RCInsider: HRDC – Carpet Off-Road Invades So.Cal

RCInsider.com’s Travis Brock spent last weekend running at the newest off-road in Southern California… HDRC is the newest off-road track located in Hesperia, CA, only this track is on carpet…! Check out the report Travis filed for the website…

As an avid RC racer, I am always wanting to try new things in the hobby. While racing is my main focus, getting to new tracks around the country, and someday the world is a big goal of mine. Living here in Southern California I am lucky enough to have some of the finest tracks in the world, but one surface has continued to elude me. The surface I speak of is Carpet. While most racers think of carpet as something left to the on-road guys, carpet off-road racing has been huge in Europe for years and out numbers the amount of dirt off road tracks over seas.

As I was browsing Facebook one day I saw a neat clip of an indoor carpet track that looked nice. I figured it was over seas, or in the upper north east…. basically anywhere except Southern California. As I poked around a bit more and started looking into the location of this track called HDRC. I soon found that it was located only an hour and a half from my home, and is located in Hesperia CA! So instantly, I shot a message to the owner to get some information on the facility and see when a good time to head up and meet them would be.

As we exchanged messages I found out that they were still in the process of getting some things together for the city, and that they were still finishing up the final touches. While this was exciting, it wasn’t good enough for me…. I WANTED CARPET NOW!!!!

I played a big game, pulled my media card out, and got a date set up to go check it out in person. Once I had the date set I contacted my good Friend Matt Wallace over at Pro-Line Racing. Matt works in Product Development and has been working on some new tires designed specifically for Carpet and I had to get him in on this trip.

As we showed up to the track, we were greeted by staff and got a quick tour of the facility. They had a nice building with plenty of parking, an open pit space that was more than adequate, and two carpet offroad tracks….. One for offroad, and one for onroad.

Once the tour was over, I sat down to mount up my carpet tires for my TLR 22 2.0 Buggy. Matt bought me Pro-Lines new Pin Point rear tire as well as the new Wedge Front tire. We used an open cell rear foam with no foam at all up front. In fact, the front tires not only dont use foam, but are much smaller than a standard offroad front tire. If you are wondering about compound, Pro-Line Developed a new compound called Z3 that is almost plastic like to give a long life and too bite into the softer surface.

Before hitting the track I also made a few changes to my TLR 22. I used items such as a gear diff ensured a smooth diff action while leaving the diff loose. I also had to back my Schelle NOVA Slipper System off a bit as there was so much grip. I then bumped up my oil and spring rate, and dropped my ride height down to 18mm as the EOS set up sheet called for.

As I took my first laps around HDRC I could not believe how stuck my car was. The carpet had so much grip it took me a moment to get used to driving my car again. As I finally got my fingers up to speed it was apparent that Pro-Line had done their homework with new tire combination. While the front tires had plenty of steering, they did not hook or catch. They provided a combination that was very reactive to throttle input and were a dream to drive.

While I could go on for days about how much fun I had at this facility its one of the things you need to experience for yourself. Look up HDRC on Facebook and keep an eye out for a Grand Opening coming soon.