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When you talk about 1/5-scale, you think of long-running events like Baja Fest in New York or Dunetoberfest in California. But have you heard of the Power Jam in Monon, Indiana? If you haven’t, you will now! The boys over at Large Scale RC hosted the 2nd Annual Large Scale Power Jam at a little track they call the Scrap Yard. Oh, did I say little? Uh, sorry…how about three ENORMOUS tracks dedicated strictly to the Baja 5 series?
Last year’s event was fantastic but some unfortunate weather slowed things down a bit. This year, however, Mother Nature gave the competitors a little relief and showered everyone with sunshine instead of rain. Similar to last year, there were three huge tracks available all weekend long for racing. The main track was set up for competitive off road racing. Classes included the Baja buggies, trucks and short course, in addition to the MCD and Redcat 4WD buggies and trucks. In addition to the wide lanes, there were plenty of jumps, berms and turns to keep everyone on their toes.
The second track was the oval/figure 8 track. The oval cars consisted of Baja 5Bs or 5Ts with EDM bodies and BIG motors! You had to be quite the driver to tame some of these dirt demons! The Figure 8 was run using the same oval track, but a jump was constructed to get the competitors over the center lane. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t! It’s amazing how much abuse some of these cars took.
The final track was the extreme track. Don’t think that just because the word extreme is used that it’s a little girl track…the Paluchniak brothers gave it this name for a reason! This track was so big that it wrapped from one side of the drivers’ stand to the other, and you had to turn around and face the other direction to finish ONE lap! There were narrow lanes, tire barriers and a monster tabletop jump. If that wasn’t enough, the Large Scale boys even added a water jump! Miss it and you were hosing the mud off your Baja…after you went in to get it!
Something new this year was the addition of ‘paid’ turn marshals. A few local kids were hired to do the dirty work on the track while the competitors had a chance to kick back and relax between heats. This was a well-accepted gesture that had more than one contestant smiling from ear-to-ear. I’m pretty sure those turn marshals made out better than they expected.
So, what about the racing? There was plenty of it, and lots of dust to prove it.
In the Figure 8 classes, Jeffrey Nelson took the win in 5T/5SC over HPI ‘Tough Guy’ John Shultz and third place Kris Vanglider. In 4WD Buggy, Timmy Wallace laid the smack down on the field, winning by over 25 laps on second place Jeff Burall and third place Steve Whitton. 2WD Buggy saw Eric Dragun score the win over Nick Cooper and third place David Bowman.
The Oval class saw our HPI ‘Baja Guru’ John Shultz show everyone how it’s done, winning by 12 laps over second place Garnett Lane and third place Carlos Estrella.
There was just as much mayhem (maybe more) on the off road side. In Monster Truck, Michael Delong squeaked out a victory over Dan Talbert and third place James Beaman. In the Baja 5T/5SC class, Michael Delong reigned supreme again, pulling off another impressive victory over second place John Hubbard and third place Jimmy Tanner. In the 4WD Buggy class, Scott Rivers took the lead and never looked back, beating out Robbie Beaman and third place Steve Whitton. And in 2WD Buggy, Bob Profeta kept multi-winner Michael Delong at bay, winning the class by less than one second over Michael! Eric Dragun finished third for the day.
Large Scale RC has once again put on a fabulous event. If this is any indication of things to come, year three will only be bigger and better! I’m looking forward to it and getting my Baja-groove on! See you there!
