As a Gen-Xer who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s , I had my fair share of toy RC cars , and that ’ s kinda how I remember them from my youth , so when Gary Rowe invited me to travel to Georgia and check out the season opener of his newlylaunched Remote Control Hot Rod Association ( RCHRA ), I was honestly having trouble wrapping my mind around the whole thing !

I was curious enough to make the trip , and upon arrival , it didn ’ t take me long to realize that these vehicles are not the ones I grew up with ! I was pretty surprised to realize that the fastest cars in the series – a class Gary calls Big Dawg – can accelerate to speeds approaching 100 mph in just 1.5 seconds !

Gary explained that RC drag racing has actually been around for longer than most people realize , but two things came along in recent years that caused interest to explode . For starters , a company known as Traxxas led the way in producing RC cars and trucks that had a Street Outlaws resemblance , and soon the term “ Street Eliminator ” was coined . That caused a flood of orders for these great looking , factory-fast toys that bore a striking resemblance to popular , massproduced automobiles .

It didn ’ t take long before a number of companies were offering officially licensed bodies of modern muscle cars , as well as retro machines such as 1955- 1957 Chevys , Fox-body Mustangs and Falcons , along with vintage and modern Mopars . Some in the RC racing world have selected bodies that exactly match their full-size race cars , or perhaps the same vehicle they drove to high school , etc .

Thanks to Traxxas and other manufacturers , there ’ s now a litany of choices when it comes to RC vehicle designs that may be purchased off the shelf or ordered online . “ Right out of the box , these things will do 40 mph in your driveway ,” says Rowe .

Soon , friends began gathering in parking lots to race these cars , and it didn ’ t take long before people were trying to figure out how to make them faster ... and figure it out they most certainly did . Amazingly , what really catapulted RC racing into a more organized racing program was the COVID pandemic . “ It can be traced back to around May

2020 , right around the COVID lockdowns that organized RC drag racing began to happen ,” says Rowe . RC racers started gathering weekly or bi-weekly and racing locally , with the goal of attending something of a Super Bowl-type event known as “ The Clash ” which happens yearly in Florida .

While interest in RC drag racing is indeed catching on across the country , Gary says his RCHRA circuit offers a different angle since it ’ s the first sanctioned RC touring series ever launched . “ RCHRA is also the first organization of its kind to offer nine classes during an event ,” says Rowe . Gary launched his series in March 2024 with an 11-race roster of events held in various locales

across the country , with six of those events being held at national event dragstrips !

The aforementioned Big Dawg class is not only the fastest in the series , but also the only class in RCHRA that allows tire prep , while the other classes race on a no-prep surface . There ’ s a variety of headsup classes as well as bracket dial-in

categories in Rowe ’ s series , along with a very broad mixture of RC competitors , whose ages span from 4 years old all the way up to several racers who are well into their Golden Years and approaching 80 .

While in Georgia , I even saw a serious competitor who would roll to the starting line in his wheelchair and carefully place his RC car into the staging beams . Incidentally , that same competitor also holds the MPH record in his class !

There are many reasons why this form of racing is catching on , not the least of which is overall cost , as well as travel convenience . “ I usually just throw my RC car in the backseat of my car and head out to wherever we ’ re racing ,” says one competitor I met . He also told me how he once traveled to a far-away meet and decided to fly , placing his RC car in a duffel bag and stowing it away in the overhead bin of the airplane .

Obviously , the cost of the whole operation is a fraction of what you ’ d spend on big cars , and the payout ratio in RC racing is quite appealing . Those headlining Big Dawg cars cost a modest $ 3,500 to $ 4K , and you can win twice that much or more at certain events , with some of the “ bigmoney ” meets paying $ 20K-plus to win ! You can spend as little as $ 300 to buy yourself a race-ready RC car to compete in several of RCHRA ’ s Box Stock classes .

As the manufacturers continue to expand their product line into the world of RC racing , sponsorship is also pouring into this style of racing , along with fans across the country logging on to things like Webb RC Videos to watch this stuff live streamed !

After experiencing the whole deal firsthand , I ’ m getting a strong feeling that organized RC drag racing has a pretty long runway of growth ahead of it . DI