TALK IT UP TUESDAY: Chris Higa

Welcome to LiveRC's weekly column, "Talk-It-Up Tuesday!" Here we spend a little time talking with industry icons including racers, manufacturers, team managers, developers, promoters, and everyone in between! Sit back, relax, and go behind the scenes as we interview them all!

I met Chris Higa back at the turn of the millennium, when we both started traveling around Southern California to compete in both nitro and electric off-road. He was a Senior Store Planner for Pacific Sunwear at the time (and eventually became a retail analyst for Vans), but my father and I occasionally ran into him on our roughly monthly pilgrimages Ultimate Hobbies - where he worked a few hours a week as a service technician on the RC car side. We attended dozens of the same events in the early 2000s before our RC careers veered in different directions - mine toward serious racing, his into promo events with HPI Racing and Ultimate Hobbies, leading toward the fledgling community of large-scale racers. Fast forward almost a decade, and Higa is now not only a champion fifth-scale pilot, but has also transitioned into a new career path as Horizon Hobby’s Large Scale Surface Product Manager, which combines his near life-long hobby with two decades of business experience. (Cover photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook)

 

Photo: Brian Belanger, via Facebook

 

Chris Higa: I got started in RC when I was about 8 years old. It took quite a bit of talking to convince my parents that an RC car was an educational opportunity. They eventually gave in and got me a Tamiya Frog. My brother and I had built a small track behind our parent’s garage that we would race on with friends. That eventually evolved into racing at places like the Ranch Pit Shop, Radio Control Hobbies, Hot Traxx, and AJB. I have been involved with some sort of RC for almost 30 years now! 

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: It was about the year 2000 when I decided to start racing seriously. I had finished college, had a good job and now had some expendable income that allowed me to start racing. I spent a lot of time at So Cal RC raceway in Huntington Beach in the early 2000’s, running the Saturday Series at The Dirt and Pro-Line, and then JBRL when it was the only for electric off-road.

 

Photo: Ryan Dunford, via Facebook

 

CH: After nearly 20 years of working in the retail/action sports arena, it started to become very mundane. I wasn’t learning anything new. I wasn’t excited to go to work. The long work hours and even longer commute down the 91 freeway made it hard to stay motivated. During this time, I helped out at Ultimate Hobbies working in the tech department and managing the drivers for promotional events like Monster Jam, NASCAR, and RCX. Through these events and racing, I was able to meet a lot of people in the industry that helped lead me to where I am today. I was testing a lot of parts for the (Losi) 5IVE-T platform when the Product Developer position at Losi opened up. I had some conversations with Todd Hodge and became very interested in the move, and the rest is history. 

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: There are standard things like getting product to market, managing inventory levels, and product life cycles that are very similar. Other things, like changes in consumer preferences, come and go much faster in the retail space. Hot colors can change by the month, even the week. RC is a little slower to change, but has become much more aggressive with all of the current emerging technologies. I have noticed that it takes time for segments to develop in RC and gain some traction. Sometimes things you don’t understand take off, while other products that you think are awesome just sit on shelves. 

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: It started when I was doing a lot of events with Ultimate Hobbies and John Schultz when he was at HPI around 2006-2007. During that time, the HPI Baja 5B came out and I just thought that thing was awesome. It reminded me of the original Kyosho Ultima, just on steroids! I started running my 5B a lot at Milestone MX park. I was able to adapt a lot of the knowledge I learned from racing 1/10th scale and 1/8th scale cars and apply it to the large scale vehicles. Racing became fun again, always tinkering with the car to make it go faster. Then the Losi 5IVE-T came out, and large scale racing began to blow up. 

 

Photo: Tara Holmes, via Facebook

 

CH: I would say that the large scale racing scene is less stressful than racing 1/10th scale or 1/8th scale. It is an older crowd. Actually, it is a lot of guys that I came up racing with that had families and things over the years, and are not able to dedicate the hours it takes to run up front in 1/10th scale or 1/8th scale. It is much less political, since most people run some version of the 5IVE-T. At the end of the day, the large scale community is a big family and everyone is willing to help each other out, regardless of which team you run for. And that to me is what makes it special.

 

Photo: Turtle Racing, via Facebook

 

CH: It can be tricky at times, because they think that all I do is play with toy cars. I wish that was what I was doing all the time. I spend equal amounts of time behind the desk, as I do behind the wheel. I let them know that it lets me use my planning and allocation background and apply it to product development.

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: In 2014, after years and years of finishing second or third, I was able to finally win the Large Scale West Coast Nationals in Pro2 and Pro4 truck. That was an epic weekend for me in Chula Vista, one of my proudest racing moments for sure. I am also proud of winning the Team Chase Pro 4 CORRS (Chase Off Road Race Series) title in 2013 and 2014.

 

Photo: Steve Perez, via Facebook

 

CH: My goals have changed a bit as I moved into product development. My major goal and focus is to continue the development of the large scale segment of RC. On a side note, I have met a lot of my racing goals, but I still would love to have a win at the Nitro Challenge.

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: It all starts with my parents. Without them, I would never have started this journey into RC. The Murakami family from Ultimate Hobbies really helped me out a lot when I came back to racing. Cliff and Hank Murakami always supported me and helped me line up with great sponsors like Byron’s Fuels, Pro-Line, and Keyence among others. John Schultz, who helped me get plugged into HPI and Horizon. Bob and Bobby Tillman, Moto Ishibashi, and Adam Drake just to name a few when I started racing 1/8th scale. Chris Bartolone of Bartolone Racing has stuck by me as my engine builder since I started racing Large Scale cars. 

 

Photo: Chris Higa, via Facebook

 

CH: So Cal RC Raceway in HB will always be my favorite track, because that is where the comeback began.

 

CH: The Nitro Challenge for just the size of the race. For a pure large scale event, Power Jam in Indiana.

 

CH: 1/5th Scale Pro4 Buggy

 

Photo: Egyptsean Productions, via Facebook

 

CH: Meeting people and making friends that become family over the years.

 

Photo: Tara Holmes, via Facebook

 

CH: I will probably get hate mail for this, but my pet peeve is seeing guys with chassis sponsors not racing in the expert or highest racing class available. Back when I started racing, it was hard to get sponsored. I know it is a different time, and there are a lot of guys with 50% type deals.  If you had any type of a chassis sponsor, tire sponsor, you were racing in the expert/pro class. You knew you were not going to be as fast as the elite factory guys, but that gave you something to shoot for. And if you did make the main, that was a big accomplishment. 

 

Photo: Tara Holmes, via Facebook

 

CH: I want to thank you Aaron for asking me to do this. We raced together for a long time and it definitely brings back some great memories!

 

Photo: Tara Holmes, via Facebook