Grass Roots Racing Series Finals, Thunder Alley R/C raceway.

Hello Everyone! Last week I attended the final round of the Grass Roots Racing Series and it turned out to be a very exciting race! I ended up pulling off a 4th place finish in Expert 2wd Short Course and 5th in Short Course Buggy. The Short Course Buggy class was full and a lot of fun. In 2wd Short Course, I was able to make a pass on the last lap of the 8 minute A main and I secured my 4th place finish. This was the funnest race I have been too in a while and I cannot wait until next year! 

My Venom Powered, Pro-Line Pro2 truck and buggy were certainly up to the task of the long main events and extreme track obstacles. I ended up using Pro-Line F11 wheels and Tazers in the rear and Hole Shots int he front. Holeshots : Product ID : 1180-02, Tazer : Product ID : 1185-02, F11 Wheels : Product ID : 2740-03

There was a large curved high speed straight away that lead into a very large double. The straight away really tested both the handling and the speed of all the vehicles racing. Not gearing the vehicle correctly didnt allow one to go fast enough down the straight, but too much gearing would make handling the curve very difficult. The turn at the end of the straight away was sharp and many people would slide into the corner, losing the needed momentum to clear the double.













Here is a closer shot of the double at the end of the straight. The gap was about 6~8 feet and landed right into another turn. The extra power provided by my Venom batteries allowed me to clear this jump without too much effort, but during the race I found myself unable to consistently clear the double with other trucks next to me. I ended up partially rolling this obstacle.

Immediately after the huge double, there was a corkscrew level change down into a Banzai step up. The obstacle was extremely challenging because of how easily a vehicle could flip while trying to make the turn. You may not see it in the picture, but that turn has large divots, making the turn even more challenging. Many people fell victim to this tough portion of the track. The step up jump after the turn was easy, but if  you were a little too soft on the throttle and cased the jump, your vehicle was upside down and the closest marshal was several yards away. 

After the tricky step up, there was a large triple that proved to be quite challenging. Mostly the 4wd vehicles tripled this jump. I chose the safer double single out.

These are two different shots of the jump.

After the triple, there was an off camber double that was also massive.

This obstacle proved to be a challenge for a lot of people. many people got this jump wrong and ended up on the pipe, or upside down.  Here is two different shots of this jump.

After clearing the off camber jump, there was a massive step up that would send vehicles high into the air.

After the step up, one had to face the washboard section. Getting the right rhythm on this part of the track was crucial. I saw many people lose positions by getting this obstacle wrong. 

The washboard led into a simple S turn. This part of the track was not too challenging.









The S turn did lead into another step up jump that took some finesse and power to clear. The step up jump led into a hairpin turn and then down onto the straightaway.

Here is a shot of the Short Course buggy class A main. As you can see, this race was stacked.

Overall, I was very happy with the performance of my vehicles and I would like to thank Venom Batteries  and Pro-Line for the support and for producing such amazing products. Now it is time to start getting ready for the Surf City classic!

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia

Venom Medion LiPO Charger and PS350 Power Supply Review

Hello Everyone! Recently, I purchased the Venom Medion LiPO Charger and PS350 Power Supply combo, Part#: K0019. I wanted to share my experience an thoughts about this product. First off, the charger comes in very premium packaging, and the contents inside certainly do not disappoint.



Here is a shot of the charger after pulling it out of the packaging. I must note that the anodized red aluminum casing and all the accessories that accompany it all have a premium feel and look. 

After un-packaging everything, I plugged in the charger and started to play around with the different settings and features. The charger comes jammed packed with all sorts of charging options. You can cycle your batteries, prepare them for storage, balance them, and much more. 



After playing with the charger for a while, I noticed that the button on the power supply had stopped functioning properly. To be honest, I was  bummed that the Power Supply had such a flaw, but I will say that it did perform flawlessly otherwise. I quickly contacted Venom and I was promptly sent a replacement Power Supply. The customer service was top notch! My confidence in Venom products was strengthened and I am more than happy to further invest in their products. As many enthusiasts know, batteries and chargers are a huge investment and knowing that the company fully backs up their products is a very good feeling. 


My first test of the charger was conducted at the JBRL OC/RC race. With 200+ entries, the track was a cacophony and the perfect place to test the speakers that are built into the charger. The speakers had plenty of power and I was able to pump up the jams and enjoy my music despite all the ambient noise. 












In addition to looking awesome and playing my tunes, I wanted to figure out if the charger provided any noticeable advantage over my old charger.




