Mayhem in the Mid-Atlantic hits the dirt at Club Milton

Motors whine, tires spin, mud flies and the drivers turn the steering wheel about 10 feet above the car on a wooden platform. What? Yep, that’s remote-control racing dirt-track style, and it’s one of the most exciting sports around, and it is growing bigger each year.

Club Milton Speedway hosted the fourth annual Mayhem in the Mid-Atlantic June 23-25, where drivers from around the East and Midwest traveled many hours to compete for cash prizes in 1/5 scale gas and 1/10 scale electric cars. 

Ray Burris traveled from Virginia Beach to compete in his fourth Mayhem in the Mid-Atlantic.

“I race in the modified and the late-model races and the electric cars,” said Burris, who works diligently to get his No. 13 modified ready for the main race of the weekend. “It’s my fourth year coming up here. It’s great racing.”

The modified gas cars can travel 35-45 mph and get around the Club Milton oval track on the average of 8 seconds. The engines are gas-powered, and are the same type that control gardening weed-eaters. The cars are equipped with transponders that tell the computer who is in the lead and the speeds that they travel. Some cars can cost $500 to $1,500 to start off serious racing. The bodies of the cars are fabricated by individual builders who sell them to the drivers.

“It’s like real racing,” smiled Burris.

Tom Tobin of Milton owns and sponsors the Team Scotton team, which includes three local racers with ties to Cape Henlopen High School.

R.J. Gooner, a sophomore at Cape, was the 1/5 novice champion last season, and since he was doing so well, they asked him to move up to race with the Big Boys. His teammate Andy Scotton is a Cape graduate who is a mechanical engineering major at Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown. He placed first in the 1/10 2WD and the 1/10 4WD in 2016. Rounding out the team is Andy’s brother Alex, a Cape grad who holds an associate degree in entrepreneurship from Del Tech.

“It’s a big race today,” said Tobin, who drives in the Novice division. ”The winner takes home $425 in cash and some nice prizes.”

But the racers don’t only think about the cash, as driver’s pride and bragging rights are also on the line.

“Mayhem in the Mid-Atlantic is the biggest race of the year,” said Tobin, who helps out with the logistics of the track. He also helps out with photography, scoring and drivers’ meetings.

Randy Galloway, driver of a 1/5 scale modified car, traveled from Springfield, Mo., to compete in the races, but did not make it into the championship round due to a spinout in the semifinal round.

Making it into the finals and coming in third was 28-year-old Billy Tyree from Rocky Mount, Va. Traveling more than 370 miles to race was not the only thing that makes Billy a tough competitor, as he has spinal muscular atrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease affecting the part of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movement. SMA is muscular because its primary effect is on muscles, which don’t receive signals from these nerve cells, causing the muscles to atrophy.

“The only modification that I use is an extension on my throttle,” said Tyree, who travels around the East Coast to RC races with his father. “We have all kinds of cars, like 1/5 scale modified, 1/4 scale stock (NASCAR type), 1/10 scale sprint late model and 1/5 scale short-course truck.”

Tyree won the 1/5 scale short-course truck race at the weekend event.

Billy, a graduate of Ferrum College, has been racing RC cars for 13 years. He and his family travel throughout the country to race his cars on dirt as well as asphalt.

“When we were building the driver’s stand for the remote-control drivers, we put a bump-out so Billy could sit in his wheelchair and race,” said Club Milton Speedway owner Trey Issacs. “It had to accommodate seven or eight drivers, so we made it larger for Billy and other handicapped drivers to be able to race.”

Club Milton Speedway RC Race Director Clint Moore took top honors in the 1/5 scale modified race as well as the late-model race, earning $425 and $115, respectively.

Cash prizes are determined by the number of racers for the event.

“I’ve been racing since I was 10 years old,” said Moore. “I used to travel around the country racing at the big events.”

He was happy with the turnout at the Mayhem in the Mid-Atlantic.

“It was a real successful weekend of racing,” he said. “We drew from all around the East and Midwest. It’s a family atmosphere, and the people really support it.”

The Club Milton Speedway also has novice races so the drivers who are just beginning their careers have good competition.

But just like the big NASCAR racers, the RC drivers have to move to the next race right after the Milton event.

“We travel to King, N.C., next weekend,” said Tyree. “It should be fun.”

Get more information about the Club Milton Speedway RC events and results from the weekend event on R/C Dirt Oval Racing at Club Milton Speedway.