This weekend was the final round of the Ontario RC Pro Series held at Hardwood Ski & Bike located about 1.5 hours north of Toronto. The track was very challenging to say the least; with real logs used for the washboard sections, a sand box filled with beach sand, grass, a huge gap jump, a monstrous table-top, and rocks the size of small children just to keep you from getting too cocky! I arrived late to practice on Friday and was only able to get 1 battery pack through my E-Buggy before it got too dark.
Saturday morning I was able to run my E-Buggy which was a complete handfull, and my nitro buggy which wasn't too bad considering my main focus was to wrap-up the E-Buggy championship so nitro was the last thing on my mind. My goal for qualifying on saturday was to just be smart as the track was so blown out that driving at anything more than 6/10th's would mean you're upside down. I did just that in round 1 for E-Buggy, kept the buggy moving and on all 4's until the final lap where I ran into a car that was crashed and awaiting a marshall. I ended up 2nd on the round because of it but I wasn't the least bit worried. My nitro qualifier saw much of the same, just driving around, turning laps, keeping the shinny side up, and I ended up 2nd in round 1 for nitro aswell!

Round 2 I made some changes to my E-buggy to try and make it more driveable at speed over the insanely blown out track but it just ended up making the buggy worse. It was hooking over every rut, rock, hole, anything and would just not settle down. Luckily I had kept a cool head and just drove the car even more conservatively (which kills me by the way!) and ended up taking TQ for the round. In round 2 for Nitro, I ended up qualifying 3rd but again, the main focus was wrapping up E-buggy since races 1-3 in the series were complete disasters for me in Nitro Buggy. By round 3 the track was becoming very undriveable for the buggies. Lap times had dropped off almost 2 seconds and I was starting to become very frustrated. I beat myself in Round 3 as I let my temper get to me by driving a horrible car WAY harder than it should have been driven, so needless to say Round 3 was one of my throw aways in the qual-points format with round 4 to run early sunday morning.

Tom Wright and I decided to stay late on Saturday after qualifying to try and make our E-buggies more complient over the rough track and tried 2 completely opposite setups. I tried a super light shock oil setting with yellow springs, stood as far upright as possible, while Tom tried thicker shock oil settings with red springs, laid down about half way. After some testing, tire swaping, and car trading, Tom and I decided his setup would be the one to go with. It absorbed the ruts/holes/rocks/boulders/grass...EVERYTHING better than my car did so we went that route.

When we arrived Sunday it was absolutely POURING rain, and the weather did not subside. I wanted to race for the mere fact that I didn't get to showcase the prototype 801x-e buggy's full potential at all on the weekend but I knew that if we didn't run the mains I would still win the Ontario Championship in E-Buggy. It ended up raining non-stop all day long on Sunday so the drivers all voted to call the race and base the points off qualifying. Just like that I captured the Ontario RC Pro Series Championship in 1/8th Electric Buggy, ahead of Kyosho driver John Summach in his Mp9E.

This past weekend was the official kickoff to our outdoor season up here in Canada at Niagara Offroad RC located in Welland about 20min from Niagara Falls. It was great to see that all I lost from the end of last year's outdoor season was my tan as all 3 of the cars that I ran were dialed come the end of a rain-shortened friday practice. Maybe its the onroad in me but I love the feel of a damp, high grip track as overcat skies all day Saturday kept the track in perfect condition for me to show what my cars can really do in the qual points format.

In truggy, my weekend started off well, but I just couldn't get my truck to rotate enough on the super tight layout. I qualified 3rd after rounds 1 and 2, 4th after round 3 and a brutal 9th after the final round. Once the points were tallied I had a 4th place starting position in the main and nervous as to what the weather would be like on Sunday. Come Sunday morning it was clear skies and temperatures in the 20's (mid-low 80's) as the track was showing signs of really drying out. Once practice was over, the track was starting to become very blown out, and got worse and worse as the races went on. When the main rolled around, it was over pretty much as quickly as it began. I ran 3 laps and had a bad landing resulting in a broken front knuckle. A disappointing end to the weekend for my truck.

