Rochester R/C

An Interview with Barry Baker at 2003 US Indoor Champs December 5, 2003

Posted by Shannon in : R/C News , trackback

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We would also like to thank George Rodriguez of for his invaluable help with this interview.

Chris Freader (RRCC):You have had quite a dominating year with your TC3 on asphalt and rubber tires, how has the transition been to foam tires and carpet been?

Barry Baker: Its not really a transition. The car is really great and we have Mike Blackstock who helps with setup and stuff like that. So everyone pretty much gets on the same page pretty soon and gets everyone up to speed. If not, everyone has been trying a lot of different setups. There are certain setups that work, but I don’t think anyone is coming in with the exact same setup because every driving style is different. Going from asphalt to carpet you just have to learn that everything just reacts a lot faster. There is not as much tire slide in the corners. So if you start your turn early you will end up in the boards.

Chris Freader (RRCC): The Indoor Champs is a unique race in various ways, but most notably is the limited track time. What are your thoughts about racing in the largest carpet race, and having only a few packs of practice on the layout?

Barry Baker: It shows that a team working together trying different things will come up with a good setup from there and with different people you try different things. But with limited practice it shows who can dial in their car the quickest and who can adapt to tracks the fastest. So I think when you have 500 people, unless you extend this another whole day, which I heard next year The US Indoor Champs are doing. What I heard is that they are starting Wednesday with 2 practices and will have 2 practices on Thursday with 2 qualifiers on Friday and Saturday and Mains on Sunday. They want to keep it to where we are done by 1 AM, instead of the late nights we had this year. ( Late being that the Mod 12th was up for practice at 4am).

Chris Freader (RRCC): Are you running anything different on your TC3 then you have in the past?….Any new parts?

Barry Baker: Not really, We have played with roll center blocks where we dremeled some roll center blocks down. But that is about it. But, I think everyone has done that at some point in there life, taking the Dremel and measure this and see what I can do with that. But that is about it, there is nothing really new on the car. The car has been really good on carpet in years past, we have won the nationals on carpet with (Mike) Blackstock, and with Mark Pavidis we won on asphalt this year. So, why fix something that is not broke.

Chris Freader (RRCC): Can you talk about the differences with some of the sedan bodies you have been running? Which ones do you prefer on carpet?

Barry Baker: You know I have not tried the Alfa on carpet. That is what Blackstock is using here. I just didnt bring one, stupid me. Cause this day and age the bodies are so different and everything. But on asphalt I have run every single body out there and the new Mazda by Protoform is by far the best body on asphalt. It has really good down force. Really good steering, great traction coming off the corner, its a really good stable body. That body is just hooked up to put it plain and simple.

Chris Freader (RRCC): Back-to-Back Reedy Race wins here in the states; you won the 2003 Reedy Race of Asia, that formats seems to suit you. Can you talk about the way the invitational class is set up? If I am not mistaken, are not all the heats heads up and for points?

Barry Baker: The U.S. are heads up and for points, the Asian Reedy Race do the qualifying and mains just like every other race that is out there. We didn’t have enough of the Factory guys you know, the good. What they call the Factory Guys in Asia so they couldn’t do that. So they had to let the local guys race. But you see, that is the cool thing about racing over in other countries. All those people over there see you in magazines and stuff like that and they want to race with you. The first day I am racing with kids from Singapore, and having a good time. One of them hit me, saying while he was laughing I just took out Barry Baker!!! What can I do, nothing( laughing ).

Chris Freader (RRCC): You guys don’t run many carpet tracks in SoCal. What do you think about carpet racing, and how often do you get to run it?

Barry Baker: Many?!?! ZERO!!!!!

I get to race on carpet with foam tires twice a year. Here at The U.S. Indoor Champs and the Snowbirds, although this year the Novak race is on foams. I get a lot of foam tire experience from gas car. I know how foam tires work, I have been doing it a long time, you know, racing. I have been to Cleveland to many times, I know whats going on, which my old company of Yokomo and my new company of Associated, carpet racing is carpet racing. Things don’t change that much in carpet racing. Thats why you can get people that come back after not racing for a while and get right back into it. Look at Jon Orr, I think he did awesome this weekend by TQing 12th scale Modified. He hasn’t raced in like a year. Since like last years Cleveland. But its carpet racing, carpet racing is carpet racing especially 12th scale. 12th scale is like 20 springs up front, dampener lube under the dampener plate. Find out what tires people are using and lets go race. Thats its, its all about the wheel. 12th scale has been the same since the first time I came to Cleveland in 1989, I think the difference from then to now is I ran 18s up front. And the difference from 18s to 20s is nominal at best.

