By JARROD POTTER
THE love of thrashing a remote controlled car inspired a group of enthusiasts to push their cars to the limit at the 24 Hours of Adrenalin event.
Driving the hotted-up radio control cars around the 160m indoor circuit in Dandenong, nine teams from across Australia took on the challenge to see who could last the distance and burn the most rubber.
From the first lap on Friday night all the way through to 8pm on Saturday night, the teams pushed the tiny vehicles to breaking point.
While the teams battled fatigue and battery problems for hours at a time – a couple of cars knocked out of the running altogether – the turn-heavy course proved a boon for ‘The A Team’, with the Mr T-less line-up putting down a whopping 4,762 laps to take the chequered flag.
Team ‘Bob The Racer’ set a flying lap of 15.215 seconds, but could not keep up the pace as The A Team emerged.
The A Team rattled off 761 kilometres in their 24-hour victory – effectively the distance from Melbourne to Adelaide – to claim back-to-back titles and edge out Team Bob The Racer along with 27 others in the minor positions.
Adrenalin Arena founder/director Damian Andrews said the event – in its second year at the Dandenong-based venue – was created to challenge the Victorian RC community and test the limits of the cars and racers alike.
“We just wanted to have a unique event, there’s only one other event like it in the world and that’s in Germany,” Andrews said.
“We thought it would be a good challenge to go the distance… we organised it last year and got a reasonable turn out… this year we’ve had nearly double the entries.”
Andrews said the big kids can’t get enough of remote controlled racing and admits his passion returned later in life and encouraged anyone interested to pick up the controls and get down to the venue for some hot laps.
“I played with it when I was a kid – in the early teens, then I grew up, and when I became older I discovered my inner youth and started mucking around with toy cars again, much to my wife’s displeasure.
“We have kids come down as young as six and certainly have fathers and sons race as well, so it’s great family entertainment for people who want a bit of speed.”
More information on Adrenalin Arena and RC racing in Dandenong can be found on their website www.adrenalin-area.com.
24 HOURS OF ADRENALIN RESULTS
1st A Team – 4,762 laps. 2nd Bob the Racer.
Reverse Polarity Wacky Racers: 1st Strom. 2nd Munster. 3rd Hearns.
