Line 29 Track Day
With the pandemic casting a shadow over the world and eliminating outdoor activities, it’s been a long off season for RC racing in Ontario. Sure the Crawlers have been able to get out in very small groups and get their fix, the racing community has been twiddling their thumbs as they wait for tracks to reopen. Although the calendar still shows all the events we should have had by now, they’ve kept being cancelled. Finally the day came for the 5th (large) scale enthusiasts to get out and play and some of us brought our 8th scale buggies and Short Course Trucks also.
Line 29 is a small track at an asphalt company near the town of Stratford, Ontario which is famous for it’s Victorian homes and Shakespearean plays. The track isn’t open to the public so RC nuts can’t just show up whenever they want. There is a Facebook owners can join for updates as to when the next track day or race will be (click here to join). Although the 8th scale drivers have been able to get out a little bit elsewhere, this was the first outing for the 5th scale drivers. I had forgotten how loud these machines are. The ear piercing scream of a small 2-stroke engine will definitely wake up the neighbours, which is why you can’t get away with bashing them at your local park.
It was noisy, and dusty, and awesome! It was also costly as most of us broke something on our machines. I only ran my HPI Baja 5b SS once last year so it was nice to get it out again but of course I broke something. I call it the Beast because it’s so big, loud, and damn near impossible to drive, and yeah…it seems I always break something. This time it a rear shock failed and started pissing oil from the top. I had just finished fixing everything on it two days prior, so of course I had to break something the first day out.
Fortunately I also brought my 8th ebuggy so my day wasn’t over. It was good to get some extra much need practice with that buggy before my upcoming race the following weekend.
Stay tuned for more high flying fun as we kick off the RC racing season at D.O.R.C (Durham Offroad RC Club) in Bowmanville, Ontario on July 19th! This will be my first proper RC race (previous attempts didn’t work out so well) and it will be in the 8th scale ebuggy class. Once again I will be attempting to race at a track that I’ve never seen before with no prior practice.
