Driving full speed at one-eighth scale

It all started innocently enough.

Taylor Peterson and his dad drove by Paradise Raceway in north Spokane, a place where drivers race radio controlled model cars.

For a young guy in a hurry to go fast, the thought of racing was enticing and intoxicating.

“I just saw the track and started saving up to buy a car,” the 2008 University High grad explained. “I really wanted to get into motocross racing, but I couldn’t afford it. I wanted to get into something that had all the thrills and the rush of racing, and this does that for me.

“I ride dirt bikes now and it really is the same kind of a rush, you just don’t run the risk of hurting yourself like you do on a bike. In fact, most of the top (RC) racers are ex-motocross racers.”

Peterson bought his first race car and was at the track racing it the next day. It wasn’t long before his friends and local competitors were urging him to enter bigger and more prestigious events.

At each step, Peterson proved he was among the best racers on the course.

“The one-eighth-scale car I was running then was made by a company in Japan named Kyosho,” Peterson said. “They’re pretty much the Ferrari of the RC world. They saw that I was running one of their cars and doing well with it, so they offered me a sponsorship.”

At first, he said, it was a 50-percent sponsorship. In his next race, however, he bested the company’s other drivers, so they upped his sponsorship to 100 percent. He won his next race and the company put him on their traveling team and began sending him around the country, and around the world, to race their nitro-methane-powered cars.

After graduating, he headed to California to race full time, regularly finishing among the top five in whatever race he was in and winning frequently. At that level, he says, you can make a very good living. Some of the best racers in the country make more than six figures, he insists.

“I didn’t like living in California,” he said. “You’re on the road all the time and it’s hard work.”

After a year, Peterson moved home and began to alter his long-term plans. He’s currently raising start-up capital to start his own construction company – a project he’s helping to fund by racing, and racing well, several times a month.

Race car manufacturer Venom announced in March that it had signed Peterson for the 2010 season. He competed in the national championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week and will compete in the world championships in Thailand later this year.

Peterson sets up his race cars at home, choosing and adjusting components to give him the best chance in a given race. Advances in design make it important that top drivers have state-of-the-art components.

“It’s just like racing full-sized cars,” he insists. “Track conditions can change. Temperatures can change and that will change the way a car performs. You have to choose the right tires for the course you’re racing on.

“Some of the new stuff they’re coming out with allows you to go longer between pit stops,” he said. “That can make all the difference in a big race.”

Drivers, themselves, must adapt, he said – especially within a given race.

“That’s where it gets to be a real challenge,” he said. “When you get to the finals of a big race like the (national championships) in Colorado, you’re racing for an hour. You have to be rock steady that whole time and that’s the biggest challenge for me.”

That means adjusting for changing track conditions as well as for tires that wear down throughout the race.

“The No. 1 guy in the country is just like that: he’s exactly the same lap after lap,” Peterson said. “I tend to be a little more aggressive, but I’m trying to be more and more consistent. I’ve beaten him before and I know I can do it again.”

Peterson insists that, despite racing just part-time, he still makes “pretty good money” on the RC circuit.

“Memorial Day weekend I made $2,500 racing,” he said. “I’m just not making it my full-time job. I want to start and build my own company and make that my career. But I will always enjoy building cars and racing them – probably on the weekend.”