Remote-controlled cars will burn around a race track as a new feature at the fall fair Saturday.
As of May this year, Terrace has a new club called the North West R/C Club, which started on a backyard track.
Rod Steele says he built the track as a BMX course for his son’s birthday last year, and it slowly morphed into a race track for remote control cars.
From there, a racing group grew.
“I invited random people, I had no idea,” Steele said. “It’s a whole group of people that never even existed before, never knew each other.”
Steele says there is a range of people from “kids five-years-old, right up to 60-year-olds up on the driver stand” which overlooks the track.
“Anybody can go up there and it’s pretty equal competition,” he said.
The club has 20 members so far, and Steele says he expects membership to grow fast, as more than 60 people raced in his backyard in the last year.
Certified as a non-profit society in May, the new club spent the last two weeks working on a new racing track in the Thornhill Community Grounds.
Members will unveil the new volunteer-built track at the fall fair, where the club will show off their skills and invite others to take a spin.
The event will kick off with an open house from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, open to anyone with a remote control vehicle to race.
At noon, club members will do a North West Freestyle Challenge, showing off with jumps and tricks.
At 1:30 p.m., club members will burn through two-hours of races for different classes of vehicles.
“It should be really cool. We are putting lots of energy into it,” said Steele.
He says R/C racing teaches driving skills and can be a great way to teach kids mechanics when cars need fixing or maintenance.
“There is definitely a mechanical aspect to it, and that has a lot of value, especially to a young mind,” he said.
The best thing for Steele is how racing events can bring family together, especially fathers and sons.
“That’s my sole goal, to get the kids and the dads out there,” he said.
“It’s a really good father-son activity, because they can enjoy it equally.”
For more on the club, find North West R/C Club on Facebook or go to nwrcclub.wix.com/northwestrcclub.