A Conversation With Ronda Drake

[Music] all right we're here with rhonda drake rhonda representing negan os j concepts futaba and flashpoint uh it's great to have you here rhonda and thanks for the support uh but uh before rhonda drake there was rhonda skelton right yeah and talk to us about uh we were talking earlier that you actually started racing before adam yes and you started here locally in california and uh kyosho raider was that first vehicle that you had so uh give us a little glimpse into kind of getting started and how you got going and doing this for so long so a family member my brother-in-law had like a kyogen raider in the closet that was kind of broken and i was like let's take that out and and run it and he was like ah it's broken and i'm like he's just blowing me off and this was about 1989 and then like two months later christmas came along and i think he repaired it all and they gave it to me for christmas so i was like oh this is the neatest thing ever even though it was a hand-me-down car and this was before you know rc was what it is today and uh so i did the typical basher thing and put you know uh onward body on it you know just having fun in my car you know just just liking the hobby and everything and then we went to a racetrack and saw people actually do this serious and it was called outlaw hobbies in highland california and uh they had this jrx pro that just came out and i was like i'm gonna get that car so my brother-in-law built it for me and i started racing and i actually didn't really want to race at first but he signed me up and i was like well why'd you do that you know um he's all well you're racing you don't have a choice and so i raced and i was hooked and then he couldn't afford to do it anymore so i ended up having to learn to do everything i wanted or to race because i wanted to race and i knew it wasn't just a fad little hobby i just even knew then that i was gonna do this for a very very long time and my mom was like you're a girl you're gonna get into so many things and i was probably 10 or 11 at the time and uh actually i've been doing this 31 years now and uh i even started racing even before adam so but that's kind of how i got started and you know you kind of um obviously the 10th scale boom here was so big the electric 10 scale side of things were so big in you know southern california i mean you've you've been to all the tracks uh between the probably the old socals the new socals you went to all the different tracks that were been famous over the years and but you've kind of settled in on racing uh in the nitro side of things and the eighth scale before that was gas truck and uh what's kind of drawn you to that side of the of the rc cars well i did the electric for about 10 years a lot of stock buggy um went to you know cactus classic in arizona and then i got into gastric and that's kind of what transitioned me into nitro and then i got into eight scale my first car was a mugen in eighth scale and um i was trying to do it all i was trying to do electric nitro everything even on road and adam told me he's like you're not gonna be stellar at everything so just pick something you like and stick with it and i just kind of gravitated towards the uh eight scale stuff and i like more of the outdoor i i like electric and all that but just the time commitments for everything is very hard and for some reason i just took to the 1 8 scale nitro scene so explain you know kind of uh you know as you kind of transitioned you know through the years kind of being a you know a girl or a woman in rc uh and how you see it and how you think it's um maybe you're kind of open the doors for other girls that that that like this and like to do it and you know i notice a lot of people gravitate towards you because of that there's a lot of little girls in rc now uh that you know they see that you're getting it done out there and you have a lot of experience you have a relationship an rc it's a big thing and uh talk to us about that kind of the motivational side of it or just kind of like the figure side i i mean obviously you can't help to notice but i'm a female doing it but i never looked at it as like you know i'm a female you know look at me look at me i was never like that i really truly enjoyed the racing part of it the competitive part of it and i really felt like 30 30 years ago that i really tried to i had something to prove and so i had to work that much harder at it um and there weren't very many girls there was a couple but i didn't want to just be mediocre at it i wanted to be really good at it and just over the years i've seen more and more girls that are into it and i mean there's really gender wise nothing separating anybody from doing this um i never honestly i i never really wanted to be a role model or anything like that i truly did this because i loved it um but it's cool to see and i i don't know that some people don't realize how long i've been racing and doing this and i look back and i'm like wow you know i've been doing this this long and everything so it is cool to see a lot of these girls uh you know take on my little skull logo or the pink stuff and uh um but no i never really thought you know i i guess i never embraced it i guess like i should have and everything but i i mean i'm still trying to do the best that i can out here and stuff but i still love racing and uh i guess uh that's kind of what made me who i am today i guess being a female racer you're really kind of behind something lately you've been