Chris Freader (RRCC): How was your trip to Thailand? You have raced in Asia a few times; can you talk about the differences of the R/C culture in Asia vs. here in the states?

Barry Baker: I have been to Thailand before for the 8th scale worlds. But the race in Thailand this time was fun because I got to see more stuff, well not really lol. A lot of people say, Oh Barry I would love to trade jobs with you, you have the greatest job in the world. You get to travel around the world racing No, I get to see a hotel and a race track all over the world. I really don’t get to do much, well this time, when I went to Phuket in 1995 I went there for a company that is from there so I got to see a little stuff there in 95. But this year we took myself and (Craig) Drescher. The track opened on Monday, we set our stuff up and all, and on Tuesday you know a lot of people were getting in for practice, we didn’t even go to practice. One of (Mike) Reedy’s life long dreams was to ride elephants in Thailand, because that is a big thing to do in Thailand. So Drescher and I decided that instead of going to practice we were going to take Mike Reedy to the temple city and go ride some elephants. So we ended up getting one of the locals to drive us up there. We had an interpreter to help us. And went and rode some elephants and got some cool pictures from it. We enjoyed it, but it is the most uncomfortable ride you will ever have in your entire life for the first 2 minutes, then you get use to it. My back was like, there is no way I am going to be able to get off this elephant, then all of a sudden you start weaving with it and rolling your body with the motion it isn’t so bad. But I felt like a king, because Drescher and I were going to ride together but we’re not 2 large guys but we are 2 bigger guys and the way they sit you in 3 rows of 2, so they would not let us sit next to each other so it was Drescher by himself, me by myself and Juraj Hudy and his wife, since they wanted to experience it themselves. So Drescher and myself got to sit back and feel like kings sitting single on this elephant. We really got some great pictures of that. It was really a great experience. But culture wise there, Thailand is very inexpensive. I mean you can get anything you want in Thailand and it wont cost you more then forty U.S. dollars for anything, and I mean anything. Its just so weird, I got a few things like sunglasses, a watch I think I spent like for the stuff that looks totally expensive, I mean they are the rip off capital of the world. They mock everything there. But it looks identical, you can not tell from ten feet away. A Tag Hueur watch I got for less then 20 bucks. A set of titanium Ray Bans and a set of titanium Oakleys I got for 7 dollars a piece. I spent 35 dollars and got what people would think is 800 dollars worth of product. You know, you go to McDonalds, I always compare this. It funny, people always ask me.. You go to McDonalds in Thailand? Yes! I go to McDonalds in Thailand because you can compare McDonalds because they are all over the world. You go there and it was like around 2 U.S. dollars for a value meal, thats like half the price. You go to England and it is like 8 dollars! ( laughing) Its the culture there, in the U.S. if you said you made 300 dollars a month you would be getting welfare, you are poor. Over there 300 dollars a month is what they get paid, equivalent to 300 U.S. dollars a month. I went there, and bought all kinds of souvenirs, went out at night. Had a good time, went out with all my friends that I only get to see a couple times a year. Cause they are from Europe and Asia. I only spent like 270 U.S. dollars for 8 days over there. I spent someones full month pay over there in 8 days and I felt like I spent nothing. But thats the difference. So. Its all good n the hood. I mean, I enjoy living in this country, having freedom and being able to go places. But Thailand is beautiful, we were sitting in a bar, wait scratch that!!!! Lol I dont go to bars We were sitting in a nice area on a Sunday night and Myself, Oscar Jansen, Jilles Groskamp, Surikarn Chaidejsuriya, Jean-Marc Betticher and Drescher were just sitting there. And thats the cool thing about racing, on the track youre my enemy for 5 or 8 minutes. But off the track, you are my good friend. (Brian) Kinwald is my best friend in racing. We have gotten into it so many times on the track, we have hit each other so many times, ok.. I have hit him more times then he has hit me.lol.. but off the track we are like best of friends, and we always have been. I mean, he will get mad at me for like a day, if that. Id get mad at him for like 5-10 minutes. You cant get mad at Brian, there is just no way. And people just don’t know Brian. And people don’t know the way he is. That guy is SOOOOO FUNNY. Its ridiculous. But they think since he is so intense when he is trackside, that is the way he is, But he is lightening up now. Well he is getting a little be.Hes getting OLD. He is T H I R T Y now! YES, Brian you’re 30, Not 28! You said you went backwards. WRONG! Your 30. Brian and myself, literally hang out five six days a week back home. Its all about Team Kinwald Garage Racing. Its pretty cool. To get back to the culture, we are all just sitting there and I said, lets just get a big mansion down on the beach. Whats it going to cost, maybe 150 U.S. dollars a month. Lets just get a big mansion on the beach and move everyone down here! Cause, it is just to beautiful down there. The nightlife is a ton of fun. The racing, get this. They have 9 (nine) electric tracks in Bangkok, Thats 9 tracks in the city of Bangkok. Talk about being able to practice. Surkiarn has got it made there, cause he can go to all different types of tracks there. He can go to any of nine track for practice, he can go to a different track every day of the week and still have 2 left over. He says that the farthest that any track is from his house, in traffic, is 90 minutes. Imagine having 9 tracks within an hour and a half. Thats pretty nice.

