The Backyard – Bench Racing
Greetings all and Happy Friday. Welcome to The (very snowy) Backyard! Before I get going here- good vibes to all of you in the western US dealing with the wildfires. I hope you all stay safe!
We’ve had over a foot of snow the last week here in St. Louis, with more coming down now as I write this, so yeah, the only r/c racing or running I’ve been doing is of the bench variety.
And yes, I’ve got various scalers AND even tanks…but a foot is a lot of snow for these parts, and I don’t much enjoy running r/c’s in the deep stuff. Maybe if I had a boat!
I have been running my mouth with my buddies though, as we are figuring out what our plan for 2025 is. Things may change, but as of right now I plan to take most of the year off from r/c monster truck racing. I am in desperate need of a recharge on that front. However, I will say if a new release were to happen in that segment of the hobby, my plans could change quick!
At the moment, the only semi-concrete plan I have for 2025 is to build a vintage racer. Ok, that’s not totally true. I have two r/c pulling vehicles in various states of construction, but I’ve not done anything with them since before the holidays, so I’ll wait to discuss them soon once I get back to working on them.
Back to vintage racing- the local track near me has a lot of enthusiasm to get a class going, so I’m waiting to see what vehicle type will be the thing. There are a lot more vintage buggy offerings out there currently, but it seems that the old school stadium truck releases are what a lot of local folks are buzzing about.
I cut my r/c teeth as a stadium truck racer in the 90’s, so that’s where my heart lies. Truth be told, even if a vintage stadium truck class doesn’t get going, I may just build and paint one to have handy because they look so damn cool. I’m holding out for Losi to enter the foray as that’s where my allegiance lies…but an RC10T will do just fine if Losi stays on the sidelines.
As mentioned though, there are alot more options when it comes to vintage buggies. Associated, Kyosho, and Tamiya seem to be pumping stuff out. Not sure what I’d do there, tbh. Probably an RC10 Team Car, though. I’ve somehow actually never built a gold tub Associated before!
Outside of a vintage racing machine though, I have a pretty wide open 2025 and can go a lot of ways depending on what gets released. I’m potentially interested in a Cross R/C Ironbull tractor if more info on a stateside release comes to bear. Also mulling over doing another Tamiya semi truck possibly.
We are only a couple weeks out from the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, and that’s when Tamiya and several other companies unveil their new line-ups. I’d guess by then we will have a pretty good idea of what kind of releases to expect for the first part of 2025!
In the meantime, I’m having a lot of fun doing some jaw jacking with friends as we all figure out our plan of attack for the new year!
That’s it for this week- stay safe out there all! Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!
