CompetitionX was part of Axialfest 2016 that took place in CIcso Grove Campground. It was a fantastic time - read the article to see why it's considered the Greatest RC Show on Earth!

1. Axialfest 2016 – RC’s Greatest Show on Earth
www.competitionx.com/news-feed/axialfest-2016-rcs-greatest-show-on-earth/
Back in 2011 I attended a rock crawling event at the Cisco Grove Campground called the Axial West Coast
Challenge (AWCC) (see the picture gallery here). It consisted of a few courses – a rock crawling circuit and a
couple G6 trail events. It was a laid back event with roughly 250 people in attendance, a pretty hefty number for a
bunch of people driving RC cars in the woods. Or so it seemed…
Jump forward to 2016 – Axial’s event retains the same location at the Cisco Grove Campground but has now been
re-labeled as ‘Axialfest‘. The event is even more about fun, family and bringing the RC community together … and
boy did Axial do that. They sold the campground out, renting out areas of the campground that haven’t been used in
years. They had approximately 900 registered drivers, however that doesn’t include friends and family members that
tagged along to just enjoy the show – we’re looking at another 200-300 drivers for a total closer to 1200 people. But
that’s not even the amazing part.
Since the name change to Axialfest in 2012, the event has been open to only Axial-based vehicles. So, yeah, that’s
1200 potential drivers – all with AXIAL vehicles! It’s an awesome site to see mom, dad, little Johnny, sister Kate and
even grandpa all walking through the campground driving their Axial rigs.
Classes
To keep everyone busy through the 3-day event, Axial set up a number of classes that allowed anyone of any age to
participate for your $50 entry fee. There was the Adventurist class, Rock Racing and the Ultra Challenge – let’s take
a quick look at each of these classes.
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2. Adventurist
The Adventurist class was all about fun. There were seven trails
to drive on, each sponsored by a manufacturer; AMain
Hobbies sponsored Trail A, RPP Hobby sponsored Trail B,
CKRC Hobbies sponsored Trail C, Pro-Line Racing
sponsored Trail D, RC4WD sponsored Trail E, Tower Hobbies
sponsored Trail F and Altra Running sponsored Trail G. These
courses were available to drive on day or night and could be
driven at whatever pace was comfortable, with Axial providing a
printed score card for you to use. Drivers were not required to
use this score card; it was merely a souvenir of your time on the trail. Trail G was a dual-purpose trail, but we’ll talk
about that in a sec.
Rock Racing
The second class for drivers was the Rock Racing course. It
was a circular course laid out in the center of all the Adventurist
courses and required drivers, in groups of 10, to start from a set
point and race around the track. It was a motocross start that
led up to a wooden ramp that vaulted cars onto an outside lane
of the track; the drivers would have to stay on the inside lane
and follow their rigs around the course. The races were 2 laps
long which, in terms of normal racing seems really low, but after
chasing behind your car in the hot sun whilst navigating rocks,
weeds, logs and, most importantly, other drivers, 2 laps were plenty! The hardest section of the track was the final
leg of the course that required drivers to crawl through a very technical rock garden. Some drivers were able to pick
the right lines and speed right through (sort of), but since there were so many drivers on course, it became very
difficult to pick a consistent line! This was a make-it-or-break-it part of the track that caught alot of the favored drivers
out, sending them farther down the finishing lineup.
Altra Ultra 5K Enduro Challenge
Remember when I mentioned Track G? Well, the Ultra course
was Trail G was one in the same, receiving special course
treatment for dual purposes and was sponsored by Altra
Running Shoes – which was actually a very appropriate
sponsor! Also sponsoring the Altra Ultra 5K Enduro course was
BFGoodrich, Method Race Wheels and Magnaflow exhaust …
yes, the actual full-scale companies! This was a very physical
event; drivers started off in pairs and proceeded to do 8 laps of
the Ultra Challenge course. Each lap required them to crawl
over rocks, up steep hills, down steep hills, over shale, weeds, roots and downed trees. Then there was the man-
made bridges and water obstacles – there was even a pass through the staging pavilion that led to a wicked rock
section with a small waterfall. Oh, I forgot to mention – the total distance of the track (8 laps) was a whopping 5KM
(or just over 3 miles)! Yes, you read that right – to win this event, you had to drive your rig at speed through all those
above obstructions while running along side of it – for 8 laps. You had to avoid other competitors, keep your vehicle
from breaking AND keep it between the track barriers. I walked the track 2 times taking pictures and one additional
time doing a ‘One Lap with Charlie Suangka’ (see video below). It was one of the coolest races I’ve seen, really
pushing the drivers (and their trucks) to the limit!