In nitro buggy I qualified well taking 2nd place to Losi driver George Stilliadis in every single round of qualifying. As I went faster, he seemed to pickup the same amount of time I did every round no matter what changes I made. I knew I had a chance to beat him in the main as he was only getting me by about 5 sec in each round, and our fastest laps were very close. When the A main rolled around, I was puzzled as to how I should attack the ever-changing, super blown out track. When the main started, the weather started to become very windy and caused mayhem over one of the big air jump! You lost too much time if you decided to roll it every lap, so I thought I'd be heroic and only jump it when I didn't feel a big gust of wind. My idea was working brilliantly as I was running in 2nd (as George was doing the same thing) until I slowly began loosing rear drive - my rear ring gear was slowly stripping! A few laps later spelled the end of my day as it became impossible to make the jumps with just front wheel drive. Another disappointment for my already not-so-awesome sunday.

I ran the prototype 801x-e at the event as well and was super excited to see what it could do outdoors. Just as I suspected, in qualifying on saturday the car was virtually untouchable. Nobody could get within 1sec of my fastest lap, and I was easily 10sec ahead of the field in each race. When sunday rolled around, the script was much different. The dry, blown out track meant that I had to actively change my setup to keep up with the more experienced offroad drivers who have likely seen these drastic changes before. Kyosho America driver John Summach was the only one who's car looked as dialed as mine going around the track, and on Sunday he had his car dialed! It through me off in the first of the triple A mains as he drove right around me and off into the sunset. I later broke in that race but honestly had no chance in catching him - my work was cut out for me as I was not so invincible anymore! In A2 I got my car working much better and we had a great race the entire 10min and were never separated by more than a few seconds, trading the lead a few times throughout the race. On the last lap, I had to dig deep and find a way to pass him as I was all over him, knowing his years of offroad experience likely wouldn't translate to a bobble. I dove inside him on a tight left turn and completed the pass over a set of doubles and took the win in A2! In A3, the race was tight again, and my buggy worked well. Still not as perfect as on Saturday but it drove off the corners really well and was very predictable. I didn't make a single error the entire race and was able to take the win, the first for the new 801x-e!
My next event will be a club race this weekend, followed by the 2nd round of the RC Pro Series in Kingsville, Ontario...which is about 4hours from Toronto!

Much like NASCAR, we start our season off with the biggest race of the year. The Canadian Indoor Offroad Shootout is held every year in Tillsonburg, Ontario. Where is Tillsonburg? The best answer would have to be just west of no where! (infact it is actually 2.5hrs west of Toronto) This year the race had over 400 entries, and the competition was more fierce than ever.
I ran the prototype 1/8th electric buggy at this event as well as truggy and buggy. At the start of the weekend my electric 1/8th buggy was the center of attention as many people stopped by to talk about it as well as take a few photos of it. I made 4 practice runs with the new E-Buggy and had 3 motors blow up on me. I ended up borrowing a motor from somebody for the first qualifier and with only about 20laps on the car in practice on that layout I was off. I set TQ in the first round over Barry Baker, Dave Henry and Tamiya Canada's Abiye Birku. Round 2 I made the wrong tire choice and ended up not improving my time, but Barry had beat my TQ. In round 3 my car was dialed and set some very fast, impressive laps with the car! Going into the last minute Barry and I were both on new TQ runs, but he ended up going a little faster than me in that run and took TQ - the main was definately going to be exciting!!...or so I thought. When the horn sounded to start the main I got tagged a number of times allowing Barry to sail off to an easy, uncontested victory and I had to settle for a very disappointing 4th! However the car ran great, and I can't say enough about how awesome this new electric buggy is!

