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Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of nearly all forms of racing. I of course enjoy all the traditional forms, but who doesn’t enjoy some good ole’ lawnmower racing or belt sander racing? Anyway, as a fan, I typically find myself defending NASCAR to people that see it as a ‘they just turn left’ event. I enjoy watching a lot of the strategy that crew chiefs employ to position their driver in a position to win. Either way, the race yesterday at ‘The Brickyard 400′ was an unfortunate let down. For those not in the know, it seems like the combination of the Car of Tomorrow (isn’t it today yet?), the abrasive Indianapolis surface (not designed for NASCAR), and a unproven tire compound made for a less than stellar show. The event was stopped repeatedly so teams could inspect and replace failing rubber. 

Well, my weekend fuel burning fun was not going to be put on the line. I decided instead to go back and watch some good ole’ demolition. This demo had actual racing, though…they call it Team Demolition.  The goal, one of the team cars has to complete four laps around the mud oval. All the other cars can opt to run ‘offence’ or ‘defense’ however they saw fit. Cars were cutting across the track for massive take out moves. All this to a sold out crowd…and everyone left with a huge smile on their face. 

It was brutal, primal…and awesome.  Long live racing!

I was forwarded this picture from an old racing buddy who now lives in Spain. I believe this was like 1986 or 1987 and we were racing a 3-hour Enduro in Hesperia, California. In the picture from left to right is Myself, Rob Hopkins and Casey Heinrichs, we all lived in Lake Elsinore, California. My first job in the R/C Industry was at Lakeside Hobbies, which was owned by Rob and his Mom, Margaret. It brings a smile to my face too see this old picture and the memories are priceless. I hope racing brings you the same kind of joy!  See ya at the races!

I’m so addicted I may need psychological help.  Off roading, Wheelin’, rock crawling, rock racing…or what ever you might call it, I have the bug so bad, I don’t have time for anything else, nor do I want to do anything else. Luckily my family likes it, or they’d just have to go! Haha I’ve been wheelin Jeeps for over 20 years now and that type of dirt sports just never gets old and it’s one reason I have always helped to push the sport into the radio controlled world. 

While I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for my job, which included seeing almost 15 different cities in 60 days, I’ve also been tearing up the rocks in my Jeep JK Rubicon. We’ve been out to California, Utah, and New Mexico during those 60 days as well. It’s been non stop traveling and fun…. but I think I’m ready to sit back and start building a new RC Rock Crawler to get ready for the National finals in Moab Utah, coming up in September. All the parts are starting to arrive and I now have the time to get moving on building a super capable rig. It’s so nice to not have to fabricate most parts used to build a crawler anymore. A guy like me can build a comp worthy crawler in about six hours. The first crawler I ever built was a work in progress for several years and could never even crawl that well, by today’s standards. I’ll keep you all posted as this new build progresses, as it will be using some new and unique parts that everyone will be interested in.

 In the mean time, a couple of photos of the Jeeps getting prepped for the rocks: These things have been unstoppable on each trail we’ve hit. Truly awesome rigs!

Unfortunately, this guy has to pay the bills before he goes and play with his toy cars. Work has kept me on the move, and I have to pass on one of the best on road events of the summer. The Byron’s Challenge is this weekend, and it’s one of the few events where a handful of the fast west coast guys show up and show us locals how it’s done. Turns out, I’ll be out on the left coast for work, so no toy cars for me.

   In an attempt to punk out your city bike more than the next guy, this guy has something special going on. It’s not mine, but this mythical ‘unicorn bike’ was spotted at one of my local bike racks here in Chicago.  To each his own, I guess

Hey hey everybody!!! It’s been a while since my last Blog…..work has been extremely busy lately and spare time has been few and far between. In fact, I just returned from an un-expected last minute trip to Taiwan to tie up some loose ends with some sample bikes. The trip ended up being a success but it was definitely slam-packed with work. Every time I travel for work I can’t wait to get back home to So-Cal……traveling to other countries and places has really made me have a new appreciation for where I live.

This weekend I went to the beach and a great time just relaxing and getting a tan. It was so nice outside and the weather was insane!!! So-Cal is definitely one of the greatest places in the world to live and it’s easy to see why so many people choose to vacation here. Anyway I hope you’re all doing well and having fun.

Talk to ya soon.

CR

I had another one of those birthday things a week back or so. You know when you were a kid, and you NEVER thought birthdays would become just another day…we’ll after a while it finally happened.

My wife, on the other hand, decided to have a big party. It had been a while since we’d had everyone over, so it was cool excuse for a summer cookout. I guess my wife didn’t think had enough fun things for the kids do, so she surprised us and rented one of those massive inflatable jumping castles. It was pretty sweet.

The best part of birthdays, it gives me an excuse to go out and buy something for myself that I wouldn’t normally buy. I got one of the coolest electronic gadgets I’ve seen in a while. It’s a Roku SoundBridge. It works in combination with my massive mp3 collection on my computer and my wireless router. I connected it to my stereo in my garage, and I can now play and navigate thru my entire iTunes library. 

With summer in full swing, things are crack’n for sure, but it’s better to be busy than to be sitting on your hands!

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Eric

As many of you know my nickname is Squirrel. The name goes back over 15 years ago and accredited to Daren Westman, Mike Reedy’s son. Needless to say the name is very fitting for a number of reasons. Some reasons that I don’t mind talking about today and other reasons that should maybe be forgotten. I’ve been fortunate to travel to many portions of the world that most people only dream of and I think we (myself and all the drivers that attend the races), have taken the most advantage of the racing and spirit of these places. To name a few: Japan, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, England, Uruguay and more to come I hope. But for now, here’s a more recent outtake and somewhat “Squirrelly” moment. You’ve scene those shows where game show host and contestants can’t stop laughing? Well, this is one of those moments with Jason Sams and myself.

Enjoy!

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A while ago my dad and I started to build a 1983 Buick Regal Station Wagon. We worked for two and a half months straight on the thing before it was finally ready to race. The car is powered by a Buick 455 that my dad built. The car has run a best of 11.88 @ 111 mph. We race the car every Tuesday night in the highly competitive high school eliminator class @ Gateway International Raceway, located just outside of St. Louis, MO. The high school eliminator class is a bracket racing class in which you must dial the car in and run as close to that number as you can without going faster than that number. The fastest you are allowed to go in the high school class is 12.00, so we had to slow our car down.

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Mugen Seiki team driver Ronda Skelton has done an interview with our site MyRCBox, check it out!

Don’t let this nice looking girl fools you; she can beat you anytime on a racetrack!

Ronda is the fastest girl out there!

Ronda’s Mugen MBX5T is full race spec. 

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