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3. Daily Schedule
Thursday
Most of the people attending the event showed up either
Thursday or Friday, but for those that wanted to show up earlier,
they could attend the Concourse show held in the upper
pavilion. There were quite a few vehicles entered in the different
classes; Best Daily Driver, Best Axial Heritage, Best Trail
Weathered, Most Adventurist, Best Adventurist Trailer, Best
Work Trailer, Best SCORE International Trophy Truck and Best
of Show. Each class would be judged individually with the
overall winner (Best of Show) being judged last. I had the honor
of being a judge in the event and have to say there were some CRAZY good entries! It took a couple hours to filter
through all the rigs, but the eventual winners really deserved the trophies. Funny story – the Best of Show entry
wasn’t even entered in the Concourse event. I happened to notice his truck and trailer off to the side and asked why
he wasn’t entered. His wife gave me some story about a sponsorship or something like that, but who cares – it was
an awesome setup! The judges had a short meeting, decided he was eligible and forced him to enter, a decision that
would be one of the best of the weekend. We let the winners of the other Concourse classes pick the Best of Show,
and this killer rig won with a unanimous decision!
After the Concourse, the Adventurist courses were unofficially open for drivers to check out what Axial had in store
for them.
Friday
Friday started with Tech inspection for the Altra Ultra 5K
Enduro, making sure all driver’s rigs were prepared according to
the rules. The National Anthem was sung followed by the pre-
race setup for the Ultra Challenge race. As I mentioned before,
this was an 8-lap race (just over 3 miles), testing the physical
endurance of the drivers and the durability of the vehicles. We
even saw Casey Currie, a huge Axial supporter, take his shot
at the Ultra Challenge event, taking a very respectable 3rd
place finish! It was quite the grueling event – see the Ultra
Challenge Picture Gallery below to see for yourself.
The official start of Axialfest and the Opening Ceremonies was on Friday afternoon. Everyone was invited to gather
at the pavilion for a group shot, however it took quite some time to get everyone together and settled in. The
resulting shot was fantastic – kids, parents, friends and staff all gathered together for one purpose – to enjoy
Axialfest.
Around noon, Starkey’s Food Truck rolled up to treat everyone
to pizza and sushi. Yes, I know, it’s an odd combination, but the
food was actually amazing! I had pizza multiple times (as did my
wife) and we loved it! I didn’t partake in any of the sushi, but
those that did were surprised at how good it was coming from a
food truck! Talking to Dave (owner of the food truck), he was
floored by the amount of people at the event and guaranteed us
he’ll be back next year. That makes for a happy Tony – that
pizza was delicious!
Throughout the day, drivers were flooding the trails to have
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4. some on-course fun, a time that lead deep into the night. We started heading to bed around 11:30pm and there
were still a ton of vehicle headlights dancing in the woods.
Saturday
The start of the day had racers lining up over at the Rock Racing
course for Tech Inspection. Turn out was expected to be a bit
low due to the physical nature of the event, but we were all
pretty surprised at the droves of RCers headed our way. The
RR10 Bomber/Wraith class alone had over 60 entrants! This
extended the time the Rock Racing event was supposed to last,
but that didn’t seem to bother any of the participants.
The Adventurist Trails were open all day and drivers had a
chance to finish off any trails they didn’t complete. By 7:00,
attendees were corralled towards the upper pavilion for the Awards and Raffle. It was like the opening to a concert;
family and newly-met friends all filtering into the staging area. Everyone was very calm and collected as they picked
their spot, set their chairs down and prepared themselves for the awards and one heck of an amazing raffle!
Drivers from the Concourse, Rock Racing and Ultra Challenge
were all awarded trophies and prizes for their efforts. Some got
Axial swag while others got amazing prizes from other Axialfest
supporters – Magnaflow, Altra Running Shoes and BFGoodrich!
