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Welcome to the official website of Todd Hodge. Check back often as this site will have the latest news about upcoming races, Losi news, and more.
| More pics..... |
Compliments of JB Photography
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| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 12/20/07 at 07:56pm PST |
| I am baaack! |
Thought I would post the site to let everyone know what the heck I have been up to. As you have all noticed I have completely dropped out of the Touring Car scene. I have taken a new job at Losi, Product Management, and this has limited my racing a bit. Lately I have been having fun again as a racer competing locally here in Southern California racing 1.8th. I am fortunate enough to be surronded by great tracks such as Revelation Raceway, Thunder Alley, Hemet Race Park and soon to reopen ARC.
My goal is to hit the Dirt Nitro Challenge in 2008 along with a few other major gas offroad events. I have to tell you I am hooked on the 1.8th offroad category, this stuff is too much fun.
If you have any questions or ideas that you would like to see on the site drop me a line at todd@toddhodge.com.
Peace,
T O DOUBLE D
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| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 12/18/07 at 09:15pm PST |
| ROAR Electric Offroad Nationals-New Mexico |
I have returned from the recent ROAR Electric Offroad Nationals that were in New Mexico last week. The event was yet another successful National held by the ROAR race management team. ROAR did a excellent job in putting on the race. The ARCOR group also did a great job with an excellent facility and an bitchin track layout that was very challenging for everyone.
Onto the racing, well it has been a few years since I have been at a ROAR Electric Offroad National. I decided to not race and just help the team with anything I could. I feel it paid off for us as we had a great showing at the event. Losi put 5 cars in the truck main, 5 cars in the 2wd main, and 4 cars in the 4wd A-Main. Great job to all the team members who attended. Big props to Losi driver and Colorado native Matt Chambers sticking it in both 2wd and Truck Modified A-Mains.
As for the winners, man Cavalieri was on. He is the next Kinwald in electric for sure. He has such excellent control of his car. His accelleration and braking points are unreal. The kid can win with anything in my opinion. Congrats to AE and Orion on their domination of the Nationals.
Has there ever been a 10yr old kid who has 6 ROAR National Championships in ROAR history? Well Losi driver Dakotah Phend has pulled this one off taking 2wd Stock, Truck Stock, and 19T 4wd giving him... (read more) |
| Posted By: ToddHodge on 6/19/07 at 08:33am PST |
| Anyone interested in my thoughts? |
Well yet another year passes by and the Reedy Race has come and gone. This year's race saw a lot of different things going on. Mainly the release of two new domestic cars being raced on asphalt for the first time in the public's eye. One being the Losi Jrxs Type R and the AE TC5. It will be interesting to see where TC will go with two new domestic cars back in the playing field.
This year in the Invitational Class 5 Cells was mandatory. For me this was awesome as it forced everyone to use brushless. This brushless technology is absolutely awesome and is the wave of the future for electric racing. It was really nice to never touch your motor or pull it out of the car. How much better can it get? I guess Lipo's will be next. I know at last year's Reedy Race there were on a handfull of drivers using brushless, this year everyone used it.
After watching the Open class race, I thought this year was the most competitive year I have seen in a while. Great job to Kyle for taking TQ, too bad the TM rolled it on the last lap to give RC the overall win. What was crazy about this was Barry Baker was standing next to me during the last lap. He says to me "Watch Brent crash on the last lap". Sure enough TM of AE blew out and rolled it giving RC 2nd for the... (read more) |
| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 5/31/07 at 06:58pm PST |
| ROAR Carpet Nationals.....2007 |
Wow is all I can say about the ROAR Carpet Nationals last week. It is the Wednesday after and I am still tired. Some may call going to the Nationals a vacation however it is definitely a long week of work for me. I know I was planning on doing updates on the site however I was simply too tired after each day of practice and racing. It is absolutely amazing how much racing takes out of your mind and body. Perhaps I should start jogging around the building like Masami at the 2001 IFMAR Worlds in Finland?
Where to start? ROAR has been under extreme scrutiny over the past few years with the quality of racing and the simple question “Why should I go to a ROAR National?”. At this year Nationals the crew at ROAR stepped up the program by having the “Race Management Team” on hand. These guys rocked and did a great job running the race, tech, and refereeing the event. This year also saw another surprise at the ROAR Nationals, more entries. From my counting there were 273 entries at the event making this one of the highest entry races in years. Hats off to all the ROAR guys who came, Ruben Benitez, Mike Queller, Bob Ingersoll. Doug Hay, and Steve Webster. If I missed your name I do apologize.
