Super-G goes to Arizona - Wow is the word that comes to mind

12/12/2022

As 2022 comes to a close and the Drift Season takes a short break for us, we have been taking advantage of this time to visit some of the homes of our Drift Family. It started out with Vegas for Prototype’s Grand Opening. Although it was a short turnaround for just a few hours, we got to slide with our fam, including our fam from Slidelines. Then it was off to NorCal, to visit Rolling Garage and then to Sheldon’s to hang with the NorCal fam, Limited Traction and Team Bushido. Now this past weekend, we finally made it out to Arizona!

We have been invited out so often, but our schedule just makes travel extremely rough. Daniel and Jaycen really hit it hard in the weeks leading up to this, and made it possible for us to take a weekend to visit our Arizona fam.

Our official hosts for this trip were Ted, Zach, and Tre, and last but not definitely not least, the man who makes it all happen, Dave! He is the man behind Bubble Milk Battle Grounds. As I understand, Dave provides the place, and Zach is the man who makes things happen and is the backbone of Team Bubble Milk. However it works out, it really is an amazing combination and the proof is in the results. These guys have been very instrumental in getting us out to Arizona to experience the scene out there. Without them, we would be lost.

Jason Fordyce - Team Super-G / RawFew, Daniel, Joe, and myself, headed out on Friday morning. We were all really excited to experience what Arizona has to offer. We had booked a hotel central to the three tracks, as we knew we’d be spending a lot of time at all of them. We also learned of another track in Arizona, but it was a little farther than we had time for. Had I known, I would have planned for an additional day.

As soon as we got into Arizona, it was time to get to some slides! We met up with Ted, Zach, and Tre. To our surprise, Austin, Kalai, Alexis, Brenna, and a bunch of the AZ crew were there as well! After some time getting situated, and trying to figure out a plan, Dave opened up the Battle Grounds for a late night sesh!

On the way, we grabbed close to 100 tacos from Tacos Calafia (it was 90, but close to 100 sounds better) so we could feed everyone at the Battle Grounds. It was the least we could do for the inconvenience we had caused.

The Battle Grounds

I for one have been wanting to slide at the Battle Grounds since the very first video was up on. Facebook. I remember seeing it and finding out it was a private track in someone’s garage. I love garage tracks, and Super-G’s official stance on garage tracks is, those are the tracks that keep the hobby growing. When I was a kid, my parents let me and my bro use our entire backyard for off-road RC tracks. This kept us practicing when we couldn’t get to the official tracks, and allowed our love for the hobby to grow. We hope to see more garage tracks pop up. Anyway, back to the Battle Grounds.

The Bubble Milk Battle Grounds has become a seriously legit spot. The surface is extremely close to the surface we have here at Super-G. It just looks nicer than ours. The layout we experienced was top-notch! The flow is awesome with no funny business. Whoever is doing the layouts there has a really good grasp of flow. It allows for great trains and some really good times. We seemed to all really take to the track immediately. The Friday night sesh was awesome! A lot of the Arizona fam came out and we had a blast! We drove til we were exhausted, but even at that, we didn’t want to stop. Joe and I tapped out in the early AM hours, but Jason and the guys were sliding til like 5am! That’s how fun the Battle Grounds is!

Saturday

Everyone decided to get some rest, so we met up with the guys for some lunch at Venezia’s New York Style Pizza. The food was good, but the company was even better and over-shadowed the good eats. We finally decided we better hit the other track, so we shot over to P&F at the Superstition Springs Mall.

P&F Hobbies
We arrived at P&F Hobbies and we were blown away by the size of the facility. It’s located in the mall, and I believe it was a Macy’s they took over. They have a huge indoor crawler course, a huge Mini Z Track, and a HUGE on-road course. This place is impressive! The drift track seemed to be under development at the moment, but was a ton of fun! As soon as we all got on the track, we were drawing crowds. The surface, although it seemed grippy at first, started to wear in and was fun. We got some good trains going and had a good time.

The Owner of P&F, Fred, came out to chat with us a bit. He’s a really nice guy and very open to suggestions to make things good. He is very welcoming, and left us with a good feeling. I believe he has a great spot and if he really pursues Drift at his location, it will definitely be a good thing. On a side note, there is a magic shop right next to the Drift track. That guy gets down! He had a cane, and right in front of our eyes, it turned into a handkerchief! The magician is the real deal! Overall, the experience at P&F was really good. It was a lot of fun and the people there are extremely nice and welcoming. Arizona can definitely use another track.

Saturday Night
On Saturday night, the guys had planned a sesh at the Battle Grounds. So many familiar faces from the Arizona fam were there, and some of the Vegas homies came out as well!!! What a sick sesh! The driving was ON POINT and the vibe was chill as expected from these guys! Nothing but positivity and fun going on. I had a great time getting doors with as many people as I could, but I think I did more driving the night before. It was a blast, and the talk amongst ourselves was just how much we were enjoying the level of skill, and how everyone is genuinely about having fun. These guys are truly the epitome of what R/C Drift is about. When you get down to it, THIS is what it’s all about, friends getting together to have a good time doing what we love.

It was getting late, so the guys grabbed sandwiches from Portillo’s. It was really good. I was also glad to find out we have one locally here, so I’ll be going there soon! Then the surprise! Shawn tells me to check this out, and I turn around and there is a cake ON FIRE! I had already forgotten, but they remembered my birthday! Someone must know my age cause there was a TON of candles on it! Everyone sang and embarrassed me. It was a great way to round out a perfect weekend in Arizona!

Joe and I headed back to LA Sunday morning as we had a lot to take care of back home, but we wished we could have stayed longer.

Our weekend trip to hang with the Arizona fam was nothing short of AMAZING! Super special shout out to Dave for coming through on Friday night on such short notice. It turned disaster into one of the best times! Everyone (well, almost everyone) in Arizona, Team Bubble Milk, Team Pogi, Tech 1 Drift, Drift Dreams, Slide Squad, and the guys from Prototype, (I’m sure I’m missing some others) had made this trip one to remember! Nothing but fun and positivity. The hardest part about chilllin’ at the Battle Grounds is balancing driving or talking to the homies, cause that’s how it is when you’re with family. We are all looking forward to the next time we can get together!

Thank you all for an amazing weekend!

A very special thank you to Ted, Zach, Dave, and Tre for the personal invites and making this happen for us. For anyone visiting Arizona for RC Drift, these are the guys to show you the good and warn you of the bad. Food that is. ?

Some random pics