In truggy, it just wasn't my weekend. Between lap traffic, bad tire choices, and stupidity on my part I just couldn't qualify for the A main. I ended up in the B main with Frank Calandra and knew we both had the best chance of bumping up if we could run clean races. We both ran clean races and Frank ended up bumping up. On the other hand, I did not have such great luck. With 10 seconds to go in the race I had a drive pin fall out and ended up on 3 wheel drive. I got passed by Hot Bodies driver Rick Endler and ended up 3rd.
In Buggy there was some instense competition all weekend long. Dakotah Phend set TQ with a diverse field of manufactures represented behind him all hungry to take the win! In qualifying, my goal was to put in 3 solid runs which should put me in the A. However after breaking in the first round, I put in a conservative second run to make sure I was in good position for the re-sort. Unfortunately I didn't better my time in round 3 and ended up qualifying in a stacked B main with Frank Calandra, Scott Cramer, and a host of other extremely fast drivers. When the tone sounded I got mixed up a little at the start of the race and ended up in DEAD LAST by about 1/4 lap. Being already upset about the truggy main prior I was out to prove something. I drove like I never drove before picking off each car 1 by 1 in the 20min B main to come back and pass Scott Cramer to take 2nd with just over 5min to go. Praying to the RC Gods for the last 10sec to go smoothly this time, they answered my prayers. I ended up bumping up with Frank Calandra to the A Main. The fun had only just began!

In the A main I drove a smart, clean, hard race out to prove that I belonged in the A main. Another bad start, this time as a result of a personal error left me with a huge deficit to make up again right from the start. I turned some crazy fast laps the entire race trying to catch back up and with some great pit strategy from my Dad and Tamiya's Tom Wright I was able to pass cars both on track and in the pits! The funny thing I have always found about offroad in the short time I have been running it is that with 15 cars in the A-Main...being that 15th car means you have to pass 14 others to end up first ! (I know genious math right?) well I felt like I had passed more cars than I had ever passed before and I was STILL in 5th!! I ended up picking off 1 more car in the final minute to end up 4th, still on the lead lap! The final results in buggy were as follows:

1. Dakotah Phend (Losi)
2. Dave Henry (Losi)
3. Mike Morales (O'Donnell)
4. Steve Bortolotti (Tamiya)
5. Derek Guidery (Associated)
6. Jerome Treignier (Kyosho)
7. Frank Calandra Jr. (Losi/CRC)
8. Chris Rogers (?)
9. Ben Wheeler (Associated)
10. Daniel Yachin (Losi)
11. Jimbo Kuidera (O'Donnell)
12. Mark Calandra (Losi/CRC)
13. Barry Baker (O'Donnell)
14. Abiye Birku (Tamiya)
15. George Stilliadis (Losi)

Finally got to kick-off my 8th scale nitro season this past weekend at AMS Raceway in Michigan with a very successful race! I ran both the buggy and truggy just to shake down both cars before the Canadian Indoor Offroad Shootout in Tillsonburg next month. My buggy started the weekend off super loose as my shot in the dark clay setup was as close to a fail as one can get! However, I was able to get the car figured out quickly and learn the track before qualifying started. Once qualifying started, I had a clean first run and put myself 3rd on the grid behind Al Horne and Tamiya Teammate Abiye Birku. I failed to improve my run in the following rounds, as did everyone else as a matter of fact so the order stayed the same as after round 1 for the main. When the main started, an ugly first corner saw me grab 2nd and hold it for the first 10min. Once the first round of pit-stops cycled through I had some contact leaving pit lane dropping me back to third. I had to put up a fight to hold off the 4th place car for the last 8min of the race but I had pushed too hard so on the last corner of the last lap...I ran out of fuel!!!!! I ended up a frustrating 4th place.
In Truggy, my 801x-t was defiantely the class of the field. With my shot in the dark clay set-up being absolutely dialed from the minute I put it down on the track, the only change I made was adjusting the brake bias to compensate for the tight corners at AMS (tight as far as a truggy is concerned). I set the TQ in round 1, reset it in round 3, and drove my Reedy powered 801x-t for 30min with just 2 fuel stops to take the win!

All in all the roadtrip to Michigan was very productive. We got a chance to play with setup, and experiment with fuel strategy. Looking forward to Tillsonburg!

