The one year anniversary is coming up for my Tamiya Rally Car and my backyard RC track.

In its first year my Subaru DF03-RA which runs on all stock parts with a descent battery (except for a brushless motor for the first 3 month until I submerged the motorcontroller) completed about 2250 Laps around the track. That makes for about 80 laps per session and a total of 28 Sessions in a year. Amazingly at a track length of about 50 meters (150 feet) that adds up to 112.5 km (70 miles).

The track has undergone some small layout changes and one extension. The most recent addition brings the total length to 205 feet / 62.5 meter.

The car chassis is in amazingly good shape but the body needed a little fiberglassing in the front area. Tire wear is minimal due to the soft clay surface of the track.

My homemade mud/water and dirt cover did not work as well -hence I finally ordered the “real thing” which is the body for a Tamiya Dark Impact.

Race lap counter and timing is still an issue. Also the webcam based lap timer works fine, I don’t like the fact that I need to set up a PC outside. I takes way to long. I did buy an Arduino microcontroler and LCD screen which I will build into a Waterproof Infrared triggered timer setup. More on this after Christmas when I have time to build it.