Yesterday a few members of Team Soup headed out west to MakinTraxx in Rush, NY (just South of Rochester). It was myself and Team Driver Jarodd Goedel making the trip with his 2 boys. Rush is quite the trek for us, around 2.5 hours, but with everyone going indoors we figured this would be the perfect time to make it out that way for one last hoorah on an outdoor track.

The owner, Brian Davin, I met at last year’s Big Bird Pull. He’s an avid puller and racer and told me about his track last year. It sounded intriguing and I’m always looking for new places to run, especially with the site.. we love checking out new tracks!

Anyways, the weather looked sketchy all week and we actually decided at 6:30 that morning that we were going to attempt the trip. We got there around 10:30, and they started a bit after 11AM. I had just enough time to swap out the motor system in my T-RCE Slash 4×4 for a new, higher power Viper system. I love putting myself under that kind of pressure. I’m always Mr. Last Minute haha.

MakinTraxx ran a variety of classes:

• Novice
• 1/10 Buggy (was actually combined w/ 1/8 because there weren’t enough)
• Stadium Truck
• 2wd Short Course
• 4wd Short Course
• Truggy (nitro & elec combined)

I only ran 4wd Short Course, and Jarodd ran both 2wd and 4wd sct. His son Mason ran 2wd SCT as well.

Brian (track owner), did a fine job moving the show along, giving guys the heads up on what classes were up next, etc. That’s always nice when you are pitted 100 ft away from the heat sheet to hear what race they are on currently.

The driver’s stand was tall enough to see the entire track, and comfortably held 10 drivers. They use AMB transponders and RC Scoring Pro, which is what we’re used to from running CRC Raceway. They really go the extra mile too to help out beginners. They have a bunch of “House” cars that beginners can borrow (doesn’t charge for it), to see if racing is something that would interest beginners. Also because you can no longer buy AMB/Mylaps house transponders, they further help out beginners who have yet to buy a personal, by hand counting trucks. All you had to do was put your car number on the driver’s window. Talk about helpful..

The atmosphere was friendly but still competitive. I didn’t see anyone throw their truck and swear up a storm if something didn’t go their way. That’s a pet peeve of mine when I see that happen at the track, especially with families around. We’re racing model cars.. there’s no money on the line.. what is there to get bent out of shape about? Well.. that said.. I saw none of that here, which was great.

The track is actually behind the owner’s house, but there is plenty of parking and a good facility. They have a small hobbyshop, PA system, proper piping, water for when the track dries out, a toilet, they ordered pizza for lunch, a working soda machine, etc. The track itself is pretty big. They try to find a balance between 1/10 and 1/8 and I think they’ve done a fine job with that on both track size and layout. The surface was really nice, grippy clay. It was a bit slick when we got there from the rain the day before, but with the sun and wind it dried up pretty well. There is no real loose top to it, so there was almost no dust as well. Makes for a clean truck at the end of the day.

Jarodd ended up winning both classes he entered (if you don’t count the 1/10 2wd buggy running in the 2wd SCT class). We both really liked the layout and thought it was a fun track. We had a great time and can’t wait to make the trek out there again next year sometime.

This is pretty much all I have to say about MakinTraxx. It’s a backyard track, but a VERY nice one. Everything they’ve done, they’ve done well.. and we can’t wait to see what more they have up their sleeve to make the facility even better (Brian mentioned that he’d be adding lights at some point, which I think all tracks should have).

You can visit their website or friend them on Facebook to keep up to date with all their events. You can also find them on the forum WNYRC.com.

I’ll leave you with a bunch of shots from throughout the day. First, a video of the layout.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6l347DfPAY[/youtube]

Use the page numbers below to see more pics!