Steve 

My onroad season officially came to a close last weekend as the final leg of the North East Grand Slam series made its way to Fastcats. I ended up just running 13.5 rubber since the turnout for the race was rather disappointing and I didn't feel like rushing to get my 12th scale ready to race with only a handful of guys in the 10.5 12th scale class. I got my 416x working really well at the race and was definately in contention for the win. While on a 2nd or 3rd place run in my 3rd qualifier I had a mishap with a lap car which saw me end up grabbing 4th on the grid for the start of the mains. I wasn't too disappointed because I knew I would be able to put up a fight since my car had been very fast all weekend. From the sound of the tone, my John Force-like reaction times which I have become known for allowed me to leap frog Paul Ciccarello and pull right up behind Martin Crisp. Keven Hebert turned the fastest laps all weekend in his first 5 laps of the race so he had checked out on the field pretty quickly, which put the race on for 2nd. With Joe Glover added to the mix we had a 3 way battle on our hands for 2nd place! After some of the most exciting racing all weekend, I tried a bonzai pass in the last minute of the race to try and improve my position but to no avail, I ended up 4th. However, like our Canadian Ski-Cross athlete who choked at the Olympics this year while running in second said, "who cares if I didn't end up on the podium, I wanted Gold or nothing!"

Speaking of the Olympics, the Gold Medal game is tomorrow between Canada and the USA in men's hockey. If you love hockey, chances are you have cleared your busy Sunday schedule like I have to watch the game. If you don't care about hockey, this would be a great time to start caring because there is a lot of pride on the line for both countries. In my lifetime there has been no bigger rivalry in hockey then the one between Canada and the USA. The Russians like to think they have this rivalry with us but its just been us spanking them as of late. The Americans however, have put up some great competition for us, and there is nothing more exciting to watch then a competitive, hard fought game of hockey.

The upcoming offroad season is looking to be packed with races and is going to contain some great competition. Its hard to explain how much I'm looking forward to this coming offroad season. Last year was my first year running offroad and I found success rather quickly and I really enjoyed it a lot more then I initially thought I was going to! This year is going to be a lot different because now I have some experience, and I am expecting a lot more of myself. I was happy to win the Ontario division of the RC Pro Series (same as winning your state), but this year, with the finals Canadian Finals in Ontario, I want more. The ultimate goal would be to win every race I attend but in reality its just not that easy. This year I want to find myself on every podium and contending for every win, and get more local offroad guys to buy Tamiya products. Hopefully the weather cooperates a little more this year and we don't have as many races shortened due to bad weather!

GO CANADA GO!
Steve

If you have read any of my blogs, you would have probably read of a state-of-the-art facility we have here in Canada called Fastcats. Well, it seems as though this world class facility north of the boarder will be closing at the end of March. They have had a number of big name drivers attend their facility over the last 5 years, who have all been amazed by the facility for everything from its size, cleanliness, and electronic gizmos that made racing there so different from any other facility I have personally ever been too. The hard work the entire Fastcats family had put into the track should not go unnoticed by anyone in the r/c community. Take this chance to check out pictures on their website www.fastcats.ca and possibly even attend one of the last big onroad race(s) that will be held there Feb. 19-22 which is the final leg of the NorthEast Grand Slam series, or the Feb. 28 Tamiya Championship Series race.
The most unfortunate part of this facility in my opinion was defiantely its location. As hard as the entire family worked, it was a very difficult to overcome the handicap they had right from the start: location. The track is located in Oakville, which for those of you who don't know is about 45min west of Toronto, and about the same distance from Niagara on the opposite end. This made getting there during the week very difficult for those coming from the east end of Toronto - which is where a large portion of the r/c population is located here in Canada - and as a result few people would want to travel over an hour on a weeknight to get at the most 1hr of track time. The summers have also been a problem for Fastcats as most of the r/c racing in the summer is 1/8th scale offroad, which they had no control over.

