Just a little post and a couple pictures of our ‘First Look’ photo shoot from yesterday with Stephen Bess from RC Car Action. Dana, the owner of Revelation Raceway was kind enough to give us some exclusive time on the track for the shoot. We set out from San Diego around 11 in the morning and arrived around 1PM. We brought 5 test cars with us and got set up in the pits quickly. We chatted for a bit about the car and how the shoot would unfold.
First up was a video interview where Stephen had some questions for us to answer. Stephen was asking some great questions, some that didn’t get covered in some of the first interviews we’ve given (look out for it on RCCA’s website). After that, it was time to hit the track for some fast laps – wait, maybe not yet…
This being our first in-person magazine shoot (rather than simply sending the product to them), it was interesting to see how they captured the car. We thought we would be airing it out over big jumps and trying to get some crazy shots, but it was very different. According to Jason (the photographer, sorry I forgot his last name) and Stephen, the best shots are usually taken very close and at slow to medium throttle.
They took A LOT of pictures around different parts of the track. Going through bumps, doing donuts, and off jumps – A LOT of pictures. Then it was time for some hot laps. We strapped some batteries in and started getting a feel for the layout. We didn’t have time to put any water down on the track so traction was scarce to put it nicely. Most of our cars were set up for high bite indoor and honestly weren’t ideal for these conditions, but we were just having some fun. RC is supposed to be fun sometimes too, right?
We did have one car with us that was set up for outdoor, however, and the transmitter found its way into Stephen’s hands. Immediately he said, “this is how I would want my car set up for this track.” He was going way faster with this particular setup and it seemed he was having a pleasant time. We didn’t want to go changing many settings on the other cars though, because after the shoot we were headed to OCRC for some Wednesday night racing. We finished up the packs, said our good-byes and packed it up.
We arrived at OCRC around 5pm and had somewhat limited time to get on the track and learn the layout. A couple packs later and it was time for some racing. Lucas’ car was stuck to the tacky surface. It landed the two big triples with a pillow-soft touch and was rotating very well. He qualified 3rd just a couple seconds behind OCRC employee and Mugen team driver Jake Thayer, and AE factory driver Chris Jarosz. Lucas finished the main in 3rd, laying down some of the fastest laps the track has seen in the process. He missed the fast lap of the night by only 0.2 seconds Not bad for a pack of practice with no time for setup changes 🙂
Special thanks to Zac Burnside for snapping these photos and thanks to Matt Dub for the Dorito Taco. Seriously, they’re good, you should try one.