FLASHBACK FRIDAY: First-ever Snowbird Nationals

0 Feb. 2, 2017, 6 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Everybody knows that Friday is meant for reminiscing old times. Each week we take you back in time as we flashback to some of R/C racing's greatest moments, products, drivers, and more!

Flashback: 1995

The first Snowbird Nationals is held in Florida

The Snowbird Nationals is most famous for its gigantic entry counts, annually drawing over 800 entries when the oval and road course competitions are combined, requiring the racing action to continue around the clock - making it one of the most well-attended RC racing events in the world. This year marks the 23rd time the race has gone down, giving racers from around the world a chance to escape the winter weather for the sunny skies of Florida.

Like the U.S. Indoor Champs held in Cleveland each Thanksgiving weekend, the Snowbird Nationals is known for taking place in the ballroom or conference space of a hotel - this year at the Park Inn by Radisson in Kissimmee. For the first six years of the Snowbird Championships, though, the race (known originally as the Snowbird Championships) was hosted at Paul's Stadium Raceway in Tampa - and there was no road course portion. Instead, five different 1/10-scale oval racing categories were organized, and it wasn't until the 2001 Snowbird Nationals - after the closure of Thunder Raceway, where the race had moved - that the Snowbird Nationals hit the hotel carpet at the Ramada Inn in Orlando with the addition of road course competition.

While it's difficult to track down the history of many RC events, Mike Boylan and the Snowbird Nationals have done a great job of documenting what's happened over the years - you can see more at www.snowbirdnationals.com/2015history.htm