When Troy started his YouTube channel, Roadside RC, he didn’t expect video-making to become such a large part of his life. Over time, it continued to grow and attract followers. Despite its success, Roadside RC is still a fun side-project for Troy, fueled by passion and love for the hobby. The DARC Mag team caught up with Troy following his review of the first issue of DARC Mag to find out more about his love of RC drifting.

Like many folks, Troy dabbled in RC as a kid…then his interest faded as he got older. He had a 1971 Chevelle that he took to car shows, autocross, open track days, and other car culture events. But when he had kids, he decided that the pits of a racetrack weren’t a safe place for young children. It was around this time a co-worker showed him a video of a wild RC car called the Traxxas X-Maxx. This was exactly what he had always dreamed of as a kid and he knew he had to have one.

It was the X-Maxx that pushed him to start making videos in 2017. “If you have ever owned one...they do crazy stunts that you never would have thought possible. I would tell my friends and co-workers about the tricks I was doing with the truck...nobody believed me....so I started videoing them.”

Around 2019, his friend Chris, who worked at the local hobby store, forced Troy to drive his drift car. He was immediately hooked by the smooth driving and challenge of drifting. “My first real drift video was all about me learning to drift. I had picked up a used MST RMX with less than ideal electronics and tune. I sat on a bucket in my garage and spent hours trying to figure out how to drift. Watching the video makes me giggle, as I was miserable. Remembering that time is what focuses me on helping new folks in the hobby. With bad information, bad tune, bad electronics, RC drifting can be really frustrating! I want to help folks get over that first frustration hurdle.”

There are two main things that Troy does in Roadside RC that have impacted the new RC drifters and really hit home with them. Troy explains “One is testing and reporting and the other is keeping the startup budget affordable. There is a lot of confusing information about RC drifting swirling around online. It was hard to trust a lot of what I read, so I decided to test it for myself and report my findings. When I receive messages about a start-up budget, they never say, ‘I have $5K and want to get started in RC drifting’. It is always, ‘I have $100, how is the best way to get started’. Helping these folks get started is a passion of mine.”

Roadside RC made an RC drift video series exploring what it was like drifting in the ‘real world’ (if you want to check this out, head to the video ‘RWD RC Street Drift - Train Station’). “Folks are usually protective of their cars and refuse to use them anywhere but the track. My car was a clapped-out MST RMX, so I figured ‘Why not?’ I drifted at train stations, stores, and even a couple skate parks. While it was a horrible idea for the car, it was a lot of fun trying to see what the car could do. Sometimes we forget that we are playing with toy cars and it can be OK to have fun with them.”


Troy started out with bashing, which is basically driving the car to its limits and performing wild stunts until it breaks. “I got tired of always breaking stuff. Crawling and drifting caught my interest because there is a higher interest in performance, tuning, and upgrading. I really liked both crawling and drifting and found many other folks who cross over between the two. One advantage of RC drifting is, if your local drift spot is open, you can drift. Since the locations are typically indoors, it doesn’t matter if it is hot, cold, raining, or snowing, you can do it in any weather.”

Troy’s local go-to track is Cookeville Hobbies. “It’s a great hobby store that has a crawler course and drift track. It’s a local hang-out spot, you simply come in, chill with others, and have a good time. Plus they even have an indoor crawler course at their location. I would love to get a ‘Drift Track Tour’ going and visit as many of them as I can!”

One of the pitfalls of being a You-Tuber is that he doesn’t really have a ‘main’ chassis. “It’s tough to get a single car fine-tuned when I’m always jumping from chassis to chassis. In the last couple weeks I have been working on the Kyosho Fazer D2 and the Team Associated DC10. I also have my son’s Shark, my Redcat RDS, and a Yokomo chassis all sitting on the workbench. It’s a constant rotation of components and cars as I try things out for different videos.”

Troy is the first to admit that he’s never the best driver at any track, and he never has the best setup car. “I’m not an SDC-champion. I don’t always get it right when I test a product or provide a suggestion on how to tune. I am just a guy trying to help others. I hope that, on most days, the information I provide will be useful to someone.”

Having the encouragement of friends was, and continues to be, an important part of the hobby. “I am always grateful to them for their guidance and discussions. Also, the folks watching the videos I create are who keep me going. I have contemplated not making videos on many occasions over the years…but then I receive a comment from someone telling me how much my videos have helped them get started in RC drifting and that turns it all around for me.”

Follow Troy: YouTube @RoadsideRC