HPI Racing, Upgrade RC, and R/C Car Magazine team up with Red Bull's very own Robbie Maddison at a top secret Red Bull          Compound!!

Story: Collin Cocores / Photos: Scott Roberts

Article on Red Bulletin
http://en.redbulletin.com/articles/showman/

Red Bull junkies, Freestyle Moto-X lovers, and 2008 New Years Eve watchers should all be familiar with the name Robbie "Maddo" Maddison. You know, that crazy Red Bull Experiment motocross rider that straight killed it this past New Years by jumping over 120+ feet to the top of the Arc de Triomphe at the Paris Las Vegas! This dude is one of the craziest freestyler's currently out there, that is more than up-and-coming, as he is keeping busy setting records all over the place. But that's all the crazy stuff you already know about the 27 year old Maddison, what about the good R/C stuff and why is HPI so interested in Robbie?!

Well, it turns out that Mr. Robbie is even more of a kid than we all knew. Even though he is busy being home for a few months out of the year, Robbie does find time to feed his R/C addiction. And once we heard just how hip "Maddo" is on R/C, we immediately knew that we would like to put something together. Oh, and did we mention that Robbie has built a private R/C track in his own backyard?! Yea, he did!

So after our good friends over at R/C Car Magazine got off the phone with us using their Hi-Torque Publishing powers to set a date, another call to Upgrade RC was already in the works. If by some chance you are not familiar with the Upgrade name, they are pretty much the leader in anything and everything custom for R/C, from body skins, custom pit mats, or even a wrap for your fuel bottle or charger, these guys just kill it graphically on everything they do, they even do custom Baja 5T's! Upgrade's project was to make a custom skin that mimicked Robbie's official scheme on his bike, which in turn would be set on his Baja 5T that was going to be presented to him to show the world. And they did just that, as you can see from the pics.

A week later we got a call from the boys over at R/C Car telling us that we were set- set to head over to an official, top secret, Red Bull Compound! The Compound is the place where the Red Bull Experiment riders go to test out upcoming stunts, which isn't a place that just anyone can get into, let alone find. Unfortunately tracking down a Red Bull pro athlete ain't easy! There were a couple hiccups on getting us together with Robbie as he is an on-call kind of superstar, but that didn't stop us! Shortly after that we were good to go again- for real this time.

So we trekked over to R/C Car Magazine and met up with the gang, and then we rolled over to the Red Bull Compound. This place is sick! Jumps, jumps, ramps, crazier ramps and jumps, followed up with a couple more gnarly jumps and ramps...this is where the Red Bull magic happens before the magic. After being mesmerized by the facility, it was time for business. At first we weren't really to sure of what to expect from Robbie, was he truly stoked about this? Was he going to be cool with us invading whatever else he had going on there that day? After the introductions and handshakes, we all looked at one another and smiled - we knew this was for real! Seeing the forcibly held back mild expressions on Robbie's face gave it all away! We knew he was stoked once he saw the Baja 5T, but he didn't want to overreact and it was already too late! Sorry Maddo, we saw that 'kid in a candy store look' and knew that you were STOKED!

We then proceeded to do all the normal PR and media stuff, static photos and whatnot, and were also checking around the compound to see just where would be the best place for Robbie to unleash the Baja 5T.

We had located our spot, a couple actually. We saw a mild BMX/small motocross section that had some woops and jumps that looked perfect for the Baja 5T, complete with a tabletop almost the same height as us! We also found the place for the final jump, an all-or-nothing type of deal that we knew would just make for some awesome footage, but could potentially be way too much for the truck, but Robbie was eyeing it heavily! As we started up the Baja for Robbie and handed him the controller he was full throttle right out of the box, and we didn't expect anything less! Jumping here, clearing this, giving it the no holds barred treatment, even almost taking out one of the photographers, wait, it was only Waldron, carry on Maddo! Robbie had his site set on clearing this crazy tabletop, but the area leading up to it was gnarly rough, and suited for dirt bikes - next thing we heard was Robbie saying 'hold up guys, we're going to flatten this up a little,' we didn't know that consisted of getting the water truck, and a bulldozer with Robbie behind the wheel doing work! Not only is he a professional freestyle rider, apparently he is quite handy behind the 'dozer. So after about a 10 minute intermission, the ground was nicely setup for a Baja 5T. While it turned out there wasn't enough lead up to clear the tabletop, it didn't really matter by seeing just how much of a blast Robbie was having just hammering that thing around, and jumping, and flipping, and cart wheeling and basically wheeling the socks off the Baja 5T!

Next on the list, the finale jump!! This consisted of throwing the HPI Excursion in 4x4 mode and driving up to the top of a nearby hill to get the killer photos, footage, as well as waiting for Robbie to make the trip on his dirt bike. Just before this though, he had to put on a little show for the official Red Bull magazine, 'Red Bulliten', straight out of Robbie's home country of Australia. This 'little' show and demo was made up of some crazy jumps that looked like Robbie had perfected 20 or so years ago, this guy made it look way too easy. This also gave us a killer opportunity to get some great footage of Maddo doing what he does best. It was a real treat to watch Robbie motor that dirt bike through the skate park style area, with fully-scaled jumps and drop-offs for the dirt bike.

Before we knew it, Maddo rode up this super steep hill from the bottom of the park to meet us, the Excursion and the Baja 5T atop the hill. This was a one-shot type of deal for two reasons, 1) if he was successful in driving it down the extremely steep hill and hitting the jump we were aiming for, the landing could be bad in the most awesome way since the Baja 5T would pretty much be out of our site, and 2) it could be bad because if he was not able to keep it on all four wheels down the extremely rough terrain, getting it back up to where we were for a second attempt would be a lot of work. So, with that said, we set up the track as high up on the hill as possible, pointed down, held up the rear of the truck as Robbie started spooling up the throttle, and then...drop! Off the Baja 5T went, doing an awesome job of soaking up all of the huge rocks, bumpy terrain and dirt, working the suspension in the holes in the ground, and building up some serious speed! Robbie did an awesome job of keeping the truck straight and on all fours for much longer than I had expected, but the crazy terrain upset the truck one too many times and caused it to catch a an edge, and then start rolling down the hill. After about a good dozen tumbles, it landed back on its wheels and Robbie was at it again from the top of the hill, just launching it off jumps that made the truck look the size of about a 1/16-scale Baja 5T - LOL!!! That lasted for a good 15-minutes or so while everyone there was shooting all the video and photos of both Robbie and the truck. What was scheduled to be a short hour or so segment with Maddison, had spiraled into about a 4-hour deal! But we were all having such a good time, that the time did not phase anyone, even the Red Bulletin staff that was there didn't really seem to mind as they were enjoying it and seemed like they were getting content as well.

Being in such an awesome industry already, it is the out-of-the-box deals like this that make it even better. There is nothing cooler than seeing someone that millions of everyday people idol and look up to and seeing that person idolizing what we do and having such a great fun time! This is his hobby, what he does when he wants a break from entertaining all of his fans.

Thanks again to R/C Car Magazine for making this all happen, Upgrade RC for putting together the sickest Baja 5T custom warp for Robbie Madison, and most importantly, Mr. Robbie Maddison himself for sharing some FUN with all of us!

Robbie, we had a total blast hanging out with you! Looking forward to another Maddo-Session!

Special thanks to:

Robbie Maddison
www.robbiemaddison.com

R/C Car Magazine
www.rc-car.com

Upgrade RC
www.upgrade-rc.com

The Baja 5T, Robbie 'Maddo' Maddison, Red Bull Experiment freestyler extraordinaire, approved.

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