It’s been nearly a year since I last took the RC banger out. This blog’s audience has grown quite a lot in that year, and so I know there will be some of you won’t have heard of Brentwood RC Raceway!
Brentwood RC Raceway is a permanent RC oval set up in a unit on a farm/industrial estate just outside the village of South Weald near Brentwood in Essex.
The oval is Prima GT carpet with a raised wooden infield, thick wooden barriers running around the outside (keeping ones ankles safe) and wire and post corners that form the shape of the oval. It’s a fairly short oval but it’s wide, which in my opinion makes it ideal to pick your way through the chaos that is an RC banger race, where there are often tangles of cars blocking up sections of track.
A lot of classes are represented on RC tracks up and down the country, that you would find on real oval tracks in the UK. 1300cc and 2000cc stock cars, bangers, hotrods, Reliant Robins and the purpose built F2 and F1 stock cars.
In RC, most of these classes are based off of the simple Mardave V12 platform. An incredibly simple 1:12th scale chassis which is tough, cheap and easy to maintain. Perfect for the abuse of oval racing!
Whilst the V12 was originally Mardave’s design; there are also companies like Kamtec and Large It who build kits specifically designed to the rules and regulations of RC oval racing classes.
At Brentwood, if you do break something on your car, you don’t have to go too far or wait too long to get back on track, as they have an extensive shop on site: Midge’s RC Spares & Shells, which has expanded since I last went to Brentwood: All the shells are now kept in their own little room:
As the evening sun beams through the perspex roof and reflecting off the white plastic of the shells, one is reminded of a medieval church; where the sun pours through a stained glass window illuminating the pulpit.
It’s a vacuum formed treasure trove of cars. I’m familiar with many from Kamtec’s website, but others such as this Volvo 245 and Ford Cougar I’d not seen before.
The new Mk7 Fiesta hotrod shell. In real world racing, the looks of this cars have proven divisive. It is an odd looking one I must admit.
Ford Model Y. I fancy racing one of these as a micro banger.
There were two very dusty, neglected Group C style LeMans cars in the corner, one of which I just had to buy. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but I know it’s going to be special!
Today’s race was the RC Banger World Series’ (RC BWS) all hearse ramp race. Basically, every car had to be a hearse and a ramp was placed on the back straight to add another challenge.
The shell I’d made for this event was a Dodge Charger, adorned with the American flag to celebrate the 4th of July.
Next to mine is a Rover P5. This looked like the toughest of the short wheel based shells.
I’d like to extend a big thanks to Dan Jordan (black Mercedes below) for help with repairs later on in the evening.
Midge, the owner of the track, in the blue 662.
Alec Quarman, who runs RCBWS and The Anarchists team, with his Granada hearse.
Darren ‘Divvy’ Goldberg had this lovely Vegas themed hydrodipped shell.
The extra long wheel based cars, such as the orange hearse pictured below are impressive. Incredibly tough to come out on top in contact against one of these.
The races were to be 50 laps long.
There were 22 cars in my heat which contained some great drivers such as Koonta and Shaye Hunter.
In the first heat I finished 12th having completed 30 laps. The wires in my receiver had somehow come loose half way through the race which caused some odd issues. I’d have no steering for a minute, then a shunt would return it. Then I’d have no throttle until a hit knocked the wire back in, then I would have nothing and then the car would be absolutely fine for a few laps.
In the second race I also finished 12th but with just 24 laps. The front of my shell had been knocked up and jammed on top of the body post locking the front right wheel. It made getting around the track interesting, but it looked good!
As you can see the front right A and B pillars were snapped during this race. Daniel Jordan very kindly rebuilt the pillars with some heated plastic sheet and two part adhesive.
It’s an interesting process that I will have to show you all one day. I have the heat gun, I just need some glue!
The third heat went much better for me. It was a cleaner race and I managed to finish 5th with 39 laps.
I made it into the 80 lap A-Final which consisted of 29 cars and the top 2 finishers from the B-Final.
It was chaotic but I managed to place 17th with 52 laps.
Shaye Hunter took 3rd place.
Kieran ‘Koonta’ Briddock took 2nd.
Josh Cant won overall!
Lewis Offord was Top Junior.
Sean Foley won the B Final.
I won smart car!
Videographer Adam Brown won the demolition derby at the end of the day.
All in all it was a fantastic evening’s racing. Hopefully it won’t be so long before I can go again!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!.
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By Richard Francis
