Hudson column: Radio-controlled chaos

Todd Waters has been racing radio-controlled trucks for more than 20 years. Photo by Glenn Hudson, Salisbury Post.

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Competitors love to customize their race trucks to reflect their own personality. Photo by Glenn Hudson, for the Salisbury Post

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Chad Cross hosts his buddies for radio-controlled truck racing in his backyard. Photo by Glenn Hudson, for the Salisbury Post.

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By Glenn Hudson

For the Salisbury Post

He who laughs the most is the winner. That is pretty much the concept that fuels a group of Salisbury men who race radio-controlled off-road racing trucks on tracks they have designed in their own backyards.

We’re not talking about toys either. These trucks will do 50 mph and jump several feet in the air. The chaos is absolutely hilarious when you put several on a track at the same time. And that is exactly the point.

“I’ve been doing this about one-and-a-half years,” said Chad Cross, 38, who has two tracks in his backyard, an oval and a road course with jumps. “A buddy came over one time with a car and I got to drive it in the street. I thought, ‘Man, that’s fun.’ Now I have four of them.”

Cross isn’t alone in his passion for these 1/10th-scale race trucks. His friend Todd Waters, 45, has been racing radio-controlled trucks for more than 21 years and has run more than 1,600 races. He says he has spent countless hours of long days and nights building trucks from the ground up. That changed with the Traxxas Slash, a truck that is race-ready right out of the box.

“You can’t tear them up,” said Waters. “They are very low maintenance. And you can go 50 mph right out of the box.”

It is quite impressive to see how much punishment these trucks can take. They routinely jump five feet or more in distance, only to crash land in a cartwheeling blur. That is when one of the other trucks will drive over and help flip the crashed truck upright again. Or, one of the drivers will simply run onto the track and flip the truck over themselves. Then it is back to racing.

When they do need to be fixed, Cross and his friends are usually replacing small plastic parts such as gears, tires, wheel bearings and drive shafts. Most of these pieces are rather inexpensive to replace. And regularly checking the truck for loose screws between races really helps to prevent breakage.

Each driver will usually have several batteries on hand for racing. Each battery lasts about 15 minutes. But the batteries can be charged from your car battery so even if you are away from electricity you can still get back in the race.

Prices start at about $200 for a truck for a beginner. Veteran radio-controlled racers are spending upwards of $500 for a trucks that are ready to win immediately. Of course, that isn’t necessarily the point depending on with whom you are racing.

Regardless, as soon as you make your first jump, and your first big crash landing, you’ll be hooked on this mini form of motor sports.