What does TLR have cooking for the nats?

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8/8/11

Eric Swanson
LiveRC.com

In what may be either "huge" news or "absolutely nothing" news, we have noticed something peculiar while looking at the entry list for this week's upcoming ROAR Electric Off-Road Nationals.

It seems that all of TLR's main electric drivers are suspiciously absent from the 4WD class listings, but signed up for *Modified 2WD Truck instead.

Our first thought after seeing the entry sheet (besides wondering why TLR would sign up Truhe, Phend, Evans and Chambers into a class that will be lucky to have a B-main) was that TLR must have their long-rumored 22-based truck completed and ready to race. Of course, this is just rampant speculation based on a series of clues anyone can find on the Internet.

*You may remember mod truck (or stadium truck, as they were so eloquently referred to as) from a time long, long ago- when the closest thing to a short course truck was a conversion kit Losi made for the XX-4. To refresh your memory, back in the early 90's Team Associated, in an effort to compete with the Team Losi JRX-T, threw some long arms and a pair of tall skinny front tires on an RC10, made up a picture of the vehicle blasting through the gates at the L.A. Coliseum, and "Stadium Truck" officially became a competitive "alternative" class for race teams to support. Then Mark Pavidis and Richard Saxton won a bunch of NORRCA races, the RC10GT won a bunch of nationals...and, well, that's about all anyone remembers about stadium trucks.





QUESTION:
Stadium truck (ST) entries have declined drastically in recent years with competitive short course (SC) racing becoming the "it" class all across the globe. It's hard to predict where the future of this once-popular class lies, especially in the Untied States (where the ST class was born and experienced its highest levels of participation and prestige). A next-gen design from one of the major manufacturers may be all it would take to pump new life back into the dying class. Or, perhaps, the off-road scene may be too saturated with available classes for it to make any significant change, and any new vehicles would hastily be sent to the trash heap along with the class as a whole.

What are your thoughts regarding the future of the stadium truck class? Share your thoughts below!


LiveRC.com will be at the ROAR Nationals this week to bring you live coverage of the event. If there is anything new there, you will be able to find all the info right here.