishbone (post above yours), been around so long that he actually invented the horse. I'm told it was because he tired easily in his original job as a door-to-door hammer salesman. Well wasn't so much a hammer, but a rock that you used as a hammer. And not so much door-to-door as it was cave-to-cave. Inventory was heavy, cumbersome, you get the idea.

Turns out in order to sell more product he also had to develop clever marketing programs that lead to some of our more popular catch phrases we still hear today. To get people working on things and to build, you had to use the tools, or as he worded it then, "rock out". That's where that came from as well.

Kind of funny when you really think about it that the Amish culture, who are against technology, prefer instead to "rock out".

True story.

CarbonJoe

I assume also the phrases "rock on", "rock and roll", and "Rock Hudson"?

Plus, isn't he old enough that when he was born, the Earth was known as the "Second rock from the Sun"?

Bob-Stormer

iTrader: (8)

Very astute. You nailed the first two. "Rock Hudson" however, was actually a euphemism used by the early stone age Mob. They used in the same way you or I might use the phrase, "make him understand".

If you were gonna kick somebodys ass, you were said to go over to his place and "Rock Hudson". Example: Thag steal Gronk's best shovel. (Which looked curiously like Johnny Wishbones hammer if I'm honest). Gronk, in return, went over to Thag's place to "Rock Hudson".

I'm pretty good with history.
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RodneyRacer

iTrader: (18)

That would be me...hehe!

khyron

I love this suggestion! I think whatever the overall "project" shapes up into over time, that a wiki site would be the perfect medium in which it might initially begin to gather steam (insert matter and gravity, see what planets end up evolving out of all of it, wash/rinse/repeat). As long as these sorts of projects are kept to a reasonable number of initial editors, they tend to do very well about organizing themselves. Before long I think we could have a good idea of what sort of taxonomy and hierarchy and vocabulary would be best suited to telling the ongoing story of R/C racing history. Long term, the wiki could probably evolve to a point where openly public editing overseen by a dedicated team of volunteer moderators could be possible. However growing to that stage takes some time, and some initial curation.

In geeky-detailed terms, there are many kinds of wiki software out there and most of them are free (both free as in free of charge, and free as in open source software that can be customized and tweaked). MediaWiki is probably the most well known, as it's used to run Wikipedia itself. There is also its descendant Semantic MediaWiki, which might be uniquely suited to many aspects of R/C history including the ability to relate various events not only to historical timelines but to geographical locations, etc.

Please take this only as one humble R/C enthusiast's suggestion and not an instruction by any means...but I think setting up a MediaWiki variant of some kind in a public-read, moderators-write situation with a centralized team of initial moderators (gathered through Bob) might be a great way to kick all this off.

I also think that from the get go the single most important facet of all this will be striving to be vigilant about intellectual property. It would be a terrible shame to see a massive corpus of R/C information gather together but become unusable for the publication of books or production of documentaries, etc. because it was not possible to reliably "clear" its content. If there are some up front rules established about crediting photos and videos, for example, or asking folks to submit their contributions under one of the flavors of Creative Commons licensing out there (which greatly clarify the reusability of content) this could prove intensely important down the road to the generations who inherit the "project."

This is all just food for thought, from a geek who loves R/C. Suggestions, amendments, critiques and substitutions are welcome!

Robotech

I need to read more of this thread but I got to this point and had to stop. One-Stop was my home track and I remember racing in a NORRCA series back in the early 90s. I wonder if this is the same series you're talking about? We ran at Bakersfield's Racers Haven back when they had the 1/4 scale oval, One-Stop, a new and very short lived carpet oval in Yorba Linda, Bob n Jim's, Freedom Park, and one other road course which I can't remember and may not have attended. Six races, three oval, three road course. God that was fun. Wonder if you and I raced each other back then, SWTour...

One-Stop was a crazy track because it hadn't been planned out very well. It originally was a dirt oval and Steve Schuler (sp?) decided to pave it. Well, they started down at turns 3 and 4 which had a real nice bank to them but nothing crazy. Then they did the straights and by the time they got to turns 1 and 2, they had a problem. There wasn't enough space to build the turns like 3 and 4, so they increased the banking...a lot. I swear those banks were well over 33 degrees. You had to set up your car for 3 and 4 because if you didn't you could still go through 1 and 2 flat out but you'd slide up the track in 3 and slam into the wall in 4. Usually One-Slam was all it took to break something at One-Stop. God I miss it.

EDIT: So I got to the end of the thread only to find this reply, which I had wrote only after getting to about page 2, came up right after Khyron's. I find that ammusing. (For those that don't understand, Google Khyron and Robotech...)

rc-speed

iTrader: (1)

Very cool thing your doing here Bob!!! Funny thing, I remember that Last Dragon Race pretty well myself, a couple off things that I remember the most other than my win in stock 1/12th was You!! as you were cutting off the inside 1/4" of the rear wheels to free up the car a little, I hope that was leagal then or we may have to take back the win? Then I beleive it was you that took a whole case of motors with you to the motel and dynoed them till sunup to find the best one!! And when I say a whole case I mean like 100-150 motors!! Wow fun stuff, and then when Buttsy came flying down the 120' straightaway and the car didn't turn and the front wheel came flying off when he hit the plexiglass, BIG BANG!! Cool Stuff, Keep it up!!

Randy Grosse

ps Pan Cars Rock!!!

SWTour

iTrader: (9)

I SOOOO loved the banking at One Stop - being 3+ hrs north I only got to run there a handful of times (usually w/ the old series) -- I've got some pics of one stop someplace.

I don't remember carpet in Yorba Linda, but I know there was a short lived carpet track someplace after Bob n Jims closed in Riverside. The Yorba Linda track I remember came after One Stop closed, and it was mildly banked asphalt (INDOORS) with longer straights than One-Stop had. (twas an awesome track)

and yes we ran at the old BIG 1/4 scale oval in Bakersfield (Racer's Haven) Martin Buchanan owned it then...and REV-TECH and AUTOGRAPHICS were in the same building w/ the hobbyshop, along w/ a great pizza place with a back door to the track....the good old days!

RedBullFiXX

iTrader: (34)

In the early 90's after Bob & Jims RC World closed, by bud Rick Salvino and I worked out a deal with the owner of M&N Hobbies (I think that was the name).
We built the Carpet Track out of our pockets to keep it going.

It was built on some empty space next to his indoor off-road track, we even covered it with plastic to keep the dust off of it.
I believe that went on for 2 years, I think they changed locations after that at some point.

Raced at One Stop Off-Road and later Paved Oval/Road course
That place knew how to pull a crowd !

Dave Berger aka rebullfixx

TheSCorpionKing

iTrader: (5)

Hey Bob.

I just want to thank you for being such a huge part of the rc community. I think what you are trying to accomplish with this project is awesome.

I could be wrong, but I believe that I met you once when I was a kid. The Hobbietat used have an annual 1:10 off road race event here in Hawaii, and I want to say that you raced a Traxxas TRX1. I ended up owning one of those.

Anyways. Now I'm in my early 30's and I recently got back into the scene. Primarily into crawlers and SC, and very recently, drifters. I want you to know that Stormer Hobbies has been, and continues to be my first stop whenever I look for something rc related online. If you are still over there processing orders, I'm that guy in Hawaii that keeps emailing the day after I submit an order because I forgot an item or two. You guys have always just added the items to my order "with kindest regards."

Again, I just want to say thanks.

Aloha, Travis