ROAR NATS: Kyle Skidmore talks switch to Serpent, and Inside Travis Amezcua's Buggy!

0 June 20, 2014, 6:29 a.m.

6/20/2014

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC

Serpent America recently announced the signing of long-time Oklahoma racer Kyle Skidmore, and he told us all about what it's like entering his first major event with his new team. Also, an in-depth look at the most interesting vehicle in the pit area here at Thornhill Racing Circuit - Travis Amezcua's buggy!

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The official press release from Serpent America on the signing of Kyle Skidmore read like this:

Highly experienced and respected offroad driver Kyle Skidmore joined Team Serpent for all buggy classes.

We wish him super results !

Team Serpent

After sixteen years with Team Associated, during which Kyle Skidmore raced both the Thunder Tiger EB4-S3 buggy as well as the RC8 and RC8T platforms, he decided "it was time for a change" and signed with Serpent America back in March. Having previous attended the Icebreaker at Indy RC in Dallas that month, as well as the Lonestar Nitro Challenge Nationals Warm-Up last month, the ROAR Nationals this weekend is the first major event he has attended with his Serpent Cobra S811B 2.1 buggy and S811T TE truck kits.

Accompanied by his father Harold, helping him in pit lane and keeping both cars running this weekend, Kyle said he hasn't been able to race much in the last few years. During the week Kyle is a floating manager at Subway stores in the Oklahoma City area, and recently finished up a Bachelors of Science in Math at Mid-America Christian University along with nearly every education certification. Kyle plans on teaching high school math classes.

Best of luck to Serpent's newest, Kyle Skidmore!

Inside Travis Amezcua's 1/8-Scale Buggy

Chassis: Team Durango NYA

Engine: Novarossi Plus 21-4BTTS

Servos (steering/throttle): Xpert SM-5501BLS/SM-5401BLS

Transmitter: Airtronics M12

Tires: AKA Impacts, Soft

Notes: Without any practice Travis is worried how the car may work in the first qualifying run, specifically through the ruts given its lack of suspension, but given no possible tuning options there's not much he can do. All four corners of the car have a significant amount of negative camber, which should help increase sidebite, Travis also complained that the lack of steering linkage should prevent the car from being able to complete the corner. Even if Travis does manage to get the engine started and pushes it hard enough to roll out of pit lane, he doesn't have much confidence in its ability to complete the front straightaway before the tires fall off.

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