For those of you who are unfamiliar with Southern Oregon, it is comprised of several small towns surrounded by TONS of wildlife and naturey stuff. For many, such as myself and Joe Ayala, it is a great place to be from. Medford Oregon is a quiet little town perfect for raising children and in between the stabbings and bar fights, there is much fun to be had in and around town.
For others, it is an even better place to settle down. Just minutes from town, you’ll find many middle aged to elderly people who have done well for themselves and laid claim to their own little plot of land.
Some of these nature lovers have done better than others and have quite a bit of land to build racing tracks, raise cattle or horses, or to just relax on. My uncle, Brian Peterson, could be considered one of the more ambitious landowners. As an experienced and talented fabricator and craftsman, as well as a past flat-track motorcycle racer, Brian has transformed his land into that which dreams are made of.
From pastures for his daughters’ horses to roam, to a respectable motocross track for the same girls to fly around on, Brian’s property is a playground for adults and children alike.
The newest addition to the list of fun stuffs is a full scale remote-controlled racing track. Held here was the second round of the Oregon State Series. According to event organizers, many drivers from around the country came to compete in eight different classes and races ranging from time attack to heads up racing.
I had no idea how large scale and serious the RC racing community is. They even had a sifter out there to get rid of any rocks large enough to negatively affect the little cars and trucks.
The results were obviously worth it, as the dirt was very even and easily compacted. I was also informed that this particular track had the first soft whoops section of any RC racing track in history. Apparently, the unpredictable nature of the soft dirt has been a deterrent to trying this in the past, but in my opinion, it made for the most exciting section of the track…
…Well, except for the jumps of course. Seen here is one racing choosing the low road, while the more ballsy of the two chose to fly over the double set of jumps.
Aside from the track, many spectators and racers had brought out their RVs, trailers, tents, barbecues, dogs, etc. The atmosphere was very similar to that of a grassroots drifting event, only at the 1/10th scale.
On the track though, it was strictly business. These drivers have as much and more money into these scale racers as most grassroots drivers have in their drift machines and they take it very seriously.
Once they got back to racing, Joe and I got back to shooting. Having never shot such a small and fast motorsport, we needed time to adjust to the different motions of the tiny vehicles. Joe and I would like to take this opportunity to challenge any of the Formula Drift media to try shooting RC racing. Not that it’s impossible or that we’ve mastered it, but man is it different.
I’m not sure what Joe’s thoughts are on this photo, but what I see is the practical application of shooting photos while wearing shades.
For all you photo nerds out there, here’s an example of how fast these cars are moving. This photo was shot at 1/100th. Not 1/10th. Not even 1/50th. 1/100th.
Until next time, here’s a final shot of a nitro truck soaring through the air. The way the drivers level the cars out in the air using throttle and brake is amazing. Once they leave the ground, it’s like a propeller-less plane maneuvering through the sky.
Part two coming soon!
– Shreeve
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