talking about a lot of club racing that you're doing you really uh are a firm believer in doing the club racing is a big part of rc you know obviously you got a lot of big races that you can run there's a lot of little trophy races you can run but but you're really enjoying the uh the club racing side of things and kind of back to where you started you know doing some club racing so explain the the club race side of kind of the the role you've taken on lately with kind of promoting that side of it i truly think that i mean i got started club racing and those were some of my best and funnest years of racing was the club racing at the local level um you know where the local people can see that you guys are doing this and it was more inviting the bigger races don't get me wrong i love the big races i like more competition and everything but it it intimidates the newcomer to the hobby and if we want to grow the hobby we truly need to do it at the local level and make people feel comfortable um and to where you don't have to do you don't have to have all this expensive stuff and put all i mean that's intimidating for somebody to put three grand into something just to erase something you know you want to do it on a local level where it's more affordable there's not as you you want to do it where you're having fun fun with your friends um you know it's just uh just a lot more comfortable welcoming and you can go home the same day and so i i would love to see club racing get really big again and uh i love the big races but it's a lot of prep that goes into it a lot of money spent um you know thousands of dollars where you can go race locally for 20 bucks and maybe you know reuse your tires that you ran the other night or you know it's a lot of for a lot more affordable there's a little kid that lives down the street from me and he's you know not old enough to really have a job and to race 1 8 scale is very expensive and he was he had a hand-me-down car he was you know using somebody's used tires and uh he's trying to do it but trying to do it at the top level is really hard for somebody so we need to kind of try to make it more affordable which gas truck was perfect for that and um you know do it at the local level yeah so you know and i guess another thing that you're saying is when you're doing this club racing and you're meeting up and coming people you're meeting people that aren't at the higher level you're meeting people that are at the beginning beginning or the you know the intermediate level but um it's also about helping some of these people get hooked on it like you said like a hand-me-down car or tires or engines and stuff that you can do to help people actually have a better experience because if they have a better experience they're going to be doing it longer well i think that people when they get into racing they try to just reach the top like right away and i remember when i was a kid and i used to go to the skating rink you know it cost hardly any money and you went and it was a local hangout and you just like going every week because you like the vibe why can't club racing be like that yeah i think that's you know exactly a good point is it's a social side of it it's a competitive side and then you're learning something with the mechanical side that we always talk about in this it's uh it's almost irreplaceable well i hear a lot of people say you know keep rc fun well we're not doing our part by doing that you know so if you made it more comfortable more affordable a local hangout for kids to go um you would see a lot more growth in the hobby i mean most people that do this are getting older not you don't see a whole lot of younger kids doing it is simply not affordable to do so um you know you're in a unique situation obviously being married to adam and i think over the years you've it's almost like you've kind of fell into a routine of how you drive the cars prepare the cars uh and test products so you're one way or another it's become something of your interest and your you know enthusiasm but at the same time you're also doing a job with adam here where you represent companies and you try to promote the products but also you're out here testing you're out trying things i know when i've been at the races you come back you'll have a race or run where you tell adam hey i like these tires or i don't like these tires and and uh and he uses that for his race he uses some of this knowledge and then you pass it on so talk to us about being kind of part of the the development side a little bit of these companies you're supporting and uh kind of what your input can be on that side of things sometimes you know you're at a big race and you're you're trying tires that you've never tried before and or a compound and the ever changing track conditions and stuff and um adam will use me sometimes a little bit for his get a guinea pig you know to see if it worked or not work because what i like isn't sometimes what he likes um so i really like seeing all the new stuff come out or trying stuff that you haven't tried before um it's ever changing um i don't know it just uh it's been a great hobby to do to be able to do and see what actually goes into the development part of it so and you know and one of the things that you and adam both work on is uh you become known as the engine uh experts um you know you got the os based engines that you guys do a lot of work with you there's adam drake edition now we got the rhonda drake edition you kind of have this pink movement