“When it comes down to it, I’m a racer still. A guy that has been building kits for 26 years” – Frank Root
I expected this episode to be awesome and Frank exceeded my expectations. He’s obviously lives RC everyday but like he said in the interview, even if this wasn’t his job he would still be racing RC somewhere.
Frank Root is the Product Manager for the 1/10 vehicles at TLR – Team Losi Racing. Frank and his team are responsible for design, testing and bringing the 22 series of vehicles to production. Frank’s Dad was an avid motorsports enthusiast and noticed Frank had an interest in racing and building things. At age 10 Frank received his first RC car for Christmas.
In this episode we cover many topics and stories that will really help you get to know Frank and his passion for the hobby. Frank also shares some of his best tips that he has learned over the years and observed from working with some of the best drivers in the world. Here is a list of some of the topics we discuss in this episode:
- Working at Pacific Coast Hobbies under Theo Captanis
- How Frank got a job at Horizon Hobby
- A discussion about retail stores today and the challenge hobby shops face
- His first job at Horizon Hobby
- How the shorty lipo battery came to fruition
- The rise of the 22 and the return of the racing side of Losi
- Hanging out with Brian Kinwald
- The proper way to go about TESTING your car at the track
- How to approach car setup during race events
- What you can expect when running the +2 mm carbon towers
- Why cars are released so often now
- The most common mistakes he sees people making at the track
- Why the Reedy Race is a must attend for anyone in RC racing
- His maintenance routine at big races