Everything starts to turn green, the sky is as blue as you can imagine and if there is still snow on the ground, you get contrasts that are truly impossible! Out here in the very small town of Black Forest, there isn’t very much to do unless you have horses. Everyone in our little rural area has many animals, from chickens and geese, to horses, cows and alpaca. One guy who lives a few miles from us even has a giraffe. As soon as the weather warms up around here, at 8,000 feet elevation, it is time to get the horses groomed and ready for the trail rides of summer through the vastness of the Rocky Mountains. Winter takes its toll on animals that live in this environment, even when they are put away in barns.
Well I just returned back home in the good ol US of A after a weeklong trip at the Neo-Buggy Race in the UK. This race was a little more special than most other races I’ve been to abroad, mainly because we were able to do a little sight seeing. Myself, Jay Halsey and Taylor James spent the first few days in down town London to do the typical tourist stuff. What stood out in down town London was all the HOT girls, they are tuff, it was very cold and short skirts seem to be the fashion in March. We got to ride the London Eye (big ferris wheel) it showed us an “aces” view of London, as the locals would put it. We got to see Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and a gazillion pubs as well, my kind of town!
I give UK a big thumbs up!
Well this past week was pretty interesting. I work for a bicycle company as the BMX product development manager and travel often for work projects. This past week I was in Taiwan for a major trade show and vendor relations. After the trade show ended, I traveled by van to visit some vendors. During the drive we (some co-workers and I) encountered a major political campaign march in the streets of down town Taipei, Taiwan. We were completely unaware that they were preparing for elections in Taiwan. Anyway, it was really cool to see and I was able to snap a few photos – we were all having such a good time seeing the sites and occasionally interacting with the crowd that we barely noticed that it took us an hour to drive 7 miles!!!!! Crazy! Well, hope all is good and I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming races. Later!!
Robert Craig Knievel, Jr…or Evel was a true American bad @$$. As a kid, I vividly remember staring at our crappy console television, watching Wild World of Sports hoping to catch Evel’s next daredevil stunt. I’m pretty certain if I could be anyone when I was 8 years old, it would be a combination of Evel Knievel, Arthur Fonzarelli, and maybe a bit John Wayne (and a sprinkling of Johnny Cash)! Boy, that would sure make for one hardcore hombre. Either way, it was Evel that shone thru. I spent countless hours sessioning his Stunt Cycle, and would put that toy thru some serious stuntman torture.
You can imagine how super stoked I was when I opened a surprise package from a friend this week. Inside was a one of the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycles AND this super awesome bobble head doll. Now I can represent all things cool, while grinding away here at my desk.
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RIP, Evel…
Last week, I got out of Chicago and flew out to Los Angeles. It was great to get away from the constant cold & gray Midwest and get some sun. Clear skies and 80 felt awful good…well, clear by L.A. standards… Got a few buddies out to one of the many L.A. area indoor kart tracks for some hot laps. MB2 in Valencia is my favorite. I used to race karts ‘back in the day’, and I was not expecting much the first time I tried electric karts. The MB2 facility is pretty sweet and the track layout is fun for sure. The karts aren’t neck-snapping fast, but fast enough to be fun.
Well, one of the guys in my group had held the title of ‘unbeatable’ for too long. I felt it was my duty to put the smack down, so the smackith was promptly applied :) I took the win in two of the three heats, so the first round of drinks was on him! Good times were had by all, but I’ll hold on to the title belt… thank you
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What a crazy three weeks of racing! Being on the road, for me, are some of the best times in life. After racing The Dirt Nitro Challenge in Arizona I immediately flew to Spokane, Washington where I met up the crew from Performance R/C Hobbies and started our trek up to Red Deer, Alberta Canada to attend The Canadian Winternationals. This is the second year we trudged the crazy blizzard conditions and numerous Elk and Deer crossings in the old Ford F-350 with 33 foot parts trailer in tow, and ten or twelve hours later we arrived in “Race Condition.” LOL. We spent five days in Canada, if you haven’t gone you’re missing out, and then Rick McCrery, Matt Afana, Anthony Howarth and I started the venture back to Spokane and it was a great time with close friends. I was almost feeling done when it hit me; you have got one more race before this series is done, the Silver State Nitro Challenge. So I packed it all up and flew directly to Vegas and was in miserable agony the whole week of racing this event.
Looking back I wouldn’t trade it for the anything, well maybe the terrible Vegas weather conditions, but I spent three weeks with my teammates and some of my closest friends which I think are some of the most valuable times in life, and hope you get to experience times like this too.
I hope to see you at the races,
Gary Guest
This past weekend, Leisure Hours Raceway hosted the Chi-Town Shootout sponsored by Team Checkpoint & R/C Car Magazine.
The electric off-road classes were: Mod Buggy, Mod Truck, Mod 4wd, 19 turn Truck, 19 Turn 4wd, 19 turn Buggy, Brushless-Lipo (Outlaw) Truck. For those that aren’t familiar, Leisure Hours Raceway is on the far southwest side of Chicago and feature a large, indoor clay track. This was a new track layout for this weekend, and practice began Friday, qualifying on Saturday, and mains on Sunday. The event was fairly well attended with about 140 entries, primarily Midwest area drivers.
The pits are always an interesting place to people watch. I’m always amazed at the people that drag their television and XBox to play video games in the pits. A unique sighting, was a guy brought his George Forman electric grill and cooked burgers right in his pits. The unique clay track had many people dremeling their tires down to slicks. Nothing like the smell of cooking burgers and burning rubber…
I knew that simply finishing the 20 minute Outlaw Truck main would be key, so I prepared as best as possible. This track is notorious for breaking rear body mounts on trucks. The night before, I removed my rear mounts and boiled them, hoping to increase their durability (which my wife was stoked about :). I also pinned up the rear of my Pro-Line Crowd Pleazer body, in attempt of avoid it acting like a ’claw’ and grabbing the clay track. I also doubled up the rear wing, just in case. It felt like I was preparing for battle, but it was everything I could do of to reinforce my ride. two-wings_lo.jpg
