*2012 is revamping the NCT, it is coming back with a vengeance. 2012 NCT will once again have a series director, Justin Wilde, who hopes to revamp and bring some flair back to the series! So Join us for a great year!*
After attending the 2002 ROAR Electric Off-road Regional Championship held at Marc Anzivino's Paradise Raceway & Hobbies in Spokane Washington, Mike Dana wondered how come there wer
e so few entries and why there were not many people from outside of Spokane competing? Further, after a year and a half of off-road RC Club Racing and coming primarily from a Motorcycle racing background, Mike wondered how the RC racing world could deem champions based on the results of single races; this just didn't make sense. With this in mind, Mike began to conceive how an RC series could work. His basis for starting the series was partially because the one-race champion issue, but also because of a big divide in Northwest off-road RC racing. Lots of the Western Washington area racers didn't travel east of the Cascade Mountains. Likewise, not many of the Eastern Washington drivers competed west of the mountains. To further compound the problem, there was the fast guy clique of drivers that only went to races where there fellow fast guy buddies were going which stifled the improvement of other racers in the Northwest. Upon consulting with a hand-full of RC racers with similar full scale racing backgrounds Mike had formulated the concept of the series and how it would work to be successful to not only the racer, but to the clubs/shops/venues holding the events as well. Mike's mission with the series was to create a series of off-road RC races that would:
bring everyone from the Northwest together; both Nitro and Electric drivers from east, west, north and south
provide a level of competition that would increase the talent of Northwest drivers on the national scale
crown true champions that earned their championships over multiple events, held at multiple venues and on multiple surface types
Surprisingly the support for such a series was there from the racers, but not from some of the most prominent individuals and tracks in the Northwest. It's been tried before and has always failed". And, "that nobody in the Northwest travels and if you get more than 70 entries at a race you should consider that a success because more is just not going to happen". For the first year the plan was a 6 round series with the drivers best 4 finishes scoring points for the year end Drivers Class Championships. The first 3 rounds would be 2-day events and the last 3 rounds would be single day races in an effort to reduce costs and to help ensure racer attendance didn't fade away as the series progressed. The new series, would piggy-back onto existing events for the first 3 rounds in an effort to not add races to the already busy, albeit fractured, Northwest race schedule. The RC Car Club of Wenatchee (RCCCW), The RC Car Club of Spokane (RCCCS) and Westcoast Hobby & Raceway stepped up to the plate and adopted the series when other facilities would not. Due to the adoption of all Eastern Washington area tracks the series was appropriately named the Eastern Washington Championship Series (EWCS). The series got off to a huge start in the spring of 2003 with the 2nd Annual Spring Shoot-out / CAN-AM Challenge hosted by the RCCCW in April. The turn-out was great even with limited promotion. The marketing skills that Mike acquired during his sponsorship quests while Motorcycle road racing paid off with 156 entries for the first series race; up from just about 80 the year prior and already way over the proclaimed Northwest limit of 70. The series rolled into the Hank Perry 240 Hosted by the RCCCS in May and over 180 entries lined up for battle. The series was on and gaining momentum. After the 3rd round of the fledgling series, the Columbia Cup hosted by Westcoast Hobby and Raceway in June, the series had an impressive entry total of over 425 for the first 3 rounds. All signs were that the EWCS was a success. Mike, being somewhat of a pessimist and not wanting to get too excited, still believed the success of the series was in question even though the first 3 rounds had huge entry totals. He had been told past attempts of race series in the Northwest had died after the 3rd race. The series was now headed into new, uncharted territory. With the last 3 rounds of the series effectively 1-day club races, what would the true support of the EWCS be? Back at RCCCW's Wenatchee facility for the 4th round 80 entries showed up for the 1-day format and Mike at last felt relief. Even though the format of the series changed for the last 3 rounds, to accommodate 1-day formats with large entry counts, the inaugural 2003 EWCS season was in the books after the 6th round. Once the awards were handed out, and the entries tallied, the 2003 series had an entry total of just shy of 650. The series was a success.
2004 brought big changes in what was originally to be the inaugural year. A change in format to six 2-day events with the addition of races at Monster Hobbies in Coeur D'Alene Idaho, Hometown Hobbies and A-Main Raceway's Canby Oregon facility and Tacoma RC Raceway in Tacoma Washington, and with the series now in the major metropolitan areas of the Northwest the name of the series was changed to the Northwest Championship Tour (NCT) and www.NorthwestChamps.com was born. 2004 also brought the addition of Maximizer Products, Panther Tire, King Headz and Northwest RC Hobbies as class sponsors. Entries absolutely blew up in '04. Once all of the dust had settled, the trophies handed out and a huge sigh of relief the 2004 edition of the NCT had received well over 1000 entries. The largest race of '04 was the 3rd Round at the Hank Perry in Spokane Washington; with just over 280 entries. For 2005 Mike received support from RC America / Team XRAY-Hudy USA on a personal level to race a national schedule and thus he redirected his focus onto this new opportunity. Due to the commitment Mike knew he had to dedicate to the XRAY program he stepped aside and handed over the reigns of the NCT to Les Ulrich. Les, as the president of the RCCCS and owner of Northwest RC Hobbies was a true supporter of the series from the first mention of it back in the fall/winter of 2002. The NCT was reduced to the best 4 of 5 rounds in an effort to reduce costs incurred by the racers. Monster Hobbies was dropped from the series and TRCR was replaced by Lancer Lanes in Clarkston Washington. The support from the racers continued as the largest NCT race in '05 was about a wash between RCCCW's Spring Shoot-out and RCCCS's Hank Perry with about 250 entries each. For 2006 Dave Gullickson replaced Les Ulrich as the director of the NCT. The series was increased back to the best 4 of 6 rounds with the addition of Peel-it Raceway in Marysville Washington. Additionally, 2006 saw the addition of support from Team Brood as the title sponsor of the NCT, Byron's Fuel and Axiom Motors as class sponsors. In 2006 RCCCW's Spring Shoot-out round recorded the highest entry total for the year with just over 280 for this single race.
2012 is revamping the NCT, it is coming back with a vengeance. 2012 NCT will once again have a series director, Justin Wilde, who hopes to revamp and bring some flair back to the series! So Join us for a great year!