The Axialfest raffle was, by far, one of the best I’ve been to in
my RC career! There were parts, tires and apparel from
companies like RC4WD, Pro-Line, CKRC and Boom Racing as
well as quite a few Axial car kits – including the newly-released
SCX10 II! Non-RC sponsors also had quite a few things to
donate; Altra had several gift certificates for running shoes,
Magnaflow was giving out some exhaust systems, a Transition BLT mountain bike valued at over $1200 (John and
Rodney had a little fun with this one on Axial’s Facebook Live), BFGoodrich donated some full-scale tires sets and
there was even a few gift certificates for sets of Method Racing Wheels! The final prize was one of Axial’s new
SCX10 II kits – you can see how happy that kid was – he’s in the picture at the top of this article!
Sunday
Axialfest is definitely a go-go-go event, even if it’s at your own
pace. The event actually ends on Saturday so you can use
Sunday as a travel home day or a relaxation day – the choice is
yours. Either way, we saw people sleeping in, others hanging
out around the early morning fire with their coffee and yet others
working in one more trail run before they headed home. That’s
the beauty of this event; it’s a thousand friends just hanging out.
People are incredibly nice and have no problems striking up a
quick conversation. It really is a family event – a real BIG family
event.
If you haven’t been to an Axialfest event yet, do yourself a favor and go to one … just one. It doesn’t matter if you’re
into RC rock crawling or racing, just go. It’s a whole different side of the industry that I guarantee you’ll enjoy. I’m in.
I’m there, and without question I’ll be competing in one (or all) of the events next year.
Editor’s Note: Both Danna and I were invited to Axialfest as Staff members to help out at the event. There is a
tremendous amount of planning that goes into an event like this, especially when it runs as smoothly as it did. It took
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5. the entire Axial staff as well as a large amount of volunteers to make Axialfest 2016 happen, so we’d like to officially
thank everyone for making our adventure an absolute honor.
Event Sponsors
Axial, as well as CompetitionX, would like to thank all of the following sponsors for being a part of Axialfest 2016. I’m
sure we’ll see them next year as well!
Altra Running Shoes, www.altrarunning.com
AMain Hobbies, www.amainhobbies.com
BFGoodrich Tires, www.bfgoodrichtires.com
Boom Racing, www.boomracingrc.com
Braven Audio, www.braven.com
CKRC Hobbies, www.ckrchobbies.com
CompetitionX, www.competitionx.com
DSPro, www.dsproonline.com
Duratrax, www.duratrax.com
Fast Eddy Bearings, www.fasteddybearings.com
Futaba, www.futaba-rc.com
Gear Head RC, www.gearheadrc.com
Gigabit Off-Road, www.gigabitgames.com
JConcepts, www.jconcepts.net
Knight Customs, www.knight-customs.com
Magnaflow Exhaust, www.magnaflow.com
Method Racing Wheels, www.methodracewheels.com
MKS Servos, www.mksservosusa.com
Phoenix Design Labs, www.phoenixdesignlab.com
Pro-Line Racing, www.prolineracing.com
RC4WD, www.rc4wd.com
RCCrawler.com, www.rccrawler.com
Rivas Concepts, www.rivasconcepts.com
RPP Hobby, www.rpphobby.com
Rugged Radios, www.ruggedradios.com
Scale Builders Guild, www.scalebuildersguild.com
ScalerFab, www.scalerfab.com
SOR Graphics, www.stuckonracinggraphics.com
sPOD, www.4x4spod.com
Starkey’s Food Truck, www.starkeys-tahoe.com
Tekin Racing, www.teamtekin.com
Tower Hobbies, www.towerhobbies.com
Transition Bikes, www.transitionbikes.com
TruFab, www.trufab.com
Two Chainz Scalerz, www.facebook.com/twochainzscalerz/
Pictures
Below is a glimpse of each day’s activities. To see the full photo gallery, visit the CompetitionX Photo Gallery page.
Awards Ceremony
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6. Concourse Cars
Group Photo
Manufacturers
Raffle
Rock Racing
Ultra Race
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10. 10/13

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