Nitro Racing in PA (Harrisburgh - Philly)

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bigfreak

Gone - bye bye.
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For such a small forum, we sure have a lot of Nitro racers that hail from PA. I'm creating this thread to serve as 1) a resource for folks who wish to race in this area and 2) as a place to get to know one another and maybe organize some weekends we can all go racning together.

Before I get started, I race 8th scale off-road buggies. The other PA folks I've met in the forum also seem to run buggies (and/or MT's and truggies). I may not speak for everyone, but my info is going to be slanted towards that part of the hobby. We may have some great onroads track around here, for example, but I honestly haven't a clue about where they are or who to contact.

The Eastern PA Track List

Marshall's
Marshall's Hilltop Hobbies
55 Altoona Farms Rd
Honesdale, PA 18431-3006 Phone: (570) 729-7458
NOTES: They have a pretty strong 1/8th scale buggy class. The 1/10th scale isn't bad either. The dirt is real loose, Mugshots or something like that seem to work ok. It's rumored that they use sulfer or something in the dirt and it supposidly causes corosion. The one time I was there is didn't have any problems. I just didn't like how out of the way the track is. Also, they treat you like a child when it comes to radio lock up. :( Oh they also have an onsite hobby shot and a pretty large indoor carpet oval. I assume they do winter electrics or something.

Barnstormers
http://www.barnstormersrc.com/
NOTES: I've never been there, but they have a pretty large 1/8th scale class from what I've heard. They also put on some big races that bring in lots and lots of buggies. The track isn't in PA but a lot of guys from around here go up there.

Hobby Town of Reading
http://www.hobbytownofreading.com/
12-F Wingco Lane
Reading, PA
(610) 916-4477
NOTES:This place is kind of like the McDonalds of RC Racing. The people running the races really don't know what they are doing. We went there once and it was a totally bust. To run a track you need to be motivated and have a passion. You can't just pass it onto a 16 year old kid. I hear that you can practice there and the track itself wasn't too bad (last summer anyway).

Pit Stop
Pit Stop Hobbies
262 W. Main St.
Mount Joy, PA 17552
(717) 653-6222
NOTES:The 10th scale nitro class at this place seems to be the biggest, but the 8th scale buggy class had 8-10 entries when I was there. My main concern was the transponder setup, but I've heard they are changing that. It's a nice place for families and they also race on Saturday so if you do stuff on Sunday, this isn't a bad place.

Bumps and Jumps
http://www.bumpsandjumpsrc.com/
NOTES:This is the only indoor track in PA now. This facility in Harrisburg PA is quite large and impressive. It was constructed only with RC in mind. The downside to this place is that they don't much care for 8th scale it seems. The owner runs a 10th scale nitro and that's what the place is all about. He claims that 8th scale makes too much smoke and tears up the track too much, but he runs MT's and truggies... :ahem: This attitude has keep a lot of 8th scale racers away. I was there twice in the summer and the 8th scale was sad and finally non-existent.

Hobby Hut
http://www.hobbyhut.com
HOBBY HUT
609 SOUTH TROOPER ROAD
NORRISTOWN, PA 19403-2309 Phone: (610) 635-1062
NOTES:This was the hot spot last summer. Anyone who is anyone around here was at the hut. I know a lof of guys (me included) that would drive an hour past the nearest track to go race at the hut. They even held the ROAR Regionals there. After sampling most of the offroad tracks in PA, I hitched my wagon at the hut and was there 4-5 weekends last summer. Next sumer is a new season, but I suspect Hobby Hut will be the hot spot again.

Indroduce Yourself
What classes do you race?
Where do you race?
What RC's do you own?
Who do you go racing with?
What's your best RC Racing moment?

Also any info on tracks I missed would be great. I'd like to keep the above info up to date as possible.
 
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my name is chris.
I'm from lancaster pa.
i run 8th scale buggy and MT with a hyper truggy.
i race pit stop on a regular basis and willing to travel to others as well.
Jeff (psunitro) is my racing buddy and partner in crime.
other vehicles owned are a savage SS, HPI nitro mt, hpi super nitro, hpi super nitro rallye, and smartech skylark micro heli, also might pick up a venom mini giant later today.

pit stop this year is converting over to a personal transponder setup.
also thier web site can be found here http://www.pitstophobbies.net/products/default.htm

my best racing moment was when i was using my nitro mt racing gas novice. i blew the rear drive on the truck and finished the race with front wheel drive only. every time i hit the gas the front tires ballooned up with no traction and the motor screamed for mercy. everyone was laughing the entire race, and the announcer insisted on a temp check after the heat. checked in at 310* that motor is still running very strong today.

also pine run, formerly known as J&K hobbies and raceway. can be found here http://www.pinerunhobbies.com/

they have closed down the track for the winter, but expect to be racing again in the spring. i havent heard any new news on this, though i hope to race it at lease once this summer.
 
The personal transponder system is the digital one right? Are they going to have non-personals that they will rent or whatever? This should improve things at pittstop. :)

Also, I'm gonna edit my Pitstop comments. I didn't mean to come off that negative. I appologize. My main problem at pittstop was pitcrew related. My son was the only one around to pit for me. 3 out of 4 times I flamed out at the line because he got all flustered. That wasn't any fault of the track or the track owner. My reference to how the races are run mainly has to do with the holding of the Nitros before the race begins. Leaning out my LSN so I can idle a minute plus on the line erks me. The track folks didn't seem to mind however when I held my son's buggy nor when he held mine.

I plan on another trip to Pit Stop this spring for sure. The new transponder is good news.

