Radio-controlled racing

• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Jun 12, 2009

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When he wasn’t hosing down the dirt track, tinkering with his son’s car or checking on his daughters working the concession stand, Jeremy Winter actually got to steer his radio-controlled race car around the Action Hobbies Raceway last  Saturday. It was a pretty typical weekend for the 32-year-old Watson resident.

“I started this probably in the late ’80s,” Winter said. “I did it with my father. It was a family thing.”

Obviously, it still is, and not just for Winter. Multiple generations of RC hobbyists gathered at the track a block off La. 16 in Watson for the day’s races. And while some no doubt got their passion for small-wheel speed passed down from the previous generation, these are definitely not their fathers’ race cars.

A hobby that has fluctuated in popularity since it arose in the 1960s, RC racing is enjoying a resurgence, enthusiasts say, driven largely by tremendous improvements in the cars themselves. This is especially the case with electric-powered cars, which can go just as fast as the fuel-powered variety.

When John Tabony, 30, took up this hobby as a pre-teen, electric RC cars might go 20 mph. Today’s cars would leave them in the dust.

“I’ve got one that does every bit of 65 (mph) and … you see it jump off a little bitty jump and it flies 30 feet in the air and you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right shock fluid in your shocks and the car is built to where it doesn’t fall apart whenever it comes down,” Tabony said.

“They’ve got sway bars in it just like a real car has sway bars so it can hang curves tighter. Back then they only had five different types of tires; now they’ve got about 20 different types of tires — hard compound, soft compound, depending on what type of dirt you’re racing on.”

Tabony had quit the hobby after the RC track he frequented off Florida Boulevard closed in the mid-90s. He was living in Monroe two years ago when his mother inadvertently rekindled his interest.

“My mom showed up at my house after I got married with some dirty clothes baskets full of remote-control cars, and I said, ‘Wow, I wonder if any of these things still work?’” Tabony said. “I hooked them all up and they all still ran.”

Tabony took his cars to a local track and discovered what had changed. Lithium polymer had replaced the older, less powerful batteries. Instead of four manufacturers, there were two dozen or so from which to choose, and plenty of opportunities for those who are serious about their racing.

In additional to regular races at tracks throughout the state, there is a six-race series that features stops in Bossier City, Destrehan, Springfield, Watson and two races in Lafayette, including the season finale. Drivers earn points by how they finish, and points from their best four races count toward a series championship.

The top drivers, such as Derek Guidry, 21, of Sunset, are successful enough to earn sponsorships from companies that make race cars and related products. Guidry will be the only Louisiana driver competing in the Roar Off-Road Nationals next month in Joliet, Ill.
“All the fast guys from around the United States and the world are going to be there,” Guidry said. “They’ve already got 400 entries signed up.”

Drivers trying to win at this level, like Guidry, are using cars that cost in the neighborhood of $2,500, and Guidry said he has 11 of them. But, he said, it’s not necessary to make that sort of investment to race and have fun.