2019 Vintage Off-Road Nationals - R/C Excitement Inc. Fitchburg, MA Sept. 13-15

[RCveteran]

Oh wow, a few videos have made it to youtube too, drmosfet.

Well then let's hear about next year, this year is so yesterday. I need to plan to bring up the rear of the D main next year.

[jwscab]

OK, adding some photos. I have to put some videos somewhere, maybe it's time for me to make a youtube account.

[jwscab]

more photos

[RCveteran]

Wow, looks great, please create a youtube account! Looks like some real variety and not just all RC10's and the usual suspects. I think if these were billed a bit more as a vintage "get together" and not a race like the Iconic RC guys in England do maybe even more variety would show up. I have no clue. I'd run an RC10 myself given I have to travel far and it's the simplest formula to pack on an airplane for me.

I think I see one car in those photos with slicks and sauce on the tires, for us travelers did some out of the package clay tires with no sauce work OK?

[jwscab]

yeah, honestly there are quite a number of different cars run. the rc10 is simply a vintage car that you can get parts reasonably easy so there are a number of them, plus they flat work. guys picked up re-releases so you see a decent field mixed of old and (new)old.

traction was awesome with proline primes, although it was excellent for a lot of tires from what I saw. there are guys that complain about dirt vs clay indoor outdoor, etc, etc., but you can't argue that you were able to run consistently. I had a super time since I was able to drive my car comfortably even though i'm not a great driver. a lot less mistakes this year though and just plain fun.

[RCveteran]

Sounds great. RC10 is a lot harder to get parts now for with AE discontinuing everything recently. Good used parts supply relative to others but will get more scarce for sure now.

[jwscab]

agreed. now that it is mostly discontinued, you will quickly be in the same boat as the other makes/models. you could run a schumacher or kyosho re-release though too....so there are options.

[RCveteran]

Yeap, bring on the rere Ultimas!

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Great shots. Thanks!

[dldiaz]

This was a cool event to attend, but I was definitely not prepared for the level of competition - folks are serious about racing at the VONats!

I have to agree with RCveteran above - if the competitive aspect of this event were less, I bet there would be a lot more variety in vintage models. I was hoping my Tamiya Falcon might be able to dice with a Mugen Bulldog or a Cox Scorpion, but no such luck...

Anyways, I told my wife that since Valentino Rossi is no longer competitive in MotoGP, maybe we will skip the MotoGP race next year, and plan to return to the VONats instead!
I will try to be more competitive next time.


As far as the racing, the 2wd 'modified'/17.5 class were flying! The fast guys were putting in runs as fast as the modern cars (which invaded our vintage weekend and ran a couple rounds between the vintage races). Stadium trucks were really fast as well.
* 'scr8p' had a helluva race in Classics, he was in like 7th place after a couple laps and fought up to the 1st/2nd position, he was laying down some impressive laps with his TA-02/Manta Ray.
* probably the most dominant model in it's respective class was Brandon G's "Comical Grasshopper" in the Wheelie class - it looked like the only hobby-grade model out there among a bunch of toys!
(no offense to all the Lunch Boxes and such, they are great/timeless models).

Here is Brandon G, jwscab, scr8p, and me (dldiaz):

[RCveteran]

This was a cool event to attend, but I was definitely not prepared for the level of competition - folks are serious about racing at the VONats!

I have to agree with RCveteran above - if the competitive aspect of this event were less, I bet there would be a lot more variety in vintage models. I was hoping my Tamiya Falcon might be able to dice with a Mugen Bulldog or a Cox Scorpion, but no such luck...

Just add a silver can only, cars built per stock spec class. pre 1990 Don't try and govern it by chassis material or tires. Silver can will mean no boost tricks, stock kit spec means no mid engine conversions, not otherwise crazy customs. And the class has no winner. Call it the you're out here for fun to run with other vintage cars class. Nothing post 1990. Let's be honest a Yokomo or Cat, Losi XX, B3, RC10 with mid engine conversion and long arms and whatever else etc. is not far off a modern car when running slicks, boost etc.

If you're a fast guy who feels the need to enter this class to dominate be aware, there will be no courtesy passes, the opposite and there is no racing line and you should expect a clod buster, hornet and a drunken RC10 running a silver can to be in your way and we don't care. That should keep the class to the right folks

Remember the days in the 80's when Foxes, RC10's, Blackfoots, Ultimas, other random stuff all mixed it up together. The way the event goes now this is not possible or fun to even try.

I think we all know the spirit of a class like this and we have ways to deal with you if you do not

This is not a criticism, I totally get the work that goes into this and glad someone does it. Just need a place for the guy who is there for the environment and rarely races who knows he stands no chance and would rather putz around with a group of other like minded folks. We are out there.

[jwscab]

well for sure, there are some ways to make it less competitive and more of a fun event, but most of these guys attending are really good drivers and have been for years. Me, not so much, but i'm improving, and even with all the fast guys, I had a super time just being out there. You can actually get a lot of track time during practice that isn't heat or mains related. lots of time friday, some time in the morning saturday and sunday. also, if it's not raining, you can run cars on the outdoor dirt track, the dirt oval, or the indoor carpet track, as long as nothing is going on event wise. and you can do that all day long.

it would be easy for a handful of guys to run a fun race on the outdoor track. Next year I'm going to bring something I can run out there or maybe on the carpet track to just mess around.

in fact, Ed proposed a run what ya brung dirt oval race on one of the days for guys that just want to throw something down and try it out.

[RCveteran]

Run what you brung is a good idea and make it a non race class like I said class. That should keep the fast guys uninterested and to the extent they want to be in, make it very clear, this one is not about you and your desire to set lap records. If you want to lap the guy with a Falcon 16 times it will be your job to go around him and respect the laughter on the drivers stand and not the frustration.

[dldiaz]

"Run-what-you-brung" is my favorite thing to do, that was my Sunday afternoon activity at our local HobbyTown parking lot for years! Until it started dying out about a year ago...
We would set up a few pylons, ramps of various sizes, and throw out some cheap toy cars for the monster trucks to 'crush'! We would just run R/C cars all afternoon, sometimes we would challenge eachother to a few laps, but it was never an organized race - some would bring out the latest-and-greatest in R/C tech, and some would bring quircky vintage models; big/small, fast/slow, everyone had fun!

My biggest problem with doing this kind of thing at the VONats, would be packing several different cars for the flight...

[scr8p]

You really don't need a "run what you brung" class. Pretty much any car/truck you could bring to the Vonats has a class to run in. After the first round resort, you will end up running with guys with comparable lap times. So you'll only have to race against the "fast guys" once. Unless there is only enough to fill one heat, then it is what it is.

Some guys look at it as a race. Others look at it as a get together with a chance to run their old stuff. I look it as both. I go to hang out with everyone, but I'm still there to race. So I only worry about running one class each day. Last year I ran 2 classes on Sunday but it wasn't too bad.