EDIT:

I race the 8th scale nitro buggies class only

Hobby Hut is my main place to race (but I'm gonna give pitstop another go)

Here are the two RC's we own:
Mugen MBX5 (standard)
Novarossi modded Top P5 Engine
JR XS3
Airtronics 358 steering servo

OFNA MBX R2 (my son's)
Purple Savage .21 engine
JR xR3i
Hitech 9525 steering servo

Who we race with:
In addition to my son, there is a group of guys at the LHS that we frequently hookup with (9-10 buggies total).

Best moment in rc racing:
I've never won any races, but the one time my son and I went out to the track 2-3 hours early on race day. We put in a good 4-5 practice tanks each. It really was the most fun I've had racing yet and I learned a lot in a short period of time.
 
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i have no idea which system, all i know is you will be able to use the red AMB xponders. i also have no info on rental availability. ill ask when i stop out tonite. no offence taken on pitstop. they dont mine someone holding your car at all, they expect your pitman to do it for the main. next time your there, just grab anyone not racing and they are happy to lend a hand unless they need to do work on thier own car.
 
ryan from just south of the md/pa border

What classes do you race?

1/8 Buggy
Monsters

Where do you race?

BnJ
Nuclear R/C (hunt valley, md, their gettin up and running, still quite new. nice club outdoor offroad track 2 kick back and have a good time, maybe setup a club race).

like 2 try others.

What RC's do you own?

Hyper 7 PCR
GS SUT RTR/PRO

Who do you go racing with?

dad, track friends, fellow club/forum members

What's your best RC Racing moment?

anytime runnin w/dad. distant 2nd, outrunnin any1 who spends more or takes this more serious than i do. more funny than anythin.

met psunitro and corradopsi already, cool cats. also have a core of people from down here at hunt valley. so things are cool.

like 2 get an enduro 2gether down here at hunt valley 1 time this comin spring/summer for fun.

-Ult
 
ok update on pitstop. i was just there tonite to pick up truggy parts. they will NOT be upgrading the transponder system this year. they are instead building a new hobby shop expected to be over 4x larger than the existing one and possibly 2 stories. the boro is only giving them 1 year to do it so they do not have the extra funding for the transponder system. I'm not sure what the deal is with the boro but ill get details on that later when i have more time to talk with the owner. the layout for the track will be changed again this year, hopefully more 8th friendly, although ill race on whatever they give me.
 
I think the transponder thing just took me by surprise. I didn't expect that I'd have to power it. LOL I'll be wired up and ready to plug and go next time.

UltegraSTI, hunt valley is another 1/2 hour or so down the road for me. It sounds like fun though.
 
Hi all. I'm Jeff and I usually race with Psi (Chris) at Pit Stop. I'm a new guy at this stuff so I havent been at may tracks. I can say I was at Hobbytown in Reading 2 days ago and the have their track wiped out. They will be making a new layout for next season. I have a Storm buggy and a Ofna truggy,so I asked him about the MT/truggy class. He said that they run unlimited,unless they get a lot of MTs and truggys then they will split the class. One other thing about there is if you race,dont break unlees you carry all the spares or you run a Traxxas or HPI. That is just about all they carry. I can say their track size is kinda smallish,looks to be suited fo 1/10th more so than 1/8th.
 
Yeah I wasn't pleased with Hobby Town at all. We kind of dropped by cause they opened their track earlier than most last spring (mid April or something).
 
i plan on heading to bumps and jumps this sunday (2nd) anyone else wanna come?
 
negative on the 2nd, i ran 2day and friday down at NRC (HV). great time lotta people came out to run. boy did i have em covered though. even more so 2day, no truck was a match, and neither were most all of the buggies. from 1/3lap down, we were both clean, it took me 2.5laps but i caught a ws72 (ebmod)'d hyper 7, passed him and 3 corners later, i had put a gap on him, he pulled off and started lookin at his car as if somethin was wrong. hehehe.

-Ult
 
Cool,but thet run buggies and MTs together?
 
Hey Chris,this is from BandJ's site. They follow roar rules for buggies as well.



Monster Truck's

Body & Chassis: Any chassis

Motor: .26 maximum engine size

Roar rules



BUT, in this section...............

Nitro Motors: All 1/10 scale vehicles are required to run a .15 or smaller unless that motor came with the kit. If your duratrax came with a .18 you can run it but you must run it in that kit. Monster trucks are limited to a .28 or smaller.


Is it .26 or .28??????????????
 
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for me, .28, at least thats how ill interpret it anyway.

still building this thing, motor is now mounted up and ready to go. radio plate is assembled and ready to go in. the motor mounts needed a LOT of massaging to accomodate the large case of the TOP. i think it'll be worth the effort though ;-)
 
bummer today, kept blowing the uni out of the rear diff. so i packed it in early at the track. i figured something would come up, i only finished the truck at 5:30am last night and this is the first time the engine was even in this chassis. at least i have a minor tune on the engine now. just have to sort out the driveline. oh well, i gotta find out if they make different length hyper uni's or something. i also heard that ultegra has a cracked piston in his SUT. not a good weekend for us hbg, philly, Md guys.
 
It's not all bad this weekend,I got my Storm wheels all spinning in the same direction!!! Stupid rear diff!!
 
Hey everyone what other classes does the hobby hut race? I have a rc10gt and was thinking of raceing it there if they race them. Their website is not working know. I found pictures of there track and it looks like a great setup. The track is about 40 miles from my house. In a coulpe of mounths i will be getting a Mugen MBX5 to race. What engine would you recamend and what would be the cheapest place to get it?I have heard a lot about the RB WS7 2. That is the one i was thinking of getting.
 
That is a good mill. Is that going to be the main place you race? Knowing what kind of track can influance what mill you buy. I would keep it a .21 though.

Not sure what all classes they run,I would think they run 1/10th STs.
 
Yes that will be the main place i race. It is the closest offroad track to me.
 
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