Steel City Hobbies was happy to attend the Snowbird Nationals 2004 in Orlando Florida. SCH was proud to sponsor an up and coming on-road racer named Raymond Darroch who is from our home town area of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Seems that everyone has their eye on Ray as he has picked up a few sponsors over the last two races alone such as Team Losi, JR, Novak and in part, Trinity.

Read below a few facts on Ray (click here to jump to notes on Ray) and look at several pictures of all the action in Florida.

The Snowbirds have been going on for a few years and consist of a variety of races. 'Snowbird On-Road Classes' and 'Snowbird Oval Classes'. The On-Road classes include: Touring Stock; Touring Sportsman 19; Touring Expert 19; Touring Pro Mod; GTP Stock and GTP Mod. All classes except for Mod have hand out motors and run for 5 minutes. Oval Classes include: 4-Cell Stock; 4-Cell Sportsman 19; 4-Cell Expert 19; 1/12th 4-Cell 19; 1/12th 4-Cell Pro Mod; 4-Cell Pro Mod; Touring 6-Cell 19; and 6-Cell Factory Mod. Race time is 4 minutes with hand-out motors except for Mod classes.

Race Results:

On-Road Racing
Lap Times for On-Road Racing
On-Road Qualifying Results
On-Road individual Results
RC Scoring Pro results for Ray's Race

Club racing has turned out to be somewhat of a tradition at the Snowbirds. Two races total where the overall standings are calculated from one of the two races.

Now for some fun and excitment, read on below!

Day before, A-Main day

One of the many Pit Areas. Most racers "Pit" in their hotel room.
This race is held in one of the hotel's ballrooms.

A Pit area next to the covered swimming pool.
Also, a barbeque grill for dogs, burgers, ribs and wings.
Did anyone get sick?

A view next to the hotel with a working Volcano!
Sorry, No R/C driving allowed on Miniature Golf Course.

Exterior hotel shot on the main drag.

This is the 3rd qualifier for 1/12th Scale which Ray takes 1st.

A closer look of how Ray cuts the corners.
Sponsor Trinity supplies the latest whole car for the Snowbirds.

Here you can see the car actually biting into the Ozite™ carpet.
The carpet was loose on this turn which can pose a problem for some racers.

No, this is not an R/C Car... but it is electric.

Ray takes 1st place in the 3rd and final round of qualifying.
This lands Ray in 6th place overall and into the A-Main.

Ray starts to work on his touring car to prepare for the 3rd round of qualifying.

A look at the hand-out motors for Stock Sedan, on the Dyno.
There is some science to being a top contender.

Truing and tweaking the balance of the car.

Master Painter; John puts on the finishing touches so everything looks good for the A-Main!

Wow! Was that Ray flying by?

RC Scoring Pro was on hand to provide qualifying results to the racers.
Steel City Hobbies has been beta testing this RC Scoring timing system since Oct. 03.

Note who is in 1st place, and Top Qualifier for Stock Touring Car.
See print out example of text and graph.

Ray and his TQ Stock Sedan

A-Main Bodies waiting for the big Race early Sunday.

Day Two, A-Main day

Sunday morning, February 8th started out pretty rough. Snowbird officials were broadcasting the race stats live via two-way radio and suggested each team purchase a $30 radio to keep up on times and positions, etc. Unfortunately, the system was not switched "on" or was not working as a few racers missed the practice heats and the actual A-Main for 1/12th scale including Ray. Ray kept a positive attitude and concentrated on his other A-Main race which was Stock Touring Car (or Sedan). I wanted to file a complaint but after I saw the "button" to push, I let it go. (See Picture) I just wanted to forewarn other race teams as some have a lot of time and money invested in these races alone.

Here are a few more pictures from the rest of the day!

A-Main Stock Touring Car drivers.

First lap, Ray leads the pack!

Ray concentrates on maintaining the lead for the 5 minute race.

Legendary Gil Losi Sr. takes a peek at Ray's secret weapon, which is after all, a Losi XXX-S.

Matt Francis was Top Qualifier in the 19-Turn class and won his A-Main.
Similarly, Ray Darroch did the same exact thing, but in Stock class. Both racers
are very happy to win the A-Main with such stiff competition. The unique
thing is, it is uncommon to see the TQ number one position car actually
win the class... these two did it.

"Inside R/C" did a short interview on Ray after the races.
Pictured here are Inside R/C photographer Bill Beaver, and in front of the camera is Ray Darroch and John Peoples. I would have been in the picture standing on the other side of Ray, but someone had to take the picture!

Notes on Ray Darroch

Sponsors include: Steel City Hobbies, Team Losi, JR, Novak, and Trinity.
Bio coming soon.

1/12th Scale

Ray was running a brand new 1/12 scale Trinity car out of the box. Not a bad performance for an out of box Stock car! Also, this was Ray's first race at the Snowbirds so that means he has to start at the back of the pack. There was a technical glitch in the computer system by the Snowbirds, so Ray's first round qualifier was changed at the last minute. Ray started after 3 laps were already completed, so he was at the bottom of the list of qualifiers after the 1st round. The 2nd round also proved to be difficult, as his supplied battery dumped before the end of the race. But Ray did a nice job finishing up as a contender. By the 3rd round qualifier Ray won, and that placed him overall in 6th place. Pretty impressive coming from the back of the pack I would say. Good job Ray!

Touring Car

As with 1/12 scale, Ray, being new to the Snowbirds, had to start at the back of the pack.
By the 2nd round, Ray was TQ! Ray maintained his position in the 3rd round and was in the A-Main in both 1/12th Scale and Touring Car.

Results:

1/12th Scale: A-Main - Did not start

Touring Car: A-Main Stock Class winner, 1st place.

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