The track was dialed in my opinion. It was a typical old school tight 1.12 layout with a very short straightaway. I loved the track until the... (read more) |
| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 3/14/07 at 09:14am PST |
| 2007 ROAR ONROAD CARPET NATIONALS at CEFX Raceway |
Well it looks like I am going to be able to daily updates after I get back from the track each night. We arrived yesterday, Dumas and I to meet Andrew Gray. Andrew decided to come up last week to prepare for the event. From the sounds of it he ran really well over the weekend taking TQ in TC Mod and finishing 2nd behind Chris Doseck's Peak powered Xray giving Peak a 1-2 finish for the Warmup. Andrew was able to post the fastest laps in the main by running a 9.75 which was 2 tenths faster than anyone else had run in the A-Main.
The weather is a bit cold today with a high of 22. Man I love California!
The track is a typical old school 1.12 track with a lot of hair pins and a very short straightaway leading in to a slight hairpin. That should make the mains eventful especially in the TC(Taxi Cab) class. From the sounds of it the bite is extremely high here. Higher than the Birds. The new layout was put in yesterday and a club race is planned for this evening.
Sorry no pictures today. I will be sure to get some and post them soon.
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| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 3/6/07 at 08:39am PST |
| DNC-8th Annual Dirt Nitro Challenge |
Well I was finally able to get to a major offroad gas event, the 8th Annual Dirt Nitro Challenge. I have to say this gas offroad racing is fun as I had a blast at the Nitro Pit. If you ever have a chance you need to visit the Nitro Pit in Wittman, AZ. The place is a well thought out gas offroad facility that could definitely hold a WC some day.
When we arrived to the track it was under water. There is something with the DNC and rain. I think the rain gods have something against Joey from the Dirt. Anyways Joey and the Dirt crew did a great job getting the track ready by Wednesday afternoon. Fortunately the rain gods stayed away for the rest of the week. The track was a typical American track with many jumps that threw a few racers off especially in the 9 pack where the triple, triple, triple was atleast 2 seconds a lap faster than missing one or two of them. I can tell you it ruined me.
Onto the racing, there were a few new faces at this race. Yannick Agoin(probably mispelled) from France who is the current Euro Champ in 1/8th offroad which is a very great title to have. Yannick ran well in the Truggy division but was shy of making the A-main in 1/8th buggy.
Billy Easton surfaced back to the Offroad gas category however he struggled with the new OCM 1/8th car bumping from the D-Main to... (read more) |
| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 3/4/07 at 04:31pm PST |
| Snowbird Nationals in the eyes of Hodge |
Another year in the books for the Snowbird Nationals. This year marked the 13th year for the event and it has been great as all of them. The traction was absolutely awesome from the start of my first practice run. The competition is the best of all yea as drivers from all over the world came to race the event and the caliber of drivers is great. From the World Champions to the average joe racer.
Here are some notes from the desk of Todd Hodge:
Boylan decided to change the schedule some and I thought it was great to see. We actual were able to get some sleep this year.
Onto the racing, I was really stoked with the performance of the Losi Type R. During Practice it was Dumas and I setting fast laps. For me that was huge, there are not many races that I am setting fast lap in TC mod. Btw, it was a 9.51! During qualifying it was Dumas and I setting fast lap at 9.4. That is awesome. Keven Hebert set a fast lap of 9.8 in 19T which tied with Hara and Travis. This past weekend showed the Type R is a force to be reckoned with and all the development has been worth every minute of it.
Onto other subjects I would like to touch on, Serpent looks to be entering the Electric TC market as they had one of their designers at the race testing the car. The car looks like the... (read more) |
| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 2/13/07 at 07:02pm PST |
| Words from one of the Best! |
One of my good friends Greg Hodapp sent me this video a while back. The video was of Ayrton Senna driving a F1 from the cock pit. I am not sure what track he was on however he narrated the run afterwards for the video. I had to listen to the video a few times to hear what he was saying as some of the background noises got in the way. Here is what he said. I believe this is true in RC Racing and life.
On a given day, a given circumstance you think you have a limit and then you go for this limit and you touch this limit and you think ok this is the limit. As soon as you touch this limit something happens and you can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct and the experience as well...you can fly very high. Ayrton Senna ... (read more) |
| Posted By: Todd Hodge on 1/30/07 at 08:54pm PST |
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