2010 U.S. ROAR 1/10th Electric Off Road Nationals - Photos

[ApexSpeed]

This past weekend was the US ROAR 1/10th Electric National held near to me at Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. I spent most of the last 9 months putting together a program to plan to race this event, but life takes unexpected turns sometimes, and I remain on the sidelines with a camera in-hand.

There is a photo gallery from yesterday's mains found here. Lots of Kyosho content, for some reason.

Great track, awesome racing, excellent turn-out in all classes. Wish I could have been racing, but it's just been one of those years for me. At least I got to shoot some of the mains, though.

Any and all feedback appreciated.



doug

[janus_77]

Cool pics

But just a silly question. Didn't the drivers make their own tire rule ? Since there a some pics with cars with differen tires.

[ApexSpeed]

ROAR makes the tire spec rules for some classes, not the drivers. Not all of the photos in the gallery are from the Mod classes, so there are classes that have open tire rules.

[DCM]

you got a gallery posted up somewhere?

[ApexSpeed]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

There is a photo gallery from yesterday's mains found here.

Originally Posted by DCM

you got a gallery posted up somewhere

Heheh, yup. Linked in the first post.

[Chequered Flag Racing]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

There is a photo gallery from yesterday's mains found here.

Any and all feedback appreciated.
Make a link we can easily find

Originally Posted by DCM

you got a gallery posted up somewhere?

DCM
see red text above. I had to twice in 1st post

[tc3nitro]

Great pictures.....
Was there a lack of Durangos ?

[DCM]

Ta.... I was tired... honest!!

[ApexSpeed]

Yeah, links in the forum body don't have underlines and can't be colored, so it's hard to call it out as a link.

There was one Durango in the lower mains, I believe. You have to realize that Durango just recently got distribution in the United States, so there still aren't that many here unfortunately. Plus, 4wd is such a small class in the US now, that it's tough to justify a car that is more than double the cost of either an Associated B44 and Losi XXX4. There weren't even that many Schumachers out there this weekend.



Just a note, I was only shooting the triple A and some of the B mains. I didn't have time to get everything there, but most of the cars in the higher mains were accounted for. Lots of Losi and Associated cars, for sure.

[peetbee]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

Lots of Losi and Associated cars, for sure.

Mainly XXX4s or are XX4s more popular out there?

[ApexSpeed]

Originally Posted by peetbee

Mainly XXX4s or are XX4s more popular out there?

Depends on the track. Most tracks in the US are smooth, high bite clay or blue groove hardpack, where the XXX4 is the car to have. I didn't see one XX4 out there this weekend, if that tells you anything.

On tracks that get rutted or are loose surface, such as tracks that see a lot of 1/8th scale abuse, the XX4 has an advantage. Parts supply for the XX4 though, can be a problem, so I don't know if a lot of people run them anyway, as good as the car is.



doug

[PositivoNegativo]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

Yeah, links in the forum body don't have underlines and can't be colored, so it's hard to call it out as a link.

There was one Durango in the lower mains, I believe. You have to realize that Durango just recently got distribution in the United States, so there still aren't that many here unfortunately. Plus, 4wd is such a small class in the US now, that it's tough to justify a car that is more than double the cost of either an Associated B44 and Losi XXX4. There weren't even that many Schumachers out there this weekend.

not much difference..

Team Durango DEX410R: 349$

Losi XXX-4: 280$
Associated B44: 310$
Kyosho ZX-5 FS2: 419$

[ApexSpeed]

I was speaking of the non-R version, but still, they are very new to the US and people have not had much time to get them in their hands before this weekend. The other cars you mentioned have been here for many years already.

And Durango has no factory or team presence in the US at all, so that's the main reason why there are none in the photos.

[seankyew]

Hi Doug,
lovely pictures you got there. would you mind sharing your camera setup and lenses used? thks.

[ApexSpeed]

Originally Posted by seankyew

Hi Doug, lovely pictures you got there. would you mind sharing your camera setup and lenses used? thks.

Thanks! Sure, the camera is a Nikon D70S using my cheep-o Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 G lens. The lens is completely unusable on a windy day because it's so light (plastic body), but if you are shooting stuff like this that you can use a mono-pod or at least brace yourself really well while seated, it can give some great results for not a lot of cash.

I shot everything in Shutter priority mode, at a speed of 1/1000 or above, so that explains the lack of depth of field in some of the static grid shots that were shot with a pretty long lens focal length from where I was standing.



doug

[seankyew]

thks for the info Doug. will try using a cheap dslr one of these days.
cheers.

[peetbee]

Thanks Doug.
They are great pictures