Hot Bodies Arrive and Drive – Round #3 of the Jimmy Babcock JBRL Nitro Series
Photos/text: rodney wills

Stop #5 on the eight event JBRL Nitro Series had everyone moaning a bit as we would be traveling north of Southern California to Bakersfield, California for some good hot R/C racing under the sun. Days leading up to the race, Bakersfield was delivering baking hot weather as John Schultz arrived on Wednesday to set up camp and make sure all the cars where ready.

For the Sunday event, the weather was actually bearable as high clouds shadowed the sun till late afternoon as 171 drivers showed up for fierce competition on the beautifully prepared track! This 171 head count makes for the second largest entry count as the previous race had 180 drivers. It’s the track that everyone came for with is massive size and extra tall drivers stand all prepared by Michael Crawford and team of Full Throttle Hobbies / Raceway. They have a boat pond, 12th scale track off-road track, dirt oval track and the one we all came for, the “massive one” 1/8th scale track. Michael is even working on a monster truck freestyle area making Full Throttle Hobbies and destination location for the R/C enthusiast!

The Hot Bodies Arrive and Drive program has been very impressive. The Hot Bodies / HPI Racing team has basically made racing dreams come true for ten lucky and willing drivers for the previous two JBRL events and would do the same for ten more drivers in Bakersfield! It’s a real simple system as you register with JBRL Nitro Series director, Jimmy Babcock and show up. Sign in, and the Hot Bodies / HPI Racing crew hand out the radio’s before each of the heats, and they take care of the rest! Drivers do the driving and that is it! As the drivers make way up the drivers stand, the support staff do the rest as they take the cars to the pit wall, start them and make sure the drivers are ready and release them. The driver has the time and luxury to simply concentrate on driving. All with good reason too as two of these drivers will gain the chance at a one year sponsorship with Hot Bodies! But the final winner is not decided by chance, as they will compete in the final round of the JBRL Nitro Series to decide the overall winner and position on the team.

Why all this effort? It’s real simple. This is how you find driving talent! Plain and simple, good driver can drive anything fast and not simply camouflaged their skills with gobs of horsepower. And while horsepower can get you out of trouble, it’s also part of the trouble in going fast as most are only recovering from full throttle punches commonly called “point and shoot.” These driving tactics are always overshadowed by the top level drivers that have figured out how to be smooth while being aggressive and or knowing when to be either based on track conditions.

While spec classes of the past have failed, we have already seen the success in this Hot Bodies Arrive and Drive Series when all the variable of performance are controlled. The drivers can only show off and showcase one aspect… DRIVING TALENT!
These guys showed their talent in Bakersfield:

1st PLACE: Ryan Reese [center], 2nd PLACE: Doug Trez [left], 3rd PLACE: Robert Wickham [right]

L-R: Andrew O’Bannon [customer service], Eric Tubig [Touge Knights], Michael Crawford [Full Throttle Hobbies owner], John Schultz [dealer advocate], Joel Isquierdo [customer service], Dave Potter [sales director], Randy Villanueva [Touge Knights]	Hot Bodies Lighting 2 Pro RTR has proven reliable and strong as these cars have survived three rounds of the JBRL Nitro Series so far with minimal damage.