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Moment with Mike: Shortcourse buggy racing

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Mike Garrison

0 Aug. 8, 2012, 6:42 a.m.

8/8/2012

By Mike Garrison

LiveRC.com

This past weekend I attended the Shortcourse Showdown Nationwide Tour as Round #5 made its way to the famous Hobbytown HobbyPLEX in Omaha, Nebraska. Friday morning I packed up my Mod 4wd SC, and hit the road with my old man for a little father son bonding and a roadtrip to the state of corn.

My dad is not a fan of shortcourse racing, in fact I had to beg him to join me. He wanted no part of racing this event, instead he packed a full suitcase of vintage dirtbike magazines and the latest edition of Angry Birds on his phone. When we arrived we unpacked what little I had brought and headed out to the track to take a look. The first thing I saw going around the track wasn't a Slash, wasn't an 2wd truck, wasn't a 4wd truck, but instead...a short course buggy. They say when you fall in love, you know instantly that is your soulmate and you'll do anything in the world to get them. I watched 2 laps of the short course buggy and headed straight to the hobby shop to buy one.

So excited to run my new Losi SCB, I pushed everything off my pit table and started unboxing the beast. I put my AA batteries in the radio, charged a battery, went for a quick restroom break...and when I returned my buggy was GONE! I raced around the pits looking for it with no luck. I raced out to the track in panic only to find my dad on the driver's stand smiling ear to ear driving it.

He came back to the pits and said, "I'm in!". Clearly my buggy was no longer mine, instead it now belonged to Homer. I had no choice but to go BACK to the hobby shop and get myself ANOTHER buggy.

While Losi offers a huge selection of aftermarket and hop-up parts for the SCB, we decided to race our buggies straight out of the box. No setup changes, no hop-ups, no aftermarket mods, no brushless systems, no high performance servos, no new tires, no changes WHAT SO EVER. (I did use my Spektrum DX3R radio, however, Homer used the RTR radio)

It is not very often that we can agree on something so easily, but my dad and I have both agreed that short course buggy racing is one of the most fun forms of R/C we have ever done. It's the short course truck handling, buggy style racing, and realistic appearance that makes this class so fun. If you know my dad, Homer, you know that if he isn't dominating at Angry Birds or arguing politics there isn't much that excites him. He was so excited after the race weekend he said, "Will you have these cleaned up and charged for Vegas next month...that's the next round of the series."

(Photo courtesy of "Chilly" at RC Car Action Magazine)

With all of that being said, why hasn't short course buggy racing caught on at more local, regional, and national level races? This class is similar to short course truck in the sense that racers of all skill levels and all budgets can get into and enjoy it. Rumor has it more than one major manufacturer has their own short course buggies in the works...will that help the class to grow? I certainly hope so!