MOMENT WITH MIKE: Any wheel time is a good time

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Mike Garrison

0 June 12, 2017, 1:39 p.m.

By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

A question that I often hear asked by new and existing racers in the RC racing community is, “What do I need to do to get faster?”

It’s no secret that — regardless of the sport, profession, hobby, or activity that you choose — the secret to becoming great is practice. There are some individuals who seem to have a natural talent for racing an RC car, so therefore their time and effort towards becoming great may appear to be less. If you are not one of the “chosen few,” this does not mean you can’t become great as well, it simply means to reach that level may require an increased amount of hard work, dedication, willingness to learn, and practice put into it.

The problem is that, unless you hit the jackpot on your last trip to Vegas, chances are you probably have school and work during the day, perhaps a girlfriend, wife, and/or family to spend time with at night, and you’re already filling your weekends with races. So where does that leave time to improve and practice?

That very question is what spawned today’s Moment with Mike. There are a lot of techniques, skills, and overall approaches to competition that I have learned over the years racing motocross that directly apply to RC car racing as well — one of them being practice. Obviously, the best overall practice for racing is on a track under race conditions with stopwatches to record lap times, and notes to help fine-tune the vehicle's setup. However, this is not the only valuable way to practice and improve your ability; a large part of becoming fast is confidence, including confidence in yourself as a racer, your equipment, and the “bond” between you two. On a dirt bike, some of the most basic, yet enormously confidence boosting, practice sessions do not come on a racetrack, but rather when you’re out free-riding with your buddies. Maybe it’s an blasting around an open field full of fun corners, maybe it’s weaving through acres of woods with rocky hills to climb, maybe it's carving across open sand dunes with massive whoop sections, or maybe it's navigating grass hills with shovel-built jumps to float over, but there are always new techniques to learn and vehicle control skills to refine.

Arguably, some of the greatest “practice” I have ever had with an RC car wasn’t at a racetrack, but instead driving hundreds of laps around a homemade driveway track built with my 4-year-old nephew. Or perhaps it was the cone track setup at the local skate park seeing who can launch and land the half pipe the highest every lap. Then again, it could have been the day we blocked off the office parking lot and raced for hours around a sidewalk chalk-drawn track, eventually ending the day with a short course truck jumping through the front window of the building.

The point I am trying to make is that it is true that “practice makes perfect.” What is not true is that practice only comes in the form of professionally organized practice sessions on racetracks. Racers often laugh or even look down upon the bashers in the hobby, but in all reality while they may never race an RC car, the amount of time, confidence, and skill that bashers acquire from just having fun in the backyard can amount to them being very talented drivers (despite the fact they may never show that skill on a racetrack).

PHOTO: Sam Reed, via Facebook

A prime example is my good friend Sam Reed, who works for Traxxas. Sam travels the country demonstrating the latest and greatest from Traxxas, backflipping monster trucks 30 feet in the air, rocketing 100mph cars down sticky asphalt tracks, and throwing whips for days with Slashes, Rustlers, and Stampedes. While those exact scenarios may not be applied on the racetrack, the skills and abilities learned and required to perform these stunts most certainly are. Whether Sam is judging the distance needed to nail the downside of a metal ramp gap during a show, or setting up for the big triple on the backside of a racetrack, the same skill and ability is put into action.

The same goes for racing around a parking lot, your backyard, your local skate park, or wherever you choose to practice. Driving your RC car is practice, no matter when, where, or what you are doing – if you have a radio in your hand the chances are you will learn something new.

I’m not saying that practicing at a racetrack isn’t the best scenario, but what I am saying is that not everyone has the time and ability to travel to the closest track day after day to do so. Just because you can’t get to the nearby (or not-so-nearby) track to practice, doesn’t mean you can’t become great. Enjoy your RC car whenever and wherever you can, and soon you will find that the confidence, fun, and skills you’ve acquired off the track will come together on the track.