Here is a shot of both chargers, side by side. Using the same Venom 3800 60c shorty pack, I first charged it with old charger. 

When the charge was complete I took note of the battery voltage. After charging was completed, I ran the battery until the car shut off. I would not recommend running your RC vehicles until the battery runs out, but for the sake of this test, I ran the battery dry. I noticed a lot of power and a good amount of punch when running. As I got closer to the end of the battery, I noticed that the power and punch had diminished a bit. 













I was able to run 47 laps, with my fastest lap being a 23.38. I was practicing running the fastest laps I possibly could. 

After I was done with the first test, I recharged the Battery using my Venom Medion  charger and again I took note of the final battery voltage. As you may see, there is a .05v difference in the charge. I then ran the battery again until it was completely dry. I noticed right away that the battery had more punch and more power off the line. I will mention that the increase in punch and power was not a massive one, but it was a perceivable difference. I also noticed that the power and punch of the battery did not diminish as much as I reached the end of the run. In other words, the charge from the Medion charger had slightly better performance than my old charger. 

Looking at the run, it can be seen that I got another 47 laps, but my fast lap was 22.98, which was .4 seconds faster than the first test. I know that the average lap time is what is most important for racing, but for this test, I wanted to focus on the fast lap. 

In conclusion, I am very happy with my upgraded charger. With the good looks, good jams, amazing customer service, numerous charging options and the slight increase in battery performance, the Medion charger was a great purchase! I give the Venom Medion LiPO Charger and PS350 Power Supply combo an overall rating of 9/10 and I would highly recommend this product to a friend. I did not get to test many of the other functionalities that the Medion charger offers, but I am sure that the other functions will perform brilliantly. 

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia  

Painting Pro-Line Flo-Tek Lexan Short Course Bodies.

Hello everyone! I painted some bodies the other week and I wanted to share my experience! I like to use water based paint called FasKolor. I painted up some Pro-Line Flo-Tek bodies Part#3355-00. They are very nice bodies and pretty easy to paint. My painting methods may not be the best, but I am experimenting and having a great time doing it!

Here is a shot of the first body. I was experimenting with some flexible tape and some smooth flowing lines. Make sure the tape sticks without tension when you apply it. Otherwise, the tape will come up when you are taping bends and ridges.






Here are some colors I painted with. The pearl colors are really easy to paint with and only need a couple of drops of water to thin it. White some other fluorescent colors are very thick and can easily clog your air brush. I simply thin the thicker paints with 6-8 drops of water.

Here is a shot of my airbrush. The brush is just a 20 dollar tool from harbor freight with all aluminum construction. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. 

Here is a shot of the body all taped up. I used a hobby knife to the pattern in the blue portion of the tape. I like to paint the light colors first, one at a time. After each color I like to back them with white. The colors really pop and do not mix together.

Here is a shot of the body all finished. I played around with fade effects with the paint. In order to get a fade effect, do a few light coats and do not back with with white where you want the fade to occur. The fade effect really gives some character to the body.

Here is a body I painted for a friend. He wanted a replica of an old body he had. You can see that I taped up all the same patterns.

The first coat I did was Pearl white, FASPEARL. I did several light coats to get the perl to look smooth. I would apply a light coat and them blow dry the inside of the body for 4-5 min before applying the next coat. I applied 5 coats of pearl and then backed with white, FASWHITE.














The next color was the red stripe. I had pre scored the tape before I started painting, which made it easy to peel off after I added paint. For the pearl red, FASPEARL RED, I again did several light coats, blow drying in between each coat. After the red coats where added, I again backed the color with white. I had made a few mistakes when I was painting and in order to correct them, I used a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. The alcohol and swab act as an eraser and can remove overspray or paint that got under your tape.

The final and darkest color I used was FASPEARL BLACK. Again I applied several light coats and then backed with white when I was done.

Here is another body I painted, using the same technique as the previous body. I ended up applying 7-10 coats of red in order to get a very deep and vibrant color.

Here is the finished bodies together

Here is a comparison of the old body vs the new one!

Here is a shot of the fin. I got a little creative with the flexible tape again.

In order to keep the body light and avoid the paint from rubbing off, I use some Flat White Rustoleum Protective enamel. I apply 3-4 light coats of protective enamel, which makes the paint job fuel proof and extremely durable. The paint wont simply flake off. Eventually the paint will rub off if you have parts that come into contact with the body. A thick protective coating can be added, but it makes the body much heavier and thus the truck has much more body roll. Good luck with your painting! It is a lot of fun to do yourself!

