Last weekend (September 28, 2014) I had the pleasure of attending the Florida Scale Trail Runners Pre G6 at Scott Springs in Ocala FL. This was a 100 gate (200 if you made both laps) course through the park to test man and machine. The idea was to get the hang of what we are to expect in a couple of weeks at the Coven Quest G6.

There was to be 2 laps around the course, followed by a BBQ and good conversation. There were some hidden items on the course. If you were lucky enough to find one, you were treated to a giveaway item donated by one of the sponsors. (Newred Hobbies, RRW, and Scalerfab). It was a “fun run”, which meant you kept your own score, and the honor system was used to figure out the top three.

The competitors lineup at the start/finish line, and the FSTR crew went over the rules.

I was running towards the tail end of the pack. And I ran into this a few times. At some of the gates that were more difficult, a backup would develop. It worked to our benefit though, as people would help each other through the gates.

I hit the trail with these two. On the bottom is an Axial Wraith Poison Spyder edition. It is mostly stock. It’s got a servo winch in it now, as well as a Tekin 35T brushed motor. I also swapped out the stock servo for a waterproof unit from Hitec. I’m running it on 3S. The other rig is the new Axial Racing Ram Power Wagon. It is completely stock, with the exception of the newly waterproofed receiver. More on that here.

This was gate #1. You had to navigate through the rocks before heading down into the ditch and a concrete tunnel.

It’s a good thing I was still close to the starting point. On gate 1, I broke the rear driveshaft on the Wraith. Time to upgrade! One of the rear tires got wedged in bewteen two rocks, and this was the result when I hit the throttle.

I went back to the start and grabbed the SCX10 C/R Edition Jeep. This will be our raffle vehicle this year for the Children’s Miracle Network (after we upgrade the heck out of it of course). Stay tuned for more on that.

Two Ready-to-Runs on the trail together. My daughter was driving the Ram Power Wagon.

There were some rock piles interspersed through the course. Here is a heavily modified Wraith crawling over one of them.

One of the many custom rigs that I saw on the trail. This one is a Bronco body with a custom cage.

There were a few spots on the course that you were almost guaranteed to use a winch. If you didn’t have one, you had to hope the guy in front of you did, and that he could tow you through the obstacle.

The two Axial RTR SCX10’s did fairly well. There were only a couple of times I wished I had the Wraith, and the winch.

This was a very difficult section. Everyone used a winch to get through, or used the winch from the rig in front of them to pull them up.

With no winch, we “hand winched” the Ram Power Wagon up the hill.

There was a small pond next to this hill, but you only needed to touch the edge of the water.

I didn’t want to find out if anyone was home.

To my amazement, this bone stock SCX10 C/R edition made it up the hill that everyone was having so much trouble with. I picked a different line than I had seen others take, and It walked right up. I was very impressed.

This gate involved scaling a large boulder, and dropping down on the other side. I told my daughter to take it easy, and feather the trigger.

She got up the face of the rock with no issue.

When she went to drop down the back, she used a little too much throttle, and wound up on her side.

I told her to sit tight, I would get over the boulder and push her back onto her wheels. She had a good laugh at this one.

Near the entrance to the park, there were large piles of boulders. There were gates interspersed through this area, which made for a lot of fun crawling around.

These guys were lucky enough to find some of the items that were left out on the trail, and were treated to some giveaways from the sponsors. Thank you again to Newred Hobbies, RRW, and Scalerfab.com.  

When the scorecards were tallied, here was the podium. Again this was for fun, so they were running for bragging rights more than anything.

After the runs were done, the Florida Scale Trail Runners fired up the grill, and the feast ensued.

I wanted to thank the Florida Scale Trail Runners for putting on an AWESOME event. I can’t wait until the TTC in December!

Photo Credits to Steve Moser and Florida Scale Trailrunners