All in all, I had many great memories at Fastcats. The track opened only a year after I started racing, so much of my "development" lets say has come at that track. Some of you have encountered some of Fastcats' creations without even knowing they came from that track! If you have been to the Snowbirds the last few years, or the R.O.A.R. carpet nats in Cleveland last year you would have noticed the "FastLaps" system. You scan a barcode on the bottom of your radio, and the computer will pull up all the laps your transponder has done in the last race, or even month if you care to know! It is pretty neat stuff!!

Fastcats will definately be missed by the many people who have walked through its doors! However they claim they won't be gone for long and have something lurking in the shadows once they are done their much deserved break!
Lastly, if any of you have any snow...please send it to Vancouver for the Olympics!!

Steve Bortolotti

It is no secret that onroad racing is changing a lot and the past few races I have attended have certainly shown me why onroad is dieing a slow death. I feel like todays average sportsman racer has grown tired of the constant speed control war and how certain companies seem to have such a huge gap over their competition when it comes to stock & superstock racing. From a high-level competitors stand point, it has really been the same since I started racing with having to always drop tons of money for the latest, greatest electronic equipment, but now it is much different. 3-4 years ago you were at least still able to compete if you didn't have the "speed control of the month." You may not have been the fastest down the straightaway, but you were usually able to bridge the gap by gearing a little lower for a little more punch in the infield, or something to that effect. Now the situation is much different: if you don't have a speed control that can allow for a timing increase or "turbo" as some have been calling it, you will find yourself way to far off the pace and unable to bridge the gap.
This became a reality for me this past weekend when I attended a leg of the Southwestern Ontario Series at Lou's Speedway in London, Ontario (about a 2h drive from Toronto). I normally race 13.5 rubber, and since I will be attending the Snowbirds in a couple weeks I decided that travelling to a different, high grip track would be great practice. Well the turnout for the 13.5 rubber class was dismal, so that class did not run. Instead the 17.5 rubber class was the big class out that way so I decided that since I had driven 2 hours, I wasn't about to run only my 12th scale and not run the car I intended to go practice with in the first place. So I borrowed a 17.5 and lets just say let the boredom begin! How that class is appealing to so many people I have no idea. Who wants to go out and buy $500+ touring cars to run that slow?!? But wait, if you buy the $400 speed control and run 17.5 its all of a sudden not so slow......and we have our answer!! I see the difference now that these speed controls are making and why people are becoming so frustrated with onroad racing. I ended up finishing second in the 17.5 rubber class even though I was loosing 4-6ft every lap on the straight away to nearly everyone. The only positive thing that came out of running 17.5 this past weekend was that it forced me to drive perfect because being so down on power it is impossible to make up for any mistakes.

On the 25th I will be leaving for the Snowbirds. That race will be very different as I will be running the much faster 13.5 class, and hopefully my LRP speedcontrol will arrive in time for that event so I am able to be competitive with it. I will also be running 10.5 12th scale at the Snowbirds to help fill the massive amounts of time between races! Hope to see some of you there!

Steve Bortolotti

This indoor season I have chosen to run the DB01-R. Although it isn't the top of the line 1/10th scale offering from Tamiya, I have always felt it is a very capable car and definately competitive for the style of indoor offroad racing we do in the winter here in Canada. What style is this you may ask? Its carpet offroad, similar to the way the Europeans do it in some places. Fastcats was originally an onroad racetrack but with the growing interest in offroad they felt the need to cater to both groups. The interest is really only from the guys who run 1/8th offroad to have something to do over the winter so building an entirely new track would not be profitable all year round. Well the result was a carpet that got laid overtop of the onroad track with jumps on it and WALLAAA!! we have our track! I added a picture for you to see what it looks like!



