Motorama is essentially 2 races in one. It’s a huge 1/10 off-road race (350-400 entries) on a clay track, and a 1/8 off-road race (350-400 entries) on a dirt/clay track. Virtually every manufacturer is represented with guys from Team Associated, TLR, Mugen, Serpent, Kyosho, Schumacher, Durango, and more.

The 1/10 side has been announced/directed the last several years by Team Novak/LiveRC’s Charlie Suangka. He’s honestly one of the most amusing and entertaining announcers in all of r/c. He’s deemed the 1/10 track the “awesome track” at Motorama.

Below are some shots of the 1/10 track at the 2014 Motorama.

Friday’s practice session was run all day, with an hour of Modified, followed by an hour of Stock, and repeated. There was no class breakdown, just by horsepower. With 10 guys on the stand at once, they worked thru the line as best they could. Organized heats might have been more ideal and make folks not have to wait. This method does allow the possibility to run multiple times within the same hour of practice if you are willing to wait in line though. It worked well for the most part.

The line to practice on the 1/10 track

I never like to highlight the negative about an event, but a lot of people were complaining on Friday about the condition of the 1/10 track. It was rough out there for a clay track. People have gotten used to “brown carpet” racing it seems. I have to agree that it wasn’t the track it was last year. What it comes down to, is that Motorama (the event), basically only gives the track crew 24 hours to build the racing surface for both tracks. Due to high rental fees of the facility they cannot get in there any earlier. I didn’t know this, but supposedly this clay is re-used and stored outside every year. So essentially this material was in a snow-bank and waterlogged a few days prior. That explains the reason it was so soft and would dimple when a marshall stepped on it.

I think the track crew did a great job with the circumstances given. Each night they worked hours to roll the track to smooth and dry it out. It got better every day. They even fixed a section of the track that everyone hated (back left when looking from the drivers stand). It was basically an off-camber turn, but facing away from you where the car would disappear behind the berm. They shaved it down Friday night for Saturday’s qualifying rounds and it was much much better.

Overall I thought the layout was fun. The surface was a bit challenging as I mentioned, but everyone is running on the same conditions. It came down to finding a setup that would absorb the imperfections in the track and keep the wheels planted the best. It was less of an issue as the track improved.

Drivers stand.

Some buggies lined up to start a qualifying run.

We borrowed (with permission), some pics from a talented photographer for the following action shots. Nathan Gregoire aka “the RC PhoTog” was there at Motorama, racing and shooting all weekend. He got some great shots. If you want to see more you can friend him on Facebook or check out his Photo Gallery. He’s got a TON more photos there to check out.

Above is newly recruited Team Soup member Jim Hustins laying down the horsepower in his Pro-Line Pro-2 Short Course.

Tom Cockerill’s Schumacher SCT

Video of the 1/10 track:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjOG2zDawXw[/youtube]

Overall the experience on the 1/10 track was still a pleasant one. Charlie killed it on the mic as he always does. He had some backup help from New Englander Casey Rettke, who also did a great job of keeping the show moving. Casey also ran tech inspection for the stock classes, ensuring folks were running the right motors, were in blinky mode, and checking battery voltage. This is the first time I think I’ve seen an organized Tech at this race. Glad to see it for the stock classes. Normally they would just check the top finishers.

Next year I will still be running the 1/10 track. It’s a great experience and a lot of fun. The track is more manageable for my poor vision as well.

Next up is some 1/8 track coverage. By the way, full results from both tracks are on Page 5.