RCORVA 2015 R/C Crawling Association World Finals and RECON G6 certified TrailMaster Challenge

Posted: 10/2/15

Words and photos: Anthony Rivas

Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada. It's August and this is one of our hottest months. For those of you from out of town, it definitely takes some time to get acclimated to this heat and dry climate. So I will brave the heat with the drivers, while you sit back and check out some of the action at Worlds 2015. This is happening roughly 60 miles away in Logandale, Nevada.

Lots of people come to Las Vegas for lots of reasons and stereotypically it is for gaming or some of our other city's activities. I am going to take you on an adventure outside of the city.

As you see, Las Vegas Boulevard or "The Strip" as locals call it, is full of liveliness almost every hour of every day.

Heading north out of Vegas on Interstate 15 towards Mesquite, you can see how dramatically the scenery changes once you are out of the city.

If you are into racing maybe you have been to the Las Vegas Speedway. If you have not been, well you're getting the drive by tour. This will be the last thing you see for a few minutes on the drive out to our destination.

Once past the speedway, it opens up for a while. This road will take you up to Salt Lake or to the Interstate 70 junction, taking you towards Moab, Utah or Colorado.

Roughly 45 to 55 minutes later this is our exit, Overton/Logandale. This is an easy drive straight up the Interstate.

Once you have taken the exit, you will drive down this winding road a little ways. You can already start seeing some elevation in these hills.

It's extremely dry out here and to be honest I don't think the needle on this sign ever really moves.

You will know you're close when you start to see town. When you come out of Las Vegas, this doesn't seem like much of a town. That maybe some of the appeal for us locals. Its always nice to just get away; that and wait till you see the terrain.

We are on the edge of town, I should mention that you will not see many trees where we are headed.

That's our sign, about 2 minutes after hitting the edge of town. You will want to make sure you have brought plenty of water by this point.

Ran into Josh Harris, one of the RECON G6 crew members. He is far from home; Arkansas is about 1500 miles away. I am willing to bet he doesn't miss the humidity of the south though.

This is our path the rest of the way. A car will easily make it out here, typical washboards and tons of dust.

Oh did I mention dust? 95% of the time its extremely dry out here. It's always worth the drive though. Its under 10 miles from the paved road to our destination.

This is our spot, epic rock and more lines than you know what to do with.

Very soon this place will be crawling with drivers and their RCs'. I imagine a lot of canopies will be up, not much in the way of shade out here.

It's the day before the event and I have heard there are some people already out here. So I have come to check it out. This group had people come out from Canada.

Arve and Jens flew in all the way from Norway for this event.

Pennsylvania was represented here as well.

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It's Friday morning, Worlds 2015 will begin today. It also looks like it's going to get pretty warm too.

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As people start to gather for the drivers meeting, I am thinking I may go scope out some of the rigs.

One of the first things I notice about the 2.2 Shafty class is 99% of them run Axial AR60 axles or the Axial Sxc10 axles.

This is an Axial Wraith replica build, built by Charlie, a Las Vegas local.

I am seeing some scalers are present. I hope to see them on the RECON G6 Certified Trail Master Adventure course.

I am getting anxious to see the scalers out on course.

John Rob Holmes has some words for the drivers before turning them loose on the comp courses.

After the drivers meeting it's time to go out and hit the rocks. The drivers seem very eager to get this event underway. So lets check out some of the action.

The 2.2 Shafty class is running on this first day of competition. If you're new to the hobby, "shafty" refers to how the axles are driven. In this class, motors put power to the transmission, and that puts power to drivelines that turn the axles.

The Axial SCX10 axles and the AR60's are 50/50 split for shafty class.

California driver Jake Wright out on the rocks navigating a path through these gates. AR60's giving this comp rig a nice wide stance.

I was able to check out rigs as people set them in line. This one's reppin' RECON G6.

As it got hotter some of the drivers began to take breaks and cool down.

Some took out the go fast cars like the Axial Yeti and began making some bombing runs across the desert.

Mr. Holmes even got in on the desert runs with his Holmes powered Axial Wraith.

Not only did drivers have to concentrate on gates and lines, but also staying hydrated.

Looking down the trail I am seeing some Scale trucks heading my way.

The lead trucks body is permanently representing AXIALFEST 2015. I have heard people are already reserving spots for AXIALFEST 2016. The super clean SCX10 based Toyota and older Ford truggy draw you in.

Although there was plenty of sand and a Dingo with surfboards, there was no water to be found.

There were a few breaks on the trail, but it didn't stop anyone form having a few laughs and a good time on this course.

I was really digging this Scx10 based Toyota, check out the axles under this rig. It performed well out on these rocks. The driver said, "Oh I built it to drive, its not to be a shelf queen."

The 1.9 Poison Spyder Axial Wraith putting the hammer down through this rock section.

Apply wheel speed where needed on this RECON G6 certified Trail Masters Adventure course.

There is noticeable difference between a 1.9 and 2.2 Wraith. The 1.9 conversion really seems to be picking up steam among the RC community.

That's some of the action from the scale trail. Nice work Josh Harris on setting this trail, all those hikes to set trails with Parker and your previous experience came into play here. Day 2 would bring out the 2.2 Pro class MOA (motor over axle) and an unlimited class.

Some of you may know the Axial XR10 body and axles.

A pleasant surprise from RCP Crawlers was a variety of ice cream on day 2. When its 104 out, this hits the spot. Thank you for this!

If you are just getting into scale trucks, you may or may not know about their origin. In short, 2.2 pro class is some insanely placed axial gates on the rocks and you have to get through them, while on a time limit.

The same can be said for the 2.2 Shafty class. The Unlimited class brought out something I have never seen before in this type of event and I started crawling in 2007! This next rig is in the Unlimited class.

This rig has a motor at each wheel, with four wheel steering. Making for insane low COG (center of gravity) and with a 3D printed body, it's light weight, weighing in at just 4.3 pounds.

These custom gear boxes at each wheel are also 3D printed.

So here is the tricky part. The silver screen is actually there for a purpose. This has a fan that is controlled on command from the drivers remote. Putting out over a pound of thrust, helps this rig stay planted on the rocks.

It was nice to meet the Canada crew who made the trip out to comp. Congratulations to Paul Mikolajewski pictured here in the Canadian flag shirt, for winning the 2.2 Shafty class with an Axial AR60 axle up front and an SCX10 axle in the rear. Maybe he is onto something.

It was a pleasure to meet the Washington guys who made the journey to comp.

It was great to meet the enthusiastic Arizona guys who came to play as you can see here.

Just a few of Las Vegas locals who came out; 4 to run comp and everyone came to scale. These brave souls even camped out, while a majority stayed in hotels.