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia

Venom Batteries

Hello everyone! I am happy to announce that I am now running Venom batteries exclusively! Although I have been running them a few years, it is now official! Thank you Venom  for supporting me in my racing endeavors.


This is my first care package! I will be posting up some reviews of the batteries and charger in later posts!

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia

Pro-Line Pro2 SCB Front Tire Upgrade

Hello Everyone! I have been doing a lot of testing with my Pro-Line Pro2 SCB lately and I want to share something I discovered. When running the full size SC tires in the front, you may notice that the buggy likes to push a little in the corners. I decided to go ahead make some narrower front tires for the buggy to see how it handled.



First I started with some F11 wheels from Pro-Line. Product ID : 2740-04
Then I got some some Pro-Line Ion tires in clay compound. Product ID : 1191-17
Also I highly recommend the Pro-Line Glue. It is so easy to work with and it never lets me down. Product ID : 6031-00

 First off, we need to narrow the wheel. I used a rotary too with a cutting wheel to cut off the trough on the inside of the wheel. I used a marker to trace around the wheel in order to provide a good guideline. You can see in the image how I cut the wheel .





















Here is another shot of the completely cut wheel. After you finish cutting the wheel, be sure to clean up the outer edge. Also, you want to keep the inner edge since we need to glue the tire to it.

 Once the cutting of the wheel is complete, it is time to cut the tire. I cut the tire just outside the dots the border the center of the tire. I cut along these dots on both sides. Be sure to cut as straight and precise as possible so that the tire is easier to glue back together.

Once you finish cutting the tire, you should have something similar to this image. In order to accommodate the narrow tire, we have to also cut the foam.

 I cut the foam along the thick edge. I went ahead and made a mark on the foam that indicates how I cut it. Just cut along the outside of the line that runs through the foam.

 Once the foam is cut, the tire needs to be glued back together. The tire should be glued with several small beads of glue spaced roughly a half inch apart. I glued the tire so that the tread matched up as you can see in the picture.

Here is a picture of the tire all beaded up. If you look closely, you can see the spacing of the beads of glue. Basically, the many beads make it easier for you to glue the rest of the seam.

Once you are done applying all the beads of glue, you will want to turn the tire inside out so that you can easily finish the seam. The image show the spacing in more detail. In order to finish the seam, you just want to fill those holes with a light coat of glue and then push the rubber together as evenly as possible.

Once you are done with the seam, the tire needs to be glued to the rim. Since we cut the rim, there is no easy trough to put the bead of the tire in. You have to be very careful when gluing the tire to the side you cut. I put a light coat of glue along the inner corner the of wheel and carefully squared up the tire bead to the lip of the wheel. It is not terribly difficult to glue the side that was cut, but you have to take your time so that you dont have an uneven tire.










After the rear edge is glued, the rest is just like gluing a regular tire. Here is a shot of the finished product! After doing some testing with them, the buggy no longer pushed! I would describe the handling like driving a slot car.

I will also note that not only do the narrow front tires handle better... they look killer once they are

on the buggy!

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia

Friday Night Racing at OC/RC

Hello Everyone! This past Friday I attended the final race of the Friday night points series at OC/RC. I didnt get a chance to practice on the new track so I had to just wing it!

My Venom powered Pro-Line Pro2 was dialed all night! I was running some Pro-Line Ions  on the front and rear of the truck and I was hooked up! I didnt need to sauce the tires or even wash them in order to get traction. 

Here is a shot of the track. There was a whoop section in the middle of the track that led into a triple. I had a little trouble at first trying to make the triple but simply slowing down through the whoop section allowed me to go through the obstacles smoothly.

There was a really fun rhythm section in front of the driver stand that had a hair pin turn right after it. It was really awesome watching the 4wd buggies triple single out. 

The track had a ton of bumps that forced you to slow down and drive smooth, otherwise you would end up with your wheels to the sky. You can see some bumps in the turns after the rhythm section.

 Here is another shot of the triple. I ended up taking the double single  line in order to stay consistent.

 Here is a shot of my Pro-2 right before the main event. I ended up qualifying 4th in the A main. My truck performed very consistently in the heats. The more experience I gain with the truck, the more I love it! When the main started, a bunch of us got tangled up. Then after a few laps, the timing system had a glitch and we had to restart the race. My Venom Battery had no problems even after restarting the race. I had more than enough power and run time with no fade! I ended up taking a 4th place finish and a 5th place finish overall in the series.

Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles with the KLA logo at the track.

                                                                  -Matthew Garcia