Words by: Rodney Ketcham
Photos by: Troy Raymond

I had the pleasure of traveling to Silver Lake Michigan for one of the largest HPI Baja events of the year. With 66 Baja's and almost as many drivers, add friends and family, the number of people in attendance to well over 100.

The travel portion of the trip was "trying" with late flights; over weight luggage and planes turned around after the halfway point do to blown hydraulics(not a good start to the weekend). We finally managed to make it but we arrived a bit weathered. When we rolled into Silver Lake we noticed that it was a vacation town, and we were pleased to see our hotel was a water front resort. This brought a smile to our faces and helped to boost our energy level to prepare for the event.

The hunt was on to find Andrew (Scorpion Unlimited) the event organizer. In a small town this was easy, we starting coming across Baja drivers everywhere we went... They came from all over the continent.....Canada, California, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and of course from all over Michigan.

People stayed in camp grounds, hotels, resorts and small cabins that are located throughout the town. This was the perfect location and event setting, we were getting excited!

The dunes are a minute's drive from any place in town with plenty of un crowded parking. Access to the dunes is possible with any 4WD or AWD vehicle and a little driving skill. The sand is soft and requires a bit of finesse to stay up on top. Scorpion, Turtle Racing, Yamadude, Bronco Bill, ATX, Modified and so many others were driving people in and out of the dunes as well. The event location was great, just outside the out of bounds for the full scale vehicles but not for the Baja's. This made it very nice and safe for our cars and drivers. The dunes were fresh and smooth, perfect for the carving!

The event was well organized and had a good vibe. The manufactures of aftermarket parts were mixed In with the people who traveled to the event, the people were just having a great time going from pit to pit talking about Baja's, performance and getting to know one another. Once out in the dunes everyone helped everyone stay running and made sure a good time was had by all.

OK now the juicy stuff......I have seen and driven some fast Baja's but I have not seen this many fast Baja's in one place. There was Joe O'Neill from O'Neill Brothers Racing and the Michigan guy that builds very proper motors for the locals, Yamadude. There was Alcohol Nitro mixed fuel, Case Reed Engines and tuned pipes for any power band. 80% of the Baja's in attendance had serious motors, wheel stands up the dunes was the norm. We were even seeing them across and down as well and for impressive distances. The hill climb races were mind blowing to watch and participate in. There are few places like the sand dunes where you can really open it up and stretch the legs of a heavily built HPI Baja. I was very impressed with the Silver Lake crowd and look forward to attending the Silver Lake event and running there again next year. As usual words can never do justice to an event like this or the excitement that the Baja creates so I will let the photos do the talking, enjoy! Better yet - next year - BE THERE!!!

I want to personally thank a few people:
First Andrew (Scorpion Unlimited) for organizing the event.
Dave (Turtle Racing) for Rides, food and hospitality.
Bill (Broncobill) for bringing the food, Shelly (Mrs. Turtle) and Bill (Atbill) for helping with cooking the food and getting it all setup.
Atbill's daughter and Ashley (Turtle's daughter) for helping with the giveaways.
Adam (ATX) for bringing the big texas grill to cook on
Matt (Nitrogoon) for helping round up sponsors
Everyone that pitched in with food and condiments to make it a whole meal And of course all of the sponsors who donated enough product that EVERYONE got at the very least 1 new part for their baja, some got more than 1. We gave the parts away in two drawings, one was $50 and under prizes and the other was $50 and over prizes, and total prizes donated was easily exceeding $2500!!!

Special thanks go out to all the Silverlake 09 sponsors for providing their support and prizes for all of us Baja fanatics!!

Sponsors:
Broncobill
DDM
Turtle Racing
Scorpion Unlimited
Kmas
Modified RC
RC Kill Switch
ATX Poly Products
Ramtech RC
No Limit RC
Baja Skunkworks
TGN
Acer Racing
Hal001 Flags & Poles
Yamadude
Slammer RC
Protecta
8 Ball Fabrications
RC4WD
Team Phatdad RC

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