you talked about earlier and this engine has a fantastic look to it you know with the the pink engine head as lo you know as far as i've seen sold out yes um and talk to us about uh this engine side of things that you have going and uh to me this is really unique and really kind of a cool opportunity so talk to about this engine side of thing so os actually had the idea they're like we want to make a pink edition rhonda drake a engine and i was like what um i was really excited about it but i was also very nervous at the same time because i didn't think a lot of males would embrace the pink engine and i was really wrong when it came to that it's it's sold out they can't keep them they can't keep up on production with it and everything um i'm very thankful for that um and i just can't believe it and uh it's like i'm almost in a dream so it's been awesome it's got a great look to it you know and i think it's really unique you got some people out there like sushi hara he's really jealous i think of your of your engine because he's got that that pink color on his cars and yeah i've seen him a lot of drivers and you know tagging you and saying hey i got this thing and it's looking great and uh what is it like to kind of be in that position where you're seeing this thing and other drivers and and you know particularly male uh guys that are saying hey i love this engine and they don't care about the color the logos the anything it's really awesome seeing all the pictures of people posting and and seeing them everywhere and you know as a kid you you want something like that to happen but then actually reality hits you and you're like pinch me you know you just can't believe it so um seeing i like it when people tag me in it and i get to see it and there's more engines coming the end of january so i'm really excited and uh i still just can't believe it so i'm in awe so you know again we did this with adam we worked down your t-shirt here of the people you know we're talking about jay concepts today um you know we're out here at a lot of these different tracks you have so many to choose from here in california you've worked with adam you've tried to um you know drive these tires or drive any products that you're supporting and you know what are the some of the things you look for when you're driving on the field for the tire side of things and you know what what makes something stand out in the different conditions that really draws you to the different items i think you know i like more of a lower profile tire and just the the changing of the compounds to see what it's going to do i mean like on high bite especially when it's windy it's you know it's so much traction and then you know then there's when they water the tracks um you change the compounds then it's just always testing and trying and then looking at your lap times i mean it's you're always doing work you're always trying to progress even whether you're some young kid to some old lady trying to do this so um i guess you're just always trying to improve so kind of a connection here with with the past versus you know the uh the present but you know back in the day when we when we started i'm talking about me you adam there wasn't the internet live rc and all these type of things where you could go and look at your lap times and all that and back then we went by a feel or a stopwatch or what you felt was good and now we have these tools and you know spencer likes to say i checked out the data you know and before it used to be for me it was like well we just felt it out and we had a gut feeling whether we liked one thing or not but now we have this mixture of the data and the feel and you can kind of compare the two so i would assume that you know when you're when you're either racing or testing whether it's mugen os or j concepts that you use this type of data with atom where you look at the lap times or when you go by the field because everyone's a little old school too so it's feel plus lap time so maybe explain how in a situation where you guys might use something like that hey i i still am very old school on this stuff um i think sometimes when you look at the i do look at the data but i also just go based on the feel um because sometimes i think ignorance is bliss and when you you think too much about something instead of just driving and letting it naturally happen you can also kind of mess yourself up mentally so i'm even old school too i don't wear a headset usually when i am up driving um they have to call me in and yell i actually listen to music so i don't know anything that's going on in a race i'm just very old school like that i just truly think ignorance is bliss and i just go out there and drive the best that i can and put in the most effort that i can and just see what happens with the results um i do on a testing day kind of look at lap times and try stuff and all that but when it comes to the racing part i just kind of wing it i guess so we appreciate the support can't wait for you to start getting these jay concepts tires on the track and uh we're gonna let you get some track time here today see what it looks like and see what ronda looks like behind the wheel again appreciate it on the track thank you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: JConceptsLive

Views: 10,110

Rating: 4.9577465 out of 5

Keywords: Ronda Drake, RC Racing, Race, Radio Controlled Hobbies, Hobby, OS Engines, JConcepts, Jason Ruona

Id: FVNrswJ56sc

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021