Chris Freader (RRCC): Today it seems that many of the top drivers race a variety of classes at the different events. You seem to be an on-road specialist, both electric and nitro. Do you ever race any other classes at the club level?

Barry Baker: No, Thats my job ( on-road specialist), my job was entailed to me to race on-road. So that is my job, to test and develop parts for the on- road cars. So that is what I race. I mean, I have played with off-road and use to race off-road all the time.

Chris Freader (RRCC): You post on a few message boards on the internet. R/C related forums and web pages are gaining in popularity, and has taken word of mouth to the next step. How do you feel about the huge presence that the R/C community has?

Barry Baker: I think it is great in that it is awesome that everybody can keep in touch with everybody. And you can have these tech forums and have a cool time where everybody is talkative about R/C. But then you get the jerks on there that all they want to do is rip on people. I mean people are on there for a reason, Its like when, I wont say a big manufacturer who had one of the first forums..Hint Hint.And he called it the propaganda machine. I mean, that was just the way it is. I mean people want to start stuff up and they go on the web and its all through out the world with in 5 seconds. You can learn anything in R/C racing even before it happens for some reason on the web. Everything is live, I mean I was watching when these guys were down in South Africa for the OffRoad Worlds, cause I was getting ready to leave for the OnRoads. So the OffRoad Worlds this year, OK, I got a phone call about two minutes after Billy Easton won the worlds from one of our engineers that said Billy won the Worlds!” and I said, I already know. It was on the web 30 seconds after the race was over. You know I was listening to the 4 wheel race, cause I called my friend and was listening to the whole race on the thing(phone) cause I really wanted to Brian ( Kinwald ) to win. You know but Cavaleri ended up winning, and that is racing. But I think that the web is a great thing, I think that the tech talks are awesome.

Chris Freader (RRCC): At the track and in the pits we all have our R/C racing phrases and slang terms for getting wrecked or those who tend to lay a little more fender than the rest. For example.I got delivered mixer . hack. What is your favorite phrase or saying you and your friends use to describe being on the receiving end of a hip check in to the boards or for the guys who use the bumper liberally?

Barry Baker: I don’t really say anything, maybe I got worked , you know taken out LOL usually with some adjectives in front of it. I mean thats about it, theres nothing like delivered. Those are pretty funny, when guys are like Delivered!. Listening to Doseck and Esposito, you learn a whole new language of R/C racing, and I mean you hang around with them thats when you get the Laying it down, Delivered props and stuff like that. Its like a totally different language. I mean when I get hit I am like, I got taken out or stuff like that. But I guess if I lived in the Mid-West I would probably have stuff like that.

Chris Freader (RRCC): Thank you very much for your time Barry.