10/10/2026
Wow. I haven't written a report since August! Much has happened since then. Apologies, this is a long one….
Where better to start than with Craig Drescher RC choosing to race the Trickbits YZ-W91R in Las Vegas! I don't mind admitting, this was a big deal for RC Trickbits.
From the outset, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that he would take the YZ-W91R to Las Vegas; the car had to prove it was worth his commitment. We also agreed this would not become common knowledge; only four people knew he was testing the car🙊
We arranged for him to test the 91R on June 24th at the Coventry Model Car Clubs track near Rugby. As Craig walked towards the rostrum, he mentioned that this would be the first time he had picked up his radio in eight months! My response was: "Please try and keep it on its wheels." The forecast was 35°C, and running around a large track marshalling the car wasn't my idea of fun.
The testing started at 10 am and finished at 5:30 pm. By the end of the second pack, Craig was absolutely flying. We ran the car on the re-re diffs with steel internals, and focused on adapting it to his driving style, suspension, ride height, roll bars, tyres, etc.
I know this sounds like a really dumb thing to write, but my goodness, he impressed me, and I am not talking about his driving; these skills have been apparent to all for many years. It was his approach to setting up the car; the little things, minute changes most wouldn't bother trying. And, above all, his work ethic: he worked hard all day.
Although he lapped quicker than the modern cars on that layout, it wasn't enough to convince him to choose our 91R. This is a new track and relatively smooth. He wanted a tougher challenge for the car.
For the next test, we agreed that Bingham would fit the bill. The track is best described as a challenging old-school astro track, with lots of bumps, jumps, and undulations to negotiate. Proper off-road.
This test took place on the 16th of July, with another cripplingly hot weather forecast. We tested from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. Starting once again with kit gear-diff casings and steel internals. We changed the shock oil, seals and springs to suit the track. After a tentative first couple of laps, Craig was on the money. I believe we ran five packs before lunch.
After lunch, we switched to the Trickbits large-diameter ball diffs and made several small adjustments to fine-tune the car as the temperature had increased. The Trickbits ball diffs definitely shaved lap times. By mid-afternoon, Craig decided to retest the gear diffs back-to-back. We changed the diff oil to account for the heat, ran a couple of packs; stripped the diffs once again, filling them with the heaviest oil we had between us, and ran two more packs. We ran 10, maybe 11 packs that day, and made more setup changes than you can shake a stick at. As I mentioned previously, Craig’s work ethic is mightily impressive.
It wasn't until we started packing up to leave that he finally confirmed he would like to run the Trickbits YZ10-91R car in Vegas. This man has a seriously good poker face, and I was left guessing right to the very end. And he still wished to keep this quiet until he rocked up in Vegas🙊
I believe Craig's decision resulted from the hard work and commitment made by Trickbits. Also, our chassis layout is as close to the original 91 as was practically possible. The steering and ESC are located in the original Yokomo position. The Trickbits bulkheads at 12° castor and 2.5° anti-squat are derived from the 870/W91-93 RPM bulkheads and deliver a driving balance other kits would struggle to match. We took nothing for granted, and we had to perform at both tests.
You will all know the fantastic result Craig achieved with the YZ-W91R. He plans to post his own race report soon. He is still waiting for the trophy to arrive from the US with a CML’s AE shipment!!
Even when our supported cars win, I like analyse every aspect of the car's performance. Below is the simplified headlines of the 89-93 class.
This was the largest 4WD class at the event, with 70 entries.
Craig’s winning time in the A2 final was a mere 0.871 slower than 4 x World Champion Ryan Cavallari driving a CAT 2000 in the 1994-2000 class. His winning time could have placed him second in the 1994 – 2000 class.
Across A1 & A2 only Craig and Jermain Robinson posted 25 laps in the finals.
In qualifying, Craig set the fastest time in rounds 1 and 3 to TQ the event. He was the only driver to post 19-lap runs in those heats.
P.S. Apparently, the YZ-W91R attracted the attention of two legends in our sport. I will leave that up to him to tell that story….
