A group of remote controlled racers set off at the D Street Neighborhood Center in Arcata for the first time on Saturday with the “Hardwood Havoc” allowing Humboldt County R/C enthusiasts to come together for a day of racing and camaraderie.

Jeff Tobin put together the event in hopes of giving himself and other R/C enjoyers a place to enjoy the competition. The group put together a race track inside of the neighborhood center and let the cars rip.

“We’re all guys who have been doing R/C together,” Tobin said. “Hopefully we can keep doing it, but this isn’t really affiliated with anything, it’s just a fun thing to try out.”

The group is working towards getting a park set up where they can hold consistent R/C races but it’s just a group of friends that race at the Redwood Harley-Davidson dealership in Eureka on Sundays, but on Saturday the group tried a new location for the first time.

“There’s a lot of R/C going on which is very rare,” Tobin said. “We have once a month in the Muni (Eureka Municipal Auditorium). We have a lot of times out at Harley on Sunday and this is trying something new.”

The new venue does require some accommodations: To prevent scuffing on the floor in the neighborhood center, the racers imported new tires that racers in England use to ensure they don’t damage the flooring while racing.

“We have to make sure the tires aren’t leaving marks on the floors, the tires that we’re running, that they run in England, they don’t leave any marks,” Tobin said.

In England, racers move indoors due to inclement weather, and they needed a solution that wouldn’t rough up the floors of the churches or school gyms.

“In England, because of the cruddy weather they’ve figured out how to race on hardwood and which tires work on that and we’re basically copying their model,” he added.

Tobin said ideally the group could operate similarly to that of a bowling league, with weekly races and season-long scorekeeping to keep track of winners. There is not a set number of how many laps they run, with different cars and different drivers, the one thing the league wants to ensure is parity in the races is to always keep things interesting.

“We pick whatever depending on how long the track is, also the disparity in drivers, if someone is going to be way behind, we don’t want to do a 20-lap race where they’re getting discouraged,” Tobin said. “Even the best drivers crash, everybody has a chance to win.”

The races are open to all ages, with the racers all using a Losi V100, which retails at around $150, the drivers don’t modify them and keep them stock to ensure a level playing field.

“To get into it isn’t that expensive,” Tobin said. “Most of us are old racers, dirt bike, street bike, car races, all these things. So to get that thrill of side-by-side racing, it’s not the same but it’s about 70% there in excitement. When you’re battling you forget you’re driving an R/C car, you’re just racing.”

To learn more about the 707 Humboldt R/C Vehicle’s group, go to its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/638306273549117.