Remembering Randy Nordman

The r/c community here in Missouri is mourning a major loss this week. Randy Nordman, owner of the soon-to-be-opened Empire of Dirt R/C Park (New Florence, MO), was lost in a tragic event.

Randy has spent the past two years working on a dream of his (with his beloved wife and co-owner Julie) – a massive r/c complex housing everything from dedicated 1/5, 1/10, and 1/8 tracks to crawling areas and bash spots. While the facility wasn’t completed yet, last season they held many track days where bashers and racers could come out and have fun. In doing so he made many friends. A memorial bash is already being planned.

As a personal aside, I had the pleasure of knowing Randy for several decades as he worked at the family machine shop. He was an excellent machinist and my dad’s right hand man. He loved anything with wheels and always had a story. While he had previously been involved in full scale racing, the last few years he got bit by the r/c bug very hard. This all culminated with Empire of Dirt.

More importantly than anything involving r/c though, Randy was a great friend and mentor that helped influence my career. I will always cherish those machine-side talks, taking place usually as Randy poured over a seemingly infinite supply of racing magazines (of which I’d sneak off with!) as he listened to me detail the next r/c purchase I couldn’t afford. Shop visits will never be the same.

I’d also like to give one last special thanks to him as he was very supportive when I told him I was going to build an r/c crawling course out behind the shop. It was that crawling course, through a run in with Tim and Cubby several years ago, that eventually led me to work for Big Squid. Goodbye, my friend. Our friend.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help his family with expenses (we can confirm this is a legit account) associated with this tragic loss, as well as allow Julie to continue Randy’s dream and open up the r/c park.

The whole BSRC crew offers our condolences to friends and family.

Thanks to Jason Kleweno for the photo.