Anyway back to the DB01-R; I chose to run it for a number of reasons. The first being the price: most stores here in the Toronto area are selling the car for just over $300 which is very reasonable since it has about $200 worth of option parts included in the kit. Since most of the racers are just running 10th scale offroad to keep busy/sharp over the winter, they have no reason to go out and buy the really high-end Tamiya 511 at twice the price just to have fun when other manufacturers have vehicles that seem to be just as capable as the 511, around the same price point as the DB01-R. The second reason is that the average Joe wants to run what the "pros" are running. I mean this in the least arrogant way possible but at Fastcats, I am looked at as one of the "pros". I feel that it is WAY more likely for racers to go out and buy the AFFORDABLE car that the Factory Driver is using, rather than going out and purchasing a more expensive car and recieving less help/advice. The third and final reason I chose to run the DB01-R is because the balance of the car is more evenly distributed front-rear than the Tamiya 511. This means that for most racers it will drive and jump in a very neutral manner making it very easy to drive.
The only option parts I am using are the titanium screw kit (I don't have the patience to work with phillips head screws), and the aluminum rear uprights. I have run the car at 2 club races, and at Fastcats' first big trophy race of the season yesterday called the Fall Classic. With over 40 entries in the 4wd open class, and many of the top 8th scale drivers in Ontario in attendence, the competition was very intense. I definaetly turned some heads with the car yesterday at the Fall Classic by qualifying 2nd. However, I wasn't about to be denied a victory with this car - I had something to prove to a lot of people who doubted my decision to run this car. After quickly passing the TQ holder in the first corner, I never looked back and led wire-to-wire to claim victory in the first big race with the new DB01-R! Although my setup is likely useless on all dirt tracks, I have submitted it incase anyone finds themselves running on a carpet offroad track as it will definately be a great starting point!



On another note, I will be attending the Snowbirds in January, hopefully I will see some of you there!


Steve Bortolotti

This past weekend was the Can-Am RC Challenge which was held at the Seaway Mall just 10min away from Niagara Falls, and I must say this event was trully something special. I lost count as to how many people came up to me and commented that they had no idea people raced these "little cars" and that they found them to be pretty cool! Hobby stores had booths setup and moved a number of cars over the course of the 3 day event. The racing went well for the Tamiya Team as we had a 1,2 finish in the 10.5 rubber class! Martin Crisp took the win, and I finished second.
However as important as the race was for all those who competed, it didn't compare to the hundreds, if not thousands of specators that made their way past the track and stopped by to watch. The race was advirtised throughout the mall in the weeks prior, and also made its way onto a local radio station as well as a local news channel! Every race had people snapping pictures of their favourite cars as they went by, and it was awesome to hear the kids cheering and laughing everytime a car crashed.

Looking back at this event it has really made me notice all that is wrong with R/C racing:


NOBODY CAN SEE IT!!


What good is this hobby of ours if we can't bring more people into it? It would be great to see all big races held in high traffic areas because even if 3 people of lets say 1000 that see, join - thats a big deal! I'm not saying they have to be in a mall but even in the parking lot of a car dealership, off in the parking lot at a 1/1 scale racing event, ANYWHERE that people can walk by, take a look and just know that this type of racing exsists. The bonus of this event since it was held in the mall was that it became a much more family friendly event. I saw a number of wives, children, girlfriends and parents make the trip to watch the race because between races they could shop, walk around, and eat without technically ever leaving the track! It was also a great way to intoduce my girlfriend into the hobby aswell as this was the first race she came to watch! Come'on guys, wouldn't you rather your girlfriend's first impressions of the hobby be in a SHOPPING MALL?!? You're in a win-win situation really!

Next year's event will be bigger and better, and I really hope to see some more Tamiya drivers out!

Steve

Hey Guys,

 Now that the outdoor offroad season has come to an end for us Canadians, I would like to take this opportunity to invite anyone interested to our first big onroad race of the season! The Can-Am RC Challenge is held in the center-court of a shopping mall located just minutes from Niagara Falls (Canadian side of the boarder). This race is going to get tons of exposure not only for Tamiya, but also for RC racing in general in Southern Ontario as well as North-Eastern United States. It would be great to see some other Tamiya drivers out to this event! Martin Crisp and I will be there running in the 10.5 rubber class.

For more information on this event please visit www.canamrcchallenge.com

 For those of you wanting to save money, you can stay on the American side of Nigara Falls and just cross the boarder everyday. The mall is only 15minutes from the boarder!

Steve