BIG RACERS

Damon Palm loves to race and has one of the fastest monster trucks in the area.

He just can’t fit inside it.

Palm’s race truck is radio-controlled, and he’s a regular at the Hank Perry RC Raceway at Sullivan Park, 1901 N. Sullivan Road.

“Racing is racing,” Palm said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s lawn mowers or race cars or toy cars. It’s still competition.”

“You get on a track with up to nine other people, and it becomes just like any other kind of racing. The only real difference is that you aren’t really in the vehicle, but at the same time there are a lot more crazy things you can do for that very reason.”

Like many of his counterparts, Palm collects and races cars in most competitive classifications on-road, off-road, gas-powered, battery-powered, indoor and outdoor.

“It’s not as expensive as other forms of racing,” he said. “For example, if you get into motocross, you’re looking at an entry investment of about $6,000 for the bike, and then whatever custom things you want to do to the bike are over and above that. You can get into racing an RC car for about $500 and be competitive.”

The small-scale raceway is a popular spot on a summer evening. Palm is a regular there and at Northwest RC Hobbies’ racetrack in the 4900 block of East Sprague Avenue.

A need to race isn’t a prerequisite to use the park, however.

“The majority of people who go out there and use the park have never raced,” he said. “They just go out there and play around.

“It’s completely free to the public since it’s a city park, and the only time it’s closed is when we’re working on it to get it ready for an upcoming race, it looks like a lake out there or there’s snow on the ground.”

Just as you can choose your automobile by the fuel it burns, so can you select an RC car or truck. Electric versions run on battery power; gas-powered models run on a mixture of methanol, synthetic and nonsynthetic castor oil and nitro methane – the same fuel that powers top-fuel dragsters.

Interestingly enough, the price of fuel for an RC car or truck has been stable while the price at the pump has ballooned to more than $3 per gallon.

“Since it’s based on a synthetic oil or castor oil, it doesn’t go up and down based on the price of a barrel of oil,” Palm said. “It pretty much stays the same no matter what.”

The RC community stays in touch through the Radio Control Car Club of Spokane and its Web site: www.rcccs.com. The Web site features forums where enthusiasts share tips and tricks for getting the most out of their racer as well as updated standings during the race season.

“I’ve always loved racing,” he said. “I have to race at least once a week or something’s wrong. You can only have so much fun by yourself in your backyard.”

The world of RC cars, as enthusiasts refer to it, is quite similar to that of their full-size versions. Vehicles come in almost as many makes and models as their larger brethren and just as much attention to detail can be paid.

“It’s just like anything else. You can spend just as much time and money on it as you want to,” Palm said. “It’s not unlike the custom car/tuner community; there’s a lot you can do. The good thing about these cars is that they don’t have to be street legal.”