Steel City Hobbies coverage of the 2005 Snowbird Nationals

Steel City Hobbies is proud to be a sponsor of the 2005 Snowbird Nationals! The race event was held on February 13th and Steel City Hobbies was there to record all the mains on video disc and VHS tape.

Video: This was the first time this has been done on a full scale production. You can purchase a copy of any main for $25.00*. We also have a DVD which has all A-Mains for On-Road, and a DVD that has both A & B Mains for Oval. Also, we were on location shooting footage to put together a documentary of sorts that will be available in the near future. Price of that will be in the $30 range as well and looks to be very entertaining with racing footage as well as interviews. Shipping and handling will be an extra $5.

SCH sponsored Jon Orr at this year's Snowbirds and he did very well! Congratulations to Jon for a very successful championship. Jump below to story.

Ray Darroch was also on hand and he too did very well. We hope to see both of these guys at SCH practicing for up-coming races! Jump below to story.

Coverage from the 2004 Snowbirds

Pictures and stories!
Mike Rooney took a few pictures in between shooting video.

The hotel where the Birds was held was the same as last year, but is now under new
ownership and has gone through a few renovations, including a name change and a face lift.
A lot better than the 2004 season.......and next year will be even better, they say.

This is one of the pit rooms that is next to the track. This room was primarily for Factory
Drivers. This was a great place for anyone into or even curious about R/C to check out!

Gil Losi Jr. was on scene wrenching on his own JRX-S which is the latest and greatest.
(Of course!)

A sneak-peak at Matt Francis' JRX-S.... good stuff.... Losi.
A good racer is organized and knows where everything is.
Also, a good racer has some of the best in equipment including computers.
Note the Apple G4 PowerBook and iPod! iTunes keep this pit rockin'. Nice touch.

Next to Matt, we have Todd Hodge who also is running the new JRX-S. All three have
upgraded from the Graphite XXX-S which ran very well at this year's event.
Congratulations to these guys and everyone else!

Team X-Ray was also on scene showing a strong presence with this new piece... very nice.

The dude in the yellow is from Europe and took home an A-Main win!

Many spectators take a look at the Road Course B-Main.

SCH was on-site contributing to all the excitement.

I (MRooney) was not able to snap too many still pictures since I was shooting the Mains on video,
so I had to improvise by getting Jon Orr on the driver's stand for the B-Main Mod. (See computer)

Jon sporting the team shirt by Associated (In Blue)
(Yes, I too think the Mac is the greatest computer around!)

Jon competes with super R/C stars such as Matt Francis and Todd Hodge and others.
Jon is a superstar.

During Jon's race, the crowd was gathering to see what was going on. With over
800+ entries the crowds had a lot to see!

A shot of our clapper board.

Ray Darroch on the driver's stand. - Another Pittsburgh local who made the big show!

A close up of Ray's car in action. Ray had a few chances to take the main but unfortunately he bumped the wall
and his batteries showed signs of taking a dump, dropping Ray down to a close 2nd with less punch. In 1/12 scale if
Ray had not picked up a set screw in his motor --- he might have won that one too!

Some of the results posted in a hallway.

SCH set up 8 recorders for instant turn around on recording the A/B-Mains
which were for sale on the spot moments after the race. All other mains
were recorded onto a digital disc recorder - 100% digital broadcast quality.

All mains are available for sale via Steel City Hobbies. This is the first time a
national race of this size has been captured on broadcast equipment. SCH also
was on hand working with the Snowbrid Nationals staff to capture footage for
a documentary that will be released sometime late winter 05'.

After the Road Course Mains ended the track was switched to Oval.

Here is Mike Rooney and Mark Capobres working hard... on the documentary. haha
I shot most of the video while Mark was on audio and interviews.

Picture courtesy of Snowbird Nationals website
"A picture is worth a thousand words"

The crowd gathers to watch the Road Course award ceremony.

The crowd watches the trophy ceremony.

The final Oval race.... lots of fast action in the 6-cell Mod! A great race!

Thanks again to everyone at the Snowbirds who made this event very enjoyable.
Very long hours and hard work by everyone there made it the success that it was.

More pictures to come!

Keep posted for more information about the videos!

Local Racers:
Jon Orr performed excellently at this year's Snowbird Nationals as he almost pulled off a win in the GTP Mod A-Main! Unfortunately Brian Kinwald bumped Jon into the pipe and took the lead. Chris Tosolini came in 1st, Brian 2nd, Mike Blackstock 3rd and Jon 4th. A VERY exciting race! Jon also raced in the 4wd Modified B-Main with R/C greats such as Matt Francis, Todd Hodge, Paul Lemieux and more. Juho Levanen took the win and Jon came in 5th.

Last year Team SCH sponsored Ray Darroch (and company) where he made it from the back of the pack to the A-Main! Ray also won the Stock Touring class! This year was just as tight. Ray was running 2nd for the whole race, but with barely touching the pipes a few times and showing signs of power loss (compaired to the leader) Ray took a strong second in the MDI Racing 4wd Stock A-Main. Even though Ray had several chances to take the win, it was not enough to hold the title as Jeff Cuffs kept in front for the win.

Results: Road Course
Results: Oval

Names of locals and friends of SCH who attended:
Jon Orr -
Matt Francis -
Ray Darroch -
Kelly Bean -
Todd Hodge -
Frank Calandra -
Mark Calandra -
David Lee -

Other Snowbird Nationals 2005 coverage Links:
http://www.teamxray.com/
http://www.kimihiko-yano.net/weblog/
www.nashrcracer.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thank You!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without their week long dedication the 'Bird's would not be possible:  Mike Boylan, Jason Barnes, Mike Bean,   Julie Boylan, Steve Boylan, Dave Fox, Ken Holmes,  Sam Ledford, Chuck Mann, Mel McCoy, John Moukie, Paul Patterson, Curt Sanderson, Jim Smith, Paul Schaub, Bill Spicer.  A special thanks also to: Mike's Mom & Dad Boylan, Paul & Dorothy Johnson, Rich Baran, Timmie Anderson, Emily Morey, Jim Fuller. USAR's / Hooter's Cup Gene Crane and long time racer Neal Nielson!

SCH: Special Thanks to Mark Capobres for traveling and helping Mike Rooney from PA to FL to cover the event.

WHAT IS THE SNOWBIRDS?
"    *a little editorial by Mike Boylan
The Snowbirds is about looking forward to something all year long.  It's about the excitement of racing after the holidays in sunny Orlando, Florida in the middle of the winter.  It's about hangin' with your racin' friends that you may not have seen for awhile.  It is about seeing all the world's top RC manufacturers and their hot new stuff.  It's about talking face to face to top team racers on setups and racing advice.  It is about watching some great racing 24 hours a day.  It's about having a wonderful time on vacation, win or lose, and going home with unforgettable stories that you will have for a lifetime.  And as Erich Reichert wrote in the RC Driver magazine coverage:  "It's the big-time".
   "I hope you can make it to our race and
     be a part of the Snowbird tradition"!     MB "
- Quoted paragraph grammatically fixed by the SCH phantom. To read more on the Snowbird Nationals, click here!

* Pricing has gone up to $25/DVD due to archiving process - to pull off videos